GamingTips

3-5-7 is another carnival game based on poker which is growing in popularity at casinos.  It is really a very simple game, and, honestly, not my game of choice.  There is not a lot of strategy or play involved, in fact, it is really just betting, and once the bets are down, there is one option the player has.

The game starts with the players betting on either the 3 and 5 card hands only, or the 3, 5, and 7 card hands.  The bets do not have to be equal, follow any ratio, etc.  They all must simply comply with the table limits.  The dealer then deals each player 3 cards and they are paid according to the value of the three card poker hands formed.  The dealer then deals two more cards, and pays each player according to the value of the five card hands formed.  Finally, the dealer deals two more cards to the players who bet the 7 card hand and pays according to the value of the seven card poker hands.

The only “play” a player can make is to surrender their 7 card bet after the three card hand.  That is, they can keep half of their bet and give the other half to the dealer.  Other than this, it is pretty much a “sit and wait” kind of game.  I won’t go into the details of payouts here, since that can be found on the table.  Perhaps later I’ll post the payouts and odds, but for now, you know all you need to sit down and enjoy this game.

So this is a quick note on the issue of poker and comps and players clubs.  Before getting into this too much, let me remind you that casinos really don’t make that much money on their poker rooms.  They have them for several reasons.  First, a lot of the big names in Vegas casinos and their history have been poker players (recreational or otherwise).  Second, they attract attention, especially now that poker is televised and very popular.  Third, they draw traffic into the casino, as many poker players also eat, drink, and play slots and other games.  Fourth, it is kind of standard now.  A major casino without a poker room would be very strange.  But know that poker rooms do not generate the revenue, per square foot, that other gaming areas do.

That’s because when you play blackjack or craps, and you lose $100, that $100 always goes to the casino.  All $100 of it.  Same with slots.  When you play poker, $99 of that goes to another player, and only a small portion goes to the casino.

This is why it is harder to earn comps playing poker than playing other games.  The good news is that generally, they don’t keep track of your betting and lower your rate like they do on the tables and slots.  You get an hourly rate, regardless of how many hands you play or how much you bet each hand.  On the other hand, the hourly rate is generally very low.  I’m sure that as you get into higher limit games, it is higher, but at the level I play at, the rate is usually $1 in comps per hour played.

So there you have a brief explanation on why earning comps may seem harder at the poker tables than on the main casino floor.

So, gaming laws vary from State to State, but there are a few Federal laws which govern gambling, and in particular internet gambling.  Remember in ‘06 when a lot of poker sites stopped accepting funds from U.S. bettors?  Here’s why.

There was a law passed that made it a federal offense for a gaming institution to accept funds from bettors for activities that violated State laws.  So, essentially, what the law said was that if your gambling was illegal, accepting money for it was now illegal too.  How does that change anything?

Well, for starters, it’s a Federal law.  Given that online poker rooms, casinos, and books do business with people in many states, this is significant.  It is also significant because Federal authorities obviously have more pull in enforcing laws on operations which do not physically reside in the U.S.  Keep in mind, however, that with internet gambling, it has been determined that the casino is “operating” on both ends of the internet connection.  Even if the checks are cut in Aruba, if you’re in D.C., the casino is “operating” in D.C. as well.

So, how does this affect the players?  It doesn’t.  This law in particular, all Federal laws, and most State laws regarding gambling only apply to the operators, not the bettors.  Which means that while the casino, sports book, or poker room may be illegal, your patronage is most likely not.

Please note that I am not an attorney, or an expert in gambling law.  Laws vary from state to state, so before you get all betting happy (thinking you’re not breaking the law) look into your individual state laws.

Baccarat is one of the most popular games with foreign and high limit bettors in Las Vegas.  In fact, it is the game of choice of the “whales,” and is usually played in a separate, high limit area.  At some casinos, Mini Bac tables can be found on the main floor.  These have the same rules as baccarat, but generally have lower limits.

Baccarat is both one of the simplest and the most complicated games.  It is simple in that the bettor’s only role is to place one of three bets.  They can bet on the “bank,” the “player,” or a tie.   It is complicated in that the progress of the game can be difficult to follow, because the rules are complex.

The object of the game is to bet on the set of cards (player or bank) which winds up closest to nine.  Face cards do not count, and if you go over ten, you drop the first digit (an 8 and a 5 is a 3, not a 13).  These bets pay even money, except that when you bet on the bank, there is a 5% commission taken from your winnings.  The tie bet usually pays 8:1.

Each pile is dealt two cards.  If either the banker or the dealer has an 8 or a 9, it is a natural and no more cards are dealt.

