I should correct this. I forgot that if the two cards dealt have the same rank, the bank takes half of the money that the punters bet on that rank. This is a more important house advantage than the odds on "calling the turn" of the last three cards.
A Nabokov connection is that faro is related to lansquenet, which is mentioned in Pale Fire.
Jerry Friedman
On Tue, Apr 2, 2013 at 9:18 AM, Jerry Friedman
<jerryfriedman1@gmail.com> wrote:
This book discusses the game of faro in The Queen of Spades, including the reference to mirandole:
The game seems to be the same as that described in the "Hoyle" I have: a punter bets on a rank, and then the cards are dealt alternately into "win" and "lose" piles. If the first card of that rank falls on the "win" pile, the punter wins; if not, he loses.
The calculation of the house advantage is very simple (there isn't one except for the last three cards), and a precocious child might be interested in it.
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