Gaming Gurus: Strategy Expert Article Archive - Page 597

Lawyer's Poker

The idea behind Lawyers' Poker: 52 Lessons that Lawyers can Learn from Card Players (Oxford University Press: 2006) by Steven Lubert is simple: Take a bunch of poker stories and a roughly equal number of lawyer stories and mix them together to teach lessons about playing poker, practicing law and living a moral and fulfilling life. Just in case anyone doesn't get the point, the 52 lessons are numbered from one to 13 in four categories, Diamonds: Maximizing Your Winnings, Clubs: Controlling the Opposition, Spades: Digging for Information, and Hearts: Ethics and Character. The four of spades, for example, is "Get What You Need." Lubert first describes the climatic scenes in Rounders, where Mike McDermott, the Matt Damon character, discovers that his opponent, KGB, has a tell...read more

Dumbo on third, the "back door" and Texas rules

Dumbo on third, the "back door" and Texas rules Dear Mark: I disagree with you in that a player at third base in blackjack has no effect on the outcome of the game. I've seen dumb players take the dealer's bust card far too many times to believe otherwise...read more

Slots in Washington State

In Washington State there are several casinos that have a version of video poker that has a "match card" feature. After each hand, a card appears and if it matches the last card in your hand, you get a bonus of anywhere from the minimum payoff or highest payoff on the pay table. It appears there is no skill in playing these particular video poker machines...read more

Advice for a Player

Dear Frank: Thank you for your comments. I use them every now and then. I live in the great Pacific Northwest and occasionally visit an Indian Casino (there are lots of them). Any advice? I play roulette, blackjack, keno and slots in that order. Wayne Dear Wayne: I am glad you enjoy my articles and that some of my advice has helped you in the past...read more

Money Management Cannot Help You Win at Gambling

I was reading some posts in one of the gambling chatrooms on the internet and people were expressing their various money management techniques for playing casino games. Each poster took turns describing his own self-styled method of "turning the odds in his favor". One person emphasized the importance of quitting while ahead...read more

Prohibition 2.0

The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, "Prohibition 2.0," has already caused as much panic, joy and confusion as the first Prohibition. Prohibition 1.0, the ill-fated 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, went into effect in 1919 and was repealed in 1933...read more

Comps Are Good but Not Always

If you travel the casino world the way I do, you notice certain things. In the old days, the table games were the most heavily marketed feature of the gambling landscape. The pictures of the casinos always showed table-game players, well dressed, wealthy and happy...read more

Poker Protection -- A must-read for supervisors

As poker accelerates in popularity, millions of new players nationally and internationally are drawn to the live action at the tables and to the Internet. There will always be arguments about rulings on particular hands and there will always be "crossroaders" trying to cheat or searching for an edge...read more

High-Tech Playing Experience in Gaming's Future

The casino industry is making it quite clear that it wants to change the way people gamble. Server-based slot floors that will allow casino owners to manage their inventories of games from a central on-site location will soon be the standard...read more

2006 Global Gaming Expo report - part 6

If any walk through a casino slot floor wasn't convincing enough, the annual Global Gaming Expo sends one message loud and clear: IGT is the king of video poker. In my reports from G2E, I've written about Guaranteed Play Video Poker and a number of new Multi-Strike games, all distributed by IGT...read more