Gaming Gurus: LatestFrom Our Strategy Experts

Wrong Plays for Personal Reasons

One of the things I had to learn when I started to write about gambling roughly 30 years ago was that it's not the goal of every player to get the lowest possible house edge.I write about strategies with the lowest edge in mind, but some players will choose other directions because they want to increase chances at a big jackpot, because a bankroll shortage forces non-optimal plays, because they had a bad streak with correct strategies and want to try something else, or any number of reasons important to them.Every year, I receive a number of messages from players detailing specific plays where they stray from perfect strategy...read more

Is Holding the Ace Correct?

This article contains a video poker strategy quiz. The game is full-pay (9/6 – 9-for-1 full house, 6-for-1 flush) jacks or better.The quiz assumes the maximum five credits is played. The maximum bet produces the highest long-term return because the royal flush pays 800-for-1 (4,000-for-5) rather than 250-for-1 when less than the maximum is bet.Look at the dealt hand below and decide which card or cards you would hold...read more

Casino City’s Friday Five: WSOP schedule and Massachusetts sports wagering edition

The wait is over. On Tuesday, the three casinos in Massachusetts began accepting the first sports bets in the state, including one at MGM Springfield from Bruins legend Ray Bourque who dropped $100 on the Bruins to win the Stanley Cup.Before we look into those details, we have some other top stories of the week to cover...read more

Caffeine Games or Meditative Games

CINDY: We have divided casino games into two categories, caffeine games and meditative games. Of course, there are games that come between these two major categories and we have some differences of opinions about them. These differences are actually no big deal and don’t fully explain what these games are all about.ABBY: Overall, the caffeine games are those that require intense or somewhat intense attention to the game...read more

Massachusetts makes history with retail sports betting launch

There were Massachusetts dignitaries and celebrities, but the real stars of yesterday’s retail sports betting launch in Massachusetts were the sports bettors of the Bay State as Encore Boston Harbor, MGM Springfield, and Plainridge Park Casino all began taking sports wagers just in time for the Super Bowl on 12 February.Mobile sports betting is expected to launch by the time the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament known as March Madness tips off next month with 11 different operators getting ready to make their apps available within state lines.Yesterday; however, all eyes were on the three casinos, and while the Casino City Times staff attended two-of-the-three openings, it was only fitting that all five members of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission – Chair Cathy Judd-Stein and Commissioners Eileen O’Brien, Bradford R...read more

Ask the Slot Expert: Can casinos lower the payback on video poker?

Question: I hope I am asking this question the right way, but think it’s a simple and straightforward question that everyone wants to know. If I am playing an 8/5 Double Double Bonus video poker machine anywhere in the United States, is the expected statistical payback the same? In other words, since it is all based on the random number generator, and the expected payback is, say, 90%, can any state or casino lower the expected payback to their favor in any way? Answer: Let's step into the Wayback Machine and go back -- OMG!! -- almost 30 years...read more

Slot Players Are Different

Blackjack players, craps players, roulette players, Pai Gow Poker players and video-poker players (and players amongst most of the other games) all know or should know the established house edges on all of their bets. I do realize that some players do not know any of this information but it is all there to learn.Smart players know what they are getting into when they play those games...read more

Top 10 things to expect from poker in 2023

The interest in poker has drastically increased in the last two years, and online operators are expected to do everything possible to keep that trend alive.While it is really hard to guess what the year will bring us, we love to speculate on it, so here we share 10 things we think we can expect to see from the poker industry in 2023.10...read more

What Happened to the Royal Flush?

QUESTION: I was playing 9-5 Triple Double Bonus Poker. Not the top of the line pay table, I know, but not too bad for nickel Five Play game.Four Aces with a low kicker brings 4,000 coins for a five-coin bet. It's as much as you'd get for a royal flush.I was wondering, do you get the Aces and kicker more or less often than royals? It seems like the 4,000-coin jackpots would come a lot more often than in other games...read more

Fixing Something

Recently a reader (Norman) asked about a strange video poker game he had seen in Biloxi. He is a disciplined and skilled player. He generally plays jacks or better if a decent pay table is present. If not, he checks for a decent bonus poker game.As he was scouting the games in this particular casino, he came upon a game that did not make sense to him.The game was labelled “Bonus Poker,” but when he checked the pay table, all four-of-a-kind hands paid the same amount...read more