Gaming Gurus: Strategy Expert Article Archive - Page 254

Cashing in with $20 bills

QUESTION: For one of your columns about things other players do, I once saw a person buy in at a craps table for $10,000 – all in $20 bills!It was just me and another player, in Atlantic City, at the Golden Nugget. The new guy wanted the table for himself and a $50 minimum bet.We were allowed to keep playing at $10 minimum until the counting was done...read more

Canceled playing cards

The playing cards used in casinos today are manufactured to a much higher quality than standard decks sold to the general public. However, since they are used at a much higher rate than cards played at home, they are also discarded at a much greater rate.Some casinos will change a deck of cards every few hours, while decks in a six-deck shoe game for example, might last an entire eight-hour shift.One question that comes up is: How many decks of cards do casinos use? One answer is that the United States Playing Card Company, the largest manufacturer of playing cards in the world, sells more than 20 million decks to casinos each year...read more

Deal Me In: Can a computer beat a game that is built on lost bets?

Dear Mark: A book review in the Wall Street Journal appears to claim that a computer can win at roulette. This doesn't appear to be reasonable, since each spin should be random and the rules of probability favor the house quite strongly with the normal double-zero American version...read more

Hot Roll video poker

Ever since I saw Hot Roll video poker at the IGT booth at Global Gaming Expo in 2014, it had been in the back of the mind that I wanted to try to game in a casino for money instead of just in demo mode.That time came in late March, and it happened by happy accident.My wife Marcy and I were out for an inexpensive morning excursion, just sampling penny slots at the Potowatomi Bingo Casino in Milwaukee...read more

Ask the Slot Expert: Report video poker machine malfunctions

Question: Do you ever play Super Aces? I travel and can't find the game in many casinos. Pays too well? Answer: No, I don't play Super Aces. I'm pretty sure that I've seen it on some multi-game machines, but I never played it because I didn't know its long-term payback, I didn't have a strategy card for it, and there were high-paying pay tables that I knew how to play on the machine. This question gives me a chance to recommend a great site for finding the video poker pay tables offered in a given casino, vpFree2...read more

The magnificent seven

Seven is a magnificent number and one of the most profound in human history. You have Seven Heavens in Judaism and Christian theology with the Seventh Heaven being the highest heaven, often where God exists – or just below where God exists...read more

My favorite bonuses

QUESTION: My wife and I were talking the other day about all of the bonuses on slot machines, and the ones we really like. She’s a big fan of Goldfish, and all the different bonuses you get. I think Jackpot Party is just classic, picking all those gift boxes...read more

A remarkable royal flush streak

Note: The player that I interviewed for this story wishes to remain anonymous; I refer to him or her as “Our Player” in this article. To verify Our Player’s story, I asked and received a photo copy of all the W-2Gs Our Player received from casinos.In the January 2015 issue of Strictly Slots, I described my personal streak of 11 royal flushes over a period of two months...read more

Deal Me In: Card counting isn't cheating, but . . .

Dear Mark: When it comes to blackjack, why is counting cards considered a form of cheating? I look at it as someone who is very good at the game and no different from someone playing poker, like players who are very skilled at bluffing and reading the body language and facial expressions of the others at the table...read more

Blackjack with different rules

Blackjack is a game with many variations, and educated players know to look for the number of decks, whether the dealer hits or stands on soft 17, whether blackjacks pay 3-2 or have the abominable 6-5 payoff, and other house rules.Even the variations have variations, and a reader e-mailed to ask about Free Bet Blackjack...read more