Posted in Free Speech, in case I Offend

Quote: ahiromu

An addiction is how I would classify it. My friend's parents lost 20 grand in vegas and his family can't make more than a hundred grand a year. Personally I find mildly successful 20-somethings the biggest gamblers regardless of race.

To get back to the poster's question, no. But I'm particularly open about these kinds of things, ill call my asian friends fobs and my black friends negros, so take my opinion with a grain of salt.

And unfortunately a lot of them don't have any conception of probabilities. I played BJ last night and had a young married couple (early 20's I imagine) from Arizona sitting next to me and the wife was playing for the first time. Her husband had a decent handle on the basic strategy and was trying to get her to stick to that. Well she had some bad luck and lost when he told her to stay, like a 14 against a 6 or something like that, and she started getting pissy, as if the odds were just superstitious. Needless to say they lost their money rather quickly and left the rest of us to gamble in peace.

Quote: derik999

And unfortunately a lot of them don't have any conception of probabilities. I played BJ last night and had a young married couple (early 20's I imagine) from Arizona sitting next to me and the wife was playing for the first time. Her husband had a decent handle on the basic strategy and was trying to get her to stick to that. Well she had some bad luck and lost when he told her to stay, like a 14 against a 6 or something like that, and she started getting pissy, as if the odds were just superstitious. Needless to say they lost their money rather quickly and left the rest of us to gamble in peace.

Couples frequently have the same argument. Whenever I go gambling with the Mrs, the Mrs is always Mrs. Hindsight. "Basic strategy says this, I say". Then the card comes out that would have saved her, like the magical 5 on a 14 vs a 6 (which of course the dealer got on a 16 to make 21, and the next card was a 10... you ruined the table!!!). Then it's like, next time a 14 vs a six comes out I say to her "don't hit", and of course she hits and gets a 10 (busts), and then the dealer pulls a five out of his a** to make 21. Told you so!

The worst part is not the strategy, it's the stupid side bets, like Perfect Pairs on a 5 deck CSM (HA 7.7%). Of course the 2nd hand played I get a pair that would have paid $125, had I played it. So of course, after we see it out on the board a few times, my wife starts playing it sporadically. Thing is, she probably ended up on the perfect pairs last night by about $100 so now it will become part of her repertoire. For me, I just see $.38 being sucked out of every hand of a game when we should only be down $.06 ($15 x .004).

Quote: boymimbo

Couples frequently have the same argument. Whenever I go gambling with the Mrs, the Mrs is always Mrs. Hindsight. "Basic strategy says this, I say". Then the card comes out that would have saved her, like the magical 5 on a 14 vs a 6 (which of course the dealer got on a 16 to make 21, and the next card was a 10... you ruined the table!!!). Then it's like, next time a 14 vs a six comes out I say to her "don't hit", and of course she hits and gets a 10 (busts), and then the dealer pulls a five out of his a** to make 21. Told you so!

The worst part is not the strategy, it's the stupid side bets, like Perfect Pairs on a 5 deck CSM (HA 7.7%). Of course the 2nd hand played I get a pair that would have paid $125, had I played it. So of course, after we see it out on the board a few times, my wife starts playing it sporadically. Thing is, she probably ended up on the perfect pairs last night by about $100 so now it will become part of her repertoire. For me, I just see $.38 being sucked out of every hand of a game when we should only be down $.06 ($15 x .004).

Though one really shouldn't have to, it can be annoying to have to try and justify your play by explaining that it was dictated by the odds (of course you never admit counting). I split 4's against a 6 because we can double down where I play and some old fart was trying to give me his "sagely" advice that I should never split the 4's and only double down. I told him plainly that I would have if we couldn't double down after a split. I also hit a soft 18 against a 9 and the lady a couple seats down claimed she'd never seen anyone play that way. Meanwhile she's playing 5 bucks a pop on the side bets and her stack is shrinking. Thankfully there is another guy that is a regular (I haven't played there enough to be considered one myself) who knows why I'm playing the cards (plays the basic strategy though I doubt he counts) a certain way and will try to explain it to the person if he/she is sitting next to him. We seem to be the only two that will hit on a 16 without thinking twice, while others agonize over busting.

Busting seems to be the biggest worry the average player has. Not sure if that is the case with your Mrs or not. I'm more worried about the dealers hole card.

NEVER double down 8.

It's difficult to justify the soft 18 hit, even on a 10. Easy to explain that 3 cards help, 4 remain the same, but 5 others give you a problem where you have to hit to make a hand.

That action of 16 on a dealer 10 is either a hit (-.5404) or stand (-.5398). Combination wise, I usually hit a 16 unless I see a pile of small cards on the table or I am counting and know that count is below zero. If your 16 is made up of 3 or more cards too it's okay to stand. I always tell people that it's their decision on that particular bet.

