What if a casino gave you $500 for one bet?

Let's play "what if?" And here's the question:

What if a casino gave you $500 to make a single bet. You choose what game, and what bet you would make.

If you win your bet, the casino pays you in cash and you also forfeit the "free bet money." So you cannot make a second bet should you win the bet the first time.

And of course, if you lose the bet, you get nothing. You've lost.

So, what game would you play (table game, or machine game) and what bet would you make?

For example, if you choose craps which bet on the craps table would you bet your $500? One bet only, you cannot break it up into separate bets.

And if you choose video poker, which video poker game would you play? And we'll assume all of the games have a full-pay paytable, but nothing greater than 100%.

You can also choose any other machine, any slot, and carnival game, any table game.

Also, and this is very important, explain your goal for choosing this particular bet. For example, if you choose to bet your $500 on one pull of a slot machine it's because a $500 bet returns $500,000 if the red-white-blue 7s appear. So, you will have to be specific.

You cannot pocket the $500 bet money, you must make the bet.

I'll post my answer after we get a few others. Thanks for playing.

I guess with these parameters, the sports book can't be considered, so instead I'd go with the banker bet in baccarat with it's low 1.06% house edge.

I'd put it on one hand of $100 vp--Bonus Poker only. I don't have a 50-50 chance of winning, but in addition to a fairly good shot at getting $500 out of it by hitting a high pair, I could double, triple, quadruple or get even a higher return for the bet.

This thread has been quiet, so I'll offer my strategy if I were offered $500 for a single bet: Like Rob Singer, I would also choose a $100 bonus poker game because of the potential not only for a basic $500 win with a high pair, but because two-pair would get me $1,000. I would play 8/5 bonus, of course and I would choose the 8/5 over 9/6 jacks or better because if I got lucky and hit quads it could pay much more than quads would pay on a 9/6 jacks or better game.

But I'm actually going to play a variety of Bonus called "Aces and Faces" if available. Aces and Faces is just like bonus except that instead of the quad deuces, threes and fours paying extra, the big payoffs come with quads on the monarchy cards -- the jacks, queens and kings.

I love Aces and Faces but it's not available everywhere. I'm not sure it is widely available in Vegas, and I haven't seen it at Caesars where I play. I play it almost exclusively now at Harrah's Rincon in San Diego County. The payback on Aces and Faces is a fraction higher than Bonus because you are more likely to hold a single high card than you would a single 2, 3 or 4.

I thought about betting pass or don't pass on craps which does give you a better chance of winning $500 than video poker does -- but that's all you'd win betting the pass or don't pass, just $500. And the conditions in the original post rule out placing the $500 on a place bet or field bet or any of the exotic one roll bets on the craps table.

Betting the $500 on a hand of blackjack is another option and if blackjack it would definitely be a 3/2 blackjack table, but I'm not a blackjack player and I don't like the game. Baccarat is another option but I look at it as being like the pass or don't pass on craps, and I'd rather have the potential for a big win which is why I'm sticking with Bonus or the Aces and Faces variety in video poker.

Betting the $500 on a single spin slot machine is out of the question, but I was at Caesars when I saw a man being paid off 1-million dollars for betting two coins in a $500 slot mace in the high limit room. He was an oil man from Texas, I was told.

I also played craps one weekend at Caesars with a gentleman who was a general manager of a TV station in Philadelphia who earlier that day, playing a single $500 coin in the $500 slot machine, hit the jackpot for a half million dollar payoff. But what we don't know is how much money those high rollers put into the machine before they hit.

In terms of this particular proposition, you have just one $500 bet to make.

I see Aces & Faces in the two casinos here in Pahrump, but the game I choose is 7/5 ACES BP because it has the same paytable as their available BP plus you get the added opportunity of hitting a 400-credit winner if you specll ACES.

I don't play very often any more but I do have 2 royals ($1 & 50c) in Sept. in maybe 1000 hands. Even so, playing $2 exclusively with no strategy other than mostly optimal play, I dumped $3500 of that haul in the week afterwards--almost all on that BP game. An 8/5 paytable would have meant little difference other than sitting for another 5 minutes.

BTW--what happened to arci? I miss him. I don't see him anywhere any more.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rob.Singer

I see Aces & Faces in the two casinos here in Pahrump, but the game I choose is 7/5 ACES BP because it has the same paytable as their available BP plus you get the added opportunity of hitting a 400-credit winner if you specll ACES.

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Rob, is that correct or did you mistype? 400 credits to spell ACES or did you mean 4000 credits, the same as a royal?

Yes it was a typo. 4000 is correct. I've hit it once @ the HRH in the early 2000's. It's quite a surprise to see.