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Gaming Guru  Playing Those Traditional Slots11 April 2021
By John Grochowski My list of readers I've heard from multiple times includes a corps of players who still love slots with three mechanical reels. Most have adapted to the video age by playing a mix of games. Some have switched to playing video and skipping the reel-spinners. Only a few refuse to play video slots at all. I reached out to those who play a mix of reel and video slots and asked what it took to get them to welcome video slots into their rotation. Was there a game or an experience that finally convinced them video slots weren't so bad? A few shared their thoughts. MANDY: Remember when the Monopoly slots were new and there were both reel versions and video versions? My husband and I were on a trip and the casino where we were staying was one of the first to have them. We played a lot of Monopoly at home. I'd played with my parents and my sisters growing up, and my husband and I played with our kids, too. So of course we had to try the slot machine. When we found them, there was only one seat at a reel game, but we found two on video. Neither of us had played video slots before. I always headed for reel slots and he'd either join me or play blackjack for a while. But we HAD to play Monopoly together. He got a nice bonus on the board, landing on good properties. You could build houses and hotels in those early ones and go several times around the board, and his last trip around he landed on Illinois with a hotel. I can't remember exactly what he won, but it was in the thousands of nickels. I was on the other video game were the board bonus was just for one trip around. I think it was even called Once Around. I landed on Boardwalk. We both got other, smaller board bonuses, too, and we came away thinking it was really a lot of fun. I still love the three reels, but I've taken little video detours ever since. ARNOLD: I resisted for a long, long time. My games were always Double Diamond, Red, White and Blue and, of course, Wheel of Fortune. I wanted nothing to do with the video slots. I always liked the idea that when I won, I was going to get multiple times my bet. Those little unwins, as I call them, where your payoff is less than your bet were not for me. My wife finally got me to try when those U-Spin games came out. You know the ones. In the bonus, there's a wheel on the video screen and you touch the screen and drag the wheel to move it, and let go with some big momentum to spin it. A real wheel on top is synced so it spins and lands in the same place as your video wheel. I'm an engineer, and I thought that was really clever technology. I enjoyed playing the game. I gave other videos a chance, and now I mix it up between reels and video. SUZIE: Breakfast at Tiffany's won me over. I love the movie. I still watch it every year. When the slot came out, I couldn't pass it up. I loved it. I had some nice bonuses, but I'd have loved it even if I'd just gotten to pet the cat. Reels are still my favorites, though. If a casino still has Double Diamond, that's where I'll be. Look for John Grochowski on Facebook (http://tinyurl.com/7lzdt44) and Twitter (@GrochowskiJ). This article is provided by the Frank Scoblete Network. Melissa A. Kaplan is the network's managing editor. If you would like to use this article on your website, please contact Casino City Press, the exclusive web syndication outlet for the Frank Scoblete Network. To contact Frank, please e-mail him at fscobe@optonline.net. Dealer Mistakes8 April 2021
Question: I was once at a Three Card Poker table and the dealer paid out all bets even when they didn’t qualify. I never said a word. I figured it wasn’t my job to properly train the dealers or to supervise them. Of course, the benefit was modest. ANSWER: I think most table games players have seen situations where payoffs were made by mistake. ... (read more)
Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda Tales4 April 2021
Reader reports on unusual casino happenings include a set of "woulda, coulda, shoulda" tales. "If only I'd made this move or not made that one, I woulda, coulda, shoulda won big." The latest comes from Giorgi, a video poker player who had second thoughts about a play he made on a quarter 9-6 Double Double Bonus Poker machine. ... (read more)
Doubling 11 versus Dealer 101 April 2021
QUESTION: I was thinking about blackjack hands I consider a close call, and started wondering how big a mistake it is to go contrary to basic strategy. The one that really throws me is hard 11 when the dealer has a 10 up. The strategy charts say to double down. I suppose you must win more often than you ... (read more)
Craps SystemsCraps players love systems, trying to mix and match bets in hopes of finding the magical formula that will beat the casino. Just about any system will work sometimes, and when a player wins with a system, it encourages another try, and another, and another. In the long run, of course, the casino comes out on top. ... (read more)Multi Strike PokerIt was a Friday morning in Joliet, and I'd been playing a little video poker aboard Empress II, waiting for the 11 a.m. opening of Empress I and its video poker room. Soon, if it hasn't already happened by the time you read this, Empress' new barge will open, ending such little scheduling inconveniences, but on this day, I found myself passing time with a little quarter Triple Play Poker. ... (read more)Comps - The BasicsA colleague of mine likes to refer to casino comps as "free stuff." And for those who know their basic strategy in blackjack, optimal strategies for certain video poker games and who know how comping systems work, the "stuff" really is free--the value ... (read more)Basic Strategy for Spanish 21In the last couple of weeks, we've looked at basic strategy in blackjack. Sit down at most blackjack tables in any jurisdiction, play basic strategy and you'll narrow the house edge to a half-percent or so, perhaps a little more or a little less depending on house rules. ... (read more)Single-Deck Basic StrategyThose whose casino memories stretch back far enough may recall a time when the standard "Las Vegas Strip" blackjack game was dealt from a single deck of cards, with the dealer standing on all 17s. That started to change in the 1960s as operators grew ... (read more)John Grochowski |
John Grochowski |
