Beating other casino games

dacium

Well-Known Member
#1
I recently became annoyed with the low house edge obtained through card counting in blackjack so I decided to have a look at other games and try to see would could be done.

Obviously my first stop was baccarat, I did both calculations and sims and reached the same conclusion as everyone else, that you can hope to achieve an edge of about 0.1% on banker at the most extreme of times.

I was at the casino once watch the giant wheel ( I dont know if you have these in america). Its has 52 divisions. They are divided up into portions paying 1:1, 3:1, 5:1, 11:1, 23:1 and two seperate 47:1 giving a house edge of 4/52 (7.69%).

I watched a spin and it stopped 2 pegs off 47:1 square. I the next spin was 1 peg off the same square. This caught my attention big time. I counted the next spin it was almost exactally 6 revolutions, this time stopping 1 peg after the 47:1. I watched several more spins and concoluded that the standard deviation must have been within +/- 6 pegs each side of about slightly less than 6 revolutions. I bet on 23:1 and 47:1 squares. I didn't land any but considering variance I was very close to making a large profit.

I then did the math on it and if you watch enough spins of the same dealer and get the standard deviation you can work out when its profitable to bet. Basically if the standard deviations is 18 pegs or less you can bet on 47:1 square that will be within +/-10 pegs of the expected position. The player edge is about 4% in that case. If the standard deviation is less then player edge increases rapidly, up to hundreds of a percent.

I went to the casino and long some data. Most spinners were terrible. Standard deviations were typically 1 to 2 complete revolitions. I needed 18/52 revolutions. I did eventually see a couple of spinner who did this. Going on my results I would have bet about 80% of the time on these spinners winning about 3% of each spin, giving me a house nice player advantage on the 47:1 squares. I will post the exact math data up if anyone is interested.

I have not yet figured out any easy way to work out the standard deviation and average quickly enough in my head or with use of paper and pen. It the casino i just wrote down the revolutions for each spin and where the 47:1 was and ended up in relation to starting position.

I am guessing that you could estimate the standard deviation, but you would always need to calculate average exactally.

has anyone else done this before? I would like to compare my results. I am thinking I can use my mobile phone to calculate since you dont sit at the table you can use phones etc. But if you got caughts they could probably say you were computer assisted gambling and you'd get in trouble.
 
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shadroch

Well-Known Member
#2
Playing video poker under the right conditions can be pretty profitable.
Jean Scott,author of The Frugal Gambler writes that she lost $40,000 one year,but recieved $80,000 from the casinos in bounce back cash.
Many authors have written on beating the Big Wheel.I watched for a beatable wheel but have yet to come across it.
 

jimpenn

Well-Known Member
#3
Blackjack is AC is more profitable than playing in Vegas. I know I'm going to get heat here, but just returned from playing AC for three days using simple Speed Count. Counting is legal in AC and if a player is determined to work and keep moving tables they can break even or win more often than in Vegas because NO HEAT. For example, at the Taj they have approximately 8 low limit (8D) tables in one pit. ($5-15 weekdays) I played there Tuesday morning from 8-noon and just kept boldly white rabbiting tables and backcounting without attempting camo what I was doing and couldn't believe the lack of any type of heat. The tables were full, but most of the time you can find a spot when backcounting when your ready to pull the plug. I just went from one table to another, and if I started game after 3/4 rounds wonging out and began looking for another table shoe start. I never attempted to camo what I was doing because the dealers could care less and suits seems to be just collecting a check. What can they do? Reshuffle? Cut Deeper? Never happen at low limit full table. The hard core Philly crowd would rip the arms off the dealers. The first day I played with a hat and sunglasses and came back the second day. One PC said to me, "Did you have a hat and sunglasses on yesterday playing here?" I said, "Yes, what are you trying to say?" He said, "Nothing, I just thought I noticed you." I started all over again right in front of him backcounting and wonging out early going from shoe to shoe for four hours. Very successful trip but I walked the extra mile looking and waiting for opportunities. Once I had a $25 bet out and the count began to rise for two rounds ending up at +13 and I placed a $500 table bet...won with two paint. Tipped the dealer a pink and then asked the Suit for a dinner comp. He gave me a $60 comp. Hard to believe but just be bold like hard core philly crowd.
 

