Party Gambling Strategy
Everyone is given a certain amount of chips (not sure how much). There will be three different games setup, Roulette, Hold 'Em, and Blackjack. There will be a limited number of hours of gaming (around 3), and at the end of it, we will be able to use our chips as a silent auction on prizes.
So, only the people with the most chips at the end of the night will be winners.
Given the constraints, what's the optimal betting strategy?
My feeling is it's easy to eliminate Texas Hold'Em, because the total chips available is dependent on the number of players at the table, and that's a hard limit. Anyone who bets big and gets lucky at Roulette or Blackjack has the potential to get more chips than everyone at the poker table combined.
Therefore, it's down to Roulette and Blackjack. Is a large bet Blackjack strategy with lots of double ups the best way to go? Or is playing Roulette and hoping to hit some numbers in the center a better strategy?
How Many people approximately? If you can wait and eye peoples chips, then towards the end decide.Quote: bluefireI'm curious as to what everyone thinks is the best strategy is for our company party on Friday. Here's the scenario:
Everyone is given a certain amount of chips (not sure how much). There will be three different games setup, Roulette, Hold 'Em, and Blackjack. There will be a limited number of hours of gaming (around 3), and at the end of it, we will be able to use our chips as a silent auction on prizes.
So, only the people with the most chips at the end of the night will be winners.
Given the constraints, what's the optimal betting strategy?
My feeling is it's easy to eliminate Texas Hold'Em, because the total chips available is dependent on the number of players at the table, and that's a hard limit. Anyone who bets big and gets lucky at Roulette or Blackjack has the potential to get more chips than everyone at the poker table combined.
Therefore, it's down to Roulette and Blackjack. Is a large bet Blackjack strategy with lots of double ups the best way to go? Or is playing Roulette and hoping to hit some numbers in the center a better strategy?
Quote: bluefireI'm curious as to what everyone thinks is the best strategy is for our company party on Friday. Here's the scenario:
Everyone is given a certain amount of chips (not sure how much). There will be three different games setup, Roulette, Hold 'Em, and Blackjack. There will be a limited number of hours of gaming (around 3), and at the end of it, we will be able to use our chips as a silent auction on prizes.
So, only the people with the most chips at the end of the night will be winners.
Given the constraints, what's the optimal betting strategy?
My feeling is it's easy to eliminate Texas Hold'Em, because the total chips available is dependent on the number of players at the table, and that's a hard limit. Anyone who bets big and gets lucky at Roulette or Blackjack has the potential to get more chips than everyone at the poker table combined.
Therefore, it's down to Roulette and Blackjack. Is a large bet Blackjack strategy with lots of double ups the best way to go? Or is playing Roulette and hoping to hit some numbers in the center a better strategy?
play blackjack, but only when the deck is hot. I bet you can get away with a 0 - 100 spread and not get any heat. plus it will probably be single deck. Does your company even own a shoe? I bet the rules will be nice too (maybe a little player advantage right off the top)
Quote: Avincowplay blackjack, but only when the deck is hot. I bet you can get away with a 0 - 100 spread and not get any heat. plus it will probably be single deck. Does your company even own a shoe? I bet the rules will be nice too (maybe a little player advantage right off the top)
It's a party dude, a company party no less. I don't think he wants to be THAT GUY.
Quote: sc15It's a party dude, a company party no less. I don't think he wants to be THAT GUY.
THAT GUY who wins the best prize. I was kidding though, sort of.
I probably wouldn't be so aggressive, but I'd still probably count, just for kicks. I would spend most of my time playing hold 'em anyway.
Quote: Avincowit will probably be single deck. Does your company even own a shoe?
In my experience, company parties for gambling usually hire a party company to come in and host the games.
Assume 6 deck.
If you know how to count cards, blackjack. Ask the dealer for very very very very very favorable penetration.
If you don't know how to count cards, blackjack anyway, and play with correct basic strategy.
If you can't do that, roulette and good luck.
