HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: kmarko@mail.boi.hp.com (Kurt Marko)
Subject: Re: Reno Goings On...
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1992 22:56:56 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: Hewlett-Packard / Boise, Idaho

In article > hall@kronos.arc.nasa.gov (Michael Hall) writes:
>In article > kmarko@mail.boi.hp.com (Kurt Marko) writes:
>>
>>I just got back from Reno last week.  Bally's is now the Reno Hilton.
>>Baron Hilton was in Reno inspecting his latest acquisition last week 
>>and says they will remodel it with a western motif.
>
>Bally's was a very nice-looking elegant casino, by any town's standards.
>I just can't imagine it with longhorns on the walls, dealers dressed in
>cowhide/denim wearing cowboy hats, and sawdust on the floor...
>
I agree, especially after the last remodel job, Bally's was my favorite 
place to stay (except for the relative isolation).  Oh well...it is Reno
after all.  One of the tourist rags (Showtime?) had a picture of the 
architects drawing of the outside after remodeling and it was hard to 
tell much change, but the article made it sound like the end product will
wind up something like the Frontier.  Hmmm...maybe the Silver Club (Sparks)
is in for a little competition. :)

Kurt Marko
From: jfr@glitter.RedBrick.COM
Newsgroups: rec.gambling
Subject: Re: blackjack pair splitting
Keywords: blackjack, pair splitting, Humble, Cooper, Hi-Opt I
Date: 11 Sep 92 23:54:24 GMT
Organization: Red Brick Systems, Los Gatos, CA

In article <1992Sep9.192103.25827@cbnewsl.cb.att.com> jacko@cbnewsl.cb.att.com (Jacko) writes:
>In article <1992Sep1.224753.17144@inter-tel.com> kennedy@inter-tel.com (Matt Kennedy) writes:
>>
>>     I have a question about basic strategy and Hi-Opt I as described in _The
>>World's Greatest Blackjack Book_ (Revised Edition  Copyright  1987)  by Lance
>>Humble and Carl Cooper.
>
>In my opinion this book is crap.  The basic information about card 
>counting is OK, but it sandwiched in between so much garbage that I
>would advise you to learn from some other book, such as Stanford Wong's
>Professional Blackjack or Kenny Uston's Million Dollar Blackjack.

  I echo some of your concerns about TWGBJB by Humble(hah!)/Cooper.  
  The paranoid delusions that the author(s) exhibit throughout the
  book, not to mention the silly attitudes they have about gaming
  in general, are a pain in the ass.  However, keep in mind that
  when TWGBJB was written (in the late 70s), this was the FIRST
  reasonably cheap book that detailed a SIMPLE and EASY TO USE
  counting system that was highly accurate and had both reasonable
  playing and betting correlations.  The only other inexpensive
  book that had done this was Revere's Playing Blackjack As A
  Business (which also was encumbered by Revere's own form of
  delusionary thinking) and the Plus/Minus count in Revere is
  definitely not as good as HiOpt I for the beginning counter.
  Everyone else selling systems in the 70s (including Stan Wong)
  sold 'em for hundreds of bucks and most of them (NOT including
  Stan Wong's) were crap.  Later on, other books appeared that
  duplicated much of HiOpt in various forms and I prefer for
  the beginner Silberstang's book (can't believe I forgot the
  title).  There is no way, IMHO, that a beginning counter can
  easily learn from either Uston's or Wong's books (and I have
  both).  

  Jon Rosen
From: Eugene M. Shekhtman <unknown@garnet.berkeley.edu>
Newsgroups: rec.gambling
Subject: Re: What football game would you bet?
Date: 12 Sep 1992 02:37:57 GMT
Organization: U. C. Berkeley
Distribution: world
     <DrMARRONE.92Sep1181537@itd.itd.nrl.navy.mil> <jason.30@dcs.umd.edu>
     <1992Sep3.160643.2554@island.COM>
NNTP-Posting-Host: gpb1mac13.berkeley.edu
X-UserAgent: Nuntius v1.1a2

Well, gee, guys!  Vikings, 49ers, Cowboys were all winners and all
covered the spreads last week! You are 3-0, 100% so far! Maybe I should
start betting money on your hunches. Good job!

                            Eugene
Newsgroups: rec.gambling
From: winslade@cwis.unomaha.edu (John Winslade)
Subject: Re: football handicapping
Organization: University of Nebraska at Omaha
Distribution: rec
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1992 19:46:41 GMT

I'm interested if anyone can point me in the direction of any published
material on this subject.  I've been reading the short thread, and doing
some thinking about how to begin doing some playing with the numbers to
try to get some decent predictions.
 
