Casino Pesong - The Best Casino Lesson and Practice

Stepping off the main casino floor, we find the poker room. Poker rooms are purposefully set apart from the main casino floor. In poker, the casino simply provides a dealer, a table, and a legal venue for players to take each other’s money. For this service, the casino takes either a percentage of each pot or charges rent (rake), depending on the type of game being played.

The casino’s money is never at risk (a really sweet deal for the casino, when you think about it). With poker, the casino has no need to psych out the players, so it provides a quiet, dignified environment and caters to their each and every whim -anything to keep them playing, because the longer a player plays, the more commission or rake the casino makes. In some poker rooms, massage therapists offer their services to players, who sometimes sit in marathon games for 24 hours or more. That’s right-back rubs while you play!

This finishes our walk through the casino. But before getting to the main order of business, you need to learn how to prepare mentally before sitting down to play.

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On the main casino floor, me need to look at one more game baccarat. Let’s step into the subdued elegance of the baccarat pit. Notice the deeper pile carpets, the richly upholstered armchairs, and tuxedo-clad dealers. The game and environment are quiet and calm in the European tradition.
The game is easy enough to play and can be learned in a few minutes by examining any of the casino gaming guides. Only two simple decisions are required: How much to bet and whether to bet on the player or the bank to win the hand.

Baccarat is designed to appeal to a different class of player-the high roller. We may see man- players with huge stacks of chips in front of them, perhaps with ~S20,000, $30,000, and more. These special-breed players are here to risk serious money. They didn’t need to be coaxed into putting it on the line. Their egos demand it.

So, accordingly, the casino provides a very dignified atmosphere for these big players. That’s why the dealers dress in tuxedos and there are no noisy slot machines nearby. Gourmet buffet tables are sometimes provided right in the room. The surroundings are lavish. Attentive waiters, waitresses, and pit personnel service the players with first-class treatment.

If you decide to play baccarat, I suggest trying it at the mini bac tables located on the main casino floor. You won’t get the same treatment as the high rollers, but the minimums are much lower. Many casinos offer $5 minimum games.

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Now on to the tables where most of the players seem to be concentrated. Blackjack is the most popular casino table game. Most tables feature the multi-deck shoe game with all player cards dealt face up. The game is simple enough to play: You win if your hand has a higher value than the dealer’s hand or if the dealer breaks (goes over  21) and you don’t. The value of our hand is determined by adding up the face value of all our cards (face cards count 10 and aces count 1 or 11).

Starting with your initial two cards, can decide to lilt (take another card), stand, double our bet and take only one more card, or split a like pair and play two hands 6th a like bet on the second hand.

At some tables, this player pauses to observe a hand or two, but then moves on, unsatisfied with what he sees. After examining every table on the casino floor, he starts over in his table examination.
This man is a card counter, a back counter in blackjack jargon. He’s waiting for the count to reach a certain level before entering the game. He counts low cards as + 1 and high cards as -1 and keeps a running count from hand to hand and round to round at each table where he observes one or more rounds of play. If the count reaches a plus number equal to or greater than the number of decks remaining to be dealt from the shoe, he enters the game believing he has an even game or an advantage because there are a few more high cards than low cards left in the shoe. Otherwise he doesn’t play.

Let’s follow this player as he finds an acceptable game. It’s eight decks, two have been played, and the count is +10 as he takes a seat. The +10 means that there are 10 more high cards than low cards remaining to be played. And since high cards are more valuable to the player than the dealer, theoretically at least, this player has an advantage, albeit a very small one.
Our man notices the two other players in the game as he makes his first bet of $2.
He wins the first bet, plays a few more hands, losing most of them as the count skyrockets with bunches of low cards being dealt in the next few rounds, leaving the extra high cards in the shoe and yielding a theoretical advantage on the next hand.

He works his bet up to $300 on each of the two hands he is playing. He’s dealt a 20 on one hand and a pair of 4s on the second. He splits the 4s and pulls a 5 to the first, making a total of 9. Where are those extra high cards, he thinks? He doubles down on the 9 and pulls a 10 for 19. On the other 4, he pulls more small cards, ending with a stiff hand of 16. But he’s not worried because the
dealer shows a 6 and will undoubtedly turn over a hole card of 10 and then break because of all the extra 10s in the shoe.

The dealer turns over a 3 for a total of 9, and then she deals her¬self a 2 to the hand, which now totals 11. By this time the man’s heart is pounding as he “sees” that 10 coming out of the shoe to make the dealer hand a 21. But it doesn’t happen. The clumped low cards keep popping up. She pulls a 5 for a total of 16. “Now the 10,” he feels like yelling out. But unfortunately it’s not to be as the dealer pulls a  for a 21, wiping out his total bet of $1,200 on the two hands.

Is this man an advantage player? Is his card counting method an advantage system in the eight-deck game? You’ll learn in this site that the player was playing into a clump of low cards caused by the non-random shuffle. Low cards are advantageous to the dealer be¬cause she hits her hand last, after all the players have made their decisions, and has much less chance of breaking.

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Before you get too excited, let’s take a walk over to the other gaming and see what’s going on.
Forgetting to look for the sign identifying the blackjack pits, we notice some other gaming tables that are not immediately recognizable. Let’s take a closer look at these games, new to the casinos in the last decade of the twentieth century, and see what’s going on here.

