There are casino games where you win more bets than you lose and games where you lose more bets than you win. The total game’s results may be a loser for the player but this bet or that bet can go for the player more often than not.
There are games where the players’ losing streaks can go on and on. Take traditional roulette for example. If you are betting on one number, the ball can land in 37 or 38 or 39 different pockets – and that means you can go on a massive losing streak.
[Please note: The casino world now has three roulette games. You have the most popular American double-zero wheel, with a usually green 0 and 00; or the European/French single-zero wheel, with one usually green 0; or the new game of the triple-zero wheel, with the 0, 00, and 000 generally in green.
The payout for a winning single number is always 35 to 1 on all games. Yes, that triple-zero wheel is a killer when it comes to losing streaks because you have so many more pockets where the ball can possibly land! And the house edge is massive too. Deep breath: 7.69%! While the double-zero game comes in at 5.26% and the single-zero game comes in at 2.7%.
Oh, a little note here: the triple-zero game was created in a church! A church!]
Roulette Bets
Let us say, oh, you decide to bet all the numbers. Hey, why not splurge? Every spin will be a win! Hurrah! But every spin will also be a loss of either 36, 37, or 38 numbers depending on the wheel you are playing. Yuck! So, that’s a lot of losses for a single win. Yuck again.
Is there a way to make roulette more of a 50-50 game? Almost but not quite.
You can choose to bet the even-money bets of red/black, or odd/even, or high/low. Sadly, these even-money bets will pay even-money but they are not 50/50 propositions. You will win fewer times than you lose but betting this way can forestall very long losing streaks.
Sadly, no roulette game offers you the possibility of winning more bets over time than losing more bets over time. Still, some methods of betting are somewhat close contests in terms of winning or losing your individual bets. The even-money bets are decent wagers if your goal is to hang in there without being quickly wiped out.
Remember that roulette was James Bond’s favorite game but even Agent 007 couldn’t beat it.
Blackjack: The Most Popular Game
Yes! Yes! Yes! A game where you win more than you lose. Hurrah! Hurray! Hu-uuu-uum (cough, cough, cough).
No, no, sorry. Not so. You do not win more hands than you lose. I don’t know where you got that idea. You actually lose more hands than you win.
Players win about 44 hands, lose about 48 hands, and tie the rest of them. (These are approximate numbers but you get the idea.)
You see blackjack is a close contest where the house has about a half percent edge over a basic strategy player, but how that house edge is created has to do with premier or bonus hands. Here are some examples:
- The player receives a blackjack and is paid 3 to 2. (Some blackjack games have reduced this pay out to 6 to 5. Avoid those. That’s a big hit on your bankroll. No one needs that. If no one plays those 6-to-5 games, the casino will remove them … maybe.)
- The player can double down on certain hands. Which means putting up a separate bet on your hand and getting only one card. It is advantageous to double down correctly.
- The players can split pairs. The player can double down on some splits.
These hands bring the player more money if played correctly. You want to win more money in such favorable situations. This is where the players can overcome the high number of hands the casino wins at the game. More money is leaving the game than coming into the game.
Okay, so how do you play blackjack correctly? You learn the correct basic strategy for the blackjack games you wish to play. This strategy is the absolute perfect way to play your hands.
Now, if you are going to learn blackjack correctly don’t make the mistake of throwing in with “gamblers” who decry basic strategy as wrong based on their individual “eccentric” opinions. Basic strategy is the computer-derived proper play of every hand versus the dealer’s up-card. Period. Follow it and play the game correctly. Don’t follow it and your losses will be magnified.
If you have trouble memorizing the correct basic strategy most casinos will allow you to bring a basic strategy card to the table. Do so.
Some helpful hints for maximizing your chances of winning:
- Play at full tables. The fewer hands you play the better your chances of winning. The more hands you play the better the chance you will be behind. The fewer hands you play, the better the chance you will be ahead. This falls into a simple saying: The more money you bet on different hands, the better chance you will be behind.
- Go to the bathroom when the dealer is actually dealing and not while he or she is shuffling. There is no casino law that says you have to wait to go to the bathroom. You’ll generally get credit for your time even when you are in the bathroom if the casino is crowded.
- Do not play more than one hand. You are simply throwing more money into the casino house edge when you play more than one hand. Just lost a couple of hands in a row? Sit out the next hand.
- Take your time deciding what to do with your hand – even if you already know what to do! It is important to slow the game down as much as you can. A slow game will have you play fewer hands. The dealer's job is to deal fast and some dealers take that seriously; the player’s job is to slow it all down. Few players take that seriously.
