It is easy to get the impression when writing articles for this blog that the average reader fully understands the mathematical ramblings I present. Then I am brought back to earth by E-mails and comments like this one I received a few weeks back:

There were two articles in the news over the last week having to do with players getting the edge over the house.

Card counting baccarat side bets is one of the strongest ongoing opportunities for advantage players. These opportunities arise from the intersection of four game protection deficiencies, none of which has a good solution. Consider:

The Natural 9 (NAT9) side bet is the wager that the Player hand or Banker hand will be a natural 9. NAT9 is actually two different side bets, as the wager can separately be made that the Banker hand will be a natural 9 and that the Player hand will be a natural 9.  Similarly, the Natural 8 (NAT8) side bet is the wager that the Player hand or Banker hand will be a natural 8.

At G2E (2013) last week, I came across a baccarat side bet I had not seen before at the Galaxy Gaming booth, called “Lucky Win” (LW). The side bet can be made on either the Player hand or the Banker hand and it pays when the winning hand totals 0, 1, 2, 3, or 5.

A short time back, I was contacted by a casino interested in offering a high rolling blackjack player a 30% cash rebate on  losses he had incurred. The player apparently made this demand to the casino, saying he would not play again unless he was given this rebate.