Gaming Gurus: Strategy Expert Article Archive - Page 60

The Chatterers

You get them in real life and you get them in the casinos. The Chatterers. People who have to talk and drag everyone into their – often mundane or stupid – arguments.In blackjack, you have the “experts,” those chatterers who must explain how the game should be played...read more

Blackjacked!

QUESTION: Blackjack offers insurance only when the dealer has an Ace face up, and it pays off when the dealer has a blackjack. Why not when the dealer has a 10-value face up? Regardless of whether the dealer has Ace up and 10 down or 10 up and Ace down, it's still a blackjack.ANSWER: The odds of the dealer having a blackjack are far different with a 10 up than with an Ace up.In a single-deck game, if the dealer has an Ace up, 16 of the other 51 cards in the deck are 10 values that would complete a blackjack...read more

Wild Royal Flush on Deuces Wild – Follow-up

A response from Darren to my article giving him advice to hold a wild royal flush that has one deuce rather than dump the deuce and go for the natural royal flush.Stickman,Thanks for the reply. It's also the psychological factor.If I hit 125, I'll probably just play it back...read more

Seeking Safety

CINDY: We have discussed in the past when it is the right time to leave a game. Could it be fatigue? Bad losses? Big wins? What drives us to drive away from the game? No one can play indefinitely, can they? The time to leave a game comes up and that is that...read more

Ask the Slot Expert: Rebutting an article about why slots are not random - Part 3

For the past two weeks I've been rebutting the statements I found in an article about why someone believes slot machines are not random. This week let's continue looking at some of the author's experiences that he says show non-randomness...read more

The Masters

His name is Brian which when unscrambled means "brain." You will have to decide if Brian has a brain or if he’s out of his mind or some form of in between. I am not impugning his worth as a human being, I am just sharing his ideas about luck, both good and bad, and how such luck is acquired by we mortals.Brian is an inveterate casino player and I have seen him over some years playing craps and roulette...read more

Jackpots

Big jackpots are rare, special events that live forever in players' memories. Most of readers' jackpot tales I've relayed have been of back-to-back bonanzas, those incredible close encounters of the winning kind.What about jackpot size? I reached out to slot and video poker players who have contacted me in the past to ask about their biggest payday.CHUCK: Mine was a dollar Double Diamonds progressive for $20,000...read more

Wild Royal Flush on Deuces Wild

Dear Stickman,I am not sure if you have ever covered this, but what is your theory on this...Playing a deuces wild game, you are dealt a royal flush with ONE wild card...Do you dump the wildcard and go for a natural royal flush?I normally play Deuces Wild on a multiplier game like Ultimate X, but even without the multiplier, I usually will dump the wild card unless I've earned a previous multiplier on that line (even then, I may consider dumping the wildcard, if it's only 2X or something.)I have hit the 4000 dumping a single wildcard; other times, I just got another deuce.DarrenHi Darren,Obviously, you are an adrenaline junkie...read more

Closing the Generation Gap

CINDY: Bob Dylan sang “The Times They Are a Changing” and I can tell all of our readers that the time has changed big time for me.ABBY: And for me too.CINDY: It didn’t happen overnight; it happened over years but those years have made the world quite different for me...read more

Ask the Slot Expert: Rebutting an article about why slots are not random - Part 2

Question: My father had a near mint working condition Treasure Tunnel slot machine. It was stolen from his estate. How can I get a value on it? Answer: I remember playing Treasure Tunnel machines many (many) years ago. I would start by Googling (or Binging, if you want to chat with Microsoft's AI) for used slot dealers near you...read more