Casinos can be a great place to have a night out, especially if it’s a casino with great restaurants and entertainment. The games, though, can be overwhelming, especially if you have no idea how to play them. If you’re interested in trying out a few games, we’ve provided short descriptions of a few classic gambling games. Most well-outfitted casinos will offer the games described below. Coos Bay Casino in Oregon, for instance, is a good-sized but not Vegas-ly enormous casino that offers all these table games and a few more.
Blackjack
In this popular card game, the objective is to beat the dealer–you don’t actually play against the other players. The aim is to get cards that add up to 21 without going over. Each player gets two cards, including the dealer. Each round, the player chooses whether to draw another card or not. The player can draw as many cards as he or she wants in order to get a higher hand–the gamble is whether the player will draw a card that puts the hand over 21, in which case, it’s an automatic loss. A Blackjack is when the player has a 10 and an Ace. If the player has a Blackjack, he or she automatically wins the hand, unless the dealer also has a Blackjack. If the first two cards the player draws have the same value, the player can split them into two hands, and then gets to play the round with two hands. Players can also “double down” and make “insurance” bets, but you can pick up those rules once you have the basic play down.
Roulette
The roulette wheel is a large wheel with pockets that alternate in color and in number. The croupier spins the wheel and the ball along a circular track. Players wager bets on which number, group of numbers, or color the ball will land on when the wheel stops. Players can make “inside” bets on the exact pocket (or small group of pockets) the ball will land in, or they can make “outside” bets on the color, whether the number will be even or odd, or larger groups of pockets. At a casino, when the ball lands on a winning number and color, all bets must stop, no bets can be removed, and the croupier makes the payouts.
Pai Gow
Pai Gow is a low-risk game that’s been described as “Blackjack for poker players.” Pai gow is a form of poker, and it takes a long time to play (which, at some casinos, means more free booze). Players are each dealt seven cards, which they split into two hands–one of five cards and one of two. The five card hand must alway rank higher than the two. If both of a player’s hands beat the dealer’s, the player wins 1:1. If both of the dealer’s hands are higher, the player loses the bed. If the player wins one hand and the dealer wins the other, it’s a tie and the player gets his or her bet back.
