Casino

of poor card players. In the days of his innocence as a young soldier, the author of this book lost eight or ten successive games of Casino to an otherwise harmless comrade who knew the game and was eager to profit from the knowledge. Having played at Casino all my life, I assumed that I was a victim of bad luck. But an older and wiser man took me aside and advised me that I was being fleeced. Until that day I had not realized that it pays to keep track of every card. If you can. It was the beginning of my education in matters of this kind.

» Read More

As in all Poker, sound play rests on knowledge of the statistical probabilities. These depend not only on the cards in the hand but on the number of opponents yet to be heard from. The more players yet to speak, the greater the possibility that someone holds a superior hand. Table A lists the minimum hands considered good enough for a sound opening in each situation.

» Read More

EQUIPMENT. Two dice, of the same size, color, and markings. Each die should be a cube in the strictest sense, except that the corners may be uniformly rounded; each side should be approximately ¾ inch, and no smaller than ½ inch. Each face of the die is marked with one to six dots, opposite faces representing reciprocal numbers adding to seven; if the vertical face toward you is 5, and the horizontal face on top of the die is 6, the 3 should be on the vertical face to your right.

» Read More

and four, and the ten by five and five. The hardway bettor is betting that a particular number will come up exactly as specified—the hard way—and not as any other combination.
For example, the four can fall as one and three, two and two, and three and one, but the hardway bet wins only if it is two and two. The ten can fall as four and six, five and five, and six and four, but only five and five is considered the hardway number. Bets on the four and the ten pay seven to one, or eight for one, depending on which terminology the casino prefers to use.

» Read More

You don’t just walk up to a craps table and begin to play. That is the main reason that craps is a “dying” game in the casinos, Where it once dominated the American casino, craps is now disappearing, as the players who learned the game in the hack alleys of the major cities, or the barracks of the armed services get older and disappear. But for those who want the best action in a casino, craps is the only game to play.

» Read More

You get comped precisely because you are willing to play the way a casino wants you to play. Why? Because casinos know that that kind of play will automatically make you a loser over time. So they can afford to comp you—they already know the outcome! You’re dead before you walk in the door, if you agree to play by their rules.

» Read More

Know your chip count. Aim to grind the casino out. When you reach your goal, walk away. You are done for the night.
Understand that the casino is set up to beat you
100 percent of the time.
The house always (yes, I said always) has an edge over the gambler. When I talk about high-percentage plays, I’m talking about cutting the house edge to a tiny percentage. But think about that for a minute. What I’m telling you is that even under the best of circumstances, the house still has a slight edge. So if you played a set amount of time, all things being equal, you’d lose. That house edge (over time) automatically grinds you down. Every single time, over time.

» Read More

• Your attitude must be positive.
From the start, you must aim and plan to win. This isn’t just about fun. Winners treat gambling like a serious business. So do all the casino employees. (If you don’t, that puts you at a significant disadvantage, don’t you think?)

» Read More

If you haven’t noticed lately, our nation’s rivers are getting a bit crowded—with casino riverboats. Iowa, Illinois, Mississippi, Missouri and Louisiana all now allow gambling on riverboats, and more states are expected to jump on the bandwagon in the not-too-distant future.
Many of you have written to us about your trips to these “floating casinos,” and still more have asked for regular coverage of riverboats—which is no surprise, considering how rapidly this segment of the gaming industry is expanding.

» Read More

what is it that makes gambling so pervasive in human nature? Every choice you make in life is a gamble. When you are finally old enough to make your own choices, you gamble with your future with every decision you make. What college should you attend? What profession should you enter? Should you get married and who should you marry? All these questions are the spice of which life is made. And they are all gambles.

» Read More