Gaming Gurus: Strategy Expert Article Archive - Page 614

Why Few Casinos Have High Odds Multiples at Craps

Casino craps players can augment Pass, Come, Don't Pass, and Don't Come wagers with bets known as "Free Odds" or, more simply, "Odds." This is money put into action after the come-out roll, with a point established. Payoffs mirror the odds against winning (hence the name)...read more

Computerized Poker Table Blazes New Frontier

The popularity of playing poker on the Internet, in spite of the fact the $2 billion dollar a year industry exists in legal limbo, is a phenomenon that may fuel the appeal of a new computerized poker table that meets all the requirements of federal statutes and state gaming regulations. The innovation is PokerPro, which eliminates the need for a live dealer and real cards and chips...read more

Can Fibonacci Help Us Win at Slots?

I understand three-reel slot players who always bet maximum coins. On most machines, your payback percentage is highest when you bet the max. I also understand three-reel slot players who don't bet the max --- except, of course, for those who play progressives...read more

How can video poker be random and machines have fixed paybacks?

John, If, in Nevada, for example, the dealing of cards on a video poker machine has to be as random as those being hand dealt, how can any video poker machine have a fixed payback or house edge? John Dear John, For the same reason that a slot machine can choose symbols at random and still have a calculable long-term payback. What's random is the card that will be drawn next...read more

Poker Tournaments In Bars -- The New Prohibition?

In January 1919, Prohibition became the law of the land, when the 36th state ratified the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. That state was Nevada. The fact that it was Nevada that created the "noble experiment" in writing moral restrictions into law shows that this was truly a different era. Prohibition was the height (or depth) of the notion that the law should tell people how to act, not just outlaw behavior we all agree is evil...read more

Don't Even Think About Not Splitting Aces in Blackjack

A blackjack player was recently referred to me who believes that splitting a pair of Aces is usually a bad play. I hope this player's condensed letter and my reply to it eradicates all doubt for anyone who might ever hesitate to split Ace/Ace. Greetings; Although experts claim blackjack players should always split Aces, logic seems to conflict with this argument...read more

Getting cold-cocked by a cold deck

Dear Mark, In a recent column you mentioned cold decks and cheating. What does a cold deck have anything to do with cheating? Doesn't a cold deck mean cards that are cold in respect to player having an unlucky night? Dwight E. In your scenario, yes, Dwight, a "cold deck" could mean a forensically fair game, but a tough luck time at the tables. When I stated that cheating at cards can be done a whole host of ways, one being the use of physical objects such as cold decks, I meant decks that are pre-stacked, and are introduced either at the deal, after the real deck has been shuffled, or before the deal by a card mechanic using sleight of hand. Secretly slipping a stacked deck into the game can provide a great potential payoff for the card cheat...read more

Who Wants To Be a Millionaire? Book Describes Journey

During the fall of 2001, I had a radio talk show, and the very last guest interviewed, via long-distance telephone, was Bob Dancer, professional video poker guru. He announced on the show that he had written a new book and that it would be published sometime during 2002...read more

A Tiger in Your Tank

With the price of gas somewhere around $3/gallon, more and more people are shopping around for the best price before filling their tanks. In fact, there are even websites dedicated to this purpose. They track the price of gas at each gas station and allow people to find out before they leave their house which gas stations have the lowest prices...read more

Roulette is Still Kicking

The game of roulette goes as far back as Roman soldiers spinning their shields and asking the gods of chance what the chances were of victory. Sometimes the soldiers were only playing a game for money or jewelry or who could pillage the village they had just conquered, and sometimes the soldiers had much bigger questions, such as, "Which casino offers the best roulette games?" Roulette became the staple "casino" game of Europe many centuries ago and many a nobleman lost his lands and his good name by attempting to defeat "that damnable wheel." Roulette is the third most favorite casino table game today, behind blackjack and craps - in fact, it has been third for quite a long time now, since the late 1940s. There are approximately one million to 1.3 million roulette players in America out of approximately 52 million casino gamblers...read more