Off-Topic

It's such a great game to nurse some time at the tables since a) The house edge is pretty small, and b) each hand takes a while to play if you're at a full table.

If you bet $20:
Win both hands - You win $19 (5% goes to the house).
Win one/lose one - Push
Lose both hands - You lose $20

A fair number of hands end up pushing. You also get a bunch of drunk morons who take 5 minutes to figure out how to pick a hand.

A good portion of the house edge comes from the fact that:

Win one/Tie one = Push
Tie one/ Lose one = Lose

And the house edge is >2.5% in pai gow, more than basic-strategy blackjack or craps. It's just that pai gow is a generally slow game (and really fun for some reason), so you tend to "get your money's worth."

I won 1500 on one rollers shoot last night playing craps. It was beautiful. He hit 6 like 7 times and hard 8 and 10 twice. Hit 4 points too. Of course his second to last roll one of the dice rolls into the cup with the other di and gets mixed up in there. Next roll 7. Still good run. The guy next to me won 7 grand.

I generally sit down with $100 at the blackjack table and will play $10-$20 hands and am quick to pull out another $100 if I lose the first $100. If I lose $200 I head to another table or usually another casino. If I am running well I may increase my bets but it is rare I have more than $50 in a hand (except when bets multiply b/c of splits and double downs). I almost always end up putting the extra money on the next hand after hitting blackjack and almost always lose it for a net win of nothing over the two hands.The hands that kill me are when I pull out extra money for a split or double down and end up losing.

I squirrel away money so I have 3-4K to take to Vegas when I go (only about every 2-4 years) but would be salty if I ever lost that much in one trip. During March Madness I took 4K out there. Wife thought I only took a few hundred to gamble with (LOL). Ended up pretty much even for the trip but plopped down $1500 when I got home which is a win-win. I still have a nice slush fund, she thinks I win "big" (in her eyes) and doesn't get bent out of shape the next time I want to go because of the cost.

I went to AC yesterday afternoon and this thread got me to the Pai Gow table for the first time in years. Old Asian guy was playing 2500(table max) a hand, wtf. Then this drunk guy showed up and was playing 500 a hand and literally falling asleep with his cards in his hand. I'm not exactly sure how it works, but the Asian guy started playing as the house and took like 5k off the drunk guy. He played 2 or 3 illegal hands. Pai Gow is definitely the way to go if you are getting killed, can't go home, and don't want to lose anymore money. I didn't win or lose a hand for my first 35-40 minutes.

Where can you find video poker odds that are that good? I've played the wizard of odds simulator, but seems like real places I go have odds that aren't as good as the ones in his "standard" examples.

I'm not a gambler but at the height of the (very annoying) poker boom I thought about starting, then realized that someone much smarter than me like UMTerp would take all of my money, and quashed that idea.

That's the great thing about poker. Even if there's a UMTerp at the table, there are 8 other BWES's* at the table, so you still come out fine. At lower limits, it's insane how bad the level of overall play is.

*I think Bob came in last in the board tournament challenge, or was at least in last for a while. If not, substitute whoever's name in there instead.

Pai Gow is such an awesome game when it is just you and 3-4 other buddies bullshitting and drinking.

You're not gambling right if you don't play craps!

Truff.

Well duh. I think what he's saying is winning on a craps table beats winning on any other table. YOU KNOW WHAT HE MEANS!