Casino Game 42

I heard that Michael Jordan lost $54,000 dollars playing poker this past weekend in Atlantic City. Does anyone have any information that can validate the rumor???

Answer 1:

Don’t know if that is true or not, but Michael Jordan does like to play poker.  Bear in mind, however, that $54,000 to Michael is like 54 cents to most of us!

Answer 2:

Actually, it’s like us losing about $38.00 in a poker game. Assuming that Mike’s worth is about $175,000,000 (about 1/270th the amount of Bill Gates), then him losing $54,000 is adds up to about 0.03% of his total worth. Now, if the average American is worth about $125,000 at age 65 (less is you’re younger), then 0.03% of your total worth is about $38.50, give or take some pennies.

Answer 3:

He showed up at the Mirage a couple of years ago, the day before the All Star game inSaltLake. He played blackjack alone at a table. 5 hands for $3000 each. Assuming that he plays reasonably well, he might lose 1.5% or $45 per hand, $225 per deal. 100 deals an hour would then be an expected $22,500 loss. Well within an affordable entertainment budget for him, Bill Cosby or Bill Gates (who also show up at the Mirage). But the latter preferred 3-6 Hold’em. Probably why he can still give $5 billion to charitable foundations last year.  (Which by happenstance I think is the same order of magnitude as the total gambling take on the Strip last year).

Holdem and Omaha and even seven-card stud are unfamiliar to most pit players. But everyone knows draw poker. Would low buy-in draw tournaments bring many new players into poker?

Answer 1:

Recreational players frequently play draw.  Offering this in casinos could tempt them into public poker play and they could then be taught the more popular games.

Answer 2:

Yes, I think it would.  I have met no men and very few women who don’t know the rules to 5-card draw.  Non-serious players, on the other hand, generally had never heard of Hold’em before Rounders. Playing a familiar game cuts the intimidation factor in half, and brings all of the wannabe Kenny Rogers’ in from Blackjack.

Answer 3:

The casino is filled with players who haven’t played real poker; but many of them play “video poker”, which is loosely modeled on draw poker. If you wanted non-poker players in the poker game, draw poker has advantages. “Carribean Stud” is essentially a very structured game of heads-up straight poker. I read somewhere that David Sklansky invented a somewhat more complex version in the early 80s. But when casinos learned that a perfect strategy would nullify the house edge, they weren’t interested, although the average hold was similar to the present game, which was “invented” and patented after Sklansky had given up on his game. The slowness of draw could be overcome somewhat by the same techniques used in table games, including Carribean Stud: alternating two decks in a shuffling machine.