[Note – I’m writing this while waiting for DNS to update so I can migrate to WordPress…so you’ll see it after my actually time of posting and everything will seem to be in a weird order…sorry!]
It was my work Christmas party on Thursday night and very good it was too. I won’t post too much for fear of libel – and it’s my policy to not mention work or other people without their permission here – but I wanted to talk about a discovery… I discovered a fascination with Roulette!
It was a Las Vegas themed night and there were blackjack and roulette tables upstairs. I didn’t gamble at all (not that there was any real money being passed around – it was all fake), but was enjoying watching others play.
Initially I was only interested in the blackjack. It seemed you had more strategy involved and so more chance to win. Roulette seemed to be a mugs game with everything completely riding on chance.
But I later began watching the roulette in some more detail and I quickly got hooked. There’s 36 numbers and a zero. You can bet on single numbers, pairs of numbers, group of 4, groups of 12, groups of 18, red or black, odd or even, with odds being adjusted accordingly (I assume that zero is ignored for this and so e.g. you get 9 to 1 for playing a group of 4.
The skill seems to be spreading your bets around. One guy was playing a single chip on 30 and 17 every time, and a small pile on red/black, odd/even, or a large group. The (more likely) wins on the large group kept his chips up while he waited to reel in one of the big 36 to 1 stakes. He never did and he ended up just losing chips all night.
A pair of girls came along and started playing hesitantly, with just one chip on number 7. It quickly came up and they were loaded, but they lost it all again quickly.
This looks like a game where most people lose a lot very quickly, but the odd lucky one gets a big win and can walk away rich.
But watching people play was fascinating, and the croupier was amazing, keeping an eye on everything and shifting, sorting, stacking chips with such speed and skill.
Of course, it IS a mugs game, but somehow, I was hooked! I hope I keep the discipline of never actually taking part.