Dear Mark: Microsoft Solitaire game has an optional setting called Vegas rules. Is there really such a thing as a Vegas Solitaire? Bob B.
Some casinos, and not just in Vegas, offer both machine and table variations of solitaire, as does the classic Klondike game. You know, Bob, the one you’re playing when the boss isn’t looking. Comparable to conventional solitaire, the further you progress, the more you win, and if you successfully complete the game, you score a jackpot.
As with Klondike solitaire, a standard 52-card pack is used, with 28 cards dealt in seven piles; the first pile has one card; the second pile two, and so on up to seven cards in the last pile. The top card of each pile is face up, with all others face down. The four aces form the foundations, and each ace must be played to a row above the tableau with cards in the appropriate suit played face-upon the foundations, in sequence, as they become available. To score the jackpot, you must have the four suits built onto the foundations from aces up through kings.
With Las Vegas Solitaire, a player would pay an upfront amount to participate, let’s say $52, or $1 per card, to play the game. The house pays the player $5 for each card hat winds up on the foundation. After you go through the remainder of the deck one time, the dealer counts up the number of cards on the foundation and pays a certain amount for each one. Thus 10 cards "upstairs" on the foundations would allow you to just about break even; 11 or more and you are ahead of the game. Betting amounts and jackpots vary from casino to casino.
It’s unlikely that Las Vegas Solitaire can survive as a table game, since it is wildly labor intensive. Even if it were to grow in popularity, the table takes up a lot of real estate. Here you have one dealer and one player going through the deck at a molasses pace. In the time it takes a player to get through one game of solitaire, five players could have played 10 hands of blackjack. Clearly, the house can make a bigger profit by using the dealer more effectively.
Dear Mark: Why, when you leave a blackjack game, do they exchange your chips for a larger denomination? Is this done for accounting purposes? Jason F.
Called “coloring up,” Jason, the dealer exchanges smaller denomination chips for a few larger valued chips for a few different reasons. The table could be low of a smaller denomination chip and by coloring you up they can conveniently fill the tray.
You may have too many chips to handle easily, so for your convenience the dealer will color you up. You will typically hear "May I exchange those reds for green chips before you leave." The dealer will then inform the pit boss, "Color up, red for green," which leads to the accounting part of your question. Since the floor person was notified, he can see how well or poorly you did money-wise.
Gambling Wisdom of the Week: “Playing poker for fun, with no money involved, is like playing tennis with the net down.” --VP Pappy