CasinoGaming.com


	Sundays: Inside Gaming Tuesdays: Video Poker Wednesdays: Off the Shelf Fridays: Richard Eng, Player's Edge Saturdays: Pocket Aces

VIDEO POKER

Columns

• Back to Bob's index

• Back to columnist index

Bob Dancer writes a video poker column for beginners to experts. He also writes a column with Jeffrey Compton, "Player's Edge", featuring information on promotions at various Las Vegas casinos. Player's Edge is published each Friday in the Neon section of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Click here to send Bob Dancer an e-mail.

For more details and a schedule of Bob's free classes, visit www.bobdancer.com.

June 10, 2008

Is It Fair?

I mentioned in last week's column that Shirley and I just came home from a 10-day cruise where we were guests of Harrah's New Orleans. The first four days were spent cruising the Hawaiian Islands --- truly a paradise. The next 5+ days were spent crossing the Pacific to Vancouver. Although we had calm seas, there was trouble in the casino.

Today's article doesn't pertain to video poker, but it's a gambling-related situation that happened on the cruise --- and we got to go on the cruise because of video poker. It's a stretch for a video poker column, but hey! Coming up with 52 original columns a year requires some stretching from time to time.

Harrah's sponsored slot tournaments on two of the sea days and blackjack tournaments on two other sea days. In each case the prize pool was $500 ($250, $175, and $75) and since Harrah's purchased 50 cabins, there were 100 people eligible each day. About 50 showed up each day to participate, so our expected value was about $10 per day. Plus we knew some of the other players going in and had made some new friends along the way, so this was a charming diversion.

Nothing particularly noteworthy happened during the slot tournaments, but something highly questionable happened during the blackjack tournament.

The blackjack tournament was dealt by Jeremy, one of the casino hosts employed by Royal Caribbean. As is true of many hosts, Jeremy was friendly and helpful.

Let me explain the format of the tournament. Each player received $500 in "funny money" chips to start with. Each round was seven hands. Players could bet between $25 and $500 on each hand. The top seven scores for the entire day moved onto the finals.

Players in early rounds played under a disadvantage because the scores were posted as we went along. At the start of the last of the preliminary rounds, the person currently in seventh place, John, had a score of $1,200. If anybody in the final round scored higher than that, John would be bumped out.

The incident in question happened during this final preliminary round. Just before the start of the sixth hand, a player named Mary had $400 in chips. She bet $100.

This was a foolish bet. Even if she won it and bet everything next hand and won that, she wouldn't have enough to move past John. Yes there would perhaps be blackjacks or double down opportunities which could boost her over, but these are relatively unlikely. Still, this was a free tournament and some players don't have a clue. Mary was such a player.

Jeremy, however, was the helpful sort. Before he gave her any cards he told her, "You really want to bet more than that if you want any chance to win." She then bet everything and smiled when Jeremy praised her by saying, "Much better." As it turned out, Mary lost the hand. The only "penalty" to her was she only got to play six hands instead of seven.

I thought this was an unfair situation. How about you? Does any of this bother you?

What was unfair in my mind was that Jeremy was helping Mary at the expense of John. If Mary made the finals, John would be kicked out. There were only seven places at the final table and anything Jeremy did to help one player hurt at least one other. In addition to making the tournament enjoyable, Jeremy's job is to be fair to all players.

Before the second blackjack tournament, I took Jeremy aside explained what I thought he was doing wrong. I did this privately because I didn't want to embarrass him in front of others. He acknowledged that his actions would be considered out-of-line in regular casinos, "But this is a fun event and this is the way we do it here. The amounts involved are small and we're trying to get people interested in the casino. If it really bothers you, perhaps you should skip the tournaments." It was not the answer I wanted, but at least he was clear about the likelihood of him doing it in the next event as well.

I would have preferred a fair event. Since that wasn't going to happen, my best strategy was to play in the latest round possible. That way I have the benefit of knowing what the target score is --- instead of BEING the target score. If I can't talk them into a fair event, then I'll do what I can to make it so I am helped by the unfairness rather than hurt.

(In actual fact, in the second event I did play in the last round and busted out early. The dealer dealt himself two blackjacks in a row and cleaned me out. Although I was positioned to be helped by the unfair rules, this time it didn't do me any good.)