I did get the Gamblers' Mate software last weekend.  Unfortunately it's
only a black box, without any guess as to how it reaches the predictions,
and also it seems to be hardwired for this season's pro teams and I
play the college teams (for amusement only -- far be it from me to wager
in a state where sports betting is illegal ;-).
 
I'm playing around putting last week's numbers into various matrices,
but I'm dealing mostly with infinite solution sets.  I may try one of
the multiple linear regression packages and see if that will work, but
I am sure many fans have developed various methods to crunch numbers
and I would be interested in hearing some ideas on that line.
 
Good day        JSW

Newsgroups: rec.gambling
From: Jonathan Rosenberg <jxr@thumper.bellcore.com>
Subject: Re: Vegas World info wanted
Organization: Bellcore
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 92 19:45:58 GMT

From: wallace@dtc.hp.com (David Wallace)
Subject: Re: Vegas World info wanted
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1992 18:28:02 GMT

In article <1992Sep11.094913.1@azcc.arizona.edu>
kgirodias@azcc.arizona.edu 	writes:
>I have been to Vegas World a few times and yes the place is a pit. I remember
>a lot of stains on the carpet. It has been about three years since I have
>been there. Don't they have good Blackjack rules there. I think that is what
>drew me there. I also remember them dealing to the bottom of the deck.
>Am I correct or am I thinking of another place?

Wallace> Sort of.  Their Blackjack rules are pretty liberal in all but
one respect,
Wallace> but it's a doozy: they only pay even money on player blackjacks
(though
Wallace> a player BJ wins even if the dealer also has BJ).  This means
that you are
Wallace> giving up around 2% to the house off the top, which is an
awfully steep
Wallace> cliff for even the most dedicated card counter to climb.

Maybe I'm misremembering, but I thought the BIG change in the rules was
that all ties (except for a player natural) were won by the house.  This
is some horrendous house advantage (like 9%) to offset the exposed cards.

Can someone who is sure (dis)verify this for us?

JR
From: jacob@ocf.berkeley.edu (Jacob Jin)
Newsgroups: rec.gambling
Subject: Re: And they probably spell it potatoe
Date: 12 Sep 1992 20:32:51 GMT
Organization: U.C. Berkeley Open Computing Facility
NNTP-Posting-Host: earthquake.berkeley.edu

In article <1992Sep12.192957.11689@sei.cmu.edu> weinstoc@sei.cmu.edu (Chuck Weinstock) writes:
>Las Vegas (AP) - The driver of a potato chip truck was beaten and robbed after
>two men discovered the Vegas Chips he was hauling were not poker chips, police
>said.
>
>The driver was accosted at knife-point Tuesday and forced to drive to a remote
>area, where the robbers demanded he "turn over the chips," said Police Lt.
>Carl Fruge.
>
>The robbers became irate when they learned the truck contained potato chips,
>Fruge said.  They hit the driver on the head, then fled after stealing his
>keys and an undisclosed amount of money.



I've had Vegas Chips, and were I one of the two robbers, I probably would
have been more delighted at this unexpected cache. I would have thrown the           
driver's body into a ditch and hid the truck in my garage and feasted for days.
But that's just me. Apparently this morally bereft society has driven the
mentality of truck robbers to such a low that all they care about is
money.
From: mitch@lsil.com (Mitch Sako)
Newsgroups: rec.gambling
Subject: Cameo Club Update
Date: 8 Sep 92 20:39:40 GMT
Reply-To: mitch@lsil.com
Organization: LSI Computing Systems

I stopped by the Cameo to checkout the no-limit holdem games this weekend
and to my surprise, they have changed the holdem games, for the worse.  It
seems that the city council of Palo Alto has gotten into the act and has
really screwed them over.  The first change is that time collections are now
collected on the button and chopped from the pot instead of being paid on
the half hour.  Although this is probably a change for the better it doesn't
play out that way.

The second change (and most brutal) is that the games are all limited now
to eight players.  Heck, I thought the Garden City was bad news at nine 
handed but now, eight handed?  Get real.  The city council must be on the
payroll of Artichoke Joes AND the Garden City.
---
===============================================================================
Mitch Sako	LSI Computing Systems			Office	408-433-4187
internet:	msako@lsil.com				FAX	408-433-8796
uucp:		lsil!msako
RIME:		->REDBARON, conference=POLITICS
Disclaimer:	Opinions expressed here are mine and mine alone and do not
		reflect those of anyone else including my organization,
		my management or my mother
Xref: sparky rec.gambling:4817 rec.travel:13235
From: charlesw@sail.LABS.TEK.COM (Charles Wilson)
Newsgroups: rec.gambling,rec.travel
Subject: Where should I stay/play in Vegas?
Keywords: Vegas
Date: 15 Sep 92 18:33:17 GMT
Followup-To: poster
Organization: Tektronix Inc., Beaverton, Or.