Blackjack is a great game but you have to be careful with your playing decisions. A great game can become a bad game if you do not play correctly. Playing correctly is totally in your court.
Craps: The Exciting Game
World War II was the time craps ascended to become the favorite game of soldiers around the world (at least allied soldiers).
The game originated “down south” along the Mississippi River. It was a street game in the cities as it moved North. Have an alley near you? Great. The exact right place to play a game of craps.
The original name for the game was “crabs” but as the game moved North, northerners started calling the game craps since “crabs” sounded like craps to northern ears.
In the years of the great war, the game flourished. You had poker and craps, the two favorite gambling games. When the war ended, craps became the favorite table game in the casinos until blackjack deposed it due to the card counting revolution.
Craps is still in second place. By the way, if you check out a craps game you will discover that the game is a “man’s game” as most tables rarely have women players. When I learned the game, you would rarely (rarely, rarely) see a woman playing.
My first experiences with craps came when I met the late Captain, an Atlantic City legend. He had a “crew” of 22 high rollers and these folks were in the casino almost every weekend.
I was studying to do the lead role in a play, "The Only Game in Town" by Frank Gilroy, and I met the Captain in Atlantic City one night. Boy did I learn about craps and casino gambling from the man!
My entire gambling career began when I met the man. I dumped acting, directing and producing and teaching for the excitement of challenging the casinos. That’s a whole other story of how my wife the Beautiful AP and I tackled “chance and circumstance” and many of my books and television shows reference the Captain. It is rare in life that one person has so much influence over another but in my case, the Captain did.
The best way to play craps? Make one or two bets These can be the pass line and come bets with odds – forget the worse bets which is almost all of them and forget the darkside – why be hated? Also place the 6 or 8; all this after finishing the Five-Count. (In a future article I will write about the Five-Count.)
Mini-Baccarat: A Good Game Ruined by Speed
Two things you should be aware of when you play mini-baccarat: the speed of the game (when I say speed I mean SPEED) and the superstitions of some very superstitious players. Most superstitious players are quietly superstitious, right? But not in mini-baccarat. If they are superstitious they can be loudly superstitious.
You will note that the seat for number 4 usually has a number 5 as its number. Why is that? Superstitious players have requested that the casinos eliminate that position on the table – the number of that position that is – because the sound of that number reminds them (I think it reminds them) of death.
The casino didn’t want to kill anyone so they changed the number of the seat. They also want those players, many of them high rollers of the highest order, to play at their tables. Can you blame them?
The original game of baccarat used to be played on an extra-long table that had several dealers – males in suits or tuxedos; females in evening dresses. The game was expensive but it was also leisurely. Those long tables are now mostly gone; replaced by a somewhat large blackjack-styled table.
One of the fun parts of the game was the fact that players could deal the cards. Could such a rule have any impact on the game? Not at all but it was fun. Players no longer deal the cards. There is just one dealer, in a typical casino uniform who now deals.
Mini-baccarat has three bets: the bank, the player, and the tie. The bank’s house edge is a tiny 1.06%; the player has a somewhat larger house edge at 1.24% and the tie bet? A waste of your money! The bank pays even money but a commission of 5% is taken from a win since the bank bet actually wins more than 50% of the time; the player bet also is paid 1 to 1; while the tie bet – forget about it.
If mini-baccarat were played at the same speed as normal baccarat then, other than comfort, there is no harm done. But mini-baccarat is fast – so fast that its speed can go over 160 hands per hour! And the players are expected to bet fast and maybe even faster than that.
The tables usually have a host of side bets that they can make – usually crummy bets. These bets just suck the money from the players’ bankroll. You can almost hear the vacuuming sound as the money is sucked from the table. Woosh!
The low house edges on the bank and player hands are great; the speed of the game is not great and the side bets are awful. This is, sadly, a formerly terrific game, now ruined by the incorporation of speed.
HOWEVER, if you can cut your play down to playing only half the hands, then you should be okay. Add that to cutting out all bonus hands and all ties and (oh what the heck) all “player” hands and you still have a decent game. Try to slow down the game even more if you can by going to the bathroom during game time and not during shuffles.
Summary
Players love to gamble. That’s why they go to casinos. But there are better and worse bets. Make the better bets? You have a decent chance to win. Make the worse bets? Forget about it. You might get lucky tonight but over time? Seriously, you know the answer to that question.
All the best in and out of the casinos!
