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Black jack is the most popular game in [[Casino|The Casino]]—not surprisingly as it has the best average returns of the three playable casino activities. It can be a good way to gain fast tokens, but alas, it is a good way of losing them too. | Black jack is the most popular game in [[Casino|The Casino]]—not surprisingly as it has the best average returns of the three playable casino activities. It can be a good way to gain fast tokens, but alas, it is a good way of losing them too. | ||
| − | In the game | + | In the game, the goal is to get the highest card value possible without going over 21 ("bust") in order to beat the dealer's hand. Assuming the player has not already busted by getting higher than 21, the dealer will always hit if his hand is below 17 and always stand when it is higher. When the dealer has exactly 17, he will stand if the value of his hand is hard and hit if soft. (A soft hand is when an Ace—worth either 1 or 11—may be counted as 11 without busting.) |
| − | + | Bets may range from 5 to 150 tokens a hand, and the payout ratios are as follow: | |
* 1:1 - On a Win | * 1:1 - On a Win | ||
* 3:2 - On Natural Black Jack (150% X your bet) | * 3:2 - On Natural Black Jack (150% X your bet) | ||
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*No splitting allowed | *No splitting allowed | ||
*Dealer does not peak (i.e. no insurance) | *Dealer does not peak (i.e. no insurance) | ||
| + | *Blackjack payouts always round down (betting an odd number of tokens cheats the player of 0.5 tokens per blackjack win). | ||
|} | |} | ||
Revision as of 10:35, 2 November 2010
Contents
Hive Casino
The casino is one of the fun places to visit in the hive. Whatever happens, you will always have a chance at winning/losing tokens. You get 50/75/100 (Depends on whether you have a Silver or Gold Card) free tokens daily so it's always worth a shot. Remember, if you already have 50 tokens or more, you do not get any more the next day.
The casino consists of:
- Top 10 Tokens List
- Token Exchange
- Slot Machines
- Black Jack
- High/Low Cards
- Rat Racing
- Hive Lottery
- Casino Shop
Top 10 Most Tokens
Here you can view the account names of the current Top 10 players with the most tokens and the amount of tokens they currently have.
You can also view The Casino Bank Account which tells you how many tokens the casino has made this week, and how much profit they have made over the entire span of The Casino's existence.
Most Tokens Earned Top 10
In Sector 1, Hall Of Records you can find who earned the most tokens last week, you will get a badge and a banner for getting in the top 10.
Casino : Token Exchange
Here you can trade 15 credits for 1 token (10 credits for subscribers). It's costly, but if you're nearing the amount of tokens you need for a specific item then it may come in handy. You can purchase anywhere from 5 to 500 tokens at once.
Prices was reduced on the 6th August 2009, due to a suggestion in the forums. They used to be 25c for non-subscribers and 20c for subscribed people !
Slot Machines
This game was originally just a time passer for those with tokens to waste since it was virtually impossible to gain any worthwhile profit. However, since October 2010, the rate of return has been greatly increased so that it is now possible, with a little luck and strategy, to gain a significant profit. Nonetheless, the casino would still turn a profit on average even if players used the perfect strategy (as with all the other games).
It costs 6 tokens to play one round, and you get up to two turns to try and get three of the same picture. The Slot Machine has four different possibilities of symbols you can roll:
| Symbol | Chance | Payouts (three matching) | |
| per wheel | match all three | ||
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4/10 | 6.4%—24.832% (depending on hold strategy) |
9 tokens (1:2) |
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3/10 | 2.7%—12.339% | 18 tokens (2:1) |
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2/10 | 0.8%—4.256% | 36 tokens (5:1) |
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1/10 | 0.1%—0.613% | 180 tokens (29:1) |
Old slot payoutsOriginally, the slots cost 3 tokens per round (historical payouts are shown in the table below). At some point, Zorg doubled both the payouts and the costs to play; while doing nothing to improve the poor rate of return, the change did "end player's misery" faster by making them run out of tokens twice as quickly. For several more years, the slots' rate of return remained so low that it would be illegal in almost every (if not every) real-world jurisdiction. As found by CodeHydro in October 2010, the typical player could expect to receive only ~40 percent of their tokens spent on average; even the statistically optimal strategy would return only 55 percent (and those who held only on 7s would get only average 28% in returns!). On October 21, Zorg increased the payouts to numbers based upon CodeHydro's suggestions (which would have given an optimal return of exactly 90 percent though Zorg tweaked them to be multiples of each other, slightly reducing the optimal payout to 88%).