I'm planning to be in Vegas at the end of Sept.  I've made
reservations at the Excalibur, but I've never seen it and
know little about it.  I can get a good deal at the Tropicana
as well.  Is it a better place to stay than the Excalibur?

In general, where is your favorite place to stay in Vegas,
and what is your favorite place to play in Vegas.  What are
the "must see"`s there?  The only other time I was in Las
Vegas I played at Circus Circus and was only there for 
about 4 hours (just passing through).

If there is enough response, I'd be glad to post a summary
of the most preferred places to stay and play.

Thanks in advance.
From: irwin@uvmark.uucp (Frank Irwin)
Newsgroups: rec.gambling
Subject: Re: Attention Hold'em vultures^H^H^H^Hexperts
Date: 11 Sep 92 14:35:06 GMT
Organization: Vmark Software, Inc.

In article <18ock9INNk8b@agate.berkeley.edu> jmn@crown.berkeley.edu (J. Mark Noworolski) writes:
>I will hereby identify myself as a relative newbie to no-limit Texas Hold'em
>and as a participant in the wrgpt2.

Aren't we all?

>I've only played home games of poker, and so I was hoping somebody could 
>clarify the small and big blind betting system.

That's easy.  When you have the small blind, that means that you have to
bet *half* of your chips.  When you have the big blind, you have to bet
*all* of your chips.  You can never look at your cards for the whole hand,
either (why do you think they call it "blind?").

>I also don't understand the difference between a call and a check. It seems
>that they are the same, no? What exactly is a 'check and raise'?

A check is what you write at the end of the game.  You have to give one to
each of the players, each equal to the amount of the buy-in.  After you do
that, we "call" the bank to verify them, before untying you.

>(I feel the vultures circling overhead.....)

Here, take this seat right here on my right...
-- 
 ============================================================================
 Frank Irwin                   | "Mike and Blair have the lowest ___________
 Vmark Software, Inc.          |  to ____________ ratio of all rec.gamblers."
 irwin%uvmark@merk.com         |     - You fill in the blanks.
From: mrc40@cd.amdahl.com (Matthew R Carbonara)
Newsgroups: rec.gambling
Subject: Craps
Keywords: craps
Date: 14 Sep 92 14:38:58 GMT
Distribution: NA
Organization: Amdahl Corporation, Sunnyvale CA

I have read from many sources that the house advantage is 0.6% in a double 
odds game when backing you pass/come bets with the maximum allowed free-odds.
I believe this but cannot show it to be true. can anyone help?

I can show that the house advantage is 1.4% on a pass/come bet with no free-
odds.






-- 
Matthew R. Carbonara               
e-mail: mrc40@cd.amdahl.com
From: marrone@itd.itd.nrl.navy.mil (Michael Marrone)
Newsgroups: rec.gambling
Subject: Re: Toronto Trip Report
Date: 14 Sep 92 16:20:49 GMT
Reply-To: mastrota@excalibur.itd.nrl.navy.mil
In-reply-to: rpark@stam.QE.Bell.CA's message of 8 Sep 92 17:20:59 GMT

Richard,
C     I can sympathize with your experience playing blackjack with people
who don't follow a good playing strategy.  When their dumb plays result
in you losing its hard to remain objective and realize that other peoples
play does not really affect your expected value in the long run.
I was playing recently where a guy stood on soft 16, split 10s, and
stood on an 8 (EIGHT), all in the span of 10 hands.  That was the first 
I've ever seen someone stand
with an 8 total, incredible.
     But I'm interested in what other games are available in Toronto such
as poker, race and sports book, baccarat, etc.  Any info on this would
be appreciated.
Newsgroups: rec.gambling
From: kathy@oasys.dt.navy.mil (Kathy Smith)
Newsgroups: rec.gambling
Subject: Re: Black Jack shareware for IBMpc?
Date: 14 Sep 92 11:19:50 GMT
Reply-To: kathy@oasys.dt.navy.mil
Followup-To: rec.gambling
Organization: Carderock Division, Naval Surface Warfare Center

In rec.gambling, someone writes:
>I'm interested in finding a shareware black jack program for the IBM pc.
>I'd like the program to be able to handle user-specified multiple decks,
>card-counting, shuffling, etc.  Does anyone know if such a program exists
>in the public domain or where I can FTP it from?  Thanks.


