Sklansky's column: beatable house games

[Iceman]

David wrote: "So you can see why I have high hopes for this game. One of the reasons is that I believe many players will actually think they can beat it. Actually that would be totally understandable if they were not aware how stringent gaming regulations are."

Despite stringent gaming regulations, every few years a beatable game does slip through, and if you find one it can be highly profitable. A casino in Missisippi mislabeled a payout in Sic Bo so that a 71-1 chance that normally pays 60-1 paid 80-1. Someone posted about it on Stanford Wong's website, people from around the country flew in to take advantage of it, and the casino lost hundreds of thousands of dollars before taking the game down. A casino in California offered a new game called Roman Stud that apparently had a huge player advantage - this one was quickly pulled down soon after it was posted to rec.gambling.poker and people rushed to play it. In both of these cases, people were really stupid to inform the public about a beatable situation, and they might have been able to win huge amounts of money themselves if they kept that knowledge secret. Some foreign casinos offer games like three-card poker or Let-It-Ride without knowing the exact rules and procedures, and they can make errors in the game that can be highly profitable for players (e.g. a Caribbean stud game where the dealer exposes three cards).

[Shoe]

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Actually that would be totally understandable if they were not aware how stringent gaming regulations are

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I was wondering exactly what this quote meant. One of the most popular table games out there today is beatable, Blackjack. What are these stringent gaming regulations that would prevent a beatable game from making it to market?

[Iceman]

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Actually that would be totally understandable if they were not aware how stringent gaming regulations are

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I was wondering exactly what this quote meant. One of the most popular table games out there today is beatable, Blackjack. What are these stringent gaming regulations that would prevent a beatable game from making it to market?

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In Atlantic City, before the gaming authorities will approve a new game, they require a complete mathematical analysis of the game. If there exists any strategy that would beat the game, it would come out during this process.

Many other gambling regions are not so strict however, and many tribal casinos, cruise ships, and foreign casinos are loosely regulated or not regulated at all. You don't always know if the games are straight, but on the other hand, they may introduce a flawed game with a possible player advantage.

Blackjack is only beatable through card counting or shuffle tracking, and when casinos have lousy penetration, bar midshoe entry, and give extreme heat to even green chip players, very few people can beat blackjack in practice for any significant money. Some blackjack games are completely unbeatable, such as ones that only pay 6:5 on blackjack or that use continuous shuffling machines.

[Dreamer]

I can assure you there are numerous other ways to beat BJ.
Some have never even made into print for obvious reasons.

D.

[Klak]

not really, other than cheating of course.

[Terry]

Yes, really, without cheating. For example:

"Winning Without Counting" by Stanford Wong

"Read the Dealer" by Steve Forte

[Dreamer]

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not really, other than cheating of course.



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Ace sequencing, hole carding, reading warps, card steering, promotional plays, dealer reading........... I could go on and on!

D.

[Klak]

i dont play much blackjack, but when i do the dealer never even looks at his hole card. how would you be able to read a dealer?

[Terry]

You have to play in a place where the dealer does check his hole card. Yes, I know -- most places don't do that anymore -- but some do. Anyway, it's an old book that I just listed as a "fer instance".

[Iceman]

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You have to play in a place where the dealer does check his hole card. Yes, I know -- most places don't do that anymore -- but some do. Anyway, it's an old book that I just listed as a "fer instance".

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Most casinos that I see these days have (1) no midshoe entry or limit midshoe entrants to the table minimum, (2) no hole card or no peeking, (3) serious heat even for green chip players, and (4) 6-8 decks and lousy penetration. If people are still beating blackjack for real money, they aren't doing it on the East Coast.