Dear Mark,
In your opinion, what is the best "even money"
bet in the casino that has no casino edge? Would
it be the banker's hand in baccarat or blackjack?
I have purchased several "even money"
systems designed for roulette and now I'm looking
for better success by applying them to either baccarat
or blackjack. Jon M.
Neither
wager has a zero casino edge. The bank hand in baccarat
faces a 1.17% house advantage, and the blackjack house
advantage, assuming perfect basic strategy play on your
part, is still approximately 0.5%. In games of skill-like
blackjack and video poker-the player's skillful play
can greatly reduce the casino's advantage, but not all
the way down to goose egg. For games of chance, which
means most casino games, the best a player can do is
wager on bets
having the lowest casino
advantage among all the bets offered. A rare exception
is found in certain video poker machines that return
100-plus percent, but that win is based on playing
perfect basic strategy (skill) and eventually hitting
the royal flush (luck & lucre). A second exception:
by card counting in blackjack, you can make pretty
fair predictions of the composition of future hands,
based on the knowledge of previously dealt and discarded
cards. Here, a keen player can actually create an
edge against the house.
We also need to chitchat about money management
systems. Money management cannot affect the house
advantage on any wager, nor guarantee that you will
win more money. If the house has an advantage before
you apply a money management system, it has that
same advantage even after you apply money management
techniques. Some NMMS (Nincompoop Money Management
Schemes) now being hawked by mail order hucksters
seem to promise you casino proprietorship, but 'tain't
so-no way-can't be.
Bottom line: The two things that good money management
principals offer is minimizing your losses and in
most cases protecting your winnings. And yes, Jon,
stick on the correct path of successful gambling
by making smarter wagers
