Being James Bond

Hey HoS, I'm just wondering a few things about Baccarat Chemin de Fer.

1) What are the terms, and how are they pronounced? (I know, I don't speak French, but I do speak Spanish)

2) Are there "cheap" baccarat tables in the casinos (i.e. baccarat tables that you can play on for rather cheap)?

3) This seems an awful lot like blackjack, and before the unfortunate pruning incident, I had a posting here about the similarities and differences between baccarat and blackjack. Is it possible to reiterate what was said?

Thanks!

BJ

Honestly, I think it's a stupid game. However, I only like to play games of skill, so you'll never see me shooting craps or playing blackjack.

I don't know about the pronunciation, but the baccarat tables are usually higher end. You're unlikely to find one as cheap as the blackjack tables.

As for its similarities, it's similar. You're trying to get 9 instead of 21, and you only get a choice of whether to hit or not when you have 5. It's pretty purely luck.

Also,

Face Cards count as Zero, and if you have a 7 and an 8, which equal to 15, your number in the game is then a 5. I learned this stuff from reading Casino Royale. The book tells more about the game, but thats all I can remember at the moment.

Pronunciation is:

Baccarat: BAH-keh-rah

Chemin de fer: Shem-an deh fehr

American Baccarat is boring, you might as well play the stock market for fun. But Chemin de Fer could be interesting, if you're the dealer. Then you get some choices of when to take a card or not, and to try to "read" the player.

Of course, since everyone gets to be the dealer in turn, everybody gets a chance to play that.

I still prefer Texas Hold 'Em, though.

I've played Baccarat a couple times, and, like others, I really don't care for it. It's an interesting yet simple game, but it's almost like playing War for ungodly amounts of money. Not enough strategy involved. I'm with you, Thardey, it's Texas Hold 'Em all the way!

Blackjack requires alot of skill to play well, ever heard of basic strategy? What about card-counting?

Craps is just chance, as is Roulette. Blackjack is one of the few casino games where player skill actually counts for something.

Walther

If you employ perfect basic strategy you can reduce the house edge to around 1%. But the house is still winning. If you count cards (incredibly hard) you turn the edge in your favor, but only by less than 5%.
Another reason I don't like it is the lack of a human element. That's one of the things people like about poker, you're playing against other people.

I see your point, poker probably does offer play against other people, and blackjack offers more of a friendly social situation, because you usually end up chatting with the person next to you. One thing I do like about blackjack though is that I know I'm not going to taken in one hit and the house will always be the house, not a card-sharp

On card counting, I'm no maths genius, but I've managed to learn basic strategy and then moved on the counting and it's not 'hard' it just takes alot of practice to get good. More memory work than maths ability anyway.

I enjoy poker with friends rather than people I dont know, I dont think I'd ever play poker in the casino to be honest.

Walther

Card counting is easy. Basic strat is actually harder for blackjack. I was trying to learn card counting but I found the basics a bit hard to learn without constant practice, so I learnt Texas Holdem instead.

If I had some casino buddies I might learn blackjack and a few other games, but going on my own would be boring.

I wouldn't say it was easy, if it was, everyone would learn it in 5 minutes before going to the casino.

There are harder and easier card counting methods. Hi-Opt III is very complex, whereas the Red 7 count is pretty simple. Even the most basic counting method still requires perfect knowledge of basic strategy and a reasonably long time to perfect your counting. You dont want to sit down to a 6 deck game with 8 people playing and misscount half way through the shoe!

It's not just learning how to count as well, it's learning how to count without looking like you are counting. Living in London, if one casino gets wind of that then you know your going to be barred or shuffled up on in all the others, since you cant go to a casino without being a member, or a guest of a member. And if three of you always do pretty well at blackjack and your always there at the same time at the same table its pretty obvious what you are doing

Walther

People don't learn it because they don't know that it's easy. I didn't even know there were more complex forms of counting, so I suppose I'm talking about the basic card counting. You just have a number in your head, and subtract 1 for each card under 7, and add 1 for each card over 7, then raise your bets when you win and the number in your favour. I forget what the number is supposed to be though.

You don't have to be a member of a Casino here. You can just go to Crown Casino, anyone with ID can get in. The thing is, if you're not careful they will spot you and as you say, start shuffling the deck. That's not really that bad though. At least they don't kick you out.

However, you're correct that you have to have a perfect blackjack game down pat for counting to work, and I'd say that's the harder part of card counting. Then it only raises the odds to just about 50%, so you're still going to loose almost half the time.

When I get a minute I'll post some stuff about blackjack in the blackjack forums topic.

I did write a post when the blackjack podcast was released, but it was lost in the forum wipe.

Actually, if you go and listen to the Music: Part 1 podcast (44 seconds into the podcast) I get a mension from Head of Section

Walther