Gaming Gurus: Strategy Expert Article Archive - Page 587

Profitable Dice Control

Dear Mike: I'll take a crack at answering your questions. 1. What kind living can you expect to make if you achieve, say, a 6% edge, playing 20 hours a week with a $10,000 bankroll? At a $10,000 bankroll, you are very limited - you have tremendous ups and downs in dice control and you don't want those downs to blow you away - so with that bankroll you would be making a pass line bet for $5 with double odds and a placement of the 6 and 8 for $12 each - a total of $39 (if the point is 6 or 8, you just bet those two numbers only)...read more

Does the amount bet on a slot machine affect the results?

Hi, John, On a recent trip to Bossier City, La. I saw a new (to me anyway) slot machine. This particular machine was a penny machine and had multiple lines, but only had 3 bet buttons. If you only played the lowest (30 cents), only some lines would pay no matter what you hit...read more

Rump riders can play along

Dear Mark: In blackjack, are you ever allowed to stand behind a player and make a bet in the circle of a player sitting in front of you? They seem to allow it where I play, but personally I find it very annoying. Johnny E. I too, Johnny, am no fan of an over-the-shoulder bet, especially when it knocks over another player's Slurpee Super Gulp and delays the game for 20 minutes, which just enlivened a recent evening for me...read more

Jest for Fun

Two men were speaking. "It's sad about our friend Joe losing a fortune at the tables. Half of his relatives don't know him anymore." "And what about the other half?" asked the second man. "Oh, they don't know yet." * * * * * A...read more

A Mountain of Mistakes Creates Big Losses

Most marriages that go sour do so because of the slow but steady build up of seemingly small mistakes that, over time, become awfully big mountains that are impossible to overlook or scale. These mountains are rarely political ("I can't stand Harry because he's a Democrat!"), rarely religious ("Gertrude is always in church!"), rarely large ("Since Grog murdered all those people, I just can't look at him anymore!")...read more

Are Traditional Slots in Danger of Extinction?

Walk into any casino in the country today and you'll find a gaming floor that's dominated by slots that bear little resemblance to the machines that were there a decade and more ago. Handles have long since been rendered window dressing by push-button play, drop-in coin slots were covered up once ticket-in/ticket-out technology was introduced, and the enticing jingle-jangle of tokens cascading into trays has been replaced with electronically generated noise. Three-reel spinning games such as International Game Technology's Double Diamond, Triple Diamond, and Red, White & Blue 7's, and Bally's Blazing 7's, among others, once upon a time were the essence of what playing slots was all about. They're still around, but today the old stalwarts are overshadowed by a sea of video slots in a wide variety of entertaining themes available in penny, two-cent, three-cent and nickel formats in which multi-line/multi-coin capabilities make it possible to bet upwards of five dollars on every spin. Making an ever-increasing presence as well are multiple-reel spinning slots available in low-denomination play. The hand writing is on casino walls...read more

Table games mythbusting

Tackling some common misconceptions about video poker last week has me in a myth-busting mood. Let's take on a few myths from a table games player perspective. MYTH: The third baseman is a team player, and shouldn't take the dealer's bust card...read more

Take another look at Come bets in craps

Seasoned craps aficionados often elect to have several numbers working for them simultaneously during a shooter's hand. By far, the most common way to achieve this is to start with a bet on Pass. Then, after the come-out roll has established a point, to make Place bets on one or more of the five remaining boxes. The principal reason Place bets are popular is that players get to pick the numbers they want...read more

Are slot jackpots apportioned per coin played?

Thank you for including my letter in your January 8 Q-and-A. My letter was about slot randomness and the $25 double diamond jackpot I had. That occurred at Mohegan Sun, which as you know is a Class III casino. Do you think the techs were right about apportioned slot jackpots per coin-in, or are they confused, or just full of bull? Seems to me if I had the second coin in I still would have won.....read more

A Better Way to Play Crapless Craps

If you are like most gamblers, you expect to lose while playing craps. The occasional wins you capture give you great joy and excitement, but in the long run you expect you will lose. You chalk up your loses as the cost of entertainment in the pursuit of those exciting wins...read more