Gaming Gurus: Strategy Expert Article Archive - Page 60

Slot Myth Busting

Over the years. I've tried to help slot players through a little myth-busting.Nonetheless, myths persist. It's easy to see why. Table games allow you to see cards being dealt, dice being rolled or the ball rolling around the wheel. You can't see random numbers being generated.Let's take a fresh look at a few of the common myths about modern slot machines.MYTH: Paybacks on pick-a-prize bonus rounds have to be fixed in advance or they couldn't program a payback percentage.ANSWER: Your choices count on most manufacturers’ bonus events...read more

My Favorite Games

From Roy:Hi Stickman,Thank you for your response to my original question. As a reminder the question was“I am fairly new to video poker. I am a member of a couple of video poker online VP groups. Many of the other players say that the best game is double double bonus...read more

No, No, Never

CINDY: Every game has its rules of play. You must know the rules –ABBY: And traditions such as the things you should and should not do at a craps table. These traditions are sometimes not written down but violate them and other players will get very, very annoyed.CINDY: Correct...read more

Ask the Slot Expert: A video poker bug. In the machine or in the player?

Emerson, Lake and Palmer had an instrumental song called Changing States on their 1992 comeback album Black Moon. I thought of that song when a problem I had with Cashless Gaming on a machine might not have been due to a bug in the software like I thought at first, but due to my missing what state my video poker machine was in. Location: Red Rock Casino...read more

Many Happy Returns II: The Truth Will Out

Many Happy Returns: The Truth Will OutWe can then figure how much of a percentage edge the casino has at a roulette game by knowing these numbers. There are 38 pockets for the ball to fall into. The payment for a hit is 35-to-1. The real payout should be 37-to-o1.The casino doesn’t post this on the tables, we have to do the figuring to come up with the percentages...read more

Total Blackjack Hands

QUESTION: A while ago you wrote there were 34 possible starting hands in blackjack, or 55 if the composition mattered. You explained that some advanced players made different plays if a hard 12 was an 8 and a 4 than if it was a 10 and a 2.What about the order in which you receive the cards? Does it matter if you get the 10 first and then the 2 instead of the 2 first and then the 10...read more

Advice for VP Newbies

From Roy:Hi Stickman,I am fairly new to video poker. I am a member of a couple of video poker online VP groups. Many of the other players say that the best game is double double bonus. What video poker game do you recommend? Also, what game do you prefer?Roy from MinnesotaHi Roy,Welcome to the fun and exciting world of video poker play...read more

Tastes Change

CINDY: Over time and sometimes quickly, you can find that your tastes in casino games change. When I started playing some decades ago, I was mostly a slots player. I didn’t really want to play the table games during my first years of going to the casinos...read more

Ask the Slot Expert: An unexpected benefit of Cashless Gaming

I worked for a market research firm in the last half of the 1990s. One of the products the company produced was radio ratings. Listenership was calculated using diaries kept by the participants. Participants made errors in their diaries. The company had a team that tried to make sense of the diaries. How difficult can it be to keep an accurate diary? I found out when I started keeping records of my play as a business...read more

Many Happy Returns

The lament among some slot players, many other casino players and most gaming writers is the fact that slot machines do not tell you what their percentage returns are except in cases where an area of machines has signs saying something to the effect that “these machines return a minimum of 98 percent” or the like.You play a machine and you have no idea of what percent of the money it will return...read more