Before I got in my
car to go, I rubbed the head of a statue that I
have on the lawn. I don’t even know why I did
it. I am now planning to go to the casino again.
Should I rub the statue’s head? And should
I go for it in the casino?”
“Rub it,”
I said. “But don’t play any different
than you played last time. Don’t believe you
are charmed and bet more than you normally would.
If you play your normal game, rubbing the head of
the statue is a harmless superstition. If you alter
your game because of the statue, you could be playing
more money into the house edge and that would be
a bad thing to do.”
The bottom line is
that gambling decisions -- what games to play, how
much to bet at these games -- should be made with
these things in mind:
a. your temperament
b. the house edge
c. the speed of the game
Temperament
The type of games
that appeal to you might not appeal to me. You might
enjoy playing slots, I might enjoy playing blackjack
and craps. It is foolish for me to say to you that
you can’t spend your money on the games of
your choice just because I chose to play other games.
But it would be foolish of you to say: “All
slots are the same so it doesn’t matter which
ones I dump my money into.”
Slots are as different
as you and your neighbor. Some return more of the
money put in them and some return less. The ones
that return less will often return it in spectacular
fashion, the above Megabucks for example. The ones
that return more will usually not have those spectacular
jackpots but might have greater hit frequencies
and more winning combinations. Your temperament
decides what kind of machine you want to play --
the outside shot at a big bucks win or a decent
shot at small but frequent payoff.
The House Edge
and the Speed of Games
Some games have high house edges, such as the Big
Wheel. Some have low house edges, such as the Pass
Line at craps. Some games are fast and have many
decisions, such as blackjack; and some games are
slow and have fewer decisions, such as roulette.
The best combination in games where the casino has
the edge is to find ones that are slow and have
low house edges. The next best thing is to find
low house edges and play slowly or play intermittently.
Math and common sense
should guide your choices when it comes to what
house edges you will buck and at what speeds you
will buck them.
With that said, if you want to breakfast on scrambled
eggs, ham, and whole wheat toast, burnt; or rub
a statue’s head till it becomes bald; or do
any one of a host of silly superstitious things,
feel free. But, knock on wood, never use superstition
to replace good, cold math and logic. To do so might
just bring bad luck!
Gambling
Superstitions
Good
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