Gaming Gurus: Strategy Expert Article Archive - Page 579

What happened to my freebies?

I'm a player, low-level, but a player just as well. I probably spend about $200 a week or so at the two Indian casinos in my state. Lately, I've been going to just one of the casinos, as I noticed that the freebies I had been getting have been dropping off...read more

How Advantage Players Get the Advantage

Dear Frank: Many gambling games' outcomes are determined by random statistics. If an event is random, then shouldn't random sampling of that event be equivalent to extended play. So, the advantages that skilled players have in blackjack and craps are results that are determined over a long period of play, say 100,000 hands...read more

Can you recognize a good poker hand when you see one?

Once the flop comes down in a game like Texas Hold'em, if you've got a good hand you'll know it. Hold'em is a simple, self-apparent game. If you have Ace/King and a 2-6-K flops, you've clearly got the top pair. And if you have 10/J when that same 2-6-K flops, what've you got? See what I mean? In other poker games, like Omaha Hi/Lo Split, for example, good hands on the flop aren't nearly as easy to recognize...read more

The actions behind action

Dear Mark: You have used the term "action" a lot in your column. Exactly what does that mean for the typical blackjack player? Does it mean how much I'm betting per hand, or per session, or does it mean how much I need to bet to get my room comped? Justin B. I recollect describing "action" at least these two different ways: as gamblese for the total amount of all your wagers, regardless of whether you win or lose, or, how the casino decides what comps you deserve for a crack at your play. As an example of "action" representing the total amount of all your wagers — say you were to sit down at a blackjack table with $200 and proceed to play 100 hands an hour over three hours, betting $10 on each hand...read more

House edge on placing the 6 and 8 in craps

I recently received the following. Jerry: Let me say up front I love the GTC site, etc. Just wish I had known about this stuff instead of counting cards in the late seventies. I have never seen a publication with the correct data re: the following 2 points. By the way I expect full RFB and a hooker in return for this info … LOL 1) Placing the 6 and 8. Consider a $6 place bet on the 6...read more

'Mental' Aspect of Poker Examined; Video Poker Scout Guide Helpful

Two hotsy-totsy titles of interest to poker and video poker aficionados have arrived at Gambler's Book Shop. Alan Schoonmaker's Your Worst Poker Enemy -- Master The Mental Game (336 pages, paperbound, $15.95) and The Frugal Video Poker Scouting Guide by Jean Scott and Viktor Nacht (34 pages, 3x7, pocket-sized, spiralbound, $19.99)...read more

The Truth Shall Not Set You Free

The casinos are in business to make money. They are not in the gambling business, however, which is to say that they really don't want to risk their hard-earned money, even in the short run, on people who can actually beat them in the long run...read more

This World Series Pairs Golf and Poker

If you're dealt pocket aces in a game of Texas Hold'em, you're in good position to call and raise your way to winning the pot. But what if your tee shot on the Par-3, 175-yard fourth hole lands two feet from the pin? If you're an amateur golfer playing in the upcoming World Series of Golf, the strategy will also be to go for the money. It was bound to happen...read more

Nickel Slots Seem Positively High-End

Word that the Mohegan Sun casino in Connecticut has installed half-cent slot machines immediately brought two scenes from casino past to mind. **In the mid-1990s, I met my old friend Scott Smith in Las Vegas. Scott and I had worked together as sports writers at the Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph in the '70s, and we were catching up as I showed him around Las Vegas. We got off the Strip and went to wander downtown, dingy in the pre-Fremont Street Experience days...read more

Playing it smart - What every gambler should know about progressions

Progressions are important to gamblers. In betting strategies. And in figuring the probabilities of winning or losing sequential or combined wagers. Progressions are also key elements in fields as diverse as economics, engineering, biology, and epidemiology...read more