Do the Number of Players at the Table Affect the Let It Ride Odds?

Playing Let it Ride recently. There was a debate at the table — the group, other than me, agreed that it is better for the players when there is a full table. I said it shouldn’t matter — the odds should be the same for a player. I think they just see more hands when the table is full. Since it's inevitable that somebody wins eventually, it gives the impression that players are doing well! Wouldn’t the number of players at the table be irrelevant in other casino games as well, maybe with the exception of blackjack where the players can see more cards before making a decision?

[Editor's Note: We handed this one off to Michael Shackleford, the Wizard of Odds himself. His book Gambling 102 will be coming out in a new edition soon.]

This is one of the most frequently asked questions I get. It's framed lots of ways, but always comes down to whether the odds are better, worse, or the same depending on the number of players at the table. Usually it gets asked about blackjack. Those who believe more players improve the odds argue that a blackjack table with five players will see five times the number of blackjacks (not counting dealer blackjacks) as a table with one player. And yes, that's true, but any one player will get only 20% of those player blackjacks, so 20% of five times as many blackjacks leaves you with the same number as if you were playing alone.

Same logic with Let it Ride. If there are five players at the table, you'll see five times as many premium hands as if you play alone, but you'll get only 20% of them.

I have to offer some caveats, lest everybody and his brother write in to correct me.

My answer above doesn't consider the fact that hands per hour decrease as the number of players increases. So hourly expected losses will decrease at a full table, assuming the same average bet.

Second, my answer doesn't consider player collusion. If you can see the cards of the other players and correctly implement that information into your strategy, the house edge goes down significantly or even swings to a player advantage, given enough players and the right game.

You correctly note that in blackjack, seeing the other player's cards can affect how to play a borderline hand, like 16 vs. 10. For more information on player collusion in poker-based games, I highly recommend James Grosjean's Beyond Counting.

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JimBeam Jan-04-2019

DepthCharging

I have no idea if it’s alllowed at Let It Ride (not really my game) but there might also be an advantage if you can play multiple hands. There’s an old school strategy in blackjack card
Counting known as depth charging where you play multiple hands with different, increasing, values on each hand. By the time you get to the last hand, you have a lot
More information to work with and can (in theory) play that hand optimally. 

Also, I love Shacklefords casual recommendation to go read Grosjean’s book. Isn’t that book still impossible to find? I don’t know the current market but I know there was a time when people were paying thousands for a copy, when they could find it that is.

Ray Jan-04-2019

multiple hands

I was under the impression that if you play multiple hands at a table game (specifically blackjack), that the base bet must be the same for each hand you play.

Randall Ward Jan-04-2019

let it ride

pretty sure you can't play multiple hands, that would give you a large advantage, and this game used to have very strict rules.  LIR is still my favourite game even though I know it has a huge house advantage. it's relaxing and you can drink while playing, and a good full table can be fun just like craps or roulette.

Anthony Curtis Jan-04-2019

Depth Charging Came from Snyder

Yes, Arnold Snyder introduced the concept of depth charging years ago in his book Blackbelt in Blackjack. It was a single-deck strategy that had more merit back when there were a lot more single decks with good rules being dealt deeply. Blackbelt in Blackjack is one of the better books on the game and I believe the first to introduce an unbalanced count. It was called Red 7. The unbalanced concept is also the key to our book Knock-Out Blackjack.

Question of the Day - 04 January 2019

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