Gaming Gurus: Strategy Expert Article Archive - Page 394

Types of Games

When it comes to gambling there are two basic types of games. There are games of chance and games of skill. Knowing the differences between the two is very important to you the player. One depends totally on lady luck with little skill of the player; the other depends a great deal on the skill of the player and very little on luck...read more

Be careful when you play blackjack

It used to be that all blackjack games were pretty much standard. Sure, the number of decks of cards sometimes differed, but you pretty much could count on all the rest of the rules to be the same. Ditto for the way the cards were shuffled -- either manually by the dealer or with an automatic shuffling device...read more

2011 Global Gaming Expo, part 4

Bally Technologies has given slot players many creative, fun ways to play over the years, from the classic Blazing 7s three-reel games to the U-Spin games where you drag your finger to spin a wheel on the screen, games that are among the hottest in casinos today. What Bally hasn't done a great deal with is licensed, branded slots, and pop-culture themed games that have been a stock in trade for top competitors International Game Technology (Wheel of Fortune, Star Wars and many more) and WMS Gaming (Lord of the Rings, Wizard of Oz). In October at the 2011 Global Gaming Expo, the casino industry's annual Las Vegas showcase, the sounds of "You're the One that I Want" and "Beat It" rang through Bally's booth with the introduction of the new Grease and Michael Jackson: King of Pop slots. "We were really looking to increase our brand portfolio," said Jean Venneman, Bally's vice president of product marketing and licensing...read more

2011 Global Gaming Expo, part 3

Casinos are always looking for ways to drive repeat business, to entice players to come again. International Game Technology has come up with a video poker variation that certainly would keep me coming back, provided the casino put a high enough pay table on the game to attract my business in the first place. It's called Power Quads, and it was one of the new video poker games IGT showed at the Global Gaming Expo at the Sands Expo and Convention Center in Las Vegas. In Power Quads, you create a log-on, then go about collecting four-of-a-kind hands...read more

Place betting versus pass and come betting

There are many heated debates in the world of craps, some actually involving intelligent examinations of the game's math and patterns, others actually and totally involving idiotic notions. The idiotic arguments usually deal with such silliness as the efficacy of trend betting (there is none), the idea of hot or cold tables existing based on immediate past experience of that table (no such thing) and hot or cold shooters based on immediate past experience of such shooters. There is a tendency on the part of almost all gamblers to want to establish some rhyme or reason or predictability to randomness, which is just what the typical craps game is all about -- random throws by countless random shooters...read more

Ask the Slot Expert: Does time of day affect slot machines?

Hi John, I always look forward to reading your articles for advice. I have one question that’s been bugging me forever. Does the time of day affect when a machine becomes “hot”? It seems that the machines at my favorite casino become more lively around lunch time and then they go “cold” after about an hour. Someone once told me that every modern day machine has two sets of chips mounted on the motherboard...read more

Do casinos use software to control the outcomes of the games?

Hello Frank, I have read some of your online blogs in regards to casinos and their advantage with casino games. I am convinced that casinos use computer systems and software to control the outcome of the games, giving the casinos an unfair advantage over the customer. How do I know this? I was a high roller at several casinos and have come to the conclusion that casinos know the big-money players from the average joes...read more

Texas Hold'em A to Z: N Is for the Nuts

When you play poker and have a hand that cannot be beaten it's called the "nuts." Every player hopes to flop the nuts because they are guaranteed to win the hand, but how much money they win will depend on how they play the hand. When you are playing Texas Hold'em, you should be able to look at the cards on the board and determine the nuts...read more

2011 Global Gaming Expo, part 2

In the last three years, Incredible Technologies has captured the casino industry's attention with its Magic Touch line of creative games with a difference. Now the Illinois-based slot machine manufacturer is working to show it's here for the long haul. "We worked very hard to have a deep catalog, because that was the concern people had about us," CEO Elaine Hodgson said when I stopped by the IT booth at the Global Gaming Expo at the Sands Expo and Convention Center in Las Vegas...read more

Ask the Slot Expert: If results are random, how can a slot machine be hot?

John, I think your statement about how long to stay on a machine is confusing. You said, and I quote, "If a machine is HOT." Then you said there are random number generators, which means any symbol can appear at any time. If that is the case, how can a machine be HOT or cold? This weekend I was playing a quarter machine (MAX Betting) at a casino in Charles Town, West Virginia for an hour and did not win a GD thing...read more