Gaming Gurus: Strategy Expert Article Archive - Page 503

Two roulette systems that work

OK, the title of this article is an absolute fabrication unless we redefine what the word "work" means. If we mean that you will win in the long run with the systems I am advocating, then the title of this column is really misleading. If we mean that you will reduce your expected losses, perhaps have more fun in the bargain, then the word "work" works here...read more

Frank Scoblete Presents: Probability or odds — same or different?

Frank Scoblete presents an article by guest columnist Skinny. People sometimes use these terms interchangeably for the same mathematical expression. Other times they use one term when they should be using the other. In the big scheme of things, this is not all that significant...read more

Blackjack Players Gain an Edge When High Cards Come

Blackjack contains two important strategic elements that no other casino game has both of. The first is discretion. That's what you use when you place your bet and then decide whether to hit, stand, double down or split. You don't get to use such discretion in craps, roulette or the slots. The second important element is that once you've played your hand, those particular cards get eliminated for the rest of the shoe...read more

What is your gambling flaw?

Nobody's perfect. You might be the best of the best in some field or other, yet you know that on some day or other you just aren't at your peak. Hopefully if you are a brain surgeon those non-peak times are outside of the operating room, but my guess is that even with Mrs...read more

Poker's Place in Sports World Well Deserved

Is poker a game or a sport? Even television is confused. The World Series of Poker is a widely viewed component of ESPN programming, yet High Stakes Poker and the World Poker Tour can be seen on GSN, a.k.a. The Network for Games. The definition of sports competition implies physical dexterity, which would exclude poker players...read more

2008 Global Gaming Expo, part 6

The computer age of slot machines has given game designers the opportunity to set their imaginations on the loose. But the bonus events and game features that designers dream up requires sufficient computing power to bring the ideas to game screens. So it is at Aristocrat Technologies, which in 2007 introduced its new Gen7 game platform...read more

Do near misses occur more frequently when you're low on credits?

It happens often as all slot players know. The last spin of the reel and two solid sevens and a third just off the line. Another is the hit frequency increasing near the end of credits regardless of the machine. If a slot win is truly determined by the RNG, how are the hit frequency and near hit manipulated? Is the RNG running within a program that determines the casino take percentage and the near hit and frequency of hits adjustments as credits run out? Doesn't this suggest that we truly are not random winners based on the RNG alone? I think this is a fair question as nearly all slot players can attest to the frequency and near hit changes that take place in many types of machines as credits dwindle...read more

Blackjack is not slots

Blackjack has been the most popular table game since the early 1960s, when it became known that card counting could beat the game. Of the tens of millions of blackjack players since that time period only a few thousand ever got good enough to beat the casinos at blackjack but that didn't stop the casinos from panicking in the first blush of the card counting revolution. The first step the casinos took was to change the game drastically...read more

The language of poker

Here we are in a major poker room watching a hot $50/$100 side game from a distance. Let's get up closer and hear what the players are saying as the hand unfolds. Dealer; "Blinds please". The small and big blinds post their mandatory $25 and $50 bets and the cards are dealt...read more

Frank Scoblete, you're larger than life

Dear Mr. Scoblete, I just completed reading your interesting (and very humorous) piece: "Stop Minding My Business." I would humbly submit that you are perhaps misinterpreting the intentions of some readers. Because true leadership in any field of endeavor is so rare, we, as faithful followers of your observations, literally "hinge" on every word that you write...read more