Reatim13
Posted by Reatim13
May 04, 2018

The Best Games to Play in Vegas


Las Vegas is the world's gambling mecca. Sin City is filled with dozens of casinos offering everything from baccarat to roulette and everything in between. Be aware that most people walk away from Las Vegas with less money in their pockets, but if you go armed with the knowledge of which games have the lowest house odds, you stand a better chance of leaving a winner.

Poker
The house makes its money by raking a certain percentage out of every pot and doesn't play against the player. Instead, it's player vs. player, so if you are better than the competition you leave a winner. Texas Hold'em is the game du jour in poker rooms across the country, and Las Vegas is no different. The best poker rooms in town are The Venetian, Bellagio, MGM Grand, Wynn and Mirage. The World Series of Poker takes place every June and July at the Rio.

Blackjack
Card counters may enjoy a slight edge in this game, but for those of us just interested in knowing basic strategy we only have a 1 to 2 percent edge against us. The goal of the game is to beat the dealer, and the best advice given is easier to understand with that in mind. You draw cards that are added up by the numeric value on their fronts from the deck ; face cards count as 10 while aces count as one or 11. The house has an edge because the player must act first and will lose if he busts before the dealer does the same.

Craps
Roll them bones. Craps is perhaps the most exciting game in the casino and has one of the lowest house edges if you stick to the best bets--betting the pass or don't pass lines and taking odds. If you bet the pass line, you win immediately if the shooter rolls a 7 or 11 and lose if he hits 2, 3 or 12. If a 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, or 10 is rolled, you then win if the shooter rolls that number again before rolling a 7. Once that point number is made, you can put out an additional odds bet that is paid at the true odds of rolling the point again before a 7 is rolled. The house edge for craps is less than 2 percent with the best bets.

Three Card Poker
This isn't like poker in the traditional sense in that you do play against the house in this game. You receive three cards and hope that your hand beats the three cards held by the dealer. You first place an ante bet and if you like your first three cards (generally if you hold Q, 10 or better), you place a second play bet below the ante and win if you beat the dealer. There is a separate pair plus bet in which you win if you make a pair or better, from receiving even money for a pair up to 40 to 1 for a straight flush.

Comments

BleedingChipsSlowly
BleedingChipsSlowly May 05, 2018

Thanks for contributing to the forum with a nice summary of four popular games. However, I think Three Card Poker doesn’t belong on a list of best games to recommend. The Ante&Play/Pairplus bets have house edges of 3.37/7.28%. Baccarat Banker/Player bets have house edges of 1.06/1.24%. Pai Gow Poker and Spanish 21 also have far lower house edges than Three Card Poker.



It is a common misconception or oversimplification to state the objective of blackjack is drawing cards to get as close to 21 as possible. The objective is to beat the dealer, and the best advice given is easier to understand with that in mind.

Reatim13
Reatim13 May 09, 2018

BleedingChipsSlowly, thanks for your comment! About Three Card Poker, it's just my thought and based mostly on my friends experience. You gave good argument and example of better games and you are right in this case...

And thanks for the good advice with blackjack! I will add it to the post, if you don't mind of course.

BleedingChipsSlowly
BleedingChipsSlowly May 10, 2018

I don’t mind at all, I’m repeating what you will find posted many times on this forum. By the way, I get much better advice from this forum than I do from other gamblers I meet, friends or not.

odiousgambit
odiousgambit May 15, 2018

where do you do your writing?