Open Another Table

Copyright © Eliot Jacobson, Ph.D.

Quite often the success of table games is measured by the antiquated and inaccurate “hold.”(And for some reason, it has become the final nail in the coffin for many a table games operator.) How much profit a game generates and how much it holds have very little to do with each other. The hold simply measures how many times a typical player churns his investment before cashing out. If players buy in for a lot and play a little, the hold goes way down. If players make frequent but small buy-ins, the hold goes way up. Moreover, the hold can be directly affected by any number of trivial matters having nothing to do with gaming: lighting, noise, room temperature, special events, and so on.

The typical hold for blackjack is about 14%, but on the Las Vegas strip it is much worse, about 12%. There are some casinos that achieve a hold upwards of 18% -- local casinos in hard to reach outlying areas. But when management demands to know why the hold is down and wants you to do something about it, you have to figure something out.

Because the hold measures the total number of times a player’s buy-in is played before cashing out, there are two obvious ways to increase the hold. First of all, hold can be increased by keeping players at the table for a longer period of time (“hold” on to them). However, once the casino has established superior service by having a comfortable and fun environment with free drinks, there is really very little more that can be done to increase the duration of play. The other approach to increasing the hold is to get each player to play more hands in the fixed period of time they are seated at the table.

Along these lines, I’m going to offer five tips for fine tuning your pit operations to increase your hold percentage.

Tip 1. Open another table.

Ideally, you want to have a lot of open tables, with a minimum number of players active at each table. Nothing is worse for the hold than seven players at a table, with a party climate, slow play, and frequent buy-ins and color-ups. Harrah’s figured out an easy solution; they reduced the number of spots at each blackjack table to five (from the typical seven). However, the extra players still need somewhere to go. The solution: open another table. Not having enough open tables at the right limits is the number one reason for reduced hold.

Here is a simple rule: if there is a 25% chance that a table will be occupied in the next hour if it is opened, then open it. Similarly, if an already open table has less than a 25% chance of occupancy in the next hour, then close it. It is much better to have an open empty table than a crowded and slow full table.

Tip 2. Hold up play for as short a time as possible.

Any dispute at the tables holds up play and should be resolved as quickly as possible. Most disputes can be handled in a way that does not stop the game. Likewise, other game procedures can be streamlined. Do you have dealers performing functions that may not be required (for example, frequently straightening the rack)? Have fills less often, but make them larger. Do you really need to change decks so frequently? Do you have to approve every chip purchase? Streamline your procedures. Go through everything and weed out those procedures that are not absolutely necessary. Figure out ways of speeding up those procedures that are necessary.

Tip 3. Manipulate the table minimums to drive players to open tables.

If you have five empty $25- $50 (and above) minimum games and three full tables at a $10 minimum, then you are only hurting your hold. Reduce some of the minimums at these higher limit tables in order to accommodate business conditions that are presently available. Always have enough tables open so that the vast majority of your players (the low limit players) can find an empty (or nearly empty) table. You would be surprised at the extent of the poor limit management that is practiced in many casinos, costing the operator valuable revenue.

Tip 4. Encourage fast play by the dealers.

Schedule dealers with the ability to produce a lot of hands per hour on games that will experience the most volume of play. Also, remind the dealers occasionally why it is important to the casino to keep the games moving at a good pace. Friendly dealers are an important asset, but “friendly” and “fast” (although a rare commodity) are not exclusive. Dealers who continue to “squeeze” out hands for the players while talking about their pet cats are best reassigned to other games.

Tip 5. Use shuffle machines or increase penetration between shuffles.

Any time spent shuffling is time that hands are not being played and directly contribute to lowering the hold. Automatic shuffle machines are great, but they have fixed leasing costs (Unless you purchased them) and may also not be a financially viable proposition to some casino environments.

If you don’t want to incur the cost of an automatic shuffler, then simply increase the depth of the cut-card. There is simply no reason to cut more than two decks off of a six deck hand-shuffled game or to deal less than 60% of the cards from a double deck game. Likewise, use a faster shuffle procedure. For a shoe game, the stepladder shuffle is strong, fast, and safe.

Finally, most players (and dealers) have a low acceptance level for continuous shuffle machines. Do not overload your tables with continuous shufflers, as an empty table cannot hold a dime; there is no point in increasing the number of hands per hour if the players just play a couple of hands and go elsewhere.

Increasing the hold is not rocket science; it is mostly common sense. The two ways to increase hold are to keep the players playing the games longer and to have them play more hands for any fixed period. Most casinos focus on duration of play when the focus should be on increasing the number of hands per player during a fixed period. Your hold is bound to be increased by readdressing these basics.