Full Pay Deuces Wild Video Poker, Video Blackjack

Dear John:

I'll be staying downtown Las Vegas. Could you tell me which downtown casinos offer full pay Deuces Wild video poker?

Thank you,
Ray

Dear Ray,

It's been over a year since I've been downtown, so I don't know who has Full Pay Deuces Wild now. Your best bets are the Horseshoe, Fitzgerald's, and Lady Luck. You can also try the El Cortez.

A good source for finding out which casinos offer certain games is Skip Hughes' VIdeo Poker Home Page (www.vphomepage.com).

Best of luck in and out of the casinos,
John

John,

I just read The Slot Expert's Guide to Playing Slots. Very informative.

I would like to know if it is worth playing video blackjack. Does the casino keep a higher percentage than playing basic strategy at the table games? Is it possible to count cards or does it re-shuffle every hand?

Thanks,
WCW

Dear WCW,

Thanks for the kind words about The Slot Expert's Guide to Playing Slots.

I haven't investigated video blackjack myself, but from what I've read it can sometimes be a profitable game. The rules are the key things to check, just as with table blackjack. Make sure that blackjack pays 3 to 2 and check the rules on doubling and splitting. I think in general the rules on video blackjack are worse than on table blackjack, so the casinos have a higher edge on the video blackjack games.

I believe that all of the video blackjack machines today shuffle after every hand, so it's not possible to count cards. Nevertheless, check the rules on the machine to see whether or not it does shuffle after each hand.

Frank's book Victory at Video Poker has a chapter on video blackjack.

Best of luck in and out of the casinos,
John

Send your slot and video poker questions to John Robison, Slot Expert, at slotexpert@comcast.net.

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