Gaming Gurus: Strategy Expert Article Archive - Page 73

Ask the Slot Expert: Rip Van Slot Player?

Question: After 10 years of visits to Red Rock, we may be just staying in Palm Springs-area casinos. On our last three visits to Red Rock, there were ZERO offers or promotions for non-local gamblers. Answer: It's a shame you won't be coming back to Red Rock...read more

Three-Card Poker Strategy Tips

QUESTION: I have a question about Three Card Poker strategy for the ante-play bet.The recommendation is that you match your ante with a second bet anytime your hand is Queen-6-4 or better. If you have no pairs, flushes or straights, your high card is less than a Queen, or if you have Queen-5-4 or less or Queen-6-3 or less, you fold.Does that mean if you have Queen-6-4 or better you have an advantage? Do you expect to win money on hands you play and have the losses on hands you fold?I don't mean you win every time, of course...read more

Three Card Straight Flush versus Four Card Straight

This article contains a video poker strategy quiz. The game is full-pay (9/6 – 9-for-1 full house, 6-for-1 flush) jacks or better.The quiz assumes the maximum five credits is played. The maximum bet produces the highest long-term return because the royal flush pays 800-for-1 (4,000-for-5) rather than 250-for-1 when less than the maximum is bet.Look at the dealt hand below and decide which card or cards you would hold...read more

Expert Craps Opinions

CINDY: We both admit that we find craps a great game, maybe the most exciting in the casino – certainly when a shooter is on a hot roll.ABBY: Of course, most shooters do not have hot rolls. That can be a problem for many, if not most, craps players.CINDY: How do you define a hot roll?ABBY: Most players would probably think of about twenty rolls without the seven showing up as a hot roll.CINDY: But you know that one of the writers for this site and someone who has sold countless books on craps – great books by the way – will advocate for some players to just bet one bet at the game...read more

Ask the Slot Expert: Did I get a bonus free-play offer because the casino missed me?

I thought I was special. It had been a few weeks since I had visited Red Rock-- Well, that's not true. It's been a while since I've played there, but I was there a week and a half ago for breakfast. A college friend was visiting from Australia, where he moved decades ago so his Australian wife could be close to her family. He plays the pokies with his father-in-law at a casino near where he lives in Sydney regularly, so he didn't feel the need to play at a casino in Las Vegas...read more

The Horror of the Card Counter

I am sure all blackjack players, and perhaps all casino players, have heard of card counting at blackjack. In short, a fractional-percent of blackjack players have the skill to follow the play of the hands, keep track by a formula of what cards have been played, and make their betting and playing decisions based on this information.If the card counter is good at this, he or she will have a small edge over the casino and will be the favorite in the contest between them.How much of a favorite will the player be? Somewhere between one-half and about 1.5 percent...read more

Getting the Edge at Blackjack

On a lazy Tuesday morning, it was time for one of my regular conversations with Blackjack Bob.Bob had seen my column explaining the house gets an edge on banker bets in baccarat and buy bets in craps by charging a commission. It seems Bob had his own recent conversation on the source of a house edge."I guess blackjack is a little more subtle than most games," he said...read more

Non-Intuitive Video Poker Play II

Video poker players enjoy the game for many reasons. They enjoy the fact that they have control over the outcome. They enjoy the higher returns usually afforded to them.Generally, most video poker playing strategies intuitively makes sense...read more

Cindy's Disaster

ABBY: Okay, Cindy, last week I shared my biggest horror story in my almost three decades of casino playing. Your turn now. The worst of the worst experience you ever had. Don’t spare us. The readers and I are looking for horror.CINDY: I don’t even have to give this much thought...read more

Ask the Slot Expert: Will cash disappear from the slot floor too?

No one would have believed in the last years of the twentieth century that the days of coins and tokens being the literal and figurative coin of the realm on the slot floor were numbered. Penny slots and machines with minimum bets that don't correspond to a minted coin required that machines break free from coin denominations...read more