Gaming Gurus: Strategy Expert Article Archive - Page 33

Basic Blackjack Strategies

Several times a year, I receive inquiries from readers about what to do about basic strategy when you have more than two cards.Mostly, it's easy. There are exceptions for card counters or those using composition-dependent strategies, but mostly, if basic strategy calls for you to hit, then hit no matter how many cards you have...read more

Luck and Skill at Video Poker

Very few games on a casino’s floor allow skill from the player to alter the outcome. Most of them are totally random games. There is no way for anyone to predict what will happen next. The casino edge will be exacted on every dollar of play – on average and in the long run.Exceptions to this rule are the games of blackjack, craps, and video poker.Knowledgeable blackjack players can observe when they have an edge and bet more during those times...read more

The Fibonacci System

CINDY: The Fibonacci system came to us from the Italian mathematician named (take a guess) Fibonacci. He wrote a ground-breaking book titled Liber Abaci. In it he discussed this idea for the very first time in western civilization.ABBY: To put a finer point on this, Fibonacci wasn’t the first or only person to discover this mathematical truth...read more

Ask the Slot Expert: How do you track the number of hands you play in a session?

Question: I truly enjoy your articles about slots, and in particular, video poker. I noticed that in many of your articles you talk about about the number of hands you play. How do you track this during your sessions? I am not aware of any way to track this through your players card or on the machines themselves...read more

Peer Pressure at Any Age

My neighbor’s son is now 17. When he was really young, in the single digits, he was a delightful kid. He had a great sense of humor and he really seemed to enjoy life.Now his face always looks bored. When he is with adults, no matter how smart those adults are, this kid has that “you people are really dopes” look as if these really smart adults are just jerks while he is, I’m guessing now, above it all?His friends, both boys and girls, have that bored look too...read more

Those Roulette Edges

QUESTION: When you calculate the house edge in roulette, you always use single-number bets or the even-money payoff bets where you get 18 numbers (red or black, odd or even, 1-18 or 19-36).What about something in between like the corners or columns? How do they wind up in the same place as singles or red/black?ANSWER: Roulette lends itself to easy arithmetic and a well-defined house edge that's kept the game in casinos since the late 1700s.Payoffs are based on true odds for a 1-36 number set...read more

Quiz: Royal, Straight Flush, or Straight?

This article contains a video poker strategy quiz. The game is an 8/5 (8-for-1 full house, 5-for-1 flush) jacks or better.The quiz assumes the maximum five credits is played. The maximum bet produces the highest long-term return because the royal flush pays 800-for-1 (4,000-for-5) rather than 250-for-1 when less than the maximum is bet.Look at the dealt hand below and decide which card or cards you would hold...read more

The Labouchere System

CINDY: What is the most frequently sold gambling system through the Internet or mail? By the way, it is guaranteed to be a winner! Now, that is something right?ABBY: This system is not – and I know you know this – a winner at all. When casino players realize that they have bought a turkey in a terrible sense, they will probably ask for their money back and that won’t happen.CINDY: That almost never happens.ABBY: Almost? No almost...read more

Ask the Slot Expert: My casino "good luck" charms

I don't believe in talismans or trying to influence a machine to bring me good luck. I don't do the things I've seen some people do, like putting a family photo on the screen, putting a good luck charm on the machine, or tapping the screen to try to get a reel to stop on a particular symbol. That said, I'm not above trying to get the gods of good fortune to lean a little on my side sometimes...read more

"Slowly I turn, step by step..."

Last issue I took up the idea of movement, both physical movement and emotional movement. I used the idea of the shot arrow that must make its way by always going halfway to the target then half way to that halfway point and then again and again until it seems there is no movement at all as you might have an infinite halfway to everything.Our emotions are that way too...read more