Gaming Gurus: Strategy Expert Article Archive - Page 179

Ah, that royal flush!

One of the reasons for the popularity of video poker is it generally has a higher payback – sometimes even more than 100% for a skilled player – than slot machines. Regardless of which video poker game you play, achieving the long-term payback percentage is dependent on getting your fair share of “natural” (those without the aid of a wild card) royal flushes...read more

Skill-based slots

QUESTION: Some of the new machines are so far away from what I’m used to seeing that I wonder if they still should be called slot machines. If there are no spinning reels at all, even on a video screen, is it really a slot?ANSWER: I’m going to guess that you’ve seen some of the new skill-based slots that seem more like something you’d have on your PlayStation than casino games.GameCo’s Danger Arena, for example, is a first-person shooter in which you’re asked to gun down robots as you navigate the aisles and obstacles in a warehouse...read more

Ask the Slot Expert: Are coin-pusher machines a good bet?

Question: I just came back from a cruise. In the slot section they had a game in which you insert a quarter and the quarter lands on the playing field. Robotic arms push the quarters on the floor. If they happen to push the quarters to the end, you win...read more

A real chance or little chance?

Casino gamblers are faced with several problems when they play the games. They can come in the form of the following questions:• What kind of house edge does the game have?• How fast is the game? (Meaning how many decisions per hour?)• What is my best strategy to have the best chance to beat the house at this game?Many players can make one or two mistakes, and some sad ones can get all three answers wrong...read more

Top 10 post-flop Texas Hold'em poker strategies

Recreational players can be a bit of a wild card when it comes to post-flop play. (photo by Wikimedia Commons)A sizeable chunk of strategy in Texas Hold'em revolves around pre-flop hand selection and making your decisions before the flop. However, poker would be a far simpler game if it all ended pre-flop and hands were simply turned over and allowed to realize their full equity every single time.Once the pre-flop wars are over, the post-flop stage comes into play...read more

Blackjack mistakes

Nearly every blackjack player makes mistakes from time to time, no matter how good we are. To err is human, after all.That doesn’t mean other players’ forgiveness is automatic, imperfect as they are themselves.My old blackjack-playing friend Bob drew the ire of the crowd recently when he made what he described as “a real bonehead play...read more

A little baccarat strategy

The game of baccarat can trace its origins back to the latter part of the 1400s during the reign of Charles VIII, King of France. It became very popular in French in the 1830s and is still extremely popular in European and South American casinos today.It’s the simplest table game in the casino to learn and play...read more

What's with straight flushes?

QUESTION: The straight flush payoffs in video poker really bother me. They are so rare. Shouldn’t you be rewarded for getting something that rare? They pay less than four of a kind in a lot of games.What would they have to do to make a straight flush pay maybe 1,000 coins instead of 250? Make it pay a quarter of a royal, and more than the 800 on four aces in Double Bonus or four aces without the kicker in Double Double Bonus.ANSWER: Whenever I receive questions about four of a kinds paying as much or more than straight flushes, I explain that the goal of the game designer isn’t necessarily to reflect the true odds of the game...read more

Ask the Slot Expert: Why do casinos replace popular slot machines?

Question: Why do popular slots that receive consistent play over the years disappear from the casino floor? When they disappear, the replacements tend to not be popular, have low frequency of play, and disappear quite quickly — in my observation...read more

Making money

I used to do a lot of consulting for casinos and casino companies, and at times such consulting dealt with slot machine companies (by the way, I was a player-friendly consultant!).I remember the first time I met some slot honchos and one of the lead guys asked me, “What is the purpose of the slot machine?”It was not a hard question to answer...read more