Famous Poker Player Wins $8 Million on Punto Blanco Tables
- 06/17/2013By Pamela PattersonGoogle
- In recent casino and gambling news one of poker’s most established millionaire players known as “The Tiger Woods of Poker” has taken the Punto Blanco tables to the cleaners.
Ivey was in the UK for a visit to the Crockfords’ casino where he smashed the Punto Blanco tables for just short of $8 million. Despite the large win it wasn’t the highlight of the gambling news headlines and rather the fact the casino decided not pay Mr Ivey as he won the cash in suspicious circumstances. The dispute still continues with neither side coming to an amicable agreement as of yet.
Since the news of the casino’s refusal to pay there has been a lot of positive hype attracting Punto Blanco as a table a lot of attention. The online gambling ‘How to Play’ pages have never been visited more than now with the tables jamming up with players trying to replicate the magic Phil Ivey worked on the tables.
Punto Blanco is basically similar to Baccarat. In both versions of the game the Ace is worth 1 point, and 2-9 are worth exactly their detonators, so 5 would be 5 points, while the 10 card and all the picture cards are worth 0. With a combination of cards the idea is to reach a total as close to 9 points as possible on the option wagered, but you can never go over 9 points.
That doesn’t mean you can go bust as with Blackjack. Instead a quick strategy is used to add up the value of your cards if the total value of 2 cards goes over 9. For instance, if you have a 7 and a 5, you have a total of 12 points, which is an invalid hand, so in Baccarat and Punto Blanco you always tale the right most value, which in the case of 12 this would mean the hand is currently worth 2 points. To explain further a hand of 6 and 8 would be 15, so the right most figure is 5 and so this 5 points, and so on.
The differences between Baccarat and Punto Blanco are very slight, but affect the game play immensely. The latter casino table game has no options for the player to make. This makes Punto Blanco a lot easier to play as well as more fun in terms of not really needing much strategy. Also, in Baccarat the cards are dealt face-down while in Punto Blanco the cards are dealt face-up. Finally Baccarat is usually played with two or more players, and one of the players will designated as the banker whereas in Punto Blanco the house is always the banker.
Players can wager either the banker or the player in this game. If the banker wins, then 5% of the winning is given to the house, while if the wager on the player wins, then 100% of the winnings is paid out. Both pay-outs are always at even odds, but players can also bet on the hands to tie, and if they do the pay-out is 8-1 the wager.
When the cards are out, if neither player nor banker have a natural 8 or 9, then there are drawing rules to see if a third card is to be drawn. If the player has 0 to 5 points then he/she draws, but 6 to 7 he/she stands pat. Then the banker will draw according to the players final points total, with the final result being the hand closer to 9 wins.
It seems like Punto Banco is an impossible game to cheat at, but Crockfords feel that there were some suspicious circumstances in the Phil Ivey’s session. Ivey probably won’t be back and is more likely to be back on the USA online casino scene now online gambling is on its way to be reinstated in the states.
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