Dear
Mark,
Casinos must make loads of money off constant losers
like myself. Anything I can do to stop the flow
of money always going in one direction? Sandra R.
But
do you have a smile on your face when you lose, Sandra?
I ask that because Bob Stupak, a major casino operator
in Las Vegas, was quoted in U.S. News and World Report
saying; “It’s our duty to extract as much
money from the customer as we can and send them home
with a smile on their face.” Believe me, Sandra,
casinos are a green felt jungle and you’re playing
war.But that doesn’t mean the casinos win every
battle.
You can fight back
by becoming a Guerrilla Gambler. How? By only making
bets that have a 2% house advantage or less. When
you do, you’ll stand a good chance of turning
the tables in your favor, staying in action longer,
having fun and, yes, stopping the flow of your hard-earned
cash going to the opposite forces (casino corporate
headquarters).
Here are some of my favorite guerrilla warfare wagers.
All have less than a 2% house advantage and can
be found in most casinos coast to coast. Blackjack:
A game that many play, but few play well. Solution:
Playing perfect basic strategy. Perfect basic strategy
will bring the house advantage down to well under
1%. Craps: Want
three outstanding craps wagers? The pass and come
line bets, preceding wagers with odds, and placing
the 6 or 8. All have a house advantage of 1.5% or
lower. Stay away from those proposition bets (hardways,
field bets, one number rolls, etc.) entirely. Some
can have a house advantage as high as 16%.Baccarat:
Baccarat definitely evokes images of Monte Carlo
and James Bond, but don’t let the mystique
of the game intimidate you. It’s one of the
easiest casino games to play (you don’t even
have to know the rules because correct hitting is
predetermined), and the stakes are relatively low
when you play on a mini-baccarat table. The house
advantage is either 1.17% when betting the bank
hand or 1.36% with a player hand wager. Skip the
tie bet: House advantage 14%.Video
Poker: There is no such thing as a bad video poker
machine, only bad pay tables. Here’s another
opportunity where playing perfect basic strategy
on a machine with a decent pay schedule can reduce
the house advantage to well under 1%.