Hold'Em is out, because it's just trading chips back and forth among the players. You want to capture house money.
Quote: bluefirewe will be able to use our chips as a silent auction on prizes. So, only the people with the most chips at the end of the night will be winners.
That really depends on the auction rules. Some of these make it so once you've won an item at auction, you can't bid on subsequent items. Watch out for managers mingling around and re-buying people, too.
Don't overlook craps if it's offered... particularly if they're paying the field on both 5 and 9.
Then why ask the question?Quote: sc15It's a party dude, a company party no less. I don't think he wants to be THAT GUY.
Second, I'm not sure why everyone is just ruling hold 'em out. As a former professional who gave it up for a good career, I can tell you for a fact that if you sit me with 8 other 'coworkers' the odds of more than 1 of them having a clue is about 10%. They'll just be giving chips away... These are people whom would probably never play the game but have "free" company chips and want to give it a try. Being a counter for nearly a decade and knowing what I do about it, it is my 100% honest opinion that you have the absolute best chance of winning the most money on this table.
The ONLY concern with poker is the time limit. I believe he said 2-3 hours. That is a rather small window... You generally can't bluff really bad people so this requires to actually make some hands. Unfortunately, anyone who's played poker knows that you can sometimes sit there for a couple hours and not actually hit any hands =/.
What it comes down to for poker is this... How many employees are going to be here? If it's under 20, I'd play poker... As stated above my last company we played poker every other week with about 8-9 of us. These were very smart people (software developers, database admins, etc) and yet only 1 other one really had any clue in poker. I decided to stop 'trying' in that game when I won 5 times in a row because then I didn't want to be "that guy" over a simple $20 game. In a typical home game tournament that last 2-3 hours you can clean most people out, then you're up about 6x-7x your original bankroll, thus you'd more than likely have more than anyone else at the event and be able to choose what prize you want essentially.
Now if you have 50-100 employees you might not be able to make enough at 1 table of poker in 2-3 hours to offset the few guys that bet like mad on the other games and are getting lucky. I'd move to blackjack. It wouldn't even matter if I wanted to count or not, I would just end up counting as it's as natural as breathing to me at the table. I would think it wouldn't be too hard to come up with some excuses to get very good pen. Those 'party' dealers are just there to give the employees of the company a good time. So saying something like "Hey we only have 3 hours, shuffling takes too long and I wanna try to win a good prize, can you only cut out a few cards???" will probably get you pretty good PEN. I wouldn't even worry about 'heat' as it's a company party. I would literally spread 1 dollar to whatever the max is when the TC = +5 or more.
Just for fun, do you know how many chips you get as your bankroll, or what the limits might be?
Quote: Romes
The ONLY concern with poker is the time limit. I believe he said 2-3 hours. That is a rather small window... You generally can't bluff really bad people so this requires to actually make some hands. Unfortunately, anyone who's played poker knows that you can sometimes sit there for a couple hours and not actually hit any hands =/.
I dunno every blind donkey will suck you out on the river with runner runner in that type of game.
Quote: ncfatcatI dunno every blind donkey will suck you out on the river with runner runner in that type of game.
lol so just because someone's bad that means they'll suck out? Let me let you in on a little secret. The reason you see more "suck outs" in a bad game is because bad players tend to get all in when they're in bad situations. Thus, you're going to see worse suck outs.
However, average players only tend to focus on those big hands, and not all of the other hands. PLEASE sit me at a table where bad players are consistently getting all in when they're in really bad situations. Yeah I might get sucked out on once or twice, but I'm playing a huge favorite every hand and over the course of the evening I can tell you for a fact that I'd bust each and every one of them.
EXAMPLE:
2 weeks ago we played a home game with my friends (we haven't played in ages and thought it would be fun). We had 1 buddy who's never played with us because he doesn't really know how to play and so he never wanted to, but this time he said F it and he would.
