Gaming Gurus: Strategy Expert Article Archive - Page 284

Ask the Slot Expert: More on 'game logics'

Just wanted to say thanks for “fighting the good fight” against the slot machine conspiracy theorists out there. I’ve been doing it myself for over 20 years. I love reading your stuff. Warren Davidson Director of Slots Coushatta Casino Resort Thanks for the support, Warren. He's referring to my column on 11/19/14 on this site, You Cannot Call Yourself a Slot Expert, which included a letter from Michael questioning the accuracy of my statements about how slot machines work and the follow-up columns to it. Almost every person who writes to me espousing theories that contradict how I say slot machines work never responds to the questions and challenges I raise in my response...read more

Money management at slots

Gambling writers like me (meaning writers who gamble and who also write about gambling) tend to give their money management advice as if it were manna from heaven. It isn’t. It’s merely an opinion usually derived over the years — years when you learn what can and can’t be done when playing games where the casino has an edge.There are plenty of experienced slot players who also have money management techniques — some good, some bad, some just awful.Before we learn their “secrets,” let me just lay out what money management isn’t...read more

Blackjack and comps

QUESTION: A blackjack expert wrote a blog a couple years ago in which he said a perfect basic strategy player had an edge by playing for comps. He wrote that the casino figures an edge of two percent against a typical player. But an expert at basic strategy faces a much lower casino edge-even in the bad six-deck, dealer hits soft 17, no surrender games that are ubiquitous.What are your thoughts on this? Have you played for comps? Can a red-chip player get comps? Is tipping necessary? Tipping might eliminate any "edge" that you might be able to obtain.ANSWER: Comps can make a great deal of the distance between the house edge and the break-even point, but whether they can turn the game into profitable range depends on the individual casino’s playing conditions and comp rates.In a six-deck game in which blackjacks pay 3-2, the dealer hits soft 17, you are permitted to double down on any first two cards, including after splitting pairs, you are allowed to split pairs up to three times for a total of four hands, and no surrender is offered, basic strategy can cut the house edge to about 0.6 percent...read more

Estimating Paybacks for Video Poker

Years ago “full pay” video poker games were readily available. Machines paying back 99.5 percent to more than 100 percent were available in almost all casinos. With the corporate takeover of casinos and corporate accountants trying to extract as much profit as possible from gamblers, sadly, “full pay” games are an endangered species.Any player who is serious about video poker knows to look for the full pay schedules...read more

New slots on the march

Ties between video slots and video entertainment games are becoming stronger, and we’ve seen slots based on arcade classics such as IGT’s Centipede, under license from Atari, and online favorites such as GTECH’s Plants vs. Zombies, under license from Pop Cap Games.Now Konami Gaming is finding inspiration from its corporate family with Neo Contra...read more

Ask the Slot Expert: No one can steal your slot jackpot

Your "rabbit hole" writer is a casino owner's dream. The "standard deviation from the norm" will break the statistical atheist every time. In 10,000 trials, you expect a run of the same outcome. Unless you are a gambler. I can get a run of 17 reds, and make a killing, unless I'm betting black...read more

Ten mistakes of slot play

Let’s have done with the sarcastic response first. Question: “What are the biggest mistakes of slot play?” Sarcastic answer: “Number one is playing the slots! Yuck, yuck, yuck.” So much for that.In truth, the biggest mistakes of slot play have nothing to do with playing slots...read more

Strategy changes for video poker

QUESTION: The casino near my home has a lot of progressive video poker games. They usually have pay tables a little lower than on their non-progressive games, but then you get more on the royal flush. I know you’ve written about this before that there are break-even points, but doesn’t it make a difference in your strategy, too?ANSWER: Yes, getting the most out of progressive video games does mean adapting your strategy to chase royals more often as the jackpot grows...read more

Video poker players: Don't be fooled!

I’ve written a lot about the 9/6 Jacks or Better video poker game, touting it as one of the best video poker games to play because it returns 99.5 percent with expert play. (For those that don’t know, the 9 refers to the payout for a full house per coin played, and the 6 is the payout for the flush per coin played.) A recent trip to the casinos with friends alerted me to mistakes players might be making when looking for the 9/6 game.As we were walking through the casino, my friend shouted, “Here’s a 9/6 machine.” He was all set to sit down and play this 9/6 game when I came over and looked at the video poker screen...read more

All-star video poker

When I’m looking for a video poker game, the first thing I do is to check out the pay tables. If I see high pay tables, I play, and if I see low pay tables, I move on to other games.I don’t stop to worry about how the pay tables got there and who set them up, but it’s a concern for casino operators who are always looking for ways to save time and money.International Game Technology, which dominates the video poker market with a share estimated at 95 percent, has moved to ease set-up with its All-Star Poker II and All-Star Poker III units...read more