Gaming Gurus: Strategy Expert Article Archive - Page 613

Don't Try This at Home: A Cautionary Tale for Poker TV Viewers

With High Stakes Poker, the Professional Poker Tour (PPT) and the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event on my viewing list this summer, my DVR was bursting at the seams with poker programming. And on just about every show I watched, Daniel Negreanu was front and center. I watched as he needled Minneapolis Jim Meehan into making terrible calls on the PPT...read more

Elvis Meets Multi-Strike

Don't let any old Hound Dog tell you different. Leading Edge Design and IGT have a solid gold hit on their hands. Pair the King of Rock 'n' Roll with the enhanced payoffs of Leading Edge's Multi-Strike format, and you have a game that cries out "Love Me Tender." Elvis Multi-Strike, the latest game from the designers of Multi-Strike Poker, is ready to rock through the Midwest...read more

Heard It On The River

Thousands of poker players are in town with more to come to play in THE WORLD SERIES OF POKER underway at GRAND CASINO RESORT. They may like the prize money on the table but the pot at the end of the rainbow is a free entry into the 2007 WSOP in Vegas...read more

Varying a machine's hit frequency

Hi, John, Enjoy your articles; have helped me a lot. On September 18, you responded to Cheryl: "That said, many slot directors do order high hit frequencies on their high denomination machines. Passersby like to see players hitting something, even small payouts, on high denomination machines." Would you explain this in more detail, that is, the ability to vary the hit frequency? Thanks, Tom Dear Tom, Thanks for the kind words about my column. A machine's hit frequency tells us the probability of getting a hit on any particular spin...read more

Slot Player Held To Be Professional Gambler, Can Deduct Losses

In 1986, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a full-time handicapper of greyhound dog races could be in the "trade or business" of gambling for tax purposes. This May, the Minnesota Supreme Court went one step further holding, that a slot machine player could also be considered a professional gambler, even though she did not have a reasonable expectation of making a profit. The 1986 case, Commissioner of Internal Revenue v...read more

When Is the Right Time to Quit Gambling for the Day?

It's an age-old dilemma whether your game is craps, blackjack, poker, or whatever. How do you know when you've made enough money to lock up your winnings and quit for the day? And when is it time to cut your losses and throw in the towel? So watchful are gamblers of these two trends that countless home-spun guidelines have been invented in an effort to extract the maximum from Lady Luck...read more

Milking the pair

Dear Mark, For years I have always played a low pair before the flop, but on one of the television poker shows they said that wasn't always smart, yet they didn't give a detailed reason why. What are your thoughts of playing a low pair, such as twos or threes? Perry H...read more

Know House Edge Before You Roll

If craps is your game, today's column is for you; but even if you're not a craps player, you may find this interesting. We're just looking at a simple comparison of the house edge on various bets on the layout, which may range from under 1 percent all the way up to 16.67 percent and higher...read more

Can I Remove a Don't Pass Bet?

Frank, If I understand the Don't Pass bet correctly, it means that I could drop some change down on the Don't Pass line, and if the thrower does not roll a 7 or 11, I could remove my chips until he either makes his point, or losses it. Is that correct? Bud E. Dear Bud E.: Yes...read more

Basketball On Paper -- Unique Book Analyzes Stats, Performance

You can count on one hand all the new basketball handicapping books that have come available to bettors in the past decade. Football, on the other hand, remains king and the focus seems to be there for new books. However, Dean Oliver, strongly influenced by the great Bill James' works on baseball, has produced a gem of a book titled simply Basketball on Paper: Rules and Tools for Performance Analysis (375 pages, paperbound, $18.95) for both bettors and fans of the game...read more