Faro - A True Wild West Card Game

[@Reloadeez]

My father played this game a lot in the early 1900s, I'm 85 years old. He told me the dealer would rig the game, I remember asking him why he kept playing, he said it was the only game in town.

[@AllAmericanCasinoGuide]

Wow, wild story.

[@ScoopDogg]

Was your Father the 19th-century scam artist Canada Bill Jones, because he came up with that quote . He loved the game so much that, when he was asked why he played at one game that was known to be rigged, he replied, "It's the only game in town."

[@ScoopDogg]

@@AllAmericanCasinoGuide LOL

[@SeverEnergia]

Most of the Faro games in the US were rigged per ‘Faro Exposed’ so even of he lifted the quote it wasn’t far off. (Neat book btw)

[@ideologybot4592]

"Nine is a prime number..." /twitch Great explanation and video, I knew nothing about this game.

[@chrisjaybecker]

As is famously depicted in the movie Tombstone, Wyatt Earp actually took over the Faro concession at the Oriental from Johnny Tyler, who had been bullying customers. Saloon owner Milt Joyce agreed to give Wyatt 25% of the Faro table’s profits.

[@OTOss8]

Cool stuff. I wouldn't have minded seeing a few hands played.

[@AllAmericanCasinoGuide]

True, for the sake of length we didn't do that this time, but maybe in the future.

[@theuserwithnoname7688]

Mate, this video was a cracking explanation on the game Faro. I just bought a limited edition Faro reproduction deck, looking forward to playing this. Cheers!

[@AllAmericanCasinoGuide]

Glad it helped

[@AllAmericanCasinoGuide]

Love the user name btw.

[@WPUpioneer]

Doc actually lost a lot of his patients once he got TB a lot of people back then were very leery about going to a dentist that had it they thought one could catch it very easily. TB is actually a lot harder to catch than most thjnk

[@drijkens]

Great video and lots of valuable information. Thank you!

[@PicoPistolero]

Your layout is wrong. The 1-6 string would be closest to the banker and your 7 wouldn't be sideways. From the 1830s on or so, bankers would turn the cards out of a box, most of which were gaffed. On the final turn, cat hops happen maybe one in games. If the final turn is three cards, winners are paid 4:1, it's a 5:1 game against. On a cat hop, it's a true odds bet. Only a very specific type of gaffed box had a mirror or prism. There were sand tell and needle tell boxes which identified key cards so the banker could reverse the order of the deck if someone was betting heavy on a certain card. It fell out of favor really during temperance. It was hard to hide the faro tools during a raid. Around 1890, the numbers appeared and poker became much more popular. The horsehair cheating by punters had to do with the 'coppers' which were used to bet on the losing card. George Devol describes that in "40 Years a Gambler on the Mississippi. There was no way to move a check as the banker was turning cards. Faro was still played in saloons in more remote mining camps after the turn of the 20th century and made a come back in the speakeasys during prohibition and early Las Vegas. The last faro bank was in the Ramada in Reno and closed in 1985. I make faro layouts, and tools. You got most of the basic play right.

[@AllAmericanCasinoGuide]

Your knowledge of this game and its history is impressive to say the least. Can I contact you before we do our redux video?

[@PicoPistolero]

@@AllAmericanCasinoGuide absolutely! I would be flattered.

[@PicoPistolero]

@@AllAmericanCasinoGuide I bank faro a lot in period dress and was cast as a faro dealer in Westworld and the Deadwood movie. I am happy to add anything you feel is appropriate.

[@MichaelTrader-ze1yu]

Best description of Faro I have heard/read yet.

[@Joel-pk8er]

Cool video thank you. Very well explained and fun anecdotes thrown in.

[@AllAmericanCasinoGuide]

Glad you enjoyed it! Those anecdotes are what I love, they make history come alive!

[@tloller52]

Wyatt Earp was also a Faro dealer.

[@AllAmericanCasinoGuide]

I had heard that, those wild west folk heroes all had like 12 jobs. To survive the wild west you had to be a bit of a renaissance man.

[@Eunacis]

FUN FACT: Cecil B. DeMille cameo-ed as a Faro dealer in the 1914 "The Squaw Man"; which was also the first movie he directed and the very first feature filmed in Hollywood.

[@TheRealWinsletFan]

Coo explanations thanks. Where does the Faro Shuffle come in to this?

[@AllAmericanCasinoGuide]

Its a matter of not being able to count cards.

[@kyleh586]

Great video, thank you!

[@AllAmericanCasinoGuide]

Glad you liked it!

[@wrenchhead4378]

Excellent tutorial

[@AllAmericanCasinoGuide]

Hey Thanks :)

[@whiskeyvictor5703]

Dominic: Nine is a prime number. Carl Sagan: The universe has just been destroyed.

