 Newsletter Signup
Stay informed with the
NEW Casino City Times newsletter! John Grochowski Archives
More Strategy Experts
|
John Grochowski Gaming Guru  Random Roulette Numbers3 December 2023
By John Grochowski QUESTION: My wife and I like to play roulette together. Low stakes, just having a good time. We amuse ourselves with number selection. We both like family birthdays. She's a history teacher and sometimes she picks historic dates. I once had a big win playing uniform numbers of the 1993 Toronto Blue Jays. At a family birthday party, we told about our number method. My wife's dad said, "You know, that's borderline insane, both that you'd play roulette at all and that you'd choose numbers in such a random way." He seemed to think following trends on the board with recent numbers was the way to go. I suggested that random methods of choosing numbers in a game where random numbers were winners wasn't any worse than any other method. He wasn't hearing it. What say you? ANSWER: I'm with you. The family birthday method is a favorite of mine. Baseball numbers? Sure, why not? My team wouldn't be the '93 Blue Jays, but I wouldn't be averse to numbers from my favorite teams -- Cubs, Bears. Blackhawks, Fighting Illini. Such methods are no better and no worse than following trends from the number board, regardless of whether you're betting on supposedly hot numbers or avoiding those that seem to have come up too often lately. Assuming the wheel is in balance and the dealer is on the ball, every number has an equal chance of being a winner on every spin. If No. 17 has come up twice in a row and three times in the last eight spins, the odds of it coming up on the next spin of a double-zero wheel remain 1 in 38. Ask yourself, "Is there anything that would cause one number to come up more often than others?" A need to balance results doesn't do it. The wheel and ball don't know of any such need. In the rare instances where one number consistently recurs more often than odds would suggest, there must be a physical cause. The wheel could be badly maintained with tracks worn into the wood, perhaps, or frets between numbers that are tighter or higher in some areas than in others. Such things are rare. For the most part, a short-term hot streak is just that: short-term. Going forward, the odds of the number coming up again are the same as the odds on your wife's birthday or Joe Carter's No. 29. QUESTION: How many royal flush cards do you need before you break up a pat straight? I was playing 8-5 Double Double Bonus Poker and was dealt Ace of spades, King of hearts, Queen of hearts, Jack of hearts and 10 of clubs. My head said hold all five and take the 20 credits. My heart really wanted to keep the suited King-Queen-Jack and go for it. ANSWER: Your head had it right. A two-card draw to a royal flush is too much of a long shot to break up a straight, even allowing for the possibilities of drawing a straight flush, flush, another straight, three of a kind, two pairs or a pair. The average return on holding King-Queen-Jack of hearts is 7.12 coins per five wagered. That's nowhere close to the 20 for holding the straight. If you'd had a fourth high heart, that would have been another matter. If the 10 of clubs had been in hearts, the average return on K-Q-J-10 would have been 97.23 coins. If the fourth heart had been the Ace instead, the average would have been 91.49 coins. Either makes breaking up the straight well worth the risk. 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. What Players Say26 November 2023
If winning was the only thing that went into a fun casino trip, most of us would stop going. With the exception of a few advantage players such as blackjack card counters, nearly everyone has more losing sessions than winners. But service, amenities, and game selection count, for better or for worse. ... (read more)
Those Double Nines19 November 2023
QUESTION: If I have a pair of 9s in blackjack, basic strategy says I should split them when the dealer has an 8, but stand on my 18 when the dealer has a 7. That seems backward to me, risking a second bet when the dealer has a higher starting card. ANSWER: You have to consider the effect of more than 30 percent of cards in the deck having values of 10. ... (read more)
Today's Slots12 November 2023
Long, long ago, when I first played in casinos in the 1980s, I read a piece of advice to slot players that I still take to heart. Before I share, I'll just say it's no mean feat for a piece of advice from decades ago to have value today when so much about the slots has changed. Much about '80s slots has little bearing on today's casino world. ... (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 |
