Description
the games discussed in this book fall into three major games of chance, games of skill and games involving both chance and skill. First, we have the games of pure chance. In this group we deal with the two basic games played in American and Caribbean casinos, craps and roulette. Both are games of pure luck; skill plays no part. By skill we mean the ability of the player, by his own knowledge and grasp of the game, to affect the final outcome. A player cannot do this in craps and roulette. The only possible skill involved in craps is knowing the most effective bets. This essentially means making those bets whose odds are least unfavorable to the player. There are absolutely no favorable bets in either game. The second category of games is those of pure skill. The typical game of skill, and indeed the most popular and complex game yet devised by the mind of Western man, is chess. unlike games of pure chance, chess is not a gambling game; the pleasure is in the game itself, in winning and in playing well. In the third category are most of the games presented in this book. They are games involving not only skill but chance as well. Practically all of them are card games. In some, like bridge, the skillful aspect of the game far outweighs the element of luck involved. In a game like knock rummy, the oposite may be said to be true. Other card games fall somwhere in between.
