Blackjack is a casino table game that is played with one, two, four, six, or eight decks of cards. In single and double deck games the dealer holds the cards when dealing. The cards are dealt face down and the player is allowed to pick up their cards. In multi-deck games the cards are dealt out face-up using a shoe and the player is not allowed to touch the cards. In some casinos you might also find the continuous shuffling machines that are now becoming more and more popular. Card Values All...
Read more about How to Play Blackjack Blackjack Odds - June 23, 2010When you are at the blackjack table it is important to know what the odds are for each situation that you might find yourself in. If you know the probabilities of hitting and busting this will give you the insight to make the correct decisions and maximize your winnings. I won’t go into the math of the numbers, but just offer you the simple percentages in order to help make your choices a little more clearer. Obvious No-Hit Situations Whenever you get to 17 you do not want to hit, but taking...
Read more about Blackjack Odds The Math of Gambling - August 11, 2009Gambling and mathematics have always been closely linked together. A new article from New Scientist explores some interesting examples of how using math can help you beat the odds at the Casino. Here are some of the highlights. Roulette - Remember that guy that sold all of his possessions and put everything he owned on one spin of the roulette wheel? Well, this is sort of like that, sort of. What the article advocates is what I would call a “chase” system. Basically, you pick...
Read more about The Math of Gambling Blackjack Playing Advice - July 21, 2008The Rules Blackjack can be played with one to eight ordinary decks of cards. Cards of rank 2 through 10 are scored according to their face value. All face cards are 10 points. Aces are semi-wild and can be worth either 1 or 11 points. The highest hand in blackjack is an ace and any 10-point card and is called a blackjack. A winning blackjack pays 3:2. If both player and dealer have a blackjack the bet is a push. Aside from a blackjack a winning hand pays even money. The player wins if his hand has...
Read more about Blackjack Playing Advice Blackjack Playing Tips - July 21, 2008Keep your emotions under control. The dealer is only the messenger of fate. Don’t take you’re losses out on him.o Always remember you can win. You didn’t bring $100 to a casino to play with and lose. If you are losing at a particular table, set a three-losses-and-you-move routine. o Focus on the dealer and his up card, not your neighbor’s cards. If other players at the table are upsetting you with their playing strategies, you can move. o Drinking and gambling do not mix....
Read more about Blackjack Playing Tips Craps Tips - July 21, 2008Bellying up to a crap table and joining the euphoria of this fast-paced game need not be intimidating. Armed with my past columns and these additional pointers, you are going to step up to the table with the self-assurance necessary to play this game. Granted, I am limited in allotted space, but I’m more than happy to touch on some terrific craps tips. In thirty seconds I can teach anyone how to play a simplified game of craps with confidence. How? Check out the first tip.o Just make these...
Read more about Craps Tips Roulette Rules & Odds - July 21, 2008Roulette is one of the easiest games to play and understand in the casino. As usual the easier a game is to understand the greater the house edge, and roulette is no exception. If you are looking for a easy to understand and slow paced table game, and are willing to sacrifice on the house edge, then you may like roulette. If you want something more stimulating or with a decent return I would suggest looking at other games. One difference between roulette and all other table games is that roulette...
Read more about Roulette Rules & Odds Betting Systems - July 21, 2008One of the biggest myths about gambling is that games of luck can be overcome with methods such as varying bet sizes to manipulate the odds. Depending on how the specific system works, in the long run, you will either sacrifice a few large losses for many smaller wins, or many small losses for a few larger wins. In the long run you can only lose at any game of pure luck. The more you play, regardless of what form of betting system you use, the ratio of money lost to money bet will always approach...
Read more about Betting Systems Dueces Wild Optimal Play - July 21, 2008The following strategy is based on the “full pay” deuces wild paytable below. Full Pay Deuces Wild Hand Payoff Probability Return Royal flush (natural) 800 0.00002208 0.01766709 Four deuces 200 0.00020342 0.04068426 Royal flush (wild) 25 0.00179518 0.04487958 Five of a kind 15 0.00320057 0.04800855 Straight flush 9 0.00413697 0.03723269 Four of a kind 5 0.06492502 0.32462510 Full house 3 0.02122914 0.06368741 Flush 2 0.01658389 0.03316779 Straight 2 0.05659214 0.11318429 Three...
Read more about Dueces Wild Optimal Play Dueces Wild Simple Strategy - July 21, 2008The following strategy is my “simple strategy” for deuces wild video poker. Using the strategy on a full pay machine will result in an expected return of 100.71%. Compared to the optimal strategy return of 100.76%, mistakes in the simple strategy will cost 0.05%, or one total bet every 1869 hands.To use the strategy look up all viable ways to play an initial hand on the following list and elect that which is highest on the list. 0 deuces 4,5 to a royal flush Any pat paying hand 4 to...
Read more about Dueces Wild Simple Strategy Odds on Craps - July 21, 2008Craps can be an intimidating game for the beginner. The table seems to have about a hundred different kinds of bets, the players are barking out commands in what seems to be a foreign language, and the pace is too fast to ever ask a question. I can sympathize with the beginner because it wasn’t that long ago that this was how craps appeared to me. If this is how you view the game I have good news. There is one fundamental...
