From: stantz@sgi.com (Mark Stantz)
Newsgroups: rec.gambling
Subject: Re: That Horse Race game and other items
Date: 15 Apr 92 07:20:14 GMT
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc.

In article <44890014@hpindda.cup.hp.com> goo@hpindda.cup.hp.com (Michael Goo) writes:
>stantz@sgi.com (Mark Stantz) writes...
>
>>In article <1992Apr2.195535.22096@cbnewsl.cb.att.com> stank@cbnewsl.cb.att.com (Stan Krieger) writes:
>>	I don't know, but there's a nickel one in the slot casino which
>>is attached to the Burger King in downtown LV.  It's a great place to 
>>take low rollers.  You'll never win, but the machine's great fun.  Play
>>it for hours for ten bucks.  It has seven hourses, I think, as do the other 
>>one's I've seen in LV.  

	I must have been out of it when I wrote this.  I've never seen one
that didn't have five horses.  Don't know what I was thinking.

>>	Be careful though.  You've got ~30 seconds to place bets, and if
>>you aren't careful, really stupid bets are easy to make.   Sometimes I find
>>I've placed 3 nickels on this combination and 2 nickels on that combination
>>and wound up so that no matter what combination comes in, I'll wind up
>>behind.
>
>I always load up the machine with nickels ahead of time.  I try to bet 1 unit
>on every longshot (10 to 1 or greater) and then bet 2-3 on the favorites to
>cover my other bets to some degree.  I may skip a round if there are no real 
>longshots (greater than ~30-1).

	I always stuff it with nickels in advance too, but 30 seconds isn't
always enough time to decide what you want to do.  And there's no way to 
undo a bet one it's been made.  No surprises there -- gotta love that casino 
mentality.

>I'd be interested in hearing your "strategies."

	Obviously there is no winning strategy for this game.  Generally
when I'm with someone I know, we start with the same number of nickels and
see who can do the best.  This makes quick thinking all the more important
(thereby increasing the entertainment value of the machine.)  If I see the 
opponent just throwing out a couple of nickels on longshots, I might put 
a dollar (that's 20 nickels, the maximum bet on any one horse, which I 
don't think anyone has mentioned yet) on the 2-1 if I'm feeling aggressive.  
Or I might do the exact same thing as my opponent is doing if nothing else
springs to mind (it's morally imperative to bet something on every race, 
since otherwise you could almost always beat your opponent by never betting.
Remember, the real object of the game is cheap entertainment, not to make
money.  If you want to make money, open your own casino.) 

	Most of the time, I bet on the 4-1, 5-1, 6-1 and 7-1 shots.  These
give you a decent return on small bets and hit often enough to be entertaining.
The 2-1 shots are a pain.  Either you put most all your bets on them or 
nothing on them.  Putting a couple of nickels on the 2-1 as "insurance" 
eats into your bankroll really fast.  Most of the time I ignore the 2-1s.
It seems like they tend to come in in streaks, but certainly that's just my
imagination.

>I'm still waiting for a 200-1 longshot to come in!

	I've seen it hit.  One person at the machine had 5 nickels on it 
too.  She was jumping up and down and screaming like she'd just hit the
Megabucks jackpot or something.  The people you find playing these machines
are really amusing.  Anyways, the alarm went off, and the attendant came
over and paid her off with bills.  Great entertainment, but I really wanted
to see the thousand nickels come out.

	What ever you do, don't play the quarter ones.  They eat money
like crazy.  I was in LV three weeks ago, and stopped into the Hacienda
to play some mindless games before going to sleep.  If I go to sleep after
counting cards for six or seven hours I have bad dreams where I'm still
playing BJ and counting cards, and it's not very restful.  This is no 
good when you've got to sleep off a .25 blood alcohol content and get out
of the hotel room by 11am checkout, plus, I have enough bad dreams as it 
is.  So I've tried playing some slots and pai-gow poker and so forth
before going to bed.  The jury is still out on whether or not this does any
good.  Anyways, there was a quarter machine at the Hacienda which ate 
$40 in nothing flat.  I am not messing with those any more.

	A few words about pai-gow poker...  Nobody cares whether or not
you spread ridiculously in this game.  I've tried betting $10, letting
it ride when I win until I've got about $40 on the table, then dropping
back to $5 bets.  Occasionally jumping from $5 to $30 and stuff like that.
Keep track of what your average bet is; the house PC is exactly 2.5%, so
figure out how much you're willing to pay for the privilege of playing each 
hand, multiply by forty, and the rest is all hocus pocus.  I am willing to
pay about 25 cents a hand provided that the cocktail waitress is showing
up with reasonable frequency, as the free booze offsets my effective playing
costs.  Anyways, while betting erratically, BS it up with the dealer.  Talk 
about hot streaks and so forth while shifting from $5 to $30, and about the 
dealer being due when you drop from $40 to $5.  If at all possible, do this 
while the pit crew is nearby.  Change the amount of your bet after a push 
while the floorperson is bringing in a new deck.  Act superstitious.  Then 
wander over to a blackjack table in the same pit.  Spread like a wild man.  
Jump from $5 to $40 in positive counts, from $40 back to $10 in bad ones.  
Just play a couple of decks so they don't have time to catch on.  See what 
you can get away with once they're used to your peculiarities. [ Warning: 
you can loose big bucks this way because of the variance, so this is probably 
not a good idea if your bankroll is small.  Variance is a bitch. ]

	-Mark