Casinos & Pokers

Let me see if I understand the problem. You stop by the casino for a poker game and pick up a free magazine on the way out. It includes several articles by leading poker writers, reports on several tournaments, schedules of future tournaments, reports on poker related activities from around the world and many advertisements which are in themselves quite informative. Now you believe that if Card Player did “a more honest job of reporting”, it would “provide a better service to the readers?” Would you invest in a magazine start-up that required poker players to use part of their bankroll to pay for subscriptions??

Answer 1:

Card player has done it again! They continue to write favorable press for their advertisers. July 7 card player magazine “Atlantic City scene”, ‘the taj mahal poker room’s new nonsmoking policy has helped immensely according to both player and personnel alike”. Just for the record , i played at the Taj on a daily basis for a number of years. The Trop’s 10-20 holdem game which used to break up more often than not is a very strong game now. Not only that Trops overall business is up. Why is that? The reason is many of the Taj’s regular players now come to the Trop (both smokers and non-smokers).

What the Taj’s “management team” failed to consider is they violated a cardinal rule in the casino business, “never give a player a reason NOT to enter your casino”. In addition they failed to understand that just 2 or 3 players can mean the difference in a game breaking down or lasting through the night. Getting back to the card player magazine, here is just another instance of them presenting a favorable image to a poker room in this case the Taj Mahal. I would be in favor of the Card player doing a more honest job of reporting as opposed to shedding such a favorable light on every card room across the country. Wouldn’t this provide a better service to the readers? Oh and it would be appreciated if some Card Player staff member doesn’t respond to this post by saying “we as a practical matter must try to appease our advertisers”. This type of journalism is inexcusable.

Answer 2:

Card player and Poker Digest are both nothing but advertisements with articles sprinkled in. Neither magazine will ever do an honest review on a card room, simply because it might offend an advertiser. Read the articles, gaze at the ads, but don’t expect anything but rays of sunshine when you read an article about a card room/cruise/casino/tournament.

Answer 3:

Of the four CP covers he’s had, two were unconnected with any sponsor, while one was for the first major tournament ever held on the east coast (World Poker Finals, which he founded, named, and hosted) and one was for the four-color deck (Yaquinto, which he promoted). The other two covers were given because two different publishers thought that he deserved them. And he felt honoured. Significantly, the four Caro covers have been ranked #1, #2, #4, and
#7 as the all-time most interesting in Card Player history. That’s out
of nearly 400 issues that readers could choose from. He feels honoured by that, too. It makes him feel humble.

Okay, I know there are 270,725 different 4 card combos. Also, I’m pretty sure that the odds of 2 players playing heads-up both getting aces are 1/270,725. (Even though they could each get their aces in six different ways, it doesn’t seem to change the odds to me.) But what about two pairs of aces dealt to any two players in a ten-handed game? What about the number of different ways 10 people can get two cards? Is it 52 taken 20 at a time? = 125,994,627,894,135 or is it 52 taken 2 at a time * 50 taken two at a time * etc…down to 34 taken two at a time? (I would use the proper combination notation if I could just figure out how to type it in.) Anyway, there’s the question, odds masters. What’s the easy way (or the hard way) to determine the odds of two people getting aces in a ten-handed game, or two-handed game or with x number of players?

Answer 1:

Say 10 players…start with 20/52 that the ace of spades is in some player’s hand, and if so, then either 1/51 that the ace of hearts is in the same player’s hand, or 18/51 that it’s in a different player’s hand…and so on.

Answer 2:

Here is an alternate method to the one indicated by Barbara. Suppose you have ten players. 20 cards are dealt (two to each player). In order for two of the players to each have a pair of aces, all four aces must be included in the 20 dealt cards. The probability of this occurring is C(48,16)/C(52,20) = .017896 (1), where C(48,16) is the number of ways to choose 16 objects out of 48, etc. Now, assuming that all 4 aces are included in the 20 cards dealt, the probability that player 1 and player 2 each get a pair of aces is C(4,2)/[C(20,2)*C(18,2)] = .000206398 There are C(10,2) = 45 choices of two players out of the 10 (and each selection of two players is “independent” to any other different selection of two players), so the probability of any two players getting dealt the pair of aces GIVEN that the 4 aces were in the 20 cards is .000206398*45 = .00928791 (2) The probability you desired is the product of (1) and (2); i.e., given 10 handed hold’em, the probability that two people are each dealt a pair of aces = .017896)*(.00928791) = .0001662 So, in a 10 handed game one would expect to see (on average) such an event about once every 6016 hands.

Answer 3:

Another straightforward way ‘to skin this cat’… 20/52 that the ace of spades is in SOME player’s hand, and then 3/51 that that same player’s ‘other’ card is one of the other three aces, and then 18/50 that the ‘next’ ace is in some other player’s hand, and then 1/49 that the last ace is in the same other hand.

You are on the button with A2 suited with KK. 5 players in, all call a preflop raise from the BB.  The flop comes 4 6 7…two suited, but not your suit.  SB opens, call, call raise.  It’s on you.  What do you do? Raise? Fold? Call?  Would your action differ at higher limits? Or even PL? Personally, I think this is a dangerous situation that probably is a chip burner. But find myself reaching for chips nevertheless.  Anyone out there disciplined enough to toss this hand? Or is calling or raising better here?

We probably need more information about the players.  Note, the pre-flop raiser probably doesn’t have A-2 unless he’s tricky (we don’t know) and the texture of the flop is one which hits many hands — gives them the nut straight or draw to the nut straight with possible low backup.  I would not fold here (probably just call) I have a question for you.  Why have you chosen not to raise pre-flop in Omaha?  If you can’t raise with this hand on the button, I’m assuming you never raise.  Even a newbie, weak/tight guppie like Badger would raise with this hand.  This is a more serious leak in your game than any decision you make on flopping the nut low with five-way action and some chance of being counterfeited.

Answer 2:

Lee’s right. You’re on the button with A-2 suited-K-K. Reraise. Hope the original raiser reraises. If you can 4 bet, cap it. Here’s your chance to get a bunch of dead money in the pot. After the flop it appears you still have four players, so reraising again is certainly in order. Get as much money as you can from anyone drawing to second and probably worse nuts. Make them pay and hope they never learn the error of their ways. This is the beauty of Omaha HiLo. These people never seem to learn. So what if you can win only half the pot. If you are using the late position to build the pot there ill be more than enough money to go around even if you have to share the nut low. Scooping the pot is what you should play for in Omaha8. That’s where you make your big wins. However, maximizing small wins like this one is what can keep you competitive while waiting on that big scoop.

Answer 3:

In 3-6: Raise preflop. Cap it if the BB reraises. On the flop, I’d probably reraise here. If you think a reraise will knock out the two callers, you might just call. In 75-150: Raise preflop. Cap it if the BB reraises. On the flop, a reraise will knock out players drawing dead, so just call here. In pot-limit: Just limp preflop and call the raise. If there is a pot bet, two calls, and a large raise, you should probably fold with just the current nut low and no high draw or counterfeit insurance. What do all those people have? It’s almost inconceivable that many good players all hit this flop.