http://Catlin.CasinoCityTimes.com Casino City Times is The Source for the latest gaming news, gaming strategy and gambling tips from the industry's leading experts. en-us Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST http://Catlin.CasinoCityTimes.com/articles/49933.html Let me begin by saying what I mean by a weak three-card straight flush. By this I mean any three-card straight flush that has one high card and is double inside or has no high cards and is single inside. A very weak three-card straight flush is one that is double inside and has no high cards. This latter is the weakest hand that one keeps... Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST http://Catlin.CasinoCityTimes.com/articles/49933.html http://Catlin.CasinoCityTimes.com/articles/48254.html             A choice that (unfortunately) one seldom has when playing 9/6 Jacks or better Video Poker is that of choosing between a three-card Royal Flush and a four-card Flush.  All Basic strategy tables for 9/6 Jacks list the three-card Royal as being better than the four-card Flush.  For the most part this is good advice.  However, there is... Sun, 04 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EST http://Catlin.CasinoCityTimes.com/articles/48254.html http://Catlin.CasinoCityTimes.com/articles/47958.html I recently received the following e-mail from one of my readers: Hi Don, I've been reading about the "doey-don't" system of placing both a come and don't come (or pass and don't pass) wager. The books claim that this reduces the house edge on the standard line bet. I think 0.92% is cited. The pitfall is 12, which loses on the come but... Sun, 06 Sep 2009 00:00:00 EST http://Catlin.CasinoCityTimes.com/articles/47958.html http://Catlin.CasinoCityTimes.com/articles/47602.html I recently received the following letter from one of my readers. I'm very interested in the effect on the house edge calculation for a placed 6 or 8 when one is left up on the comeout with a pass line bet. If, say, a $6 place bet on the 8 is left up with a $5 pass line bet, the total amount at risk is $1 and the payoff for a win is $7. In... Fri, 14 Aug 2009 00:00:00 EST http://Catlin.CasinoCityTimes.com/articles/47602.html http://Catlin.CasinoCityTimes.com/articles/47134.html The title of this article is the question every blackjack player needs to ask. Why? Well, if you study blackjack strategy literature you will find that, everything else being equal, the more decks that are in play the higher the house edge. Of course, it generally isn't that simple. Expected return in multiple-deck games can be improved by... Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:00:00 EST http://Catlin.CasinoCityTimes.com/articles/47134.html http://Catlin.CasinoCityTimes.com/articles/46851.html Until a couple of years ago, if someone had asked me if it was possible to somehow combine two games with negative expectations into a game with a positive expectation, I would have told them it wasn't possible. If asked why I would probably have said something inane like it seems clear that it is counter intuitive. And I would have been wrong.... Fri, 05 Jun 2009 00:00:00 EST http://Catlin.CasinoCityTimes.com/articles/46851.html http://Catlin.CasinoCityTimes.com/articles/46542.html Last month we observed that one must be careful when interpreting the house edge. This month the lesson is that one must take care when calculating it. A common wager at Craps is to place both the six and eight. When placing the six, for example, one is wagering that the shooter will roll a six before rolling a seven. If the seven occurs... Sat, 02 May 2009 00:00:00 EST http://Catlin.CasinoCityTimes.com/articles/46542.html http://Catlin.CasinoCityTimes.com/articles/46195.html In general terms the house edge is a statistic that tells you how much of the money that you wager is going to be retained by the casino. There are some technical issues that mathematicians love to squabble about, that is, how should one handle ties and should the figure be based on the ante or the actual amount wagered. These issues are not... Fri, 03 Apr 2009 00:00:00 EST http://Catlin.CasinoCityTimes.com/articles/46195.html http://Catlin.CasinoCityTimes.com/articles/45776.html This past November I attended the Global Gaming Exposition (G2E) in Las Vegas. There was the usual array of new slot machines, video poker machines, and table games. One of the table games caught my eye because one of the co-owners is my good friend Stanley Ko. Stanley, like me, is a gaming analyst and in my opinion one of the best in the... Fri, 06 Mar 2009 00:00:00 EST http://Catlin.CasinoCityTimes.com/articles/45776.html http://Catlin.CasinoCityTimes.com/articles/45429.html The popular game of Three Card Poker, invented by my good friend Derek Webb and now marketed by Shuffle Master, has a wager called Ante-Play that involves a player decision. Let me first explain the wager and then I'll discuss the proper way to play this bet. There are three betting spots in front of the player. The top spot is labeled Pair... Fri, 06 Feb 2009 00:00:00 EST http://Catlin.CasinoCityTimes.com/articles/45429.html