| Scoblete and Dominator complimented all on how much progress had been made, but Dominator had a warning. "I want you to practice at home every day for the next three weeks," he said. "Only 10 percent of those who take this course become good shooters. If you don't practice, you'll lose half of what you've learned here." Again, play does not pit player vs. dealer. It's strictly a matter of comparing hands to a pay table. Since higher-ranking five-card hands occur more frequently when the player has seven cards to choose from, payoffs are lower on the seven-card hand than on the five-card hand. Final payoffs are: Royal flush, 100-1; straight flush, 20-1; four of a kind, 7-1; full house, 5-1; flush, 4-1; straight, 3-1; three of a kind, 2-1; two-pair, with the high pair being 10s or better, 1-1. In the entire game, there are only two strategy decisions to make: whether to bet the seven-card hand and whether to surrender the seven-card hand after seeing the first three cards. As it happens, the seven-card hand has the lowest house edge in the game. House edges are 3.5 percent on the three-card hand, 4.1 percent on the five-card hand and 3.3 percent on the seven-card hand. Should you make the seven-card bet? I'll leave that between you and your bankroll. All the house edges are a bit high for my taste. But if you do make the seven-card bet, never surrender. You'll give up more money in surrendering the bet than you'll lose by playing it out, no matter what your first three cards are. Hollywood has those same rules on its six-deck games, for $25-and-up players. Its lower-limit eight-deckers have the dealer hit soft 17, increasing the house edge to 0.67 percent against a basic strategy player. Grand Victoria uses six decks at all tables, but its dealers hit soft 17, leaving a house edge of 0.63 percent that's nearly double the best games in the area. That's a poor game for most players, but actually pretty good for card counters because Grand Victoria deals out all but one of the six decks. That's the best penetration in the area. One more factor for a low-limit player to consider is that none of the Illinois casinos closest to Chicago offer $5 minimums anymore, and you'll have to go early on a weekday to find a $10 table. Even if you do find space at a low-limit table, you won't get the same kind of benefits as bigger players. When I walked through Harrah's Joliet, tables had signs explaining players wouldn't be rated for comps unless they were betting $25 a hand or more. |
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