Within 10 minutes he got all in pre-flop with A-9 off, vs A-A... and the board came out K-2-3-4-5, for the chop. Of course everyone was laughing about the horrible "suck out" chop... 10 minutes later he got all in pre-flop with 10-6 vs KK. Flopped a 10, turned a 6, and won another huge pot. These are the hands you'll remember, but what I remember is how he lost the other 95% of his hands, and didn't even money in the top 3.
If simply doubling up your starting stack will still get you something decent, then maybe play BJ. But if you need 10x your starting stack to get to the top, I would start playing single numbers at roulette. Either win big or go down in flames.
There are some subtleties, obviously, that will affect this advice.
Think how often you would, or how long it takes for you to, double or triple your bankroll when you play BJ and roulette.
But when you play poker, even in a regular ring game, you can easily double your money in one showdown. And in these kind of company party poker, I am not surprised if you could clean the table and 10-fold your money.
Quote: DieterIn my experience, company parties for gambling usually hire a party company to come in and host the games.
Assume 6 deck.
If you know how to count cards, blackjack. Ask the dealer for very very very very very favorable penetration.
If you don't know how to count cards, blackjack anyway, and play with correct basic strategy.
If you can't do that, roulette and good luck.
Hold'Em is out, because it's just trading chips back and forth among the players. You want to capture house money.
That really depends on the auction rules. Some of these make it so once you've won an item at auction, you can't bid on subsequent items. Watch out for managers mingling around and re-buying people, too.
Don't overlook craps if it's offered... particularly if they're paying the field on both 5 and 9.
Just got word that they switched Roulette out to craps! Craps is my favorite game, so I'll probably play that. What do you think is the best strategy there? And a field bet that pays the field on a 5? I've never heard of that!
I'm thinking playing Pass or Come + Odds is probably the quickest way to a big stack - if I can hit on some of those, I can easily get some money quick.
Quote: Romes
Second, I'm not sure why everyone is just ruling hold 'em out. As a former professional who gave it up for a good career, I can tell you for a fact that if you sit me with 8 other 'coworkers' the odds of more than 1 of them having a clue is about 10%. They'll just be giving chips away... These are people whom would probably never play the game but have "free" company chips and want to give it a try. Being a counter for nearly a decade and knowing what I do about it, it is my 100% honest opinion that you have the absolute best chance of winning the most money on this table.
The ONLY concern with poker is the time limit. I believe he said 2-3 hours. That is a rather small window... You generally can't bluff really bad people so this requires to actually make some hands. Unfortunately, anyone who's played poker knows that you can sometimes sit there for a couple hours and not actually hit any hands =/.
What it comes down to for poker is this... How many employees are going to be here? If it's under 20, I'd play poker... As stated above my last company we played poker every other week with about 8-9 of us. These were very smart people (software developers, database admins, etc) and yet only 1 other one really had any clue in poker. I decided to stop 'trying' in that game when I won 5 times in a row because then I didn't want to be "that guy" over a simple $20 game. In a typical home game tournament that last 2-3 hours you can clean most people out, then you're up about 6x-7x your original bankroll, thus you'd more than likely have more than anyone else at the event and be able to choose what prize you want essentially.
Now if you have 50-100 employees you might not be able to make enough at 1 table of poker in 2-3 hours to offset the few guys that bet like mad on the other games and are getting lucky. I'd move to blackjack. It wouldn't even matter if I wanted to count or not, I would just end up counting as it's as natural as breathing to me at the table. I would think it wouldn't be too hard to come up with some excuses to get very good pen. Those 'party' dealers are just there to give the employees of the company a good time. So saying something like "Hey we only have 3 hours, shuffling takes too long and I wanna try to win a good prize, can you only cut out a few cards???" will probably get you pretty good PEN. I wouldn't even worry about 'heat' as it's a company party. I would literally spread 1 dollar to whatever the max is when the TC = +5 or more.
Just for fun, do you know how many chips you get as your bankroll, or what the limits might be?
No idea on the chips or limits yet.
