Trip report/review...Harrah's New Orleans

Quote: MathExtremist

But most players don't play full odds.

True, but I imagine its no faster or more efficient at less than full odds no matter whether its 3x4x5x or 5x. So if the only difference is full odds, then those few players at full odds contribute to the speed saving. Anyway this 3x4x5x does confuse me but has to have become so popular for some reason.

Quote: FleaStiff

When I sober up, I often don't agree with what I've posted.

Now as to this 3x4x5x versus 5x stuff. I guess its a question of player error and dealer error versus certainty of payout accuracy with 3x4x5x. Anyway the "net" house edge with 3x4x5x and 5x is so close that it really makes little difference. I've always assumed that since half of Vegas (well, 48 percent) is 3x4x5x, there has got to be some efficiency reason for it. Real or imagined, the casinos must think its better for the speed of the game.

I think the reason they go with 3-4-5x is it makes the place bets pay out the exact same as the PL w/Full Odds. So you train your dealer that a $60 place 6 pays $70, and a $10 PL w/ $50 odds pays 10 + 60 = $70. This holds true for all place numbers.

I really think they would lower their odds if they felt they could get away with it. Offering 3-4-5 is a compromise. We want 5x, they want to give us 3x, so they came up with the 3-4-5x.

I don't understand how Vegas strip can run a 3-4-5x game with 2x field and vig on win for Buy 4/10 bet while
MS (Biloxi and Tunica) has a game that is 10x odds , with 3x field, and Vig on win for Buy 4/5/9/10! And I don't think they are losing money at the craps game.

Mohegan Sun has gone to 5x odds on all of its Craps Tables.

Quote: RaleighCraps

I don't understand how Vegas strip can run a 3-4-5x game with 2x field and vig on win for Buy 4/10 bet while
MS (Biloxi and Tunica) has a game that is 10x odds , with 3x field, and Vig on win for Buy 4/5/9/10! And I don't think they are losing money at the craps game.

I don't understand how it happens either, but it surely does. Virtually half of Vegas is 3x4x5x.

I think some of it may be just what the OneAngryDwarf said: a local casino that blends local culture and builds on it. In Vegas, its a Strip filled with tourists, many of them plastered or half-plastered. There is no "local culture" to build on.

In New Orleans you can opt for a trip to Biloxi and eat crawfish etouffee. In Vegas, you have to be blowing 300 on a bottle of booze and paying through the nose for your crawfish etouffee, meanwhile there will be a half dozen drunken tourists ready to take your place at the rail of a 3x4x5x odds and 2x field game.

Quote: OneAngryDwarf

Blackjack--Unfortunately, as is typical for a Harrah's/Caesars property, the blackjack rules were pretty mediocre. The best I can say is that at least there are no 6:5 games. The main floor tables were all 6 decks, H17, no surrender or re-splitting Aces. On a Saturday evening $15 looked to be the standard table minimum, with a few $10 tables lingering from earlier in the day (jam-packed) and some $25 tables. By Sunday morning they were back down to mostly $5 and $10 games, with a few $15 tables as well. The High Limit room had all 6-deck S17 games, usually one $50 table and two or three $100 tables open.

Im shocked that they had $15 tables on a Saturday night! They are usually $15 on Saturday afternoons, and by the time 8 PM comes around, they all get raised to $20. What time did you go play on Sunday morning? It must have been pretty early, because they are quick to take away any $5 tables.....I was there last night (Wednesday) and the BJ mins were $15, but there were a lot of tourists too. The thing that suffers at Harrahs New Orleans is the customer service (unless you are gambling at $50 tables) because Harrahs knows all of the tourists are going to stop in and "pay" it a visit anyway, that's why most locals prefer the Treasure Chest or Boomtown over going to Harrahs. I've had times at Harrahs when I put my Total Rewards card up at the table, and after 20 minutes, the Pit Supervisor finally comes over to put me into the system....it was ridiculous.....

At a $10 Craps table placing $50 behind all Pass-Line seems easy enough, and Placing $60 behind any Dont-Pass bet nets the $30-$40-$50. So that seems easy enough, right?


N&B

Yes, easy enough. Still casinos will often like to bump up the tables to higher minimums. Its nice to just have a simple ten dollar table and the same figure for the odds bets and not have to worry about things, particularly if in addition to shooting craps you are also drinking some freebies.

Casinos in a tourist mecca such as New Orleans may cater to tourists but when the recession hit Las Vegas a great many casinos learned just how that "bread and butter" business from locals is important to them. And I think the casinos may have to learn just how important to them a ten dollar table can be!!