A real chance or little chance?

Casino gamblers are faced with several problems when they play the games. They can come in the form of the following questions:

• What kind of house edge does the game have?
• How fast is the game? (Meaning how many decisions per hour?)
• What is my best strategy to have the best chance to beat the house at this game?

Many players can make one or two mistakes, and some sad ones can get all three answers wrong. That can cost a player some hurt in the bankroll department.

The house edge concerns what percentage of the money the casino keeps for each bet. If a game has a 10% edge, a $10 player will have an average loss of $10 for every $100 wagered.

The speed of the game, meaning how many decisions one faces each hour (you can plug in any other time frame if you like such as a half hour, four hours and so on). If the game with a 10% edge has 100 decisions per hour then the average $10 player can expect to lose $100 per hour over time. If the number of decisions is 50 per hour, the $10 player can expect to lose $50.

What is the best strategy? In my opinion, you have to go with the game that has the lowest number of decisions and the lowest possible house edge. In games where there are multiple possible bets, you have to choose the best one. That gives you the best chance to come home a winner. In games such as blackjack, you have to make decisions on every hand, and therefore each decision has to be correct.

Let’s take a look at some of the popular games.

Blackjack: The best strategy at blackjack is called “basic strategy,” which is the computer-derived strategy for the play of every player hand against every dealer up card. The house edge using such a strategy is about one-half percent. That is a loss of 50 cents per $100 wagered.

Now with blackjack, you play alone against the dealer, but you can possibly face 100 decisions. It is better for a basic strategy player to play at full or nearly full tables to reduce the number of decisions per hour. The game is close this way and offers the best chance to come home a winner.

Craps: This game comes with a variety of bets, most of them poor. There are house edges in the double-digits. Not good. But there are some decent bets at the game, for example, the pass line and the come, the don’t pass and the don’t come. The house edge on these bets is approximately 1.4%. It is best to make small wagers on these options and be able to put odds behind the bet. The odds bet is a break even bet against the house.

How many of these good bets you make per roll of the dice will determine how much you can expect to lose. Therefore, the fewer the number of bets, the better chance you have of winning. The more of these bets you make for every roll of the dice, the better the chance you will ultimately fall behind.

With one bet, the speed of the game is reduced markedly. The above is the best way to go when you play craps.

Roulette: You want a full or almost full table to reduce the number of decisions. All bets come in with a 5.26% house edge (except the awful five-number one). In some venues, the casino will return half your even-money bets if the green 0 or 00 shows. In such a case, you should only bet one of the following: red/black, high/low or odd/even.

You can use these ideas for any game you play. The better your betting strategy and the slower the game, the better chance you have to win.


Visit Frank’s website at www.frankscoblete.com. Frank’s latest books are Confessions of a Wayward Catholic, I Am a Dice Controller: Inside the World of Advantage-Play Craps and I Am a Card Counter: Inside the World of Advantage-Play Blackjack. Available from Amazon.com, Kindle, Barnes and Noble, and at bookstores.

This article is provided by the Frank Scoblete Network. Melissa A. Kaplan is the network's managing editor. If you would like to use this article on your website, please contact Casino City Press, the exclusive web syndication outlet for the Frank Scoblete Network. To contact Frank, please e-mail him at fscobe@optonline.net.