Gaming Gurus: Strategy Expert Article Archive - Page 794

A Comparison of Chicago-Area Casinos - Part 2: Blackjack

Comparing games at Chicago area casinos often presents me with a bit of a problem. I can't get to them all fast enough to guarantee that the information gathered at the start of my rounds is as valid as that from the last casinos visited. That's a particularly vexing issue with blackjack, where a seemingly minor rules change or two can turn a good game into a real bankroll gobbler...read more

Hit or Stand: The Hard 16 Dilemma in Blackjack

Blackjack buffs really hate a hard 16 against a dealer's seven- through ace-up. This, whether the 16 is a 9-7 or 10-6 two-card combination, or a larger set such as 7-8-A or 5-3-4-4. And the antipathy is well warranted. These are the weakest positions in which players can find themselves...read more

Man of letters moving up

Dear Mark, I am currently a magazine editor looking to work part-time as a dealer, simply for a little extra income and because I would really enjoy it. I am good mathematically, smart, friendly, know all the games inside and out, a college graduate; in short, a very good dealer...read more

Loose Poker Players Shouldn't Play Caribbean Stud

I often get e-mails from readers on blackjack and poker strategy, but the other day I received an unusual inquiry concerning the game of Caribbean Stud. It read: Dear Fred, I enjoy all your columns, but we need an article on the odds of playing Caribbean Stud "in the blind" (staying on every hand). Caribbean Stud, as most of you know, is a house-banked poker derivative in which you play your five-card hand heads up against the dealer's five-card hand...read more

Beating the Sneaky Bonus

Some sneaky internet casinos lure you in with the promise of a $100 bonus. Once you have signed up, you discover that bonus is hard to get hold of. All casinos, reasonably enough, require you to bet a minimum amount of action to withdraw your bonus, say $700 for a $100 bonus...read more

Barney Vinson's World: Boxmen Get the Boot

Vegas casinos are at it again, chopping down trees to plant a forest. This time, it isn't change personnel who are getting the boot, but the boxmen at the crap tables. For those who don't know what a boxman is, let alone how to shoot craps, the boxman is the casino supervisor who oversees payoffs, signs markers, orders fills, and does all the other mundane tasks at the table that the floor supervisor is usually too busy to handle...read more

Ask Frank: Low Variance Games

I was wondering if there is such a thing as low variance games out there or is it simply the closer to an even game, such as Baccarrat, the lower the variance? There definitely are low variance bets in the casino. An even money bet that you have a 50/50 chance of winning will have a low variance. Note that I said there were low variance bets and not low variance games...read more

Casino Promotions and Comps, Video Keno RNG

Can you (or anyone) explain the bass-ackwardness of the casino [comp] mailings? In short, the ones I receive in the mail shortly after gaming in a casino want to give me free rooms, free food, chits for cash, etc. If I don't avail myself of them or show up on property, then the next [monthly] mailing, should there be one, would be only for a "discount" room, no cash and maybe 1/2 off a meal. I am a self-employed business person...read more

Rocket's College Basketball Workbook; Poker Wisdom by Brunson Hot Sellers

Of the many new arrivals at Gambler's Book Club (Gambler's Book Shop) recently two in particular have generated plenty of excitement. The first is titled Rocket's College Basketball Workbook 2003 (251 pages, 8x11 plastic spiralbound, $34.95) and the other is Poker Wisdom of a Champion (which was previously titled According to Doyle) (198 pages, paperbound, $14.95). Rocket's book (the name Rocket comes from the name of the author's sports service in Las Vegas) is unique because it is the only known book for the 2003 college basketball season which contains the schedules (as accurate as they could be gathered‹since teams sometimes change them to accommodate television) and adequate room to track the score, line, performance against the spread, the total (over or under should it be established for a game...read more

Don't Let Nickel Slots "Nickel and Dime You to Death"

Video poker has been described by some groups that oppose games of chance as the "crack cocaine of gambling". I've never agreed with the analogy, although I suppose it derives from the addictive nature the game can have on some people who become obsessed with its perception as being "beatable" with skillful play. If any genre of electronic gaming device deserves to be compared with a narcotic, it would have to be nickel multi-line video slots, which can at worst be characterized as the "ecstasy of gambling"...read more