Dear Playboy Advisor: Questions From Men and Women to the Advice Column of Playboy Magazine (17 page)

Calculating heart rate

What is the proper method to calculate the heart rate you should maintain for a good cardio workout? I’ve read that you subtract your age from 220, then multiply that by 50 percent to 80 percent, depending on the intensity of your workout. That equation gives me 139, which I reach almost immediately when I exercise. The trainer at my gym said to push myself slightly past my comfort level and keep that up for 30 minutes. When I did that I had a heart rate of 172 beats a minute.—J.A., Tampa, Florida

Many exercise physiologists instead suggest a different formula, known as the Karvonen method: Subtract your age from 220, then subtract your resting heart rate; multiply the remainder by the percentage of intensity and add your resting rate back to the result. But perceived exertion—your trainer’s suggestion—is a better guide. That’s because some people’s hearts apparently push blood with speed, and others’ use volume. For example, some Olympic rowers in their twenties have a maximum heart rate of 220, while others who are the same age and just as fit have a maximum of 160. Monitoring your heart rate can be useful in checking for disease. Studies have found that people whose rate falls fewer than about 12 beats within a minute after stopping vigorous exercise are four times more likely to die within six years than those whose rate falls more rapidly.

Raise or lower weight?

The trainer at my gym set me up with a strength routine that includes two sets of 10 lifts for each of eight exercises. He told me to increase the weight on the second rep. But a gym regular who has been a bodybuilder for 50 years told me that’s all wrong. He says I should lower the weight on the second rep. Who’s right?—B.W., Mishawaka, Indiana

Raising the weight sounds too much like lift failure—that is, you lift until you can’t lift anymore. That can lead to injury and hasn’t been shown to increase strength any more than just lifting until it’s difficult. According to Phil Wharton, who trains many top athletes and is co-author with his father, Jim, of
The Whartons’ Strength Book
, research has shown that each set after the first delivers only an 11 percent gain in benefit. So a second set is worth the effort after two to three minutes of rest, but the first is where you should focus your energy. A team from the American College of Sports Medicine reviewed 264 studies of resistance training and concluded that novices should start with 8 to 12 reps at 60 to 70 percent of the most weight they can lift. When you are able to complete two reps more than your maximum during two consecutive workouts, increase the weight for that exercise to the point at which the final reps are again difficult. This will typically be a jump of 2 to 10 percent.

The only known aphrodisiac

According to the
Kinsey Institute New Report on Sex
, published in 1990: “The search for an herb, drug or potion that enhances sexual desire has been under way for centuries. No such substance has yet been proven effective, despite claims to the contrary made by companies that advertise such products.” I can’t believe that there is still no effective aphrodisiac. Does the Advisor know of any?—T.Y., Boise, Idaho

The only known love potion is sweat—your own, about three times a week. One study found strong evidence that men who exercise regularly have the least risk of impotence, and another concluded that as a man’s waist size increases, so do his chances of erectile dysfunction. A British study found that men aged 55 to 65 who exercise have an average of 25 percent more testosterone, the hormone that fuels the sex drive. Working out appears to have the same effect on women. In one experiment, female subjects who had just finished 20 minutes on the bike at 70 percent of maximum heart rate had a stronger sexual response to an erotic film clip than those who had been sitting around. That’s one more reason to hang out at the gym.

Swimming lesson

S
ince I’m in my mid-30s, I thought it was time to get serious about exercise. Swimming seems to be a great all-around muscle and cardio workout, plus I was on the swim team as a kid. On the second day, I pulled a muscle, and now I’m sitting here with a heating pad on my crotch. It seems easy to overdo it. Can you suggest a good daily workout?—D.J., Denton, Texas

The last time we swam, it was across the Grotto to get another drink. So we called our favorite pro, Allison Wagner, who won silver in the 400-meter individual medley at the 1996 Olympics and is now coaching and training for 2008. We especially like Wagner because she paints nudes in her spare time. You pulled your groin because of poor technique, probably while doing the breaststroke. So first get a refresher course from either a trainer or a video, then during each workout spend some time stretching and concentrating on form. Use the first 5 to 10 minutes of each session to warm up. During the 30 to 60 minutes you spend in the water, try to use all four strokes—breast, freestyle, backstroke and butterfly—so you hit a variety of muscles. For cardio, Wagner suggests intervals, i.e., swim a lap, pause 10 seconds to slow your heart rate, then swim another lap. FYI: Kicking on your side is good for your obliques (love handles), as is rotating your hips during freestyle.

GAMING

It’s not luck, it’s skill. And luck.

Placing your bets online

When betting online, how do you avoid getting ripped off?—R.M., Seattle, Washington

With more than 1,400 online casinos to choose from, you’re going to encounter a few bad cherries—especially since you have little recourse if you get ripped off (whether it’s even legal to gamble online is a gray area). Because word spreads rapidly online, the Internet provides a relatively easy way to identify dubious operators. Visit the discussion boards at winneronline.com and bet2gamble.com, where players share their best and worst experiences.
Crushing the Internet Casinos
, by Barry Meadow (available at lvago.com), can also shorten your learning curve. While it’s devoted mostly to the strategy of playing for deposit bonuses, the $50 report includes tips on how to minimize losses to fraud. For example, Meadow says he gets suspicious if, over time, a virtual blackjack dealer winds up with 20 or better more than one time in four. Stick with casinos that use reputable software, such as that by Microgaming, BossMedia, Cryptologic or Playtech. The foremost challenge of gambling online is collecting your winnings. “It’s better to have 20 casinos owing you $500 each than one casino owing you $10,000,” says Meadow, who uses a database to track his plays.