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Black Jack
Black jack is the most popular game in The Casino—not surprisingly as it has the best average returns of the three playable casino activities. It can be a good way to gain fast tokens, but alas, it is a good way of losing them too.
In the game, the goal is to get the highest card value possible without going over 21 ("bust") in order to beat the dealer's hand. Assuming the player has not already busted by getting higher than 21, the dealer will always hit if his hand is below 17 and always stand when it is higher. When the dealer has exactly 17, he will stand if the value of his hand is hard and hit if soft. (A soft hand is when an Ace—worth either 1 or 11—may be counted as 11 without busting.)
Bets may range from 5 to 150 tokens a hand, and the payout ratios are as follow:
- 1:1 - On a Win
- 3:2 - On Natural Black Jack (150% X your bet)
The dealer's sole advantage comes from the requirement that the player must go first (since the dealer can't bust if the player already has). Nonetheless, it is fairly easy to achieve a better return on black jack than on either the slots machines or higher and lower. Even with a strategy as simple as "copy the dealer" (hit on soft 17) would yield an average return of 94.5 percent. More advanced strategies have an average return above 98 percent by doubling when the odds are favorable and standing with a hand below 17 in some situations—options that are unavailable to the dealer. (Were splitting allowed, it would be possible to get just under 100%, but alas the dealer does not give us that option).
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Full rules and quirks
The Hive Casino's black jack has certain—possibly unexpected—quirks that differentiate it from blackjack that may be played elsewhere. Some of these rule variations help the player, while others favor the dealer.
Rules that favor the player:
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Rules that favor the dealer:
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In the past, the dealer would still draw cards even as the player got blackjack, allowing him to push with a regular 21. After much complaint regarding unfairness, the dealer now always stands on when the player has a blackjack and so would only push with a blackjack of his own.
High/Low Cards
Higher or Lower, often referred to as High/Low, has historically been the second most used form of gambling in the hive (though this may have changed after the slot machine payout increase in October 2010). Due to its high betting limit, this game has the highest potential single-win payout of the three casino's interactive games—three times higher than doubling with the max bet for black jack and over five times higher than matching three 7s on the slots. It also has the lowest average rate of return as it requires four correct guesses in a row as to whether the next card will be higher or lower than the last card drawn. Fortunately, it counts as a correct guess to draw a card of equal value.
You may bet anywhere from 5 to 600 tokens and the payout ratios are as follows:
- 3:2 - On a Win
When guessing properly, one may expect to win just over once per three games. With the current 3:2 payout, the average rate of return while card counting comes out to 84.54 percent of tokens spent.
Historically, the payout used to be 2:1 until it was reduced to the current ratio. The former payout actually made it possible to attain 101.5 percent in average returns, meaning the casino would lose tokens on average if players guessed properly. Even though the payout has long since been reduced, the game description still says incorrectly that one can "win double your bet" (this may change after a ticket that CodeHydro posted just before writing this). The 2:1 payout was available for at least a couple of years.
Rat Racing
Every day at 9am and 9pm, the race is run. The rat which has won is announced in a system message on side chat. If you were not online for the Side Chat message, you will know if you won depending on your tokens, and will be able to check how much you won exactly via the Player news link on the main page. If you place a bet before midnight then you cannot change it. It lists which rat last won the race, how many people won tokens on the last race, and how many times each rat has won.
There are seven different types of rats to bet on:
Nippon - Not a rat, more PaulTech's pet mouse and he is faster than any rat in the hive.
Zorg Junior - Watch out for the blur of blue as this rat races past.
Rocket Rat - Some call it cheating, others call it amusement. The rat doesn't have to survive.
Robo-Rat - The product of years of wasted time, the remote control rat.
Where He Go - A fast rat on the race course, the problem is catching it after.
Road Kill - He may only have 3 legs, but he sure can hop like a kangaroo.
Old Sparky - Magnetically charged this rat glows yellow with electricity.
Hamster in Disguise - Speed and agility are good descriptive words. But not for this rodent.
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You can bet anywhere from 1 to 200 tokens and the payout ratios are as follows:
- Rat 1 - 1:1
- Rat 2 - 2:1
- Rat 3 - 3:1
- Rat 4 - 4:1
Hive Lottery
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The lottery costs two tokens to buy a ticket and when you buy a ticket there are four different numbers to choose from that all range from 0 to 9. Each week there is a different amount of tokens available to be won based on how many players have bought a ticket since the last pot was won. The winner is drawn on Wednesdays and Sundays at 3:00pm server time.
Achievements
It is also possible to get achievements by gambling at the casino, They can give you a nice rewards like banners and even clothing!