FTP to:

soda.berkley.edu
128.32.131.179

cd /pub/rec.gambling/blackjack

filename bj-221.exe
download in bianry


kathy@oasys.dt.navy.mil
From: mitch@lsil.com (Mitch Sako)
Newsgroups: rec.gambling
Subject: Re: Money line vs. point spread?
Date: 13 Sep 92 08:54:56 GMT
Reply-To: mitch@lsil.com
Organization: LSI Computing Systems

In article 27558@leland.Stanford.EDU, zwiebel@leland.Stanford.EDU (Jeffrey Zwiebel) writes:
>>For instance, Lompoc State opens at +12.5 against Cedar Rapids A&M and CRAM
>>gets a ton of action.  Instead of changing the line to +13.5, +14.5, etc,
>>you would adjust the money line from -1.10 to -1.20 to -1.40, etc., etc.
>>encouraging more bettors to take the +12.5 even or +1.10.  Makes it look
>>like they are not paying the vig, in a way.
>This discussion makes little sense to me.  Why should the house dislike
>it when betters take both sides of a points bet after the line has
>changed any more than when they take both sides of an odds bet? 
>Either way, if a better knows how the line will move (and if the line
>moves sufficiently to cover for the house advantage), the better can
>profit from such arbitrage.  Presumably, it is consequently not easy to 
>predict such changes in the line.

If you think about it enough it should become very clear why the house doesn't
want bettors ever betting on both sides of a middle.  How would you like it
if the opening line was 2.5 and moved to 3.5 and the final score was 10-7?
You'd get crucified for sure.  Now, if you get a ton of action on the -2.5,
it's certainly more prudent to move the money line to +2.5/+1.10 in order
to entice more action to the other side.  You're going to take a bath if
the favorite covers anyway but you're not going to have to pay off both
sides, now are you?  So you have to lay +1.10 to the dog bettors, it's
certainly better than having them lay you 11-10 at +3.5.

Basically, the opening line was obviously flawed and moving a moneyline
instead of the pointspread is going to cost the bookie less money in the
long run.

---
===============================================================================
Mitch Sako	LSI Computing Systems			Office	408-433-4187
internet:	msako@lsil.com				FAX	408-433-8796
uucp:		lsil!msako
RIME:		->REDBARON, conference=POLITICS
Disclaimer:	Opinions expressed here are mine and mine alone and do not
		reflect those of anyone else including my organization,
		my management or my mother
Newsgroups: rec.gambling
From: winslade@cwis.unomaha.edu (John Winslade)
Subject: Re: football handicapping
Organization: University of Nebraska at Omaha
Distribution: rec
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1992 19:55:18 GMT

"al sorhaindo" <al.sorhaindo@execnet.com> writes:

>  * IOWA   +14.5 over Miami      8 pm EST Saturday, Sept 5

I would be interested in having a hint on how you came up with that one.
Even here deep in Hawkeye territory, that one would be considered a
sucker bet by most -- and the fact that Iowa got pounded confirms it.
Your spread was just about opposite of all of the other predictions
I saw on that.
 
I'm very curious.
 
Good day       JSW

Newsgroups: rec.gambling
From: solensky@world.std.com (Frank T Solensky)
Subject: Re: Sports bets prediction accuracy?
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
Date: Sun, 6 Sep 1992 08:39:40 GMT

In article <1992Sep6.033523.26114@nevada.edu> messiah@nevada.edu (MHW) writes:
   ... Someone recently made a claim to me that they
   made 23 correct sports predictions out of 30 for an accuracy rate 
   of 76.67%. 
   ...
   predicting a team's win rate does not seem accurately measurable. I don't
   think one can just *assume* a 50/50 shot cause there's too many variables 
   and there's a point spread to overcome besides.

   Any smart-asses out there feel like elucidating? Where does one start in
   tracking the accuracy of predictions if one wants to prove statistically
   that luck was not a significant factor in the success rate?

Sure!
   If it _were_ a 50-50 proposition, it'd be about the same as flipping a
   coin and getting 23 out of 30 heads: you'd use the binomial distribution
   
       30!       23         7
    -------- x .5   x (1-.5)  == 2035800 x 9.31322e-10 = 1.896e-3,
     23!x7!                                       or about 526:1 against.

