Gaming Gurus: Strategy Expert Article Archive - Page 355

Blackjack abroad

Blackjack is blackjack. Your goal is to beat the dealer whether you play in casinos in the U.S., Europe, Asia, the Caribbean or any other part of the world. But playing blackjack abroad has some differences compared to playing in the States (see Table 1), and my aim is to examine these differences more closely in this column.UNITED STATES: Mostly six-deck games, also single and double deck games.ABROAD: Mostly six-deck games with poorer rules.UNITED STATES: Dealer takes hole card before players play their hands.ABROAD: No-Hole-Card-Rule in effect...read more

Playing the Not So Ugly Deuces Wild

QUESTION: My wife and I were in Las Vegas, and I got my first taste of full-pay Deuces Wild. That 5-for-1 payoff on four-of-a-kind really helps the game. Does it make a big difference in strategy?ANSWER: If you’ve been playing Not So Ugly Deuces Wild or the version the late Lenny Frome called Illinois Deuces, the most noticeable differences come on two-pair hands and four-card flushes...read more

What's bad turns out good

When things are really going wrong in a casino, the numbers on the credit meters are in free-fall, or our stacks of chips have become stack of chip.But sometimes something goes wrong that turns out right. You make a mistake, and win anyway...read more

Ask the Slot Expert: Where can I find Silver Strike slots?

Hi,Recently, someone from player development at a casino I frequent sent me an e-mail with an attached file by mistake. The file is a list of the casino's 5,000 top rated players. I'm thinking of approaching player development in another local casino to see if the list is of any interest to them...read more

Probability versus odds

Probability Versus Odds by John “Skinny”This was posted by John “Skinny” on the Golden Touch Craps private members-only web site.OK, let's get probability and odds squared away first. Essentially they are expressing the same thing but doing them in a slightly different manner...read more

Sequential Betting Systems

Can a betting system produce an edge over the house? In previous articles we’ve looked at systems that focus on a number being due to appear and systems that are based on numbers repeating. Neither of these types of betting systems are able to overcome the house edge in the long run. Let’s look at another tenet of some of the systems being sold. There are patterns of numbers that repeat. These betting systems tend to be a little more complex...read more

Probability, Frequency, and Luck

Luck, good and bad, in casino gambling arises fundamentally from differences between the probabilities or expected rates of bets winning, losing, or pushing and the frequencies at which these outcomes actually occur. This, because payoffs for wins are set in advance based on the probabilities while bankroll changes are determined during the course of the action by the frequencies...read more

Royal flushes in video poker versus card room poker

QUESTION: Are video poker machines programmed to pay royal flushes more often than they should? I’ve been playing live poker all my life, and I’ve never had a royal flush. But in video poker, I’ve had at least 10. What’s going on?.ANSWER: I often hear from players who mistakenly believe that electronic gaming devices, whether they’re slots, video poker, video blackjack or video keno, pay off less often than you would expect by random chance...read more

Fun gambling quotes III compiled by Melissa A. Kaplan

Some Fun Quotes On Casino Gambling (III)"Scobe's First Law: Whenever the count gets really high in blackjack and you have your biggest bet out, some moron will sit down and win." – Frank Scoblete, author"Scobe's Corollary to his First Law: The moron who just sat down always gets the blackjack with the minimum bet out...read more

Bet you didn't know

Vingt-Et-Un Corporation developed a system called Blackjack II. It consisted of two separate dealing shoes holding six decks each. Depending on the color of the first card, red (diamonds – hearts) a card would be drawn from the red shoe. If black (spades – clubs) the 2nd card would be drawn from the blue shoe...read more