You say that gambling online is a gray area. I always assumed it was okay to place a bet at Internet casinos because they aren’t physically located in the U.S. What’s the story?—P.T., Phoenix, Arizona

Most states ban gaming operations, online or off, but only about half specifically make it a crime to place a bet. Federal law prohibits accepting bets across state lines but not necessarily placing them. Nelson Rose, a professor at Whittier Law School who maintains the site gamblingandthelaw.com, says he knows of only one person ever convicted in the U.S. of placing an online bet—a car salesman in North Dakota who won thousands of dollars wagering on sports. “My guess is that the authorities noticed all these wire transfers of $10,000 or more going into his account and thought he was a drug dealer,” Rose says. “When it
turned out he wasn’t, they busted him for betting.” The salesman paid a $500 fine and moved to another state. Other big-time bettors have contacted Rose saying authorities raided them but never filed charges. Many online casinos, including Playboy’s Gibraltar-based operations, block visitors from creating an account if they live in a jurisdiction where gambling is illegal. But plenty of outfits take wagers from anyone. Rose says only about 25 people, mostly bookies also taking sports bets by phone, have been prosecuted in the U.S. for violations, so the odds are good for everyone involved, so far.

Tipping a dealer

What is the proper way to tip a blackjack dealer?—C.J., Chicago, Illinois

You can hand the dealer cash, but the traditional method is to place a bet for him using casino chips. To do this, set at least a dollar chip above the betting circle. (When betting for the dealer, you don’t have to observe the table minimum.) If you win, he wins. Bet a little more if you’re winning, but don’t overdo it. A buck every 30 minutes is reasonable on a five-dollar table. If you’re losing, you can tip less frequently, or leave your last few chips on the table. You also can bet for the dealers at other games such as craps or roulette; let them know and they’ll take care of it. Among dealers, a big tipper is known as a George. A lousy tipper is known as a Bruce, as in Willis. According to one dealer newsletter, other stiffs include Whitney Houston, Pete Rose, Howard Stern and Michael Jordan. That’s a tough reputation to shake.

How to count cards

Can you explain how blackjack players count cards? How do they do it when a shoe has multiple decks shuffled together? Is it difficult to learn?—H.R., Duluth, Minnesota

It’s not difficult, but casinos look unkindly on the practice, and counters must adopt elaborate strategies to hide their craft. In the most basic form of counting cards, you assign a numerical value to each card that’s dealt from the shoe and add or subtract that value from the running count. Ian Andersen explains this method in
Burning the Tables in Las Vegas
: “I start at zero, then add one when I see 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6, subtract one when I see 10, J, Q, K or A and do nothing when I see 7, 8 or 9. But most effective playing and betting decisions are based on what’s known as the true count. You get that by dividing your running count by the number of decks left in the shoe. If I’m playing against a six-deck shoe and my running count is plus eight
with four decks remaining, the true count is two. The higher the true count, the greater my advantage.” As the dealer works farther into the shoe, the count carries more weight in determining whether the player should stand, take a hit, double down or buy insurance. More important, it guides his bets.

Lay your money down

What are my best bets at casinos?—M.J., Michigan City, Indiana

We’ll give you five, with assistance from Michael Konik, gaming columnist for
Cigar Aficionado
. (How’s that for a job?) You’ll find the best odds at video poker machines that offer deuces wild or double bonus. Played perfectly, these “full pay” machines can return more than a dollar for every dollar wagered over the long run. When playing craps, make a line bet on the come-out roll with (pass) or against (don’t pass) the shooter. Back up your bet with the maximum “behind the line” wager, known as full odds. In baccarat, betting with the bank is slightly better than going with the player, but both give you pretty good odds. The casino advantage in basic-strategy blackjack (described below) can be reduced to nil or better if you can find a single-deck game in which the dealer stands on a soft 17, or you have an effective card-counting strategy. Avoid the tie bet in baccarat or “any seven” in craps. And we don’t have to tell you that the absolute worst bets are those big six wheels, Keno and the bonus side bet in Caribbean stud poker.

Did you hear about the guy who sold everything he owned, including his clothes, rented a tux and stood with his family at a roulette wheel in Las Vegas to bet his $135,300 savings on a single spin? He won and doubled his money. If you’re going to take that kind of risk, is roulette the best game for it?—D.C., Phoenix, Arizona

No, baccarat is better. Michael Shackleford, an actuary who runs wizardof odds.com, notes that the banker bet gives the house an edge of only 1.06 percent and that the player bet isn’t far behind, at 1.24. Blackjack, for those wondering, would be best if you could double or split your bet, but that’s not possible when you put everything you have on the initial wager. If the tourist (whose stunt was filmed for a reality show) was determined to play roulette, he should have chosen a friendlier venue. He placed his wager at the Plaza Hotel, which uses a wheel with two zeros; this translates to a house edge of 5.26 percent. Had he gone to the Bellagio, the Mirage or the Aladdin, he could have bet on a single-zero wheel and benefited from a European rule that returns half an even-money wager if the ball lands on zero. In that case the house edge is 1.35 percent.