I get chided all of the time for my play but I know it's the right thing to do.

I work in a local Henderson casino, and yes, Asians are VERY well-represented, often green action.

But so is the Jewish community of Henderson (huge at my casino), Anglo-Americans, and a few anglicized Mexicans, not to mention a few middle-class blacks - many of whom are avid Pai Gow players!

I see few Japanese, but some.
The places where I see Japanese men relaxing and winding down is most often at the strip clubs.

My wife is Thai, and is generally anti-gambling, and gambles occasionally at most. I have to check with her before I go gambling - unless she wants to spend up to $40 on Video Poker at the Skyline or the California.
If I play table games, she pretty much has to be present, and it's limited to Three card Poker or Pai Gow. Forget about BJ or Craps! ("Mia Kin-nee-yow" is Thai for "the cheap wife.")

On the occasions I nailed big wins playing black action (with her sweating and praying to the Buddha), she then grabs 80% of the black chips won, and uses it to get ahead on the mortgage payments, or on a needed/wanted appliance for the house.

Once I won $2,200 on a $100 buy-in at three card poker at Sunset. I nailed a mini-Royal, went to Black on the Ante and Play for two hands with $20 on the pair plus, then nailed three queens - and they paid me all the green in the rack. My my scooped up all the Quarters (four stacks of green!), and started to walk to the cage. This was only after 15 minutes of play. We had to stop her so I could legitimately color up, so they wouldn't need a fill. I then tipped $300 (she nearly passed out, but I told her "it was like an offering to the Buddha, in a gambler's honor sense, gratitude for the luck." I tipped especially because I am a dealer at a sister property.) Wifey then took $1,600 to the cage to get two months ahead on the mortgage, and I took $300 to throw some dice. She is the most sensible Asian gambler in the world, in the sense that anytime a good win happens, it gets locked up and spent on the family.

Strange thing, half of the time she accompanies me, I nail a straight flush with $20 on the pair plus, or a $6 9-high paigow, or hold onto the dice for 40 minutes before she says, "Okay! We go now!"

Before I came to Vegas, I used to live in the Chinatown section of New York. Every Saturday morning at 6:30AM buses to Atlantic City and Connecticut would line up on Canal Street from Gold Street to 6th Avenue, practically. It was an Asian Exodus for the weekend. You'd occasionally see a wife or mother yelling from the curb to a window on the bus, "You CLAZY!! Why you spend da family money??!! I HATE you!! and crying. I hated AC, $25 plus limit, and players line three rows deep at a crap table. I would go to LV from LaGuardia airport for $199 round trip and stay at the Wild Wild West for a week...finally, I moved out here, and have been in gaming every since.

Quote: boymimbo

NEVER double down 8.

It's difficult to justify the soft 18 hit, even on a 10. Easy to explain that 3 cards help, 4 remain the same, but 5 others give you a problem where you have to hit to make a hand.

That action of 16 on a dealer 10 is either a hit (-.5404) or stand (-.5398). Combination wise, I usually hit a 16 unless I see a pile of small cards on the table or I am counting and know that count is below zero. If your 16 is made up of 3 or more cards too it's okay to stand. I always tell people that it's their decision on that particular bet.

I get chided all of the time for my play but I know it's the right thing to do.

Why would the EV be lower for a hit (-.5404) than a stand (-.5398)? Are you sure you don't have it switched?

Quote: Robmorrow

Why would the EV be lower for a hit (-.5404) than a stand (-.5398)? Are you sure you don't have it switched?

They have to be switched unless it is assuming a certain count or their are some small cards on the table.

Quote: teddys

(this was before New Years, so I'm not sure if it was a special occasion).

Oriental New Year is a three day event during which it is customary to gamble. In a country such as Vietnam, it is the only three days of the year that it is legal to gamble, so the gambling will be high stakes and non-stop for those three days. In other Oriental countries its still common to gamble at New Years.

I don't know if Asian cultures have problem gamblers... there is alot of money in being a consultant to the Asian Gambling Problem, so I'm sure somebody will go out and find that one exists, but take away the financial incentive to find such a problem and I don't know if really exists.

Quote: Robmorrow

Why would the EV be lower for a hit (-.5404) than a stand (-.5398)? Are you sure you don't have it switched?

6 decks, dealer hits on soft 17

10 dealer
10,6 player
stand -0.540954
hit -0.534676

10 dealer
9,7 player
stand -0.536809
hit -0.535392

" If your 16 is made up of 3 or more cards too it's okay to stand. "
Actually that is probably the higher EV.