Gaming Gurus: Strategy Expert Article Archive - Page 479

Jest for Fun

All you need in a casino is lots of money and lots of luck. Then success is sure to come. * * * * * The best way to judge a smart gambler is not by how much he wins, but by how much he keeps. * * * * * A positive attitude in a casino can be described as an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable...read more

World Series of Golf Goes All-In Again

Like a Texas Hold'em poker player stubbornly betting his hand until all of the cards are on the table, Terry Leiweke refuses to fold on his dream. Leiweke is the president and CEO of the World Series of Golf, an amateur competition which combines the athleticism of golf with the cunning of poker. It's an intriguing concept to be sure, but one that has been slow to capture the imagination of golfers and gamblers, let alone the public at large. This year's third annual edition, which was played May 11- 14 at the Paiute Golf Resort in Las Vegas, may be the charm. The event will enjoy its most extensive television coverage ever with WGN America, a cable and satellite entertainment network, producing 13 original one-hour episodes of the action...read more

The language of craps

(Thanks to Billy the Kid of Golden Touch Craps for his input.) When a new player walks up to a busy craps game he will sometimes stand and stare wide-eyed at the table, listening to the incessant din of the game, attempting to discern what all of these players are saying and in what language they are speaking...read more

For stories and advice, read 'Deal Me In,' 'Ultimate Edge'

One of the more interesting books for poker players fascinated with how world-class players achieved their success -- mixed with advice for hopefuls -- is Deal Me In, compiled by Stephen John and Marvin Karlins (287 pages, paperbound, $24.95).Another new arrival might be categorized as a "sleeper" in the sense that people began to hear rumors about an interesting title through word of mouth and asked about it...read more

New Empress Casino Making Most of a Tough Situation

Maybe it was because my expectations were too high, or perhaps I didn't know what to expect, but I came away from last Thursday's re-opening of Empress Casino in Joliet with mixed feelings. That may be too harsh a judgment to make on a day that was extremely busy and in light of the extraordinary effort it took to completely remodel the gaming barge just a little over three months after a fire destroyed the pavilion. Nobody knows better than executives with Empress and parent company Penn National Gaming that to operate a casino in what has become a sophisticated gaming market without the amenities of a pavilion puts the property at an extreme disadvantage. In a year and a half there will be a new pavilion, re-branded in a Hollywood Casino theme, but in the meantime the gaming barge is all they have. Recreational gaming enthusiasts have come to expect a total entertainment experience from the casino properties they visit, and that's exactly what Empress has in mind when the pavilion eventually is rebuilt. The gaming barge itself is huge, 50,000 square feet of floor space over two levels, but it is obvious that maxing out the gaming positions while at the same time incorporating a buffet and an expanded VIP lounge and high limit room created a negative impact on the comfort level of guests. The top level is so jam-packed with slot machines that navigating the casino floor is a challenge...read more

Dealing with soft 17 and soft 18

There are times I'm tempted to break blackjack players into two groups. Of course, there are way more than two groups — card counters vs. non-counters, pleasure players vs. money players, basic strategy players vs. hunch players and novices. But given a familiarity with basic strategy, I can pick out those who have really studied the charts from those who have just glanced them over on the basis of two hands: What does the player do with soft 17, and what does the player do with soft 18? Soft hands are those in which an ace is counted as an 11...read more

How is video poker dealt?

John, I am a slot manager working in a California casino and I frequently read your column to get information for my staff. I have written to you before and I was honored that you included one of my answers in one of your columns. I have a question regarding how video poker hands are dealt...read more

The zig-zag system zigs back

How can I find your report on the Susan Applegate slot system from August 14, 2004? I just received the offer from her and sounds too good to be true (and I know how the saying goes!). Richard Dear Richard, My review of Applegate's Zig-Zag System was posted on March 14, 2004...read more

How can this jackpot be random?

Dear Mr. Robison, After reading many, many articles on the "as random as possible" aspect of RNG, I feel I have a good understanding of how it works. This being the case, I am stumped by one seemingly contrary occurrence and I hope you can explain it. In various casinos -- Green Valley Ranch being one of them a few years back -- there were groups of slot machines that were "guaranteed" to hit prior to reaching a certain jackpot, say 50K...read more

Take Down the Eight on the Comeout?

I recently received the following letter from one of my readers. I'm very interested in the effect on the house edge calculation for a placed 6 or 8 when one is left up on the comeout with a pass line bet. If, say, a $6 place bet on the 8 is left up with a $5 pass line bet, the total amount at risk is $1 and the payoff for a win is $7...read more