Question of the Day - 06 July 2019

The only place I've ever seen this game is Palace Station.  I wish more casinos had it.  I've explained it a few times while playing pai gow back east and most people can't believe that such a game exists.

It's a good game for gamblers who just want to leave their brains in the glove compartment and slurp down free drinks--which is quite a large portion of the gambling public. Most pai gows are ace-high, so the house is getting to push on a lot of hands it would otherwise lose--but the flip side is that you never guess wrong on a two pair or flush/straight hand. I was surprised to find out that the house edge is so low--playing it, it seemed like most of the time, knowing the dealer's hand didn't help me. There's only one way to set most hands, and knowing that you're doomed/a certain winner doesn't add to your EV if you have no choice anyway. It's the slot machine of table games.

Kevin Lewis can find a way to rain on it.  No wonder he no longer writes a blog here.

Michael, the reason I no longer write a blog here is that no matter what I said, somebody would come out of the woodwork and criticize it. Like you just did. I got sick of it after a while--all the personal attacks.

What I said was correct--Face Up PGP is like baccarat--a no-think table game. If you don't like my pointing that out, fine, but I think that removing any element of strategy and not allowing players to bank the game makes it worse than the traditional version, as in, less fun--even with the lower EV.

Kevin, IMO your writing can be very entertaining.  Your metaphors are spot on.  Your devil's advocate slant on everything has value, even when you rain on parades.  But when one is in a position of officially representing an organization, i.e. as a staff blogger on this site, one loses the luxury of being patently insulting to the likes and dislikes of customers.  Now that you left that position you can say anything you like, imply that fellow readers are idiots for enjoying certain games, casinos, buffets, or whatever.  We are equals now. Go for it!

The “slot machine of table games” is Roulette. 
Or Baccarat
Or any other game where all decisions are made before the game begins. 

Sure, Face Up removes the tough decisions, but it still requires a certain intelligence - an intelligence which, sadly, some people don’t have. Yep, I’ve seen people playing with standard strategy, as if playing blind to the dealer’s hand. 

Candy, just to be clear, I was never an "official representative" of LVA, I was not paid to blog, I never warranted that my positions or statements were that of LVA, and in fact, AC violently disagreed with many things I said and asked/demanded that I not say them. I think that most of the current bloggers have the same sort of relationship--they're on a long leash, but a leash nonetheless. I never had a problem with that--it's AC's sandbox, not mine.