If neither player or bank has a natural, the dealer decides whether the “player” receives a third card or not.  The player draws on a 5 or lower, and stands on a 6 or higher.  Only one additional card may be drawn.

After the player has drawn a third card (or not) the “bank” may or may not draw one additional card.  This is where the rules get slightly complicated.

If the player does not draw a third card, the bank follows the same rules as the player (stand on 6 or higher, draw on 5 or lower).

If the player does draw a third card, the bank follows the following rules.

If the bank has 2 or less, the bank always draws.

If the bank has  3, the bank draws unless the player’s third card (not total) was an 8.

If the bank has 4, the bank draws unless the player’s third card was a 0, 1, 8, or 9.

If the bank has 5, the bank draws if the player’s third card was a 4, 5, 6, or 7.

If the bank has 6, the bank draws if the player’s third card was a 6 or 7.

If the bank has 7, the bank stands.

The house edge on these bets are: bank 1.17% player 1.36% tie 14.12%.

So go out and have fun on baccarat, don’t worry about memorizing all of this.  You really don’t need to know it to be able to play the game.  And there are usually cards available that explain the rules.

So I wanted to take a quick moment to run through my blogroll, explain the sites a bit, and make a general note on what I include.  Basically, I include any site that I find to be well written and interesting.  The only requirement that I have is that you allow comments.  To me, blogging is great because of the potential for interaction with your readers.  If you do not allow, or overly censor, commenting on your blog, this is taken away.  Instead of a blog, you are a biased, unpopular attempt at an online newspaper.  Sorry, that’s the way I look at it.  In general, unless there is a theme I like or the blog includes other types of posts, I stay away from “my life” type blogs.  Sorry, it’s just a personal preference.

Without further ado:

30 Something and Searching: this is an exception to the personal blog rule, largely because I happened across one of Kelly’s posts on soemthing economic or political and thought it was well thought out and well written.

A Poet’s View: this is a good blog with commentary on various subjects.

Answer Man: this is a blog with answers to frequent questions on blogging in general, as well as VIP blogging with Today.com.  Very useful information.

Beyond Bulimia: I totally stumbled across this one and was surprised.  The quality of the writing and the honesty is what really hooked me.

Caffeinated Politics: A political commentary blog out of Madison.

Conservative Politics Today:  Pretty much what it sounds like.  A little extreme even from my standpoint, but well written and very interactive.

First Door on the Left: Left-leaning political commentary.

Fly Bottle: Political and economic commentary.

Frugal Living: This is one of the ubiquitous “frugality” blogs, but this one is well written and caught even my overconsuming eye.

Getting Back to Basics: Similar to Frugal Living (above).

Letters in Bottles: A conservative (but increasingly more moderate) political blog, originally out of Madison, now kind of spread out.

Matt-Speak: A conservative political blog.

News Today: News and political commentary.

Opinionated News: News commentary, usually not on the political stuff.

Political Conservatives:   Conservative political commentary.

Politics 2000: Political commentary.

Silly Mom Thoughts: Another exception to my no personal blogs rule.  I think it’s because she makes observations and funny commentary, rather than just telling the world what she did today.

Small Town Lawyer: A lawyer’s blog on legal topics and legal advice.

 The Progress of Liberty: Political commentary blog.

The Z Spot:  Quite possibly the best blog on the web.  No, not really.  But it is my other blog, with commentary on news, politics, and whatever else I feel like rambling about.

Waxing Poetically: One of my favorites.  Politics, art, random thoughts, a pretty good mix.

Alright.  Going through this I deleted several of them.  I should do this more often.  If yours was one of them, let me know and let me know why you think I should put your link back on my blogroll.  I try to keep this blogroll and the one at The Z Spot pretty close to synchronized.

This might seem redundant to those of you who actually read my post on boxing, because I explained the basics of this bet over there.

Basically, a money line bet is quite simply a bet that a certain athlete or team will win.  Because there are obviously favorites in every athletic contest, this bet does not pay even on both sides.  The margin of victory does not matter, simply the winner matters in a money line wager.

These bets are listed as follows:

Green Bay -150 Chicago +120

The team with a - is always the favorite.  What that means is that if you put down $150, you will win $100.  On the other hand, if you put $100 on Chicago, you will win $120.  Notice that these odds are not exac opposites.  This is where the Book makes their “comission” on a money line bet.  Thanks for reading!  Let me know if you have any questions or other gambling related topics I can help you with, please let me know!

In honor of tomorrow night’s fight I figured I’d explain a little bit about boxing betting.  It’s actually quite simple.  There are two bets made, and they’re identical to two of the more common sports bets (although sports bets I haven’t covered yet).

