Gaming Gurus: Strategy Expert Article Archive - Page 564

Slot Advice

Dear Frank: Hello, my name is Mitch and I just got done listening to you on the Matt and Huggy radio show. I didn't get a chance to call in and ask a question so I looked up your e-mail address on your website. I live in Delaware so there are no casinos that are close to me, but there are two horse tracks that have slots, Dover Downs and Delaware Park...read more

Do higher-denomination machines hit more often?

First I must say that I appreciate your insightful posts. I have a question for you. I have heard that higher denomination machines have better chances of hitting. I was wondering is this also true with the machines where you can select the denomination you want to play it for? I play in Atlantic City and I can choose $1, $2, $5 or $10...read more

Is it football season already?

Dear Mark: Sorry for the dumb question, but how do you play a football parlay card? Any help would be appreciated. Emily M. The only dumb question, Emily, is an unasked question. But before I take on your parlay card inquiry, let's decipher what a straight and a parlay bet are...read more

Test Your Blackjack and Poker Knowledge with This Quiz

Answers: 1) A -- Fewer decks in blackjack usually yield better odds for the player, but watering down the rules can more than make up for it. The 8 deck shoe has a 0.38% house edge over a perfect basic strategy player. The double deck game with its squeaky tight rules, has a 0.68% house advantage...read more

New professional No-Limit Hold 'Em work must-reading

Three poker players, Matt Flynn, Sunny Mehta and Ed Miller, have written a marvelous book for "people who play all stakes, live and online, short-handed and full ring." In the work titled Professional No-Limit Hold 'Em: Vol. 1 (314 pages, paperbound, $29.95), the authors include five major sections...read more

Playing in Vegas: The Top 13 Casino-Hotels, Part Two

MODERATELY PRICED CASINOS The absolute gem of downtown Las Vegas is the Golden Nugget. This is one beautiful little casino with some of the best games in the whole state of Nevada. Their blackjack games are traditional, single, double, and six-deck games with 3-to-2 payouts for blackjacks...read more

Chicago-Born Bally Technologies Back on Track

Chicago is near and dear to Bally Technologies. It is where the company was founded on January 10, 1932 by the late Raymond T. Maloney, whose first product, the legendary "Ballyhoo" pinball machine, proved a smashing success with a Great Depression-weary nation. Pinball machines paved the way for slots, and very quickly the company grew to become one of the Windy City's larger employers, an association that ended in 1989 when company headquarters and the manufacturing operations were moved to Las Vegas. Bally reigned supreme as America's "slot king" for many years...read more

Magic at the Par-A-Dice

I wouldn't exactly say I was expecting magic at the Par-A-Dice casino in East Peoria, but I had to wonder. At 8 p.m. on the Monday night when my wife Marcy and I visited, a name was being drawn for a $500 prize. And who, in the name of the "Deathly Hallows," was the winner? A woman named Mary Potter...read more

Did a machine short-pay a player?

Thank you and bless you for your clear and knowledgeable answers in your appreciated column. Some slot machines claim that when you hit for a combination, you win, for example, "200 x bet". But it just doesn't seem true. A guy was playing a penny Lucky Larry Lobster at max (150 credits)...read more

A machine that is due is a glittering myth

Dear Mark: A slot attendant in a UP casino [note: what Larry refers to with "UP" is a casino in Michigan's Upper Peninsula] advised me to play a particular one-dollar progressive video poker machine because it was due to hit. It didn't, and I ended up losing my evening's allotted bankroll...read more