Unfortunately, I play poker with a lot of these guys. There are several that are very good - and one who used to play professionally. We also all go to Vegas together and talk about gambling strategy, and our tournaments tend to last a long time with a lot of back and forth. I'm thinking that because of this, poker is probably not the best game, especially with the limited amount of chips given for the night.
Quote: AxelWolfHow Many people approximately? If you can wait and eye peoples chips, then towards the end decide.
Probably about ~150 people at the party would be my guess.
Quote: AcesAndEightsI'm surprised no one has advocated for roulette. The house edge is massively higher than BS blackjack (about 10x higher, assuming double zero), but the variance on the center bets is HUGE! With a short time frame like that, I feel like the variance is more important than the expected loss, assuming you need a lot more chips than the other employees to get the good prizes.
That's kinda what I was thinking, which is why I posted this. I was thinking getting lucky on the variance is probably the better bet than going for a low house edge on one of the games. But no more roulette, craps now!
Quote: bluefireThat's kinda what I was thinking, which is why I posted this. I was thinking getting lucky on the variance is probably the better bet than going for a low house edge on one of the games. But no more roulette, craps now!
The best strategy depends on other people's strategy. Play to cautiously, and a small win won't get you any where, in all likelihood. Play too aggressively, and you are too likely to be wiped out than post a decent score.
You want a strategy where you are might be up a lot, with a large chance of ruin.
Quote: bluefireAnd a field bet that pays the field on a 5? I've never heard of that!
In my experience, the gambling party operators are usually not interested in maintaining a house edge (they make their money on a flat fee up front, for equipment rental and paying the dealers), so much as providing an entertaining evening.
I've seen some parties that pay the field on anything except 6-7-8. It's worth looking at. It's a huge advantage, especially if they're still paying 2:1 and 3:1 on the 2/12.
If they're offering "training" on the games, go dummy up and listen to their rules explanation. Try not to seem too excited if they mention that "unlike a real casino, we pay the field on 5 as well... but our layout doesn't show that, because we use a standard casino table and layout."
I'm seeing a huge advantage on the field bet if they're paying the 5 & 9. (Changes from -2% usual to +11% or better.) If other players might get wise to what you're doing, you might need to place some losing bets as cover.
Otherwise, if there's some other favorable field rule (but not the pays on 5) (like both 2 and 12 pay 3:1)... the field is still good.
Poker is kinda....eh. I don't know much about poker, but, doesn't seem like a game where you can win a lot of money (err...a good chance of winning a lot by grinding).
You didn't mention craps, but if there is and field pays on 5 & 9 like others have mentioned. If my math is correct, paying 2:1 on ACES, 3:1 on TWELVE, paying 1:1 on 3,4,9,10,11, and paying -1 on 6,7,8....you'd have a 19% edge over the house. Even if ACES & TWELVE paid 1:1, you'd have an 11% edge. You can afford to wager quite a bit of your money on the field at a time with a low chance of busting out, since it has very little variance. Bet like 5-10% of your (fake) money on the field at a time.
If craps isn't an option, then, your best bet is probably going to wait until near the end of the night. Figure out who has how much money. Go to the roulette table and try to win that much money. Remember, you don't want to bet all of your money at once (unless you absolutely have to, due to time constraints), so be careful and make sure you have enough time.
The only question is the limits, so near the end if everyone else see's they're all losing to the poker players they might just go and bet max inside on roulette. Eventually 'someone' will get lucky and win huge. The one company party I was at, that literally did the exact same thing you're referring to, they had limits on the blackjack/roulette bets so you could certainly win a big round, but it wasn't enough to 'overtake' someone at the end of the night.
If they're paying the 5/9, craps field bet all night =P.
Lastly, the company party I was at took your chips at the end of the night and equated that to drawing tickets. Then you could put your tickets in to a pot with others to try to win the prize. Thus, you didn't get to muscle people out with your chips, so having the highest chip stack in the room doesn't guarantee you anything. If this is the case, just get enough tickets to drop 1 in to each container and then have a good time messing around/playing however -EV you'd like =).
Cheers.
