Faro (gambling)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Faro Lot, New Jersey about 1889

Faro or Faro Bank is the American version of the card - gambling Pharo .

history

Pharo was probably introduced to the New World by French emigrants at the end of the 18th century, the French name Pharaon was shortened to Faro . Faro was the most popular card game of chance in the Wild West in the 19th century before it was supplanted by poker . During this time, Giacomo Puccini's opera La fanciulla del West is playing : In the first act of this opera, you can see gold diggers passing their time at Faro (and poker) and defending themselves against a banker who played wrongly .

Since the bank advantage with the Faro is only around 2.0% (see here ), the casino operators preferred roulette , which in America is played with two zeros (0 and 00) and thus offers the casino an advantage of 5.3%.

reception

The city of Faro in Yukon in northwest Canada is named after the card game.

The Faro banks were marked by a sign with the image of a tiger; the expression bucking a tiger reminds us of this .

The rules

Card sled
Layout of a Faro table from "The Merry Gamester: A Practical Guide to the most popular card, dice and board games of the English speaking world, from ancient times to 1900 , 1903

In principle, the basic rules of Pharo apply (see Pharo - basic rules ), but the American Faro differs from the European Pharo in the type of processing and additional betting options.

  • The banker shuffles a pack of 52 French playing cards , withdraws the cards and places the cards in a so-called faro box ( dealing box ), which is a simple form of a card slide , in such a way that the first card is recognizable. This card is called a soda and does not play along.
  • In the Faro, the players make their bets on a tableau . Layout consisting of the thirteen pique cards.
  • When the players have made their bets, the banker pulls the soda out of the box, puts it aside and the first game begins: the next card, i.e. H. the first card ( banker's card ) of the coup is drawn from the box, the next card, i.e. H. the second card ( Players' card ) is now recognizable, but this card still remains in the box. Only after this game has been settled and the players have placed their bets for the second coup, the second card is drawn from the box. In this way the game continues.
  • If a player bets on a card, he bets that the next card of this value will be the second card of a deduction. In the lucky case the player receives a 1: 1 profit ( even money ). In Faro, you can also bet that a card will be the first to be revealed in a deduction : to indicate this, the player places a small copper token on the bet, this is called coppering the bet .
  • High card or HC : You bet that in the next coup the higher card will be revealed as the second card. The ace counts as the lowest card, the king as the highest . If you bet on high card and place a copper token on the stake, you win if the higher card is revealed first in the next coup .
  • If two cards of equal rank ( split , French: carte plié or doublet ) fall in a coup , the banker withdraws half of the stakes on this card: the bank advantage is 1.98% - as with the European Pharo (see Pharo - bank advantage ).
  • Split bet : In a split bet - the term split is used in Faro in two ways - a player places his stake, e.g. B. $ 10 between two adjacent cards on the tableau, e.g. B. 8 and 9, this is equivalent to two separate bets of $ 10 each on the corresponding values. In the same way you can also click on a square , e.g. B. 2–3 – J – Q or the triangle 6–7–8.
Note : The split bet in Faro is very different from the split bet ( á cheval ) in roulette , where a split of $ 10 on numbers 8 and 9 is equivalent to two bets of $ 5.
  • It is common to count the number of cards that have fallen and to display them with the help of a so-called case keeper , an abacus- like device, to ensure that the banker actually uses all 52 cards.
  • After 24 spins there are still three invisible cards in the box, and the player or croupier who operates the case keeper announces the values ​​of the three cards. The players can now bet on the order of the last three cards, this is called calling the turn , the last card in the package is called hock .
    • If the values ​​of the last three cards are all different, there are six possibilities, so the fair odds would be 5: 1. However, the banker only pays odds of 4: 1, which results in a bank advantage of 1/6 = 16.7% - this bet is very disadvantageous for the player.
    • If there are two cards of the same value among the last three cards, this is called a cat hop . There are three options here, so the fair odds are 2: 1. This bet is offered at fair odds, i. H. the bank advantage is zero.
    • If the last three cards are of the same rank, this is called a case and, of course, it cannot be placed.

Jewish Faro, Stuss

Jewish Faro or Stuss differs from Faro mainly in that in the event of a split, the banker wins the full stake and not just half, which doubles the bank advantage and is thus 3.96%.

Faro shuffle

The - perfect - Faro shuffle is a card trick in which two packets of 26 sheets are pushed into one another (pricked) in such a way that a card from one pile is always followed by a card from the other pile. Before doing this, the magician must of course lift the package of 52 sheets exactly in the middle. In an out faro shuffle , the card originally on the top remains on top; after an in faro shuffle , the card originally on the top is in second position.

The name of this trick derives from the fact that in the Faro, after finishing a waistline, two packets of 26 sheets are on the table in front of the banker.

literature

John Scarne : Scarne on Card Games , New York 1949/65, Courier Dover Publications Reprint 2004

credentials

  1. History of the city of Faro, Yukon ( Memento of the original from May 16, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.faroyukon.ca

See also

Pharo , push (game of chance) , temples , Landsknecht (card game) , heaping ,

Web links