Las Vegas: Poker
In its traditional form, poker is unique among Las Vegas card games in that gamblers play against each other, not the house. The casinos simply provide a room and a dealer, in return either for a percentage on every hand, which varies from one to ten percent, or, less usually, charging by the hour. Playing poker against a bunch of total strangers is undeniably exciting, but it's not a risk to take lightly. It might be melodramatic to imagine that your opponents are cheats or crooks, but they may well be professionals, and it's downright crazy to assume they're worse at the game than you are. The two most widely played variations, both of which offer scope for endless rounds of betting, are Seven Card Stud , in which each player is dealt two cards face down, four more face up, and then a final one face down, and Texas Hold 'Em , in which each player gets two face-down cards, and then five communal cards are dealt face up on the table. The object in both games is to make the highest hand possible using five of the seven cards, though often how you bet is more crucial than the cards on which you're betting.Casinos generally see traditional poker as a service for guests who will also gamble on other games, though several have begun to stage poker tournaments, along the lines of the wildly successful World Series of Poker held in late April each year at Binion's Horseshoe downtown.
In addition, most casinos offer what are essentially hybrids of poker and blackjack. These new games, played on blackjack-like tables, are designed to pit gamblers directly against the house - and thus seem less intimidating - while also maximizing the house advantage. The usual minimum bet on the Strip is $5, though you might find a $3 table.
In Caribbean Stud Poker , originally developed for cruise ships, each player makes an ante bet, and is dealt five cards face down, while the dealer gets four cards face down and one face up. You can now either "fold" - surrender both hand and bet - or "call," by adding another bet that's double your original ante. Each hand is compared individually with the dealer's. If you beat the dealer, you win your ante bet at even odds, while your call bet might win a bonus of as much as a hundred to one, depending on how high a hand you have. There's an outrageous twist, however; if the dealer has an especially bad hand, of anything less than an ace and a king, it's said not to "qualify," and call bets are returned rather than paid off. As a result, the house edge comes to 5.3 percent. Betting an additional $1 per hand enters you for a progressive jackpot, payable on royal flushes, that can reach over $100,000.
Let It Ride is an unorthodox variation in which you make three separate but equal bets on the three cards you're dealt, but can then withdraw one bet at a time as two further communal cards are revealed. You're not competing against anyone else here, not even the dealer; bets are paid off according to a chart that shows each winning hand and the odds against it. This time the house edge is 3.5 percent.
Pai Gow Poker - as distinct from the Chinese domino game Pai Gow, which you may also encounter - is played with an ordinary pack of cards plus a single joker, which can count as either an ace or a "wild" card to complete a flush or straight. Each player, including the dealer, receives seven cards and has to divide them into one five-card hand and one two-card hand. Although the two-card hand must be worth less than the five-card one, both have to defeat both the dealer's hands for you to win. If only one beats the dealer, it's a "push," and bets are returned. As any player can choose to be the dealer instead, there is technically no house edge to the game, but instead the house levies a five percent commission on winning bets.
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