I am a conservative player and I play all the time. Many trips of mine to the glamorous casino cities and counties can last upwards of 130 days. I am very much aware that what I am doing is flirting with Lady Luck and that the casino has structured its games to beat me and every other player now, and then, and usually always.
This fact I must battle as best I can. And I do. All casino players must do this. That is our lot in gaming life.
I look at playing in two ways. One is to save money as best I can by approaching games in such a way as I am not spending as much of my hard-earned cash as the casino would like me to. Second is to play the best strategies the best way that I can. That means I eliminate games that I just can’t really see myself beating in any decent amount of time. In short, the long run is the casinos’ territory.
Some games just shouldn’t be played by anyone who has any hope of actually beating the house. Those games are quicksand. For example, the Big Wheel of the past was a total waste of time. It is a game that should be avoided, always and ever. Some of the bets at craps? Horrible.
With the following games, generally the most popular ones, I am going to show you the best ways to play them and what to avoid when you play in order to increase your chances to win or, at least, not get hammered.
Blackjack
Blackjack (or 21) is still the number one table game and it has been so for over half a century ever since Edward O. Thorp wrote his revolutionary book "Beat the Dealer" in 1965. That book laid out a plan called “card counting” explaining how to keep track of the cards in blackjack that could allow players to know when the game favored them or favored the casino.
Since that first book dozens of card-counting books have made their appearances, some offering methods of play that were far easier than Thorp’s. I’ve written two of them myself. To get an edge over the house is a lovely thing but very few blackjack players get to do this. Card counting is not terribly hard, but it is hard.
Blackjack is an unusual game because every decision that a player makes on how to play his or her hands decides what level of edge the casino has over that player. If you hit correctly, stand correctly, double down correctly, split pairs correctly, double-after-splits correctly and bet correctly, the game can actually favor you.
The casinos do not particularly like card counters but you wouldn’t either if you offered a business where the customer got the edge over you.
[Please note: Card counting is not illegal. Casinos can’t tell you not to think when you are playing their games; they just hope you keep that thinking to a minimum and many players do keep thought out of their casino play just as the casinos want.]
The blackjack player must also play basic strategy and change that strategy when the “count” calls for it. Basic strategy is the computer-derived strategy for the play of every player’s hand against every dealer’s face-up card. This play will at times change with the actual count of the cards should you be counting. If not, just play the basic strategy perfectly. That keeps the house edge at its lowest for the non-counter.
With excellent card counting and proper basic strategy, the player can get a one-half to one percent edge over the house.
Tactics of Card Counting
High cards (being 10s, jacks, queens, kings, and aces) favor the player when they remain in the decks; while low cards of 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 favor the dealer. That is the general rule. Some card-counting systems will include a 9 as a high card and a 7 as a low card.
When the count favors the player then the player bets higher but when the count favors the casino then the player bets lower. Done properly, card counting is a pro-player strategy.
More Blackjack Help
If you are not a card counter, and few blackjack players can be one, then there are other ways to keep the casino somewhat at bay. First, second and third – always play the proper basic strategy. Do not buy into supposed gambling gurus who disdain basic strategy. They are car mechanics who have never seen a car.
You want to play at full or almost full tables so that you play fewer hands. For the average basic-strategy player, the house will have about a one-half to one-percent edge over them.
If the table has no one but you playing, the number of hands you will play can be immense. That small house edge will leave scars in your bankroll because of the phenomenal number of hands you are dealt. Head-to-head versus the dealer is bad news for the players.
The more players at the table, the better it is for you. You will bet less, and less betting means that your long-term expected losses will be less too. Feel free to memorize that so it really sinks in. (It took me a while to learn that.)
[Please note: The more players, the better it is for the casino too. This is a case where what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. You won’t usually find this in the casinos all the time. Usually what’s good for the casino is usually not good for the players.]
If you have to go to the bathroom, do so when the game is in progress, not when the dealer is shuffling. You will probably get credit time for playing with a bathroom visit during play so go when the game is going. You can think of that as, ah, a double relief.
Craps
I’ll open this as I usually open any discussion of craps – it is the most exciting game in the casino; certainly, craps players think this is true. I certainly do.
