Gaming Gurus: Strategy Expert Article Archive - Page 287

Make Pass Line a better bet

FROM VINCENT: Please help me think this through via your experience and math skills. I think I have found a better way to utilize the Pass Line bet at craps.In craps, the traditional advice is to bet as little as possible on the Pass Line and then take the “Odds” bet as high as possible once the Point is established.I have wondered if the logic I use below should be given some consideration by gambling writers such as you...read more

Caribbean Draw Poker and low pairs

QUESTION: Have you ever heard of Caribbean Draw Poker? It's like Caribbean Stud Poker, but you can draw one or two cards and the dealer has to have a pair of 8s of better to qualify.ANSWER: Caribbean Draw has been around for a long time, but has mainly disappeared from the casino scene...read more

Learning from IPhone 6 Customer Service

I’ve been helping casinos improve the quality of their customer service for more than 20 years and I’ve been writing about the topic of customer service just as long. Occasionally, I like to let other people speak for me just so readers can see that I’m not making all this stuff up.This is one of those occasions...read more

Those bonus machines

Ever since bonus play on slot machines made a big breakthrough in the mid-1990s, there has been a large influx of ideas and influence from casual, not-for-wagering games found in arcades, home gaming systems and in apps for computers and mobile devices.Many of the people who design bonusing slots came from the casual games world...read more

Ask the Slot Expert: How do video lottery terminals work?

A friend of mine and I were debating the differences between a slot machine and a VLT machine. We live in Cleveland, Ohio and we recently got both casinos and racinos. The racinos are controlled by the Lottery Commission. I'm not sure I totally understand how a VLT works, but here is a situation we were discussing and I wanted to see if you could offer an opinion. If we had 500 free spins on both types of machines, would a slot machine have better odds of returning a greater payout than a VLT? We understand the basics of the random number generator with a slot machine, but we are not sure how this process works with a VLT. VLTs (video lottery terminals) and Class III slot machines differ in how they determine the results of their spins...read more

The best trend betting system ever

In a future column, I will discuss why the supposed "new" forms of trend betting are just more wastes of time for casino players, like all the old forms of trend betting. But in this column I am going to explain the best possible trend betting system of all time...read more

Caribbean Stud is slipping

QUESTION: Why are there fewer Caribbean Stud tables than there used to be? I was in a casino that didn’t have a single table. Not that long ago, it was a game everybody had.ANSWER: Part of the reason is just natural ebb and flow in the popularity of games...read more

Short Pay Jacks Or Better Video Poker

Dear Jerry:It seems for Jacks or better you can't find full pay and short pay they are cutting it back.Question? Do I still follow the grid for short pay even if they are reducing payouts? Also, what's your next favorite video poker game?Thanks for the input.MaryHi Mary,Unfortunately when the pay table changes, so does the strategy...read more

Players' clubs

It’s been roughly 30 years since the process that led to today’s sophisticated player rewards systems began. Casino operators had recognized that the industry was changing from a table-centric business to a slot-centric industry, and they needed a way to reward slot players to keep them coming back.Today, no casino would be without a rewards system and targeted promotions package, but the specifics differ from casino to casino, and readers often forward me questions about how best to take advantage of what’s offered — or just wondering why things are the way they are.A few have landed in my e-mail box since the beginning of December...read more

Ask the Slot Expert: Calculating the odds of hitting a major slot win

If it's possible to calculate the odds of winning the lottery, I guess the same can be done for winning a major jackpot at a slot. In other words, if we can gather data on the number of slot players in a given year in a city or casino and determine the number of major winners, then we can correlate that to a number, like 1 in 12,000,000. Then again, past performance is not an indicator of future results. There's a big difference between the two situations...read more