Gaming Gurus: Strategy Expert Article Archive - Page 393

How to treat the dealers

Many articles are written about good dealers, bad dealers and all the dealers in between. I've written these articles too. However, rarely do we read articles about how players should treat and behave with the dealers. Indeed, there are good players, bad players and players in between...read more

Proper Use of the Hardway Set

Hello Stickman, I use the 2V or the 3V when my dice are behaving properly otherwise I stick with the Hardway set. I have one question that did not seem to come up in any of the books. Does how you set the dice in the Hardway set, such as the 3s on top or 5s on top, tend to produce different numbers? For example, when the point is 9, I set the 5s on top and the 3s facing me because I tend to throw a lot of 9s from that set...read more

Jest for Fun

A public announcement heard over a casino's loudspeaker: "Will the player who lost a $100 bill ten minutes ago please form a line at the cashier's cage." * * * * * Little Joey pestered his father into taking him to the zoo. "How did you like the zoo, Joey?" asked his mother when they returned home...read more

Strategy for hitting hard hands

The playing decision that you will make most often when you play blackjack is hitting and standing. Knowing when to risk taking a hit or to stand fast with the cards that you have will often be the difference between a winning or losing session. This month I'm going to review the correct playing strategy for hitting and standing, but first I need to review some terms so that we are on the same page. Blackjack hands are often referred to as being "hard" and "soft" and you need to know the difference between the two...read more

2011 Global Gaming Expo, part 6

I've known Joe Awada since the late 1990s when I was asked to look in at the Sahara in Las Vegas, where his new table game was on the floor. It was at Lenny Frome's urging that I went — and more about Lenny in a minute. Over the years, I've enjoyed Awada's fun little twists on table games, such as the tri-wager 3-5-7, which starts with a blackjack hand, turns it into five-card stud and closing with 7-card stud...read more

Ask the Slot Expert: Who is protecting the slot player?

Who or what is protecting the gaming consumer against all the possible ways computer systems can be manipulated? For example, the manufacturer offers a slot machine for sale/lease to the casino. The casino decides on a machine based on the house percentage -- probably in a computer chip, the RNG, programming and mechanical functions provided by the manufacturer...read more

2011 Global Gaming Expo, part 5

Leading Edge Design has made its name with its creativity in electronic games. It was Leading Edge who designed the Gems Wild Tiles cascading reels game and Multi-Strike Poker, both licensed and distributed by International Game Technology. But at the beginning of October, as the casino industry was preparing for the Global Gaming Expo, Leading Edge was shifting perspective from the slot floor to the table pits...read more

Paying off the bets

[The following column is excerpted from Casino Craps: Shoot to Win!] I've got to thank my Golden Touch instructor Billy "the Kid" for saying to me, "Frank, it isn't just that craps players make really bad bets, many don't even know how those bets get paid off by the dealers...read more

How does volatility affect your chances of gambling success?

Casino games are biased toward the bosses. Not because of the odds against winning particular bets, but by the offset between those odds and the payoff for beating them. Except in the occasional cases where the offset is implemented as a fee or commission, players rarely notice the edge when they’re ahead or falsely attribute their poor performance to it when they’re behind. Use double-zero roulette as an example...read more

How It All Started

I was a big fan of Frank Scoblete's books on craps and first developed my dice control skill straight from Sharpshooter's book, Get the Edge at Craps from Frank's "Get the Edge" series. I decided I wanted to learn more so I contacted Dominator, Frank's partner in Golden Touch Craps, about taking a dice control class, which at that time I knew I couldn't afford...read more