The Drinker’s Guide to Gambling in Costa Rica

So I’ve been living in Costa Rica the last month and a half. I primarily work, but when I’m not working, I enjoy the occasional dozen or so whisky & cokes. My drinking habit is quite expensive in America. I could easily spend $50-$100 a night at a bar, WITHOUT buying drinks for girls or friends. As a result, I developed a winning strategy for ALWAYS winning money at a casino. This is only effective if you can count to 21 and drink a lot of booze.

In Costa Rica, most casinos have a game similar to black jack called rummy. In fact, the casino I normally go to does not have black jack but they do have rummy. When I think of rummy, I think of the game where you play with 7 cards and try and a 3 card combo of either a straight or flush and a 4 card with the same. However, in this Costa Rican version of rummy, the rules are basically the same as black jack. From my experience, no other game is worth playing. The odds are always in favor of the house, but Rummy has very high odds and with effective strategy, you can put those odds in your favor.

Costa Rican Rummy Odds:
This really varies on the casino. Where I play, you get 4-1 for rummy and in the 2 special kinds of rummies it pays 7-1. They use 5 decks.

Rules of Rummy:
The goal is to get 21. An ace is worth 1 or 11. Face cards are worth 10. Everything else is equal to its number. The dealer must stay on 17 and must hit on anything lower. You are always dealt first, so if you get over 21 you automatically lose without the dealer taking a card. So the process is I get a card, face up, the dealer gets a card face up, I get another card face up, and now it’s my turn to decide whether I should take another card (called a “hit“) or stay with what I have.

Let’s start with some examples. You have an Ace and a King, the dealer has an 8 showing. The answer here is to STAY! You have a 21, the dealer would need a 3 and then a king to PUSH you (push is the term for getting the same hand as the dealer). If however, the dealer were to get a king the first hand, the dealer would have to STAY because they are over 17 and you win.

Now for a trickier scenario:
Here’s a quick pop question, if you have a king & 6 showing (16) and the dealer has a 6 showing. It’s your turn to decide whether to hit or stay. The answer is STAY. The odds are in your favor that the dealer will bust. The worst case scenario is the dealer gets a 5 and then a 10, making 21. However, more often than not, the dealer will get two 10 cards in a row, or at least a 10 and a card higher than 5.

Some additional rules:

Rummy:
The game is called rummy because of a special rule. If you decide to take a third card, there are times where you can win 4 or 7 times the amount you bet. If you have two of the same card OR two consecutive cards of the same suite, if the third card completes the set, you get rummy. So if you have two 5s and take a hit and get a third 5, you automatically win 4-1. Similarly, if you have a 2 of hearts and 3 of hearts, when you hit, if you get an Ace of hearts or 4 of hearts, you win 4-1. Unfortunately you can’t roll-over from King of hearts, Ace of hearts, to 2 of hearts. This applies even if you bust, so if you have two 9s and hit (bad idea) and get a 3rd 9, you automatically win 4-1 even though you are over 21. The only way to win 7 to 1 is in special cases of rummy, if you get three 7s (making 21) or 6,7,8 of the same suite (making 21) then you win 7 times the amount you bet.

Splits:
If you have two of the same card, you can split them to make two new hands. So, let’s say you have two 8s making your hand a 16 and you are betting $1. You can bet an additional $1 and split your eights to make two hands. Now the strategy here is to hope you get two face cards in a row, so you have two hands of 18, instead of one hand of 26 (“bust“, you lose). Unless the dealer is showing an Ace and you are counting cards, you NEVER want to split face cards. Two eights are a great time to split, but if you see the dealer has a face card or an Ace, it’s a tough call. You should assume that the next card the dealer gets is always going to be a face card (10) unless you are counting cards.

Double Down:
You are given the option of doubling your better to take 1 extra card. For example, let’s say you have a 5 of hearts and 6 of hearts and the dealer is showing a 6 of diamonds. You have an eleven and the dealer is probably going to bust, this is the perfect time to double down. You only get one extra card, but you have the chance of getting rummy or the good chance of getting 21.

Surrender:
After receiving your two cards, you can surrender your hand and give them half your bet. This is sometimes really helpful in saving you money. For example, if you have a 16 and the dealer is showing an ace, it’s probably worth it to surrender your hand and saving half your cash.

Insurance:
If the dealer is showing an ace and you think they are going to get a face card, you can pay “insurance”, which is half of your current bet. If the dealer gets the face card, you win twice the insurance, meaning you’ll break even on your original bet. Insurance is a suckers bet, never pay it unless you are counting cards. The worst case scenario is you pay insurance, the dealer gets a 5 and then another 5. The dealer gets 21 and you lose your original bet (assuming you don’t have 21 as well) & you also lose your insurance money.

Push & black jack:
In black jack, if you get a 21 on your first two cards, you automatically win and normally win 1.5 or twice your bet. In Rummy this is not the case! This is probably the single biggest disadvantage between Costa Rican rummy versus black jack. If you have 21, you do not automatically win, the dealer can also get 21.

Soft 17:
In Costa Rican rummy, the dealer stays with a “soft” 17. This means that if the dealer has an ace and a 6, they must stay, whereas in black jack, the dealer usually has to hit in this scenario.

*Call out to mathematicians with more time than me… does anyone want to calculate the above odds?

The winning strategy for drinkers:
If you’re a drinker like me, the best strategy is to assume you are going to lose all your money but make up for it with free drinks! This means betting the minimum bet (usually about 1000 colones, which equal about $1.75) and then taking a break for a few hands and drinking your $1.75 whisky. I usually sit down with $20 and drag out the betting for at least an hour or two. I usually drink about $40 worth of booze for every $20 I bet. After I’m completely fucking retarded drunk I’ll walk out with whatever money I have left. More often than not, I win. Luckily, I am pretty good with math and can count cards a bit. The best advice I can give is to learn when to quit. I almost always leave when I double my money. Another tip, try and sit in the last seat if you’re playing with multiple people. Other people can really fuck up your betting strategy, so it’s best to see what other people are doing before you double down or split.

Also, the exchange rates at casinos are usually good. They expect you to spend the money at the casino so they’ll give you better exchange rates as a courtesy. I also use this to my advantage. For example, tonight I walked into the casino and put down $100 to convert to colones. I basically got an extra $5 because of the exchange rate there versus a bank. I bet one hand with 1000 colones ($1.75) and won. I then proceeded to the checkout counter and walked out with an extra $6.75 worth of converted cash.

*note: I am drunk as I write this article! If you see any typos or if anything is confusing, write a comment and I’ll update it tomorrow when I’m sober