Mathematics and precedence rules

[pendell]

Poker and its many variations offer the same possibility of skill tipping the odds, while being more interesting (in my opinion) and not offending the casinos because the losers are the other players.

I forget the book I read it in, but the comment in it was that , while poker is a game of skill which the house has no interest in because it gets a cut regardless, the other players at the table are typically professionals out to make easy money from the tourists. If you ARE a professional, it might be worth a try. But an amateur sitting down at the table should probably be resigned to losing most of what they put down.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[douglas]

Originally Posted by pendell

If you ARE a professional, it might be worth a try. But an amateur sitting down at the table should probably be resigned to losing most of what they put down.

That goes for pretty much every serious gambling game, though. If a casino is running it, then it's almost certainly A) purely luck based with the odds against you (e.g. slot machines); B) affectable by skill, but with even the best possible odds still against you to the best of the casino's knowledge (e.g. black jack); or C) pitting your skill against that of other gamblers (e.g. poker).

In case A, you're just screwed. In case B, you have to find a strategy the casino hasn't countered yet (most casinos have long since taken measures to prevent black jack from tipping over the break even point), and it's by no means certain that any such strategy even exists. In case C, either you're good enough to do it professionally and probably do, or you're not and will lose to the people who are. You can try to join the professionals in case C, but there's only so much money from amateurs to split among them and they will try - hard - to prevent you from joining their ranks and reducing their share by outplaying you.