At the first table, a dealer is dealing seven cards to each player; the players each pick them up and arrange them into two poker hands: a normal poker hand of five cards and a hand of two cards. This is Pal Gow Poker, which differs from normal poker in that the players play against the dealer, not among themselves. With one exception we’ll discuss in a later chapter, the hands have the same value as normal poker. We’ll get to a full description of these hands later, but for now the main difference between Pat Gow Poker and normal poker is how you set your hand. You arrange your seven cards into a five-card hand and a two-card hand. T0 will, both your five-card hand and your two-card hand must beat the dealer’s five card hand and two-card hand.

As long as we find ourselves in the poker area of the main casino floor, let’s take a look at some other new poker games. After talking to a friendly casino floor person (who watches the games to ensure that payoffs are made correctly and no cheating occurs), we learn there are three other variations of poker called Caribbean Stud, Let It Ride, and Three Card Poker. All of these games are played on blackjack-like tables, all played against the house. Specific rules vary among the games, but we learn that the main feature of each game is player bonuses for various types of poker hands. For example, a winning hand of three-of-a-kind pays 3 to 1 at Caribbean Stud and Let It Ride, and 4 to 1 at Three Card Poker.

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Walking away from the roulette wheels, Take the don’ts, pay the line, eight came easy. Coming out, same good shooter. Craps, eleven, horn bets, whirl bets, highs and lows, place your bets. Let’s go, throw an eleven, shooter.”

What’s all the shouting about? Amidst all the excitement, we see a cluster of players crowded around a large oblong table-a craps table, the most exciting of casino games. You can get more action and more bets down at the craps table in five minutes than you can at roulette or blackjack in an hour.

Belly up to the table and watch the shooter roll the dice. Notice the pass-line bet on the layout, one of the best bets, because the casino advantage is only about 1.4 percent. If you’re a beginning player, you’re probably somewhat confused by all the shouting and the myriad of bets confronting you on the layout. But, for now, place a $5 bet on the pass line and go with the shooter. After the come out roll, it’s a very simple matter to understand-a 7 or 11 wins on that first roll, called the “come out,” while a 2, 3, or 12 loses. All other numbers are points-4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10-and the shooter’s ob¬jective is to repeat that point number, 6 for example, before a % is rolled. If he or she rolls a 6, you’re paid even money-$5. If a 7 is rolled, the dealers quickly scoop up the losing bets, including yours.

Notice a tall lanky man step up to the table, to the spot where it’s his turn to throw the dice next. On his roll, he gets the dice and holds them for 45 minutes. This means that he is not throwing the losing %. He rolls number after number and is winning on almost every roll. File other players shout and scream for this shooter to roll the point. Racks are filling up with chips.
What’s going on here? Is this shooter just lucky? No. Take a closer look at this shooter. He doesn’t just pick up the dice and throw haphazardly down the table like most of the other players do. Using one hand as prescribed by the casino, he carefully positions the two die as they lie on the table in front of him, so that certain combi¬nations of numbers show on the top and bottom and on each of the other two sides. Then he picks them up and releases them with a nice easy rhythm so they gently tap the back wall.

His objective? To avoid the losing %. He’s a rhythm roller with an advantage over the casino.
After his 45-minute roll, the man places his stacks of black, green, and purple on the table and requests a “color up.” The box man counts down the chips and places seven orange ($1,000 chips), two black ($100 chips), and three green ($Z5 chips) on the table. After acknowledging the accolades from the other players and then non¬nonchalantly tossing three $Z> chips to the dealers, the man picks up the chips and walks to the cashier’s cage.
This man is an advantage Player.

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The first things we notice are the large electronic displays that show the last 21 numbers that have hit. The other things we notice are the players. They seem to be betting haphazardly; some are putting chips on the outside of the layout (”outside bets”), betting that a red or black number will hit, an odd or even number, or a high or low number.

There are 38 numbers on the wheel, including the two green zeros, and these outside bets pay even money (you win the same amount as you bet). If you think about it, you can see the house edge right away for these bets: As long as any one of your 18 numbers hits, you win, but, with the two green zeros winning for the house, there are 20 chances out of 38 for you not to will.

There’s the house edge: 2 additional chances out of 38 for the casino to take your money, which equates to an advantage of about 51/4 percent. For those casinos that only take half of your outside bet when one of the green zeros hits, the house edge drops to about 2~/4 percent.

The players betting on specific numbers or combinations of numbers on the inside of the layout seem to be dropping their chips at random, some making as many as a dozen bets in hopes that they’ll get lucky on the next spin.

Unlike the others, he scans the electronic displays for just 15 or 20 seconds, then moves quickly to one of the spinning wheels with the ball already in motion and places a green chip, straight up, on each of five numbers. The croupier calls, “No more bets please,” and the man walts patiently for the ball to land. It falls on one of his numbers and he exudes quiet satisfaction with his win. The dealer pushes 35 green chips over to him. “That one’s yours,” he says to the dealer, pointing to the green chip on the winning number. The other players glance at him with admiration. Paying no attention to them, he picks up his chips and quietly walks away, melting into the crowd. At the cashier’s cage he cashes in for a total of $875-a quick profit of $750 after subtracting the $125 he bet. Was this a lucky hit or what? No. This player, with a keen understanding of the number positions on the wheel, had detected a “power sector” on the electronic display-certain numbers hitting with regularity in one sector of the wheel. His experience told him that this was a strong dealer signature and he knew he had an advantage in this game.
This man is an advantage Player.

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