The casino edge

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The casino edge
The casino edge
By John Patrick

Before I get into the math bashing, let me reenforce exactly how I feel about vigorish in gambling and what my true feelings about it are. (Lousy English, but I also failed math back in my school days.) And now for my take on how vigorish should be accepted by people who gamble! What a crock of crap!"

OK, before you math wizards wet your pants in uncontrollable indignation over such a harsh statement, let me bring you back to reality with a follow up softening explanation. We sure don't wanna play games that have too much edge tilted toward the casinos, such as slots, Red Dog, and Caribbean Stud, but don't condemn all of gambling, because the casinos (rightfully so), place a charge (vig) on the right to book your bets.

As I said before, I bet sports every single solitary day and at 10 percent, that figure is many, many times higher than those of most casino games.

The experts would tell us that if you are a perfect blackjack player, then the vigorish is only 1.51 percent, and that means we are perfect in the application of basic strategy. Hogwash!! Ooops, I said that word again. If the edge that the house holds (1.51 percent) is so low, how come so many people get their clock cleaned at this game?

We blackjack players have to make perfect decisions in basic strategy as soon as we see that dealer's up card. Look at how most people feel when faced with an up card of.

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I . 9 10 jack Queen King Ace
We are in heap big trouble. In fact, we feel we have little chance of winning that hand.

2. 2 8
We feel the deuce is a dangerous card, whereby the dealer has an excellent chance of drawing out on us. The 8 is neither good nor bad for us. The dealer is not strong but he sure ain't weak.

3. 3 4 5 6 7
Aha! Now we feel we got a decent shot to win a hand, facing this weak card.
But hey, that means we only feel good on five occasions out of thirteen. The other eight up cards leave us feeling like our money is gonna change hands.

Now, the math experts tell us that despite that edge the house has, and the fact that we have to make our decisions first, the house has only a 1.51 percent edge over us.

Hogwash!! I don't believe them.
I can't prove it mathematically, but logically? l see the house holding a big, big, big, edge over us.


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