The Commish

The Commish

            Despite being around casinos since I was about 14 years old, I have to admit that it was only the past decade or so that I learned anything about Pai Gow Poker and Baccarat.  All I knew about Baccarat was that James Bond seemed to like to play it and apparently you play it for a lot of money.  With 007 playing it, I always assumed it was a game a lot like blackjack which relied on a good deal of strategy and potentially card counting, which would be why the suave super spy loved it so much.  Little did I know that it is a game of essentially no strategy, albeit there are some similarities to blackjack.

Read More

An Oldie but a Goodie

An Oldie but a Goodie

A few weeks ago, I wrote about Mississippi Stud, which is a relatively new game that has been growing quickly in popularity.  Mississippi Stud was based on one of the granddaddy games - Let It Ride.  I have frequently referred to Mississippi Stud as Let It Ride on Speed.  The critical difference between the two games is that in Let It Ride, one wager is mandatory and the other two are optional.  Your choice is to let it ride or to pull it back.  In Mississippi Stud, your choice is to make a wager or to Fold.  The math - and thus the strategy - is vastly different for these two scenarios.

Read More