Casino War

Dave

Active Member
#1
So anyone remember playing War when you were younger? Each person is delt one card, the higher one wins with Ace high, than king queen etc. Shall both the dealer and player have the same numerical card, war is declared; you pluck down another bet equal to the orginal, burn 3 cards for both parties and whoever pulls the higher one win all bets. One of the local casino has it, it seems to me to be a viable game. There are no commisions, so it is just luck. Anyone knows if the casino has an advantage?
 

itrack

Well-Known Member
#2
Of course the casino has an advantage on this game, or it wouldn't be there most likely. The edge comes from when you tie. When you tie the dealer you have the choice to put down another amount equal to your original bet and "go to war", or you can surrender and lose half of your bet. If you win, you only win 1x your bet (even money on the "war" bet). If you lose, the dealer will take both of your bets. This is where the house edge comes from. If you tie again you get a bonus equal to whatever your original bet was. The house edge isn't actually that high on this game, but since you play extremely fast it starts to add up quickly.
 

Sucker

Well-Known Member
#3
The house edge on this game is HUGE (not to mention the aforementioned fact that the game is extremely fast):
With standard rules and 8 decks, the house advantage is 2.9% if the player goes to "war" every time he ties. If he chooses to "surrender" every time, the HE is about 3.7%. (So obviously, it's much better to go to war than it is to surrender).
 

shadroch

Well-Known Member
#4
Any place that I've seen it, the house has an edge because in the case of a tie, you must put up another bet to go to war, so you lose two bets when you lose a war, and only win one bet when you win a war.Since you'll go to war approx. once every thirteen hands, this is a fairly big house advantage.
 
#5
shadroch said:
Any place that I've seen it, the house has an edge because in the case of a tie, you must put up another bet to go to war, so you lose two bets when you lose a war, and only win one bet when you win a war.Since you'll go to war approx. once every thirteen hands, this is a fairly big house advantage.
The thing that seems to fool a lot of players (it fooled me for a little while, the first time I played it) is that when you go to war, you put out another bet, and then the dealer "matches" it. But the dealer doesn't really match your bet. He takes chips out of his tray, and puts them on the layout. The catch is that the dealer hasn't actually increased his bet; he's just moved chips from the tray to the layout. If you win, you get the amount of the initial bet from the dealer, just as you would have if you had the bigger card on the deal. If you lose, you lose double your initial bet. I think if the dealer simply told you you had to double your bet to go to war, most players would say, "WTF? You've got to be kidding me." But that little bit of misdirection makes it seem fair, if you're not paying attention.
 

Brock Windsor

Well-Known Member
#6
Dave said:
So anyone remember playing War when you were younger? Each person is delt one card, the higher one wins with Ace high, than king queen etc. Shall both the dealer and player have the same numerical card, war is declared; you pluck down another bet equal to the orginal, burn 3 cards for both parties and whoever pulls the higher one win all bets. One of the local casino has it, it seems to me to be a viable game. There are no commisions, so it is just luck. Anyone knows if the casino has an advantage?
Is you local game hand shuffled?
-BW
 
#10
Sucker said:
The house edge on this game is HUGE (not to mention the aforementioned fact that the game is extremely fast):
With standard rules and 8 decks, the house advantage is 2.9% if the player goes to "war" every time he ties. If he chooses to "surrender" every time, the HE is about 3.7%. (So obviously, it's much better to go to war than it is to surrender).
So is there any theoretical strategy, or is it too symmetrical? zg
 
#15
He meant games with a down card (ie. hole card). As with anything else, War is beatable, given extremely unlikely circumstances and the knowledge of how to capitalize on them.
 
#19
This is on offer at Canberra casino on Friday's (LOL). I've never lost playing it (played it about 5 times). The house edge is NIL unless a Tie occurs. I was using a negative Fibonacci progression with various regression options, once had to bet 13 units. Table max is about $200, so you have to be careful you don't run out of headroom. Once at 13U I Tied and didn't go to WAR, because there would have been little scope left if I had lost the subsequent WAR bet.

It was a long time ago, think I got half of the initial bet back, repeated and won the next hand. I asked the casino if I could use pen and paper to track my bets, which they were fine with. I don't recall using them, more of a just in case.

To sit down and play a casino game where there is no HE (unless the Tie comes in), no dealer manipulation was a refreshing change. Even for a seasoned gambler couldn't play it for longer than one hour, it was too fast a game.
 
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