Gambling Wisdom of the Week: “In most betting shops you will see three windows marked “Bet Here,” but only one window with the legend “Pay Out.”  —Jeffrey Bernard

Mark Pilarski, Senior Wire

Dear Mark: I am a relatively new/occasional blackjack player and once in a while a hand comes up that advanced players would double-down on. However, being a low-roller, I do not really want to put more money out.  On two different occasions, a player (usually a man) will place his own money alongside mine since he said it is a good bet.  If the hand is a winner, should the winnings be shared, or is it mine to keep? Mary P.

The fellow player who offered unsolicited playing advice, and in your case, ready cash, was correct in that doubling down is a good bet.

When dealt a pair of favorable cards, normally a 9, 10, or an 11, the casino gives you the opportunity to double the amount of your wager. The strategic reason for doubling down is that you are more likely to win the hand than to lose, and having this advantage, you should always wager the maximum amount possible. The only disadvantage to doubling is that you are allowed to draw just one additional card.

Option B is that if you happen to be light in the pocketbook, yes, you may double for less than your original bet. When the rules permit doubling, you may double your wager by any amount, up to, but never more than, the original bet. Since doubling down has a built-in edge over the house, I do not recommend doubling for less.

Teaming up with a player when half of your double is open is a possible solution. Next time, you can ask, “do go want to partner up with me on this one?” instead of offering carte blanche to both the opportunity and winnings.

Since your “partnership” occurred but twice, I believe sharing the winnings is the appropriate resolution. You would be making a big mistake in letting any player cherry-pick your double down opportunities, like an 11 against a six, plus, there are scenarios where you would want to take an additional hit(s) if you decide not to double down. For instance, you are dealt a 10, and the dealer is showing a 7, 8, 9, 10, or an ace. You hit, draw a three, giving you a 13. Basic strategy would dictate that you take another hit. You can’t, because you just allowed some gentleman to control play and reap all the profits.

If you cannot take full advantage of double down opportunities, Mary, perhaps you should be playing on a lower denomination table.

 

Dear Mark: I am a snowbird spending the winter in Biloxi. In one of your articles you advised the best cards to hold on a 9/6 machine. Maybe I am not going to the right casinos, but all I have seen here are either 8/6 or 7/5. Snowbird Bob

With a craving for some seafood at Mary Mahoney’s, I, too, hope to mosey on down to the Gulf Coast sometime this winter. In the meantime, Bob, a good reference as to machine selection here, there, or anywhere is Steve Bourie’s, American Casino Guide. According to the 2012 guide, some of the best video poker on the Gulf Coast for lower limit players are 9/6 Double Double Bonus (98.98%), 9/6 Jacks or Better (99.54%) and 8/5 Bonus Poker (99.17%) and a version of Deuces Wild called Illinois Deuces (98.9%).

The tiger hunt is now on you to locate and scrutinize each paytable and find which ones give you the lowest house edge. You’re on the chase, Bob, so readers here are expecting a full accounting.

Dear Mark: My favorite game is keno. Unfortunately, casinos where I play have removed the live game and have replaced it with a few video keno games spread out over the casino floor. Since video keno is now the only game in town, is it a better game than live keno? In addition, when drawing numbers, are the numbers drawn based on a random number generator like slot and video poker machines? Vicky F.

Good news, Vicky…well, sort of. The loss of flesh and blood dabbing spots is your gain, to a point. The house edge on video keno is much lower than that on a live keno game. Live, it’s approximately 28%, whereas with video keno it can be as low as 7.5% simply due to video keno’s having better paytables.

On the other hand, with a live lounge game, you can buy a ticket for as little as a buck, drink free hooch and watch sports in cushy chairs, and the most you can lose on a game with a 28% house edge is about $15 an hour. When playing video keno, the speed of the game increases almost tenfold, so, that 7.5% casino advantage versus the 28% live game edge is deceiving, because your hourly loss to the house can end up being much, much higher.

This leads me, to dole out some advice when playing the cybernetic version. First, you want to search for the highest-paying paytables. The higher the payouts for the spots you play, the lower the house edge. Play fewer spots so the odds against hitting a winning ticket are not so astronomical. Deliberately play at a leisurely pace, because the slower you play, the less of your hard-earned money plunks into the casino’s coffers. Finally, use your slot club card to offset the losses you will experience on this negative-expectation game.

As to your second question, like the cards displayed in video poker or the symbols of a slot machine, a random number generator determines all numbers drawn in video keno. All 80 numbers on a keno game have the same chance of being drawn.

 

Dear Mark: Where I play, they do not offer a full 9/6 video poker game that you often recommend. In its place, they have 9/5 and 8/6 Jacks-or-better machines. Between the two, which one is better? David W.

As mentioned often in this column, the numbers used to identify Jacks-or-better video poker games usually refer to the payoffs for full houses and flushes. A 9/5 machine pays 9-for-1 for a full house and 5-for-1 on a flush. An 8/6 machine would be eight for the full house and six for a flush. One machine lowers the payoff on flushes, the other the payout on full houses.

The difference in the house edge, between these two Jacks-or-better variations, is so minuscule it overlooks caution on switch-hitting between the two. For the perfect basic strategy user, the 9/5 version pays 98.44%, while an 8/6 game returns a nickel less — 98.39%. Contrast this, David, with a marquee 9/6 paytable, which returns 99.5% to the polished VP player.