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John Grochowski Gaming Guru - Page 123  When to surrender in Super Fun 215 October 2010
In blackjack, in all its variations and spinoff games, extra options are good for players — provided players know how to use them.
What brings that to mind is a question from a reader who's been playing Super Fun 21.
It's a blackjack spinoff in which most two-card 21s pay only even money instead of the 3-2 we see at most tables. ... (read more)
Free odds payoffs make perfect sense24 September 2010
For those who understand the possibilities, the payoffs on free odds wagers in craps make perfect sense.
Given two six-sided dice, there are 36 possible rolls. Six of those rolls total 7 and are losers on pass or come bets, and also losers on the free odds. There are five ways to roll 6, and five ways to roll 8. ... (read more)
Video poker strategy is a balancing act21 September 2010
Video poker strategy can be a bit of a balancing act. A decision that increases your chances of drawing one winning hand decreases, or even eliminates, your chances of drawing others.
That leads us to make decisions based on fine distinctions between pre-draw hands.
One of those fine distinctions led ... (read more)
A mistake at the blackjack table14 September 2010
On any given day, at any given blackjack table, you'll find players making mistakes. Either they don't know basic strategy, or don't care, or are just playing hunches, but they're making decisions that on the average will cost them money.
My basic strategy for coping with such players is to ignore them. ... (read more)
In Deuces Wild video poker, when to discard a deuce7 September 2010
Video poker is a passion for Pam, a regular reader who phoned for some Deuces Wild advice.
"Is there ever a time when I should discard a deuce?" she wondered.
There's an easy answer to that one: No.
"OK," she said. "I thought you might say that. But think about this for a minute. What if I have four parts of a natural royal plus a deuce. ... (read more)
Mississippi Stud Poker31 August 2010
Every year, I see a dozen or more new table games or new table game bonus bets. Relatively few make it into casinos. There's not the same demand for new table games that there is for new slot machines, and table games can go through years of fine tuning along with proving themselves in small venues and in ... (read more)
Expanding on previous columns24 August 2010
I try as best I can to make this column easy to understand, but every now and again I receive an e-mail from a reader that makes it apparent I have to give a few explanations.
Take this e-mail, from a Colorado reader:
"Hey John, what the heck do you mean by '9/6 Jacks or Better'? What do the numbers ... (read more)
A shuffle through the gaming mailbag17 August 2010
Q. My wife and I decided to take a trip to Las Vegas for our 30th anniversary. We had a wonderful time, but there was something that really bothered me. Usually, we stay at less expensive places, but this time we decided to treat ourselves and stay at Wynn.
We'd reserved at $179 a night, but at the check-in desk they told us there was also a $20 a night resort fee. ... (read more)
Experiences with betting progressions10 August 2010
Every now and again, a column seems to raise as many questions as it answers. That's fine by me. I'll do the best I can with the follow-ups and clarifications.
So it went when I wrote about betting progressions a few weeks ago. Several readers contacted me, offering their own experiences with progressions. ... (read more)
Video keno is random too3 August 2010
Stop me if you've heard this one before. Electronic games are never "due" to hit, nor are they due to miss. Results are as random as humans can program a computer to be.
OK, just about everyone has heard it before. I've written that often in regards to slot machines and video poker, but I don't write as much about video keno. ... (read more)
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