   This might seem impressive, but it's the probability of getting _exactly_
   23 of 30.  This would make someone getting 0 of 30 really impressive, too.
   What you want to consider is the probability of doing _better_ than this.
   That would be about 7.1545e-4 (about 1396:1 against).  Adding in the
   '23' case so that your doing as well or better, the probability gets
   to 2.6115e-3 (about 382:1 against).

   Getting back to your original point, though: it sounds like what they're
   claiming is the ability to get you on the right side of the spread very
   frequently (at least, that what I'd guess would be the object of most
   concern in Las Vegas).  So the 50-50 assumption would suggest that the
   spread is based on the most likely outcome the game.  That's not really
   the case,though:  it's intended to get the bets balanced off against
   each other.  It becomes a question, then, of having some objective way
   of measuring what the probability is of each team beating the spread and
   then sticking in these values for the .5 chance of winning on the left
   and the (1-.5) loss on the right.  And I'd agree: that would be hard to
   know with any degree of certainty.

-- 
							-- Frank Solensky
"Red Sox magic number: 911"
		-- T-shirts being sold in Kenmore Square
Newsgroups: rec.gambling
From: swood@unixg.ubc.ca (Stephen Wood)
Subject: Re: Blackjack Lemmings?
Organization: University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Date: Sun, 6 Sep 1992 05:21:45 GMT

In article <9900062@hpfcmgw.FC.HP.COM> chan@hpfcmgw.FC.HP.COM (Chan Benson) writes:
>> 	I played downtown, and _Blackjack Monthly_'s evaluations of
>> various games pretty much echoed my own.  Horseshoe and Golden Gate
>> were best. Some pressure at both, but for $5-25, it's not easy to
>> get tossed out without playing many hours.
>
>Howdy. I too enjoyed the Golden Gate the last time I was in Vegas. Just
>out of curiousity, did you ever notice them sticking you with a "pro"
>dealer when you were doing well?

[munch]
>
The Golden Gate is the only place I'm sure I've been had.  I was
playing single deck head on at a $2 table with a $20 buy in.  The
pit critter came up and said "screw him" to the dealer (meaning me).
My hearing used to be very acute so I overheard the remark.  Shuffle,
next two hands dealer ace up and blackjack.  I wasn't winning or
playing for much so I figured they just wanted to close the table
or something.  Didn't stay to see if the magician could give himself
aces on 4 consecutive hands.  Time was around 4am.

This was 4 or 5 years ago and I haven't been there since.  I was
kinda concerned that the direction came from the pit which fits in
with your comment about a pro dealer.  Anyone else with similar
experience at the Golden Gate or elsewhere?
From: cobarruvias@asd2.jsc.nasa.gov
Newsgroups: rec.gambling
Subject: Aggie Football viewing in Vegas?
Date: 8 Sep 92 15:18:57 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: NASA/JSC

Anyone know where I can catch the Aggie game in Vegas this weekend?
From: TRADER@cup.portal.com (Paul Vincent McGinnis)
Newsgroups: rec.gambling
Subject: strange upcoming event in Vegas
Date: Mon,  7 Sep 92 19:52:48 PDT
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Distribution: world

if you want a strange reason to go to Vegas soon , how about this :

Nov. 27 - Dec. 4 the Hacienda will be the hotel for the "International UFO
Congress and UFO Film Festival". Apparently, the UFO Film Festival will
have the EBE awards ceremony (similar to the Oscars...). For more info,
call the organizers at 510/428-0202 (that's in the San Francisco Bay area -
where else??)

personally, I think it would be kind of fun to wander around the Hacienda
in a black suit and tell the participants that you're from an unnamed
government agency...

Since the Hacienda is giving the participants the breakfast buffet free
every day, who knows... maybe someone will see a UFO after puking the
scrambled eggs served with an ice cream scoop... just kidding...

Paul McGinnis / TRADER@cup.portal.com
Newsgroups: rec.gambling
From: kinosr@rs6104.ecs.rpi.edu (Roy Kiyoshi Kinoshita)
Subject: Re: Vegas World info wanted
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1992 01:30:02 GMT

Oh my god!  I stayed there once and it was TOTALLY gross.  The rooms/hallways
reeked of putrifaction.  The gambling didn't impress me either.

I would avoid that place.
Newsgroups: rec.gambling
From: ai.amck@mcc.com (Alan McKendree)
Subject: selling straddles
Organization: MCC, Austin, TX
Distribution: usa
Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1992 22:18:26 GMT


Would the person who recently mentioned selling deeply
out-of-the-money stock-option straddles contact me by e-mail?  I
looked for the article, but it's been expired off my newsfeed.
Thanks.

Alan
Newsgroups: rec.gambling