Gaming Gurus: Strategy Expert Article Archive - Page 129

Video Poker Strategy: Ace-10 Suited

Most video poker players in today’s casinos use a playing strategy that I call the hunch strategy. They examine the cards that are initially dealt and decide which cards to hold and which to discard based on what they feel is the right move...read more

No Zero Roulette

QUESTION: I have an idea for roulette. What if they were to change the zeroes into just two more ordinary numbers, 37 and 38. Instead of 1 through 36 plus 0 and 00, it would have 1 through 38.Roulette gives the house an edge through the zeroes, right? So if it had 1 through 38, would it be an even game? What about giving the house a smaller edge by keeping 0, but changing 00 to 37?ANSWER: Double-zero roulette already has 38 numbers...read more

Ask the Slot Expert: I never win playing slots today

Question: I wrote one time a while back regarding hardly ever winning. The answer is the RNG works. I must say I have lost all faith in going to play slots. My wife and I have been playing the same machines for more than 20 years and budgeting the same amount during this period. Over the years, we always had many wins...read more

Slot Decisions

QUESTION: I recently was playing the IGT Hot Hit game. It’s a five-reel game with progressive jackpots for seven or more Hot Hit symbols.On one spin, the first two reels stopped on three symbols each. I pressed the button to stop the reels and ended up with 12 Hot Hit symbols for a jackpot of almost $1,100.Did I change the outcome by pressing stop reels, or was the random number generator going to produce that result anyway?ANSWER: Hitting the button to stop the reels has no impact on the outcome of the game...read more

True Paybacks of Slots

With most casino games the odds against the player are generally fixed. An interesting phenomenon with slots is that the odds do change. The odds change depending on the denomination of the bet. Playing at a higher wager level in any other game like blackjack, craps, or roulette makes no difference in the odds, but it does at slots!It is a fact the 25¢ machines payout more than the 5¢ ones...read more

Blackjack Bullies

A few weeks ago, I relayed the frustrations Kristy, a woman in her 40s who has played in casinos since she was 21. She likes to play many games, but hates blackjack because of bullying by other players when she makes a strategy mistake.A number of readers have responded with their own tales...read more

Ask the Slot Expert: Relativity and the perception of time in the casino

A century ago a solar eclipse proved one of the predictions of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity: the gravity of massive objects can bend light. Astronomers compared the positions of distant stars in the night sky with their positions during the eclipse, when the sun was between the Earth and the stars, and the stars moved the exact amount predicted by general relativity. Einstein published two theories of relativity...read more

Continuous Shuffle Machines and House Edge

FROM ANTHONY:I am a recreational blackjack player. I visit AC a few times a year. I have my days and the casinos have theirs. I use basic strategy. People do look at you funny when you hit a soft 18 against a 9 -10 – A.Over the past year Caesars, Bally’s and Harrah’s have incorporated more continuous shuffle machines...read more

Unusual Slots and No-Hole Blackjack

QUESTION: My friend and I have been playing slots together since we first went to a riverboat 25 years ago or so. We’ve seen A LOT of slot machines.We were talking the other day about unusual games that weren’t necessarily all that long. The big payoffs were in jewelry instead of cash...read more

Double Double Bonus Poker: Question 5

I regularly receive questions concerning how to play certain video poker hands. A previous article gave some basic information about the game of Double-Double Bonus video poker. If you are not familiar with this game, take a look at it before continuing with this article.The sample hands are all from emails actual that have been received.All the answers in this series are based on the following pay table...read more