Yes, craps is exciting but it is also a game with an outlandish cornucopia of awful bets with extremely high house edges. We’re talking house edges even in the double digits and some even reaching the 20 percent and over mark! On some of these bets the house edges are as bad as or worse than the slot machines’ house edges. For some reason many craps players don’t even bother to think of what these bets will cost them over time.
I play a radical craps policy and many of you will think I am nuts. That’s fine with me. You can adapt my advice as you wish. But this is how I play.
I play only one bet on shooters other than myself and my playing partner. On us, I will go to three bets right off the bat. Only us. No one else.
These bets will be a combination of pass-line and come bets with full odds. I might also go up on a place bet of the 6 and/or 8. I play the "5-Count" on every shooter. The 5-Count is thoroughly covered in my latest two craps books.
[Please note: I might also do an article for 888 on the 5-Count sometime in the future. Go to Amazon for information of my books of all types.]
I make smaller bets on all non-partner shooters.
I don’t care if a shooter has had a great roll up to “right now” because whatever has happened in the immediate past has just been a random phenomenon and I am not going to project positive results into the future on randomness. I’ll be happy to win a bet or two on any shooter. I intend to win my money on me and my playing partner. Anyway, that is the plan.
For craps players, again, playing at a full table is good. Just bet one bet and your danger will be low. Make only pass-line bets and come bets with full odds. Keep the initial bets small so you can get the most bang for your bucks on the odds bets. Learn the 5-Count and play it religiously.
Can you do the one-bet regime? Two bets? I sometimes wonder why craps players feel compelled to make several or more bets at the game. They might find my betting weird, yes, but I find multiple bets weird.
Finally, one of the joys of craps is shooting the dice. Take your turn. Don’t pass this up.
On occasion, usually rare occasions, you might get another craps player who laments a fast seven-out on your part but so what? Everyone has rotten rolls at times and you will also have good rolls. That’s how randomness works. You take the good and the bad. Shooting the dice is one of the great joys of playing the game.
[Please note: I saved this for last. Should you play the “don’t side” of the game, otherwise known as the darksider side? In this game is you are generally rooting for the seven to cause the shooter to fall pray to the seven-out. Most players think darksiders are in league with something resembling the devil. Are they? No. But they are such a small number of players that the other players make it known by their body language and grunts or sighs that they do not want the darksiders at their table. Your choice if you wish to play this way. Even for you, just one bet suffices.]
Roulette
The game of roulette has the longest lineage in the casino. Discovered by Blaise Pascal, the great thinker, who was looking to invent a perpetual motion machine. He (and all who have tried this feat) failed – but he did discover roulette, which means the “little wheel.”
Once he had this contraption, he captured many a nobleman’s heart and purse when playing his game. This has continued right up until today as roulette is usually the second or third most-favored game in the casinos.
Most people know the game of roulette as they have seen it in many movies and television shows. It is James Bond’s favorite game too. He even has his own number, which is 17, and that seems to be the most played number in the game.
[Please note: Many people believe that James Bond’s game was baccarat. Not so. Yes, Mr. Bond loved baccarat but he loved roulette more deeply. That game was his true Moneypenny.]
Roulette has scores of possible bets players can make, from inside straight up on numbers to outside proposition bets such as the dozens, the columns, the even-money bets and much more.
The problem with roulette wagering is the fact that if you bet one or two inside numbers straight up you can be looking at very long losing streaks. This can be depressing as each number only has a one in 37 or a one in 38 or a one in 39 chance to show up.
Yes, there are now three roulette games for players to choose; the single-zero (0) wheel of 37 numbers; the double-zero (0, 00) wheel of 38 numbers or the three zero (0, 00, 000) wheel of 39 numbers.
The single-zero wheel, known as the European/French game, has a house edge of 2.70 percent. The double-zero wheel, known as the American game, has a 5.26 percent house edge. The triple-zero wheel, known as the "Yuck Game," has a 7.69 percent house edge. This triple-zero Yuck wheel has slithered out of the dusty basements of churches (!) throughout the world to land in the true houses of Lady Luck.
The best bets at roulette – at all roulette games – are the even-money bets. The payoffs are even money and you get to have 18 wins and 19 losses on the European/French game; 18 wins and 20 losses on the American game; and 18 wins and 21 losses on the Yuck game.
You will not have the staggering losing streaks you can have on straight up betting, though the house edges always remain the same on each game.
All the best in and out of the casinos!
