Gaming Gurus: Strategy Expert Article Archive - Page 648

Pooh pooh the hardway

Dear Mark, In craps, is there a difference between a hopping hardway and a regular hardway? Is either worth playing? Clint F. With a hardway, Clint, you are betting that a matching pair of dice will appear before a 7, or before two dice of the same total value are rolled...read more

Table Rules Add Up for Savvy Player

Last week, we discussed a "generic" basic strategy that consisted of only nine rules and that could be used in most situations. I warned you that the generic basic strategy is not perfect, that it needs fine tuning, and that we would start going over some refinements later...read more

Do Casinos Make a Profit on Odds Bets?

Dear Frank: Question: We know that the "odds bet" on the passline is paid with "no house advantage" and at true odds. But is the casino more likely to win the "odds bet" and does the casino make a profit on "odds bets" even though "odds bets" have no house advantage? ML Dear ML: Yes and no. On the 4 and 10, the casino will win twice and lose once...read more

Nick Gullo's Poker Room Guide Vital Reading as Game Grows

It's hard to believe one of the hottest areas in the history of gambling had a major information gap for management -- a book or guide on how to run a poker room -- until now. Nick Gullo's Guide to Operating a Professional Poker Room, with rules and procedures (134 pages, 8x11 plastic spiralbound, $39.95), which includes a Texas Hold'em Study Guide for beginners, was published recently to help those operating card rooms in every state, plus those who want to have a monthly event at places like bowling alleys or pool halls or country clubs, run things smoothly. The book, which contains 35 chapters and plenty of room to take notes or make revisions as needed for a particular situation, is written by a veteran of more than four decades in the casino industry...read more

With Video Poker, What You See Is What You Get

Have you ever wondered about the technology behind video poker games and if the games we play are truly random? A definitive expert on the subject is John Daley, Director of Video Poker for International Game Technology (IGT), manufacturer of the most popular and widely played video poker machines worldwide...read more

Should You Be Watching for New Wrinkles in Roulette?

Say your idea of the casino experience includes a classically elegant gamble, relaxed, and not requiring advanced math to choose between long shots at reasonably rich returns and good chances of modest payoffs. Roulette may be the game for you. Of course, some people think otherwise...read more

Heard It On The River

Watching on television or reading news accounts of what is going on in NEW ORLEANS and up the Gulf Coast in GULFPORT and BILOXI and adjacent areas, you get a too-long arm's length view of the aftermath of HURRICANE KATRINA. So when we were invited to the re-opening of HARRAH'S in New Orleans, we jumped at the opportunity so we could get a first-hand look at the devastation not only to houses and buildings but also to the psyche of the survivors who literally have lost everything...read more

A Shuffle Through the Gaming Mailbag

Q. I was playing a slot machine, and I had to go to the bathroom. Usually, I put a coin cup on the machine, and people leave it alone. This time I couldn't find any coin cups around, so I just left my players card in the machine and hoped that would signal people I was still playing...read more

Still more about the RNG

Hi, John, Thanks for your thoughtful answers to my previous questions. By using the phrase "pat answer" I didn't mean to imply that you were giving false information; but perhaps that the casinos, designers, and even the Gaming Commissions (well, perhaps only in Mississippi!) were misleading us all! Your sometimes response of "Still, only the casinos know for sure" worried me a bit; and I really did want to believe in the RNG and having a fair chance; and that's not what I'd been observing at the Grand and Copa Casinos in Gulfport, MS, where even the RNG's paltry payback as statistically "modulated" by the Telnaes map sometimes seems to be ignored...read more

The Bosses

The bosses at the Dunes either loved you or hated you, depending on which stool at the bar they woke up on. In my case, one of the latter was a balding floorman named Jack. He was a stone-cold out-and-out homo, and didn't care who knew it. A sailor walked by the table one day and Jack said, "Mmm, sea food." I got on his wrong side by a simple innocent mistake on my part...read more