Gaming Gurus: Strategy Expert Article Archive - Page 133

This New Casino World

Like many of you, I have friends of longstanding I haven’t been able to see face-to-face during the healthcare crisis.Ellen is a longtime reader who first contacted me way back in the ’90s to ask about player rewards.In mid-May, she reached out again, this time to tell a story about what she’s been up to since the healthcare crisis led to shutdowns of live casinos.“When I go to casinos, I still play slots,” she said via email...read more

Ask the Slot Expert: Did the Mississippi Gaming Commission allow returns on slots to be changed after Katrina?

Question: We gamble in the Mississippi/Louisiana area, mainly the Beau Rivage and Golden Nugget Lake Charles. Have comped rooms at both places till the end of June, that's great but..... Wondering if the odds of return will change on High Limit machines, or any machines, because of such a long shut down...read more

Angels and Demons of Slot Play

They hover in, over and around those machines, airy beings floating their powerful ideas into your mind. They are the good voices and the bad voices; the ones telling you to play, play, and play some more; and the ones that tell you to take a break, don’t chase your losses; wise up.These are the angel and demon voices of the gambling game...read more

The Cut Card Effect in Blackjack

QUESTION: I recently heard of something called “the cut card effect” that raises the house edge a little when a cut card is used in blackjack.Why would that make any difference? Isn’t the proportion of the cards the same? Does it apply to online blackjack?ANSWER: Last question first: Most online blackjack games have a fresh shuffle for every hand...read more

Keno or Yes?

Keno is a lottery game invented thousands of years ago in China. It was brought to the United States when the Chinese came to build the railroads in the West in the 1800s. Originally the game had 120 different Chinese’s characters. Later, it was changed to 80 Arabic numbers after the Americans adopted it for their use...read more

Mining Information

Connor is a New York player with a difference: He’s been spending his down time trying to see what he can glean from casino revenue reports.“They tell us how much casinos are earning from slot machines, from table games, from sports betting,” he said via email...read more

Ask the Slot Expert: Casinos and COVID-19

Red Rock has reopened some of its restaurants for takeout and limited dine-in, so I went there on Sunday to get takeout from Lucille's BBQ. I was surprised at how crowded the parking lot was. Then I saw that 90% of the parking lot was still blocked off and we had only a couple of aisles in which to park...read more

Tilt Time

Please note: Going on tilt can have various meanings but generally it means losing control of some type. Could mean betting for too long; betting much too much; or just acting foolishly. It can happen to the best of players and is something to be avoided...read more

Hitting Soft Hands

QUESTION: My friends and I were joking about doubling down on blackjack, not that we’d really do it.But it got us to talking. How high would you really go in hitting or doubling on a soft hand? I guess you’re supposed to hit or double on soft 17, but what about soft 18 or soft 19? Surely not soft 20?ANSWER: In a six-deck game in which the dealer hits soft 17, basic strategy calls for us to double down on soft 19 if doubling is allowed.Some tables don’t allow soft doubling, and, of course, you can’t double in standard blackjack games if you have three or more cards...read more

Multiple Video Poker Hands

A follow-up question about video poker play from Dave. The previous reply to Dave stated that there is a total of 940 possible initially dealt hands containing four cards of a royal flush.Hello stickmanjerry,I appreciate your email. Never expected that...read more