sagefr0g

Well-Known Member
#5
jimpenn said:
Blackjack is AC is more profitable than playing in Vegas. I know I'm going to get heat here, but just returned from playing AC for three days using simple Speed Count. Counting is legal in AC and if a player is determined to work and keep moving tables they can break even or win more often than in Vegas because NO HEAT. For example, at the Taj they have approximately 8 low limit (8D) tables in one pit. ($5-15 weekdays) I played there Tuesday morning from 8-noon and just kept boldly white rabbiting tables and backcounting without attempting camo what I was doing and couldn't believe the lack of any type of heat. The tables were full, but most of the time you can find a spot when backcounting when your ready to pull the plug. I just went from one table to another, and if I started game after 3/4 rounds wonging out and began looking for another table shoe start. I never attempted to camo what I was doing because the dealers could care less and suits seems to be just collecting a check. What can they do? Reshuffle? Cut Deeper? Never happen at low limit full table. The hard core Philly crowd would rip the arms off the dealers. The first day I played with a hat and sunglasses and came back the second day. One PC said to me, "Did you have a hat and sunglasses on yesterday playing here?" I said, "Yes, what are you trying to say?" He said, "Nothing, I just thought I noticed you." I started all over again right in front of him backcounting and wonging out early going from shoe to shoe for four hours. Very successful trip but I walked the extra mile looking and waiting for opportunities. Once I had a $25 bet out and the count began to rise for two rounds ending up at +13 and I placed a $500 table bet...won with two paint. Tipped the dealer a pink and then asked the Suit for a dinner comp. He gave me a $60 comp. Hard to believe but just be bold like hard core philly crowd.
hey Jim that's a very interesting post. a most unique approach of just boldly going where most counters fear to tread :eek: and it apparently worked for you. i like it!
 

shadroch

Well-Known Member
#6
I was playing in AC Monday and Tuesday.While the pit doesn't care about your play,the players will and do.
I witnessed an aurgument escalate to a shoving,cursing match because the 3rd base man hit A7 against a 10.Seems that everybody knows thats the wrong thing to do,and it screwed up the entire shoe.Yet when another player hit A8 against a 6 and got a2 he was greeted with hi5s.
Had one guy offer to buy my 10,6 off me so he could stay and the dealer would get my bust card(he won,to tremendous hi5s).I bought one of his split 8s(against a 4),then shamed him into buyinga split 3 against a 9.
Felt like I was sitting on the Group W bench.
 

sagefr0g

Well-Known Member
#7
tip toe thru the tulips

shadroch said:
I was playing in AC Monday and Tuesday.While the pit doesn't care about your play,the players will and do.
I witnessed an aurgument escalate to a shoving,cursing match because the 3rd base man hit A7 against a 10.Seems that everybody knows thats the wrong thing to do,and it screwed up the entire shoe.Yet when another player hit A8 against a 6 and got a2 he was greeted with hi5s.
Had one guy offer to buy my 10,6 off me so he could stay and the dealer would get my bust card(he won,to tremendous hi5s).I bought one of his split 8s(against a 4),then shamed him into buyinga split 3 against a 9.
Felt like I was sitting on the Group W bench.
:) one does need to be a diplomat at times. what i try and do is agree with every idiot statement made and then i do what i want :devil:
 

Sonny

Well-Known Member
#8
dacium said:
I was at the casino once watch the giant wheel ( I dont know if you have these in america). Its has 52 divisions. They are divided up into portions paying 1:1, 3:1, 5:1, 11:1, 23:1 and two seperate 47:1 giving a house edge of 4/52 (7.69%).
We call it the Big Six wheel here in the US. It typically has an 11%-24% house edge depending on the bet:

http://wizardofodds.com/bigsix

James Grosjean published all of the info for beating it in Beyond Counting. It can be beat but it requires a predictable dealer.

-Sonny-
 

jimpenn

Well-Known Member
#9
A7 verses 10?

Shadroch...why is hitting an A7 verses 10 wrong? It's the right play as far as I'm concerned. In addition, why would you give a sh+t about what other player's think or say? I would tell them to go F#ck themselves and deal with it.

Please explain.

Thanks

jp
 

bj bob

Well-Known Member
#10
Tongue in cheek

Jimpenn, I don't think you get the humour in Shad's post. You need to know that the folk's in Philly "know" everything whether is wrong or not, it's a FACT of life just like hitting A7 v.10. Get used to it:laugh:
 
#11
dacium said:
I recently became annoyed with the low house edge obtained through card counting in blackjack so I decided to have a look at other games and try to see would could be done.

Obviously my first stop was baccarat, I did both calculations and sims and reached the same conclusion as everyone else, that you can hope to achieve an edge of about 0.1% on banker at the most extreme of times.

I was at the casino once watch the giant wheel ( I dont know if you have these in america). Its has 52 divisions. They are divided up into portions paying 1:1, 3:1, 5:1, 11:1, 23:1 and two seperate 47:1 giving a house edge of 4/52 (7.69%).

I watched a spin and it stopped 2 pegs off 47:1 square. I the next spin was 1 peg off the same square. This caught my attention big time. I counted the next spin it was almost exactally 6 revolutions, this time stopping 1 peg after the 47:1. I watched several more spins and concoluded that the standard deviation must have been within +/- 6 pegs each side of about slightly less than 6 revolutions. I bet on 23:1 and 47:1 squares. I didn't land any but considering variance I was very close to making a large profit.

