Gaming Gurus: Strategy Expert Article Archive - Page 554

Playing it Smart - Some blackjack hands call for making the best of a bad situation

Blackjack buffs rightfully rue a dealer's 10-up. Especially when their own hands total 15, 16, or 17. They recognize the dilemma, intuitively if not mathematically. Standing, they can't win unless the dealer busts which doesn't seem to happen often...read more

Checking slot machine performance: Confidence intervals

If I play penny machines and bet say 30 lines at four coins per line, do I win more in the bonus round than betting 30 lines at two coins per line? Also, on the new Wheel of Fortune, they say in Strictly Slots that the bonus round happens after 60 spins...read more

Hedge betting at craps

Dear Frank, My question is when you first get to a casino and find the craps table you want to play at and it's time for you to place first bet, this is where it gets complicated for me. Let me start the steps: (1) Give the dealers your players card and cash in...read more

The Secrets of Buy and Lay Bets

Pssst… Wanna know a secret? How about the secrets of Buy and Lay Bets? As you know, when you place a bet you do not get the true odds of the number. For example, if you place the four (or ten) for $10 and win, you'll receive $18 at 9:5 instead of $20 at the true odds of 2:1. Wanna know the secrets that craps pros use to maximize their Buy and Lay Bets? Let's find out now how they do it! Craps pros do get true odds on place bet numbers, but they have to pay the casino a small commission to get it...read more

Bits & Pieces from Indian Country - October 2007

Indian gaming is not escaping the competitive costs of gaming, nor can it hope to avoid the taxation levels gaming is experiencing. Tribes cannot be taxed by a state, just as the states are not taxed by the federal government. But to get expanded compacts and additional games, tribes are forced to make some kind of revenue sharing agreement with the host states...read more

Quick-takes: The month's trends in a glance – October 2007

You can see the signs of gaming's growing acceptance everywhere in the United States. September provides an example of this growing attitude of acceptance. Governors of both Massachusetts and Maryland launched new initiatives to bring expanded gaming to their respective states...read more

Mailbag

Every now and then I receive a letter from a reader that is interesting but does not have enough substance to demand a whole column. Here are three such letters and I thank the writers - I'm sure my readers will enjoy them; I did. Dear Don, That article you wrote on Zzyzx Road...read more

The Slots Rule

According to the Harrah's "Day in the Life of a Casino Gambler," which can be found on the Internet at http://www.harrahs.com/about_us/survey/030948_Survey.pdf, 74 percent of United States' casino gamblers play the slot machines. That is a remarkable number because in the 1950s craps was the favorite game of the casino's players with blackjack coming in second, which meant it was tied with roulette...read more

New Game Takes Slot Play into the Realm of Skill

The design of slot machines is predicated on the principle that the outcome of decisions involving the base games must be random occurrences generated by a computer program. Even second screen bonus round awards are not the result of player skill, rather random chance combined with luck. A number of years ago Mikohn experimented with an element of skill as part of its Ripley's Believe It Or Not slots and the first generation of Battleship, themed after the popular board game, but the feature never really caught on. Now Bally Technologies has come out with Bally Pong, a game that introduces hand-to-eye coordination in the bonus round...read more

Doubling your money in one bet

Jack is a blackjack player I've run into a few times as I make my rounds at casinos in my area. He loves to talk the game, but he also knows I don't like to talk odds and strategy while I'm playing. "It's almost lunch time," he said one day just as I'd been dealt my third consecutive 14...read more