Gaming Gurus: Strategy Expert Article Archive - Page 136

Back to Back Jackpots

Over the years, I’ve relayed a number of reports readers have sent me about back-to-back jackpots. They’re not common experiences; they’re rare and precious, but they happen.A few more close encounters of the winning kind have accumulated in my email box...read more

Video poker randomness

From Ray:I read your article on the RNG and how it is used in VP machines. It makes sense, but I am skeptical of the randomness that the machine pays off with.I already know what your answer is going to be, but I still think there is code inside the machines that determine when it will pay off...read more

Wild card bonuses

QUESTION: I was playing Deuces Wild, and I was dealt a wild royal flush, but three of the cards were deuces. I kept the wild royal for 125 coins. Later I wondered if keeping the three deuces and going for the fourth deuce would have been reasonable.There were several other ways to repeat the wild royal, with two out of three more cards in the suit I was dealt, and any two out of five cards in each of the other three suits...read more

Ask the Slot Expert: Accounting for free play

This past Monday I had to go play some free play before it expired. I had two sets of free play to play. First, my weekly free play, which is $15, and second, $50 in free play I won in a tournament. The weekly offer was going to expire in a couple of days and I had until the end of September to play my tournament winnings...read more

Paybacks on slots

There are some general traditions in the slot world. These aren’t laws of nature, but in the casino world they come somewhat close. Lower denomination machines keep a greater percentage of the players’ money. The lowest paybacks to the players are usually found on penny and nickel machines...read more

Multi-roll fire bet

Most of the best bets at craps involve multiple rolls. Those with house edges under 2% are pass or come (1.41%), don’t pass or don’t come (1.36%), and place bets on 6 and 8 (1.52%). And you can get the edge under 1% with odds wagers on pass, come, don’t pass and don’t come.Gary, a Pennsylvania reader, emailed to ask if favorite bet status of multiroll bets applied to side bets...read more

What you need to be a good gambler

There are individuals and even teams of players that play blackjack in casinos around the country and make a living doing it. Some of these players have been doing it for over 20 years.There was a family team in Spain who used computers to locate biased roulette wheels and then made a lot of money playing in casinos in Europe and even in the United States...read more

Wild card video poker

QUESTION: I was wondering about wild symbols on video slots. They usually can take the place of any symbol in a winning combination, but they can’t replace the bonus symbols.If I need three special symbols to get a bonus, they have to be those exact symbols, not two of them and a wild or whatever.Why not? Why can’t they make the wild symbols really wild so they can bring bonuses, too?ANSWER: Games could be programmed in that way...read more

Ask the Slot Expert: A warning about Dream Card

Two weeks ago I left you with a bonus question in my What Does This Combination Pay on Everi's Fascination Slot Machine? quiz. Here is the paytable from the machine: ComboPays W W W500 7 7 750 7B 7B 7B20 any 3 mixed 7, 7B   15 B B B10 any 3 mixed B, 7B5 C C C5 any 2 C2 any 1 C1 The question was: What does 2W 3W 4W pay? I included this combination to illustrate this rule found on many machines: Only the highest paying combination will be paid. According to the rules on this machine, the wild symbol can substitute for any symbol on the machine except the bonus symbol...read more

How slots are programmed

Slot machines do not pay out their wins smoothly. It isn’t as if the player wins one, the slot machine wins one or the player wins two and the slot machine wins two or any type of sequence based on close to a 50-50 game. For slot players, such a 50-50 game would be boring...read more