Gaming Gurus: Strategy Expert Article Archive - Page 604

Disturbing trend in casino players clubs

Players clubs were developed to provide casino operators with computerized tracking of slot play to create customer data bases for the purpose of issuing comps, but do you ever get the impression they have evolved into "carrot-on-a-stick" marketing ploys? The first step toward that end was structuring the clubs in tiers, as many casino operators have done, starting with the entry level and progressing upward to two and in some cases even three plateaus...read more

How much of Video Poker is Luck and how much Expertise?

Video poker is a combination of luck, expertise, and more luck. Luck helps in the initial hand dealt. Expertise improves your prospects by dictating the cards to hold or dump. Then, assuming you do draw, luck aids in productively replacing your discards. Initial hands can be ranked two ways...read more

Farewell, Stardust

For a number of years, I've made the Stardust my home on my annual jaunt to the Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas. An older resort, for sure, but one that had been well-kept, and one with a north Strip location that made it convenient to the expo site at the Global Gaming Expo. No more...read more

Forget about the RNG. It's all about programming

If I understand you correctly, the RNG does only one thing, it reads the number at the time you hit the spin button. Then a program takes that number and determines the outcome. If I understand this correctly, you used to have to manually open the machine and change the chip if you wanted to change the program...read more

Internet gaming law gets weird

The world of Internet gambling law has just gotten a little weirder. The U.S. House of Representatives' Judiciary Committee has approved bills by representatives Bob Goodlatte (R.-VA) and Jim Leach (R.-IA) to not only make operating any form of Internet gaming a crime, but also to try and stop the flow of money and even sever links to the sites themselves. If the bills become law - and they have a long way to go - banks would be required to stop all transfers of money from a player to a gaming website. Banks don't mind this, since most have already determined they do not want their credit cards to be used for gambling...read more

Inquiring blackjack and poker players want to know

It's about time to catch up on some poker and blackjack questions I've received over the past few months. Lately I've been seeing a new blackjack option called "Casino Surrender" at some casinos. It's not the old surrender option, but works kind of in reverse of that...read more

Gut feeling gamblers

Dear Mark: I just encountered it again on a Vegas talk board. Posters were talking about how often the number hits of roulette when for some reason they had a hunch and did not play it or have played it for an hour and just quit. Just talking about randomness may not be enough to really explain what is happening...read more

When should I quit a machine?

Hello, My question is very basic. When does one walk from a slot and when does one stay? If we win a fair amount, should we abandon that machine or stay with it? Is there any formula for slot machines? And which slots pay the best? And should one always play the max bet? Let me ask you this question...read more

Proper Bankroll for Craps

If you want to play the stock market, you don't re-mortgage your house, borrow money from friends and relatives, raid the kids' college savings, grab grandma's heart-operation fund and then look for the most outlandish long shot stock deal that you can become involved in...read more

Mail Call for Casino Fans

Time to open up the old mailbag to see what's on readers' minds: Any one who made their living working table games should show concern about any computerized table games. While craps and roulette will be harder to computerize to fit a live game, one can only hope an educated public will reject computerized table games...read more