[@camedelic1365]

Was playing along with you and I flipped a 5 of diamonds for the player card at the same time you flipped it. 😂

[@CrimsonFox36]

"9 is a prime number." ☠

[@eduardoxenofonte4004]

2:21 "i like 9, it's a prime number"

[@AllAmericanCasinoGuide]

AHahhaha, I meant PRIME as in a good number to bet on but ya it makes me look like an idiot saying it like that.

[@flickingbollocks5542]

I think it is said like 'Pharaoh" as that is another name for it.

[@matthaft2048]

So when are we getting that 2.0 video?

[@AllAmericanCasinoGuide]

Unknown...

[@482ksd]

What card deck are you using? It looks nice.

[@AllAmericanCasinoGuide]

Ill need to check on that and let you know.

[@wallstreettrader1]

Those are Bee cards.

[@aleenasaha986]

Is there a place to play online?

[@AllAmericanCasinoGuide]

Great question! Last time I say a FARO table was in Virginia City Nevada but I have no idea if they are still in operation. Ill look into that.

[@aleenasaha986]

@@AllAmericanCasinoGuide I would love to play against you. I reckon I would win da money haha. One of my friends is out in Virginia. I’ll have to tell her to keep her eyes peeled. It seems like a really fun game. Perhaps I could help make an online game...

[@AllAmericanCasinoGuide]

@@aleenasaha986 Definitely up for that! By the way, the availability of online casinos heavily depends on which country/state you're currently in. If you're in the USA, check out our website americancasinoguide.com for a very comprehensive list of online casinos. I'm sure you can find one with faro!

[@looneycrow7978]

If i were them.. id change rules so bank had edge.. by adding 1 joker card when drawn all players lose who are betting that round

[@AllAmericanCasinoGuide]

Hmm, interesting House Rule.

[@reillywalker195]

In that case, you wouldn't need the burn card for there to be three cards left at the end for the final bet.

[@tylerjensen8126]

I wonder what the house edge would be if instead of on ties the house takes half the wager they take the whole wager. The house card gets flipped first, all loosing wagers get collected, and then the player card is flipped. That way when the player card is flipped and it matches the house card there are no wagers left on the table. In that variation it would be fun to add some prop bets to the table to give large payouts to the players who bet on things like ties.

[@jasonromine1162]

How did you produce two 9s of spades?

[@AllAmericanCasinoGuide]

We were using the 9 of Spades on the table in place of a printed FARO table. Its just there for a visual tool. On a Faro table the suits wouldn't even be printed it would just have 9.

[@KuropinHasan]

🎼three cards🎶🎵 🎼three cards🎶🎵 🎼three cards🎶🎵

[@PartyCrewCoolPAD]

❤

[@sol3cito33]

2:20 Since when is 9 a prime number?

[@AllAmericanCasinoGuide]

Hahahaha, I meant it was a perfectly balanced number, slip of the tongue.

[@rowdyco.6623]

Two ace of spaces !?!

[@shibity]

How does the dealer cheating help when you don't know where players are going to wager

[@AllAmericanCasinoGuide]

The easy answer is rigged decks where the dealer can control the next dealt card.

[@gunfighterzero]

You left out split bets and copper bets

[@AllAmericanCasinoGuide]

We are planning a Faro 2.0 video

[@CD-gh1uf]

Far-oh? Or fare-oh?

[@AllAmericanCasinoGuide]

It should be fare-oh, but yeah, what's filmed has been filmed...

[@faro1875]

You have some things correct but you have too many errors in your explanation of the game as played in the 19th century.

[@AllAmericanCasinoGuide]

What specifically did I mess up on?

[@faro1875]

@@AllAmericanCasinoGuide First, the game starting in the mid-1820s was dealt from a dealing box with the cards face-up. The house edge on an honest game excluding the last turn is based on splits. The last turn had 4 to 1 payout the odds were 1/6 for a house edge of 16.67%. The cat hop on the last turn paid 2 to 1 odds were 1/3 for a zero house edge. In the crooked dealing boxes, they never used mirrors. The card were prepared by marking, sanding or nicking. The crooked boxes could indicate to the dealer the identity of card coming up based on how the cards were altered. It is true faro lost popularity at the turn of the twentieth century as poker gained in popularity but Texas Holdem was not known until the 1920’s. Overall, you did a good job trying to explain the game of faro.

[@tonys901]

9 isn't a prime number

[@jamescobalt8209]

9 is not a prime number. It's the square of a prime, but it's not prime. I can't get over that one little bit of this video. Who in the right minds would think that nine is a f****** Prime?

[@Sshooter444]

Why are you pronouncing it like that? Isn't it derived from Pharaoh?

[@AllAmericanCasinoGuide]

This may be one of those potato vs pa-tato situations...

[@josephchester6641]

Yeah... but it's not the same. I would argue that no one in history, outside of you and whoever tought you, has pronounced it Far-o. It's Pharaoh, pronounced "Fay-roh" or "fair-oh" but never "Fah-roh" like you pronounced it.

[@Mellotronaic]

The iOS app Riverboat Gambler has Faro in it, under the name “Farobank”