PLAYING IT SMART by ALAN KRIGMAN

You can bet both sides in baccarat, but you'll pay a steep price

Casino games which accommodate bets on opposite sides of two-way propositions provide opportunities for hedging. Most hedges involve wagers of different sizes having disparate payoffs. The idea is typically to manipulate the odds of winning and losing, or to "protect" large bets with small high-return alternatives.

Baccarat offers bets on Player and Banker. When one wins, the other loses. Here, payoffs are nearly the same: 1-to-1 on Player and, after the standard 5 percent commission is deducted, 0.95-to-1 on Banker. So, say you bet $10 on each. A Player win is a wash; you pick up $10 on that side and give up $10 on the other. A Banker win grosses you $9.50 but loses $10 on Player for a $0.50 net deficit. Given the odds of the two results, you lose $0.50 on just over half the coups and break even on the rest.

It seems lame-brained but folks who can walk and chew gum at the same time bet Player and Banker simultaneously, generally with unequal amounts. They use this hedge for two main reasons, which ultimately boil down to a single misconception.

One reason is an attempt to trick the bosses out of extra comp credit. This approach usually involves two people at different positions on the same table. The first may drop a hefty wager – perhaps $1,000 – on Player. The second puts a bit more – perhaps $1,100 – on Banker. In theory, together, they're rated for $2,100 per coup. Casino aficionados can get stroked royally for this level of action. Far more so than they would by simply betting the $100 per round they tell themselves they're risking.

The second reason is a desire to hob with the nobs in the exclusive big-buck pit. They might therefore sit at a table with a $1,000 or $2,000 minimum, betting something like $2,500 on Player and $2,400 on Banker. One person making the pair of bets would raise eyebrows and destroy the high-roller illusion. But two people might be able to carry it off, assuming nobody notices they're in cahoots. And, at these levels, they also celebrate their uncanny cleverness at only risking $100 per cycle.

It's true that in the cited cases, thousands of dollars are being cavalierly tossed about but the exposure is only $100 per round. In the extreme, the same technique could be applied with as little as $1 actually exposed to the whim of fate.

But consider the first example more closely. If Player wins, the team picks up $1,000 and drops $1,100 for a net loss of $100. If Banker wins, the payoff is $1,100 minus $55 (5 percent) and the loss is $1,000 so the net is $45. On the average, per 1,000 decisions, Player is expected to win 446 and Banker 458; the remaining 96 are Ties and get no action. So the theoretical overall result will be a loss of $100 x 446 - $45 x 458 = $23,990. Raise your hand if you think it's a mere coincidence that this would be precisely the casino's statistical take due to the edge on the $1,000 and $1,100 bets individually.

Betting $100 on Player alone, the edge would lead to losing $100 x 458 - $100 x 446 = $1,200. What bettors lose, bosses earn. And the difference between $23,990 and $1,200 gives the casino a huge margin to pander to patrons who make these bets with luxury suites, gourmet dinners, and limousine or even helicopter rides.

Likewise for the second example. With the figures cited, the house expects to average $220 x 458 - $100 x 446 = $56,160. Compared with $1,200 at $100 per round on Player alone, this is a steep price to pay for pretending you're a fat cat.

Astonishingly, bosses as well as solid citizens mistakenly think betting opposite sides in baccarat is some kind of fancy dancing. Many bosses can spot two bettors working in tandem. And it's not uncommon for casinos to try to discourage the practice, despite their income being derived from the total on the table and not the difference up for grabs on each decision. Here's how the inimitable inkster, Sumner A Ingmark, saw such situations:

With costs based on gross and returns based on net,
A gambler can quickly amass a large debt.

(c) 2007, ICON/Information Concepts Inc

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