There is the money line bet.  This is a bet on who will win.  There is no point spread, just a listing such as:

De La Hoya -170

Pacquiao +140

The fighter with the negative score is the favorite.  The negative is how much money you must put on that fighter to win $100.  The positive is how much money you will win on a $100 bet.  Easy enough, right?

There is sometimes a third option on boxing money lines, the draw.  It will be listed the same way, and it usually pays fairly well, since draws are rare.  Knockouts do not count as draws.

The second bet is the over/under on the number of rounds.  In order to win this bet, the bout must last 1 minute and 30 seconds (or longer) into the designated round.  For instance, for tomorrow’s fight, it is 10 rounds.  The over is that both fighters are still standing and the bout is still going 1:30 into Round 10.  The under is that the bout is over 1:29 into Round 10 or earlier.

Boxing betting really is pretty easy.  So even if you’re not a boxing fan, go place some bets on tomorrow’s fight and have a good time.

Alright.  So here’s a note on sports bets and timing.  People are often confused, because they make the same bet as a friend, but the money line or spread has changed.  This is not unusual.  Let’s review for a moment what I said in my post on Sports Betting Basics about how Books make money.  They build in a commission to each bet they book.  That’s why what I think of (and sometimes call) even money bets (like the spread) are really 11-10 bets.  Let’s use the spread as an example.  If the book collects $110 (for the sake of easy math) from Green Bay fans and $110 from Chicago fans, and Green Bay beats the spread, they have collected $220 in bets on that.  They will then return $110 in bets to Packer fans, and $100 winnings to paker fans.  They will return $210 in bets, keeping $10.

Now, let’s say that there’s a lot of die-hard Packer Backers out there.  Instead of $110 from each side, the Book has collected $220 from Packer Fans, and $110 from Bears fans.  They have collected $330 in total bets.  In addition to returning the $220 from the Packer bets, they will be expected to pay out $200 in winnings, for a total of $420 going out.  We just went from a small profit to a big loss for the casino.  The idea works the same with money lines and any other bet as well.  In order to make money, the casino needs to book as close as humanly possible to even money on both sides of any given bet.  They can then use the majority of the losing money to pay off the winners and keep a little (in the case of 11-10 bets, 10%) for themselves.

So, what do casinos do when one side of a bet is getting more action than the other?  They change the bet.  They will still have to honor any bets already placed with the old terms, but if the spread looks like this on Wednesday: Green Bay -6.5 Chicago +6.5 and Green Bay is getting a lot of action, the spread could look like this by Saturday night: Green Bay -10.5 Chicago +10.5.  By making it more enticing to bet on Chicago, the casino is hoping to lure in more bets on the less popular side of the spread.

When I first moved to Vegas, I was told (being a Badger fan), to never bet Wisconsin over UNLV.  The spread and money line were always artificially high because the Books knew that Badger fans a) always showed up in Vegas in droves for the game, and b) would always bet their team.  At first I thought this was nonsense.

After learning a bit more about how Books work and how they make their money, this now makes perfect sense.

A quick note that the actual circumstances can also change a bet.  For instance, if a key player gets injured, the spread and money line will be rewritten almost automatically.  Also, proposition bets on big games are popular bets.  For instance, you can bet on who will win the Super Bowl before the football season actually starts.  As the season progresses, the odds on these bets are constantly adjusted.

In short, there are many reasons that a spread, a money line, or an over/under can change.  So if you see a bet that looks too good to be true, make it.  Chances are, it is too good to be true, and won’t be there for long.

Alright.  So here’s a few more details about how the spread works.  Basically, as I mentioned in my post on Sports Betting Basics  the spread is one of the most common bets in a race and sports book.  Here’s a little more detail (although still pretty basic) about the spread and how it works.

The way this bet will usually be listed would be as follows:

Chicago -7.5

Green Bay +7.5

What this particular listing means is that you take the actual score and add (or subtract) that many points from the team you’re betting on.  That is, if the score is Chicago 14 Green Bay 7, you would have to subtract 7.5 points from Chicago’s score, or add 7.5 points to Green Bay’s.  In other word, for the purpose of this spread, you could pretend the score was actually Chicago 6.5, Green Bay 7.  So even though Chicago won the game, people betting on Chicago lost the game.

Because the spread takes into account the expected outcome of the game, this is actually pretty close to an even money bet.  I say pretty close because The Book builds in a 10% commission for winners.  That is, the bet actually pays at 11-10.  If you bet Green Bay on the example above, you would have paid $11.  You would win $10.  This means when you collected, you would get $21 total (your $11 bet plus your $10 winnings).

Now go out and have some fun.  Later, I’ll post more about how the spread is decided, as well as some other sports betting information.