Gaming Gurus: Strategy Expert Article Archive - Page 703

Matros' Making of a Poker Player Leads the Way in New GBC Arrivals

Mark Matros plays well and writes well. His new poker book, The Making of a Poker Player: How An Ivy League Math Geek Learned to Play Championship Poker (286 pages, paperbound, $14.95) is a new arrival at Gambler's Book Shop along with Glenn McDonald's Deal Me In! Online Cardrooms, Big-Time Tournaments, & the New Poker (254 pages, paperbound, $19.99) and The Russ Bailey Guide to Limit Texas Hold 'em Poker by Dan Krier (100 pages, paperbound, $8.95). Matros, who has won more than a half-million dollars on the World Poker Tour, finished third in the World Poker Tour Championship in 2004 is a Yale University graduate with a degree in mathematics...read more

Harrah's Happy It Found a Lucky Horseshoe

Harrah's Entertainment has established a high profile presence in the Northwest Indiana gaming market, a presence the company does not want to see diminished once its highly successful East Chicago Casino & Hotel property officially becomes a member of the Colony Capital family later this year. That's the main reason Harrah's will probably invest heavily in Horseshoe Casino Hammond, the brand it acquired last year...read more

Count the Ways of Craps, and You'll Understand the Whys

Pairs of dice can land 36 ways. Some players find this puzzling, since rolls such as 4-2 and 2-4 are indistinguishable yet count as two ways. To understand it, assume for the sake of argument that the dice are of different colors, red and green...read more

Quick-takes: The month's trends at a glance - November 2004

The election of 2004 is over and we have a president, the stock market is up, crude oil and gas prices are down and consumers seem ready and able to spend for the holidays. In general, things look pretty good for the last month of 2004...read more

Expert Play in Video Poker

Whenever I write about video poker payback percentages, I add the cautionary phrase "with expert play." Jacks or Better with a 9-6 pay table, meaning full houses pay 9-for-1 and flushes 6-for-1, will return an average of 99.5 percent of coins wagered to players, with expert play. Most players don't play at expert level, so their returns will be a few percent lower. But just what is "expert play?" The question pops up from time to time, as it did recently in an e-mail I received from a reader...read more

The Threat of Reservation Shopping

Anti-gambling activists use it to scare small children. Multi-billion-dollar casinos say this is why they need lower taxes. Even some Indian tribes, especially those with competing businesses, claim it's an attack on tribal sovereignty. But are there really going to be Indian casinos popping up in the middle of cities across the nation? The short answer is, "No." The slightly longer answer is, "Maybe a few, but probably not." Every situation is unique, because every piece of land has its own legal history...read more

Barnum Bets for those born every minute

Dear Mark, I was told that the tie bet on a baccarat table was the worst bet in the casino. Someone else told me the blackjack insurance bet was. I’ve been a fan of both for years. Any chance you list some of the sucker bets the casino offers so I can avoid them in the future? Charles J...read more

Heard it on the River

If you have a sombrero, you might dust it off for the next BALLY'S ULTIMATE BLACKJACK TOURNAMENT where you might be able to win a share of the $150,000 prize money. The theme of this event is "Mucho Dinero" and that includes a $60,000 top prize...read more

Wean Yourself Off the Even Money Habit at Blackjack

What do you do when you have blackjack and the dealer has an Ace up? If you're like 95% of the blackjack players I've seen, you'll take even money. By settling for even money, the player is guaranteed a profit equal to the amount of his bet regardless of whether the dealer turns out to have blackjack or not. Most people don't recognize that there's nothing special about the even money offer -- it merely amounts to taking insurance on your blackjack...read more

To Knock or Not to Knock?

I need help. Yes, I do, and only gamblers can help me in the dilemma I have. At the end of this article I am going to ask you a simple question, "Should I knock on the door?" The answers I get from my readers who are gamblers will determine whether I knock on the door or whether I merely continue to pass the place morning after morning, day after day, and night after night. The Vampire. Six suburban blocks away he (or, maybe, she) lives in a ranch house that is maybe 60 years old...read more