Ask The Wizard #134

Last night, someone proposed a side bet to me in a game of Texas Hold ’em. He mentioned that at least one face card, or any three ranks, would show up on the flop and offered evens on the wager. Should I have considered taking that bet?

The Borgata casino in Atlantic City implements a unique rule regarding the commission for pai gow poker, which differs from other establishments. They impose commission fees in increments of 50 cents instead of the standard 25 cents. For instance, when I played and won a hand worth $25, my commission was only $1. How significantly does this impact the house edge?

What procedure do casinos follow when you cash out your winnings? For example, if you score between $10,000 and $15,000 playing Roulette or Blackjack, are you able to receive that amount via a cashier's check or money order? It's certainly not advisable to travel back to Canada with a large amount of cash!

A coworker of mine recently had an experience with an online casino, specifically playing 10-line Jacks or Better Video Poker. He made a deposit and proceeded to play 10 hands. Unfortunately, none of the 10 hands (or the total of 100 lines) yielded a win. Could you please determine the probability of experiencing such a dry spell across 10 hands of 10-line JoB? Moreover, would your calculated probabilities suggest the game might be rigged? Your assistance is greatly appreciated!

Not allowing splitting or doubling places an additional 1.91% cost on the player.

I've come across video blackjack in various Las Vegas casinos and am curious whether that game is regulated similarly to video poker. If it is, does employing basic blackjack strategy still provide the player with the highest payback rate? If not, is there a specific strategy to follow for video blackjack?

Yes. Any video card game operating in Nevada must be conducted from a limited shuffle deck. This means that you should see similar results to a live game played under the same regulations. As such, basic strategy tables will apply to video blackjack as well.

No! The odds of winning stand at 15/36, which translates to 41.67% probability, resulting in a house edge of 16.67%. Even with the 2 and 12 giving 2 to 1 payouts on the field, the house edge remains only 5.56%. The over/under 7 wager ties with any 7 bet being among the least favorable options on the table.

There are six combinations for arranging two suits out of four for each pair. Additionally, there are 44 possible cards for the singleton. This leads to a total of 6*6*44 = 1584 successful combinations. Given that there are 2,598,960 total combinations, the probability comes out at 0.0609%.

Just out of curiosity, how do the odds shift in video poker if a player always aims for a natural royal flush? This means that the player would consistently hold only the most promising cards to achieve a natural royal flush, disregarding all other potential hands.

A strategy that prioritizes aiming for a royal flush at any cost—ignoring all other hands winning zero—would provide a return of 47.85% when playing a 9/6 Jacks or Better variant. The expected rate of obtaining a royal flush would increase from once every 40,388 hands to about once every 23,081.

Not very often. Contrary to popular belief, casinos do not tighten payout percentages on weekends or during busy periods. In Las Vegas, any adjustment to the payout percentage for each machine requires filling out an official form. Most slot managers I’ve talked to follow specific policies on how a particular denomination correlates with a set return. The most common reasons for changing a machine's percentage are ownership or management changes, which are relatively infrequent.