Deal Me In: A gaming column for those who feel lucky

Mark Pilarski, special to reno.com, tahoe.com
December 21, 2007

Dear Mark: My favorite game of late is Caribbean Stud Poker. Do you know of any simplified strategy for the game, one for us old geezers who don’t want to learn something as intricate as that needed for blackjack or video poker? Joe I.

Caribbean Stud Poker does have a basic strategy that is far simpler than one needed for blackjack or video poker: Fold if you have less than an Ace-King. Make a call bet if you have at least any pair or higher, or, if you have at least an Ace-King and one of your other cards is the same as the dealer's face card.

Two blunders that I’ve noticed made by plenty of players is 1) folding when they have a small pair, or 2) trying to bluff the dealer by making a call bet when they have a poor hand. Let’s break them both down.

The reason why you would never fold your small pairs is that you will be dealt a pair about 42% of the time, and by having them you will win more (or lose less often) in the long run by making the call bet rather than by folding. When you fold small pairs, you are giving the casino approximately a 7% advantage over yourself.

As for bluffing the dealer, it is erroneous to believe that you win more hands by making the call bet with a weak hand.

Far too many players figure that the dealer who doesn't qualify pays off the ante wager for players who stay when they make the call bet, regardless of having a weak hand.

The hole in this strategy is that when the dealer does qualify, and they will, Joe, about 56% of the time, the player loses not only the ante bet, but also the call bet, which is twice the amount of the ante wager. Players who mistakenly bluff with a weak hand will lose 25% more of their ante over the long haul than if they had folded the shaky ones.

Simplicity, Joe, also has its trade-offs. Blackjack and video poker with their basic strategies bring the house advantage to near nil. But for Caribbean Stud, even with the strategy above, the best you can hope for is a casino edge of about 5.2% based on the player's ante wager, or 2.6% based on the ante and call bet.

Dear Mark: I read all the gaming columnists online but enjoy your column the most, particularly because you are, to the best of my knowledge, the only one who has actually worked inside a casino. That said, I did have a question, that being, what was casino job you hated the most? Jack G.

"Hated” is a bit strong, let’s try “disliked”. Whatever, that job was working the pari-mutual window in a sports book.

Here I was, a smart ass 20-something dealing with a bunch of leather-faced, century-old bitter-enders who would vituperate me no end if I accidentally wrote in the wrong jockey’s name above the horse. God forbid if I put A. Alvarez instead of J Alvarez over Freddy Fudpucker. Try saying that five times fast. (Okay, don’t write in. It really was a horse, and a drink too. Ingredients: Two ounces Tequila; 4 ounces orange juice; 1/2 ounce Galliano. Have two, and then try saying it fast five times again.)

They’ve all moved on, some few to St. Peter’s Pony Parlor, a heck of a lot to H-E-double toothpicks, for the company of course, so I’ll leave it at that, reckoning they can’t defend themselves anymore.

Gambling Wisdom of the Week: “Horse racing is the child of avarice, the brother of iniquity, and the father of mischief.” George Washington.

A recognized authority on casino gambling, Pilarski survived 18 years in the casino trenches, working for seven different casinos. Mark now writes a internationally syndicated gambling column, is a university lecturer, reviewer and contributing editor for numerous gaming periodicals, and is the creator of the best-selling, award-winning audio cassette series on casino gambling, Hooked on Winning.

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