I was playing at the Casino Royale a couple of weeks ago when a dealer said that for every dollar wagered on their blackjack tables, the house expects $.29 How accurate is that? I would have thought their return would be less, maybe around $.15
Average house advantage is 2%. 2% is taken of every dollar wagered or handled by the house. Depending on the type of 21 being played, average of hands per hour is 60. Multiply 60 times the amount you bet and then by 2%. This will give you the hourly win expected by the casino.
The house edge gets "recycled" as you keep betting over and over again. Suppose the house edge on a slot machine is 2%. You buy $100 and start putting them in one at a time. After a few minutes, you've played all 100, and, when you look in the tray, you find that, on average, 98 have been returned to you. Do you quit? NOOOOOOO. You cycle them again and again and again.
Homework: figure out how long it takes you to go virtually broke! :-)
Same with blackjack. The "hold" of 29% refers to the fact that the average player "recycles" his dollars just enough to walk away, on average, with about 70-75 cents on the dollar.
Don
I've never seen "hold" explained so simply and understandably. Save your post to insert in one of your books or articles.
Buick
The house edge gets "recycled" as you keep betting over and over again. Suppose the house edge on a slot machine is 2%. You buy $100 and start putting them in one at a time. After a few minutes, you've played all 100, and, when you look in the tray, you find that, on average, 98 have been returned to you. Do you quit? NOOOOOOO. You cycle them again and again and again.
Homework: figure out how long it takes you to go virtually broke! :-)
Same with blackjack. The "hold" of 29% refers to the fact that the average player "recycles" his dollars just enough to walk away, on average, with about 70-75 cents on the dollar.
Don
.. and really, it can be a nice measure of intangibles like how your drink service is, how pretty the dealers are, how nice the pit staff are, and so forth. The theoretical advantage of a game can be known precisely, but it doesn't help you gauge how much money you are making since pit staff could hardly be expected to clock the average action every hour. Rather, if you know how much of the buy ins you keep, and you know your total buy ins exactly, you can estimate your daily profit.
M.