I then did the math on it and if you watch enough spins of the same dealer and get the standard deviation you can work out when its profitable to bet. Basically if the standard deviations is 18 pegs or less you can bet on 47:1 square that will be within +/-10 pegs of the expected position. The player edge is about 4% in that case. If the standard deviation is less then player edge increases rapidly, up to hundreds of a percent.

I went to the casino and long some data. Most spinners were terrible. Standard deviations were typically 1 to 2 complete revolitions. I needed 18/52 revolutions. I did eventually see a couple of spinner who did this. Going on my results I would have bet about 80% of the time on these spinners winning about 3% of each spin, giving me a house nice player advantage on the 47:1 squares. I will post the exact math data up if anyone is interested.

I have not yet figured out any easy way to work out the standard deviation and average quickly enough in my head or with use of paper and pen. It the casino i just wrote down the revolutions for each spin and where the 47:1 was and ended up in relation to starting position.

I am guessing that you could estimate the standard deviation, but you would always need to calculate average exactally.

has anyone else done this before? I would like to compare my results. I am thinking I can use my mobile phone to calculate since you dont sit at the table you can use phones etc. But if you got caughts they could probably say you were computer assisted gambling and you'd get in trouble.
The big wheel is VERY vulberable to what you discovered - dealer signature play. Keep it up. This subject is covered in fair depth in Grosjean's book Beyond 21. zg
 
#12
what to do with the aces?

I heard this from one of my close friend that the ace can be used to get a straight -A-2-3-4-5 and he said that this tactics can also be used in the texas holdem too. But when I looked or rather studied in details about these then I could not find any of them being enlisted there! So can someone please help me figure this out?
 

jimbiggs

Well-Known Member
#13
abbot said:
I heard this from one of my close friend that the ace can be used to get a straight -A-2-3-4-5 and he said that this tactics can also be used in the texas holdem too. But when I looked or rather studied in details about these then I could not find any of them being enlisted there! So can someone please help me figure this out?
:confused: :confused: :confused: Except for your last sentence, I don't think anyone is going to understand what you're talking about.
 

shadroch

Well-Known Member
#14
ZG,Sonny,or anyone.

I've invested several hours looking for a BW dealer that is bored and is very predictable. Haven't seen one yet.Are they that common,and I'm just not finding them or is it a rare bird?
 

shadroch

Well-Known Member
#15
jimpenn said:
Shadroch...why is hitting an A7 verses 10 wrong? It's the right play as far as I'm concerned. In addition, why would you give a sh+t about what other player's think or say? I would tell them to go F#ck themselves and deal with it.

Please explain.

Thanks

jp
Of course its the right play,but no one in AC seems to grasp BS and they get quite hostile when anyone,but esp. third base doesn't play their way.Sitting at first base,as I try to do,you get grief but nothing like the all important anchor man might get.
 

jimpenn

Well-Known Member
#16
I lived in Center City Philadelphia for 10 years, (Kept Apt.) and yes I missed the humor. I guess the reason is because I know the Philly crowd attitude and could care less. Most are stupid BJ players and attempt to intimidate table..."Little things worry little minds." During my trip I went into the High Roller Room and was backcounting $100 min table with two "Drug Brothers" from the Northeast section of Philly and two South Jersey Limo players all playing at least $500/hand. I backcounted three shoes while bullshitting with the "Brothers." On the last shoe I backcounted the counted jumped to +10 and I asked one of the Brothers to place a black for me on his bet. He had no problem with it, and the dealer knew exactly what I was doing. No way would he even think about shuffling up in this situation. Hit bet and made a quick $50 and then went and had a nice lunch. Only in America.!
 

SystemsTrader

Well-Known Member
#17
zengrifter said:
The big wheel is VERY vulberable to what you discovered - dealer signature play. Keep it up. This subject is covered in fair depth in Grosjean's book Beyond 21. zg
I was in a new casino recently and the big wheel was spun mechanically. The dealer just pressed a button and the wheel would spin and stop automatically. This must be the continuous shuffle machine of the big wheel world. But I'm sure it must have some flaws of its own. However I just wouldn't trust playing against a machine, it's just too easy to fix the game.
 

EasyRhino

Well-Known Member
#18
jimpenn said:
On the last shoe I backcounted the counted jumped to +10 and I asked one of the Brothers to place a black for me on his bet. He had no problem with it, and the dealer knew exactly what I was doing. No way would he even think about shuffling up in this situation. Hit bet and made a quick $50 and then went and had a nice lunch.
It was a $50 black chip?
 
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