Gaming Gurus: Strategy Expert Article Archive - Page 210

Big craps rolls and big house edges

QUESTION: I was just at a craps table where the shooter just never rolled sevens. He made his points, and he didn't even roll sevens on the comeouts.There had to be 20 rolls in a row without a 7. It was uncanny. What are the odds of a streak like that?ANSWER: On any given roll, the odds are 5 in 6 that the roll will be something other than 7, so there's an 83% chance that any given roll will be a non-7.For streaks, the chances are calculated by multiplying 5/6 by itself as many times as there are rolls.For a two-roll streak, you'd square 5/6, giving you 25/36...read more

Ask the Slot Expert: Why does this losing combination appear so frequently?

Question: Many times, and I mean many, the same losing result will appear on the reels. This one seems to pop up often. I'll get single bar - Double Diamond - single bar, just missing a nice payout. If not the diamond in the middle, then another symbol surrounded by the single bars at each end. Since we agree that the results are random, seeing this result again and again would suggest that I hit the spin button at exactly the same time I have done so in the past...read more

The bad times of slot play

We are at the end of the year – well, three months from the end – and I’ve wanted to take a look at the tales told by our fellow slot players about their good, bad and in-between experiences on those infernal machines.So, let’s start with the bad first; then hit the in-between in November and end the year in December with the good...read more

Optimal blackjack play

In my close to 30 years of playing blackjack, it's seemed to me that other players are getting better, with a greater percentage playing basic strategy,That isn't to say the guesswork players have disappeared. Numbers may be reduced, but some remain, and some of their plays are ...read more

How video poker machines work

Stickman,I have been meaning to ask this question for a long time. When playing video poker, are the draw cards stacked behind the discarded cards or are they the next cards to be dealt? For example, I am dealt K, K, K, 4 and 7. I discard the 4 and the 7...read more

Those hidden house edges

QUESTION: Can you tell me if Bally's Roulette game (upright slot) is a true game of chance with the bouncing ball, or if the machine is being controlled or set based on betting patterns?ANSWER: It is a true game of chance with results determined by a random number generator...read more

Ask the Slot Expert: Are there rules for minimum paybacks for the slots in Indian casinos?

A few weeks ago a reader asked for a recommendation for a video poker app for iOS. Being a Windows/Android guy, I was of no help. A reader who uses Apple products mentioned VP Pocket, which has a tutorial feature. He also mentioned that you have to be careful that apps work with your version of iOS. Question: I was wondering who, if anybody, regulates the offshore online casinos that bombard me with e-mails...read more

Darkside of the moon

Only the astronauts have seen the dark side of the moon, which is the side that always faces away from us and cannot be seen from our earthly vantage point. For the rest of us, the dark side of the moon seems a mysterious, perhaps even hostile and forebidding place...read more

Top 10 tips for poker beginners

When you are new to poker, it is always nice to start off on the right foot. So, I compiled a list of 10 tips for beginners, which will help you learn the game and enjoy it right from the start.10. Learn the rulesNaturally, the first thing you have to do when starting out in any new game is learn the rules...read more

Some questions about slots

My e-mail brings more questions about slot machines than anything else. Most of are of the "how can I find a hot machine?" or "how can I tell when a machine is ready to pay off?" variety.For those, I have no answer — you can't tell from looking at a machine whether it's a high payer, and with random results, machines are never "ready" or "due" to pay off.Those aside, let's clear up some recent questions about the slots that I can answer:MARIA: Have you seen those sheets in some casinos that list the highest-paying slots? Some get posted around the casino, sometimes there's a box where you can pick up your own sheet and use it as a guide.They list the top machines and how much they've paid out in the last few days or last week...read more