Read more about Odds on Craps Jacks or Better Strategy - July 21, 2008The following strategy is for full pay jacks or better video poker. “Full pay” designates the following paytable, per coin based on five coins bet, which returns 99.54% of money bet assuming optimal strategy. Full Pay Jacks or Better Hand Payoff Royal flush 800 Straight flush 50 Four of a kind 25 Full house 9 Flush 6 Straight 4 Three of a kind 3 Two pair 2 Jacks or better 1 To use this strategy look up all reasonable ways to play a hand and choose the...
Read more about Jacks or Better Strategy Video Poker Strategy - July 10, 2008Video poker made its entry to the casino in the seventies and is today one of the most popular forms of gambling. For the player who likes a game of skill, a low house edge, the possibility of large wins, and the anonymity of playing alone there is nothing else that can compare to video poker. The rules of video poker are simple; you play 1 to 5 coins, the machine give you five cards, you choose which to hold and which to discard, the machine replaces your discards and pays you off according to the...
Read more about Video Poker Strategy Mini Baccarat Tips - July 10, 2008Every baccarat table will have scorecards and pencils for you to keep track of the outcome of every hand. Most players carefully analyze their scorecards and try to spot trends and streaks. A common streak play is to play the last winning hand. For example, if the bank just won, bet on the bank hand. If the players hand just won, make a bet on the player. This way you you are placing your bets on that...
Read more about Mini Baccarat Tips Easy Card Counting - July 8, 2008Being labeled as a “card counter” gives a blackjack player a bad reputation among casino owners and operators. It has always struck me as odd that a person who plays the game with a high degree of skill is subject to being banned from putting that knowledge to work. I cannot think of another pursuit where similar discrimination is enforced. A card counter keeps mental track of the cards that have been dealt in order to assess the collective value of the cards remaining in an effort to...
Read more about Easy Card Counting Tipping Dealers - July 8, 2008People who are new to the world of casino gambling may be unaware that you can express your appreciation to dealers for a job well done by tipping them. They cannot solicit tips, so it’s up to players to make the initiative. Dealers rely heavily on tips to beef up their weekly take-home pay. The reality of the situation is that dealers are in an abstract sense part of the entertainment and dining world’s service industry. This puts them in the same category, for example, as restaurant...
Read more about Tipping Dealers 12 vs 2 Blackjack - July 8, 2008One of the most painful hands in blackjack is when you get a 12 versus a dealer who is showing a two? Oh sure, there are plenty of hands out there that are worse mathematically, since by the book a 12 against a 2 balances out to a loss of just over $0.25 per dollar bet. Lots of player-dealer combinations are far more taxing. For instance, a 16 versus nine, 10, or ace is projected to cost above $0.50 on the dollar. And a 17, which many bettors erroneously think is a safe plateau, bears theoretical...
Read more about 12 vs 2 Blackjack Baccarat Win Expectations - July 8, 2008In baccarat, considering only rounds that don’t tie, the probabilities of winning are 49.3 percent for Player and 50.7 percent for Banker. This is sometimes expressed as “Player should (or is expected to) win 493 out of every thousand hands, and Banker should (or is expected to) win 507 out of a thousand.” But don’t expect what the math says you should. Pretend you sit through a thousand decisions, about four hours of mini baccarat, betting $10 per round on Player. Winning...
Read more about Baccarat Win Expectations Beatable Video Poker Machines - July 8, 2008There are some video poker machines out there that you can play that actually have a positive advantage for the player. The payouts on video poker machines are determined by; 1) the pay schedule and the part that is up to you 2) how you select discards, since selecting the wrong cards to deep-six will reduce your overall payout. Even if we list the best-of-the-best machines to play, it won’t help you to swing the odds in your favor unless you learn how to play each hand correctly. Below...
Read more about Beatable Video Poker Machines Randon Number Generator Wins - July 8, 2008odern slot machines generate new random combinations even when they’re idle. They are not waiting to be played before kicking in. Further more, wins are not programmed to occur on a certain pull or after a certain number of minutes. There’s no way to predict when a hit will occur since it is constantly working. You might have better luck on a machine if you play slowly, but that’s just becuase the pull happened at a different time. The actual speed you play at doesn’t...
Read more about Randon Number Generator Wins Past Basic Strategy - July 8, 2008Everyone who plays blackjack regularly has probably at least tried to learn basic strategy, but many fall short. Even people I have talked to who think they are experts miss up to 20 different hands on the chart, but before you take your game to the next level you need to be perfect. Now let’s say you happen to be that one player in 50 who plays all his hands correctly. What’s next? Most prevailing blackjack literature says that card counting is the next step, but in actuality there...
Read more about Past Basic Strategy Win Loss Streaks - July 8, 2008All casino players know that gambling is streaky, you win some, you lose some, you win a lot, you lose a lot and in the end, which means the long run, the casino extracts whatever its house edge is on the total amount of money you bet at the game or games of your choice. The casino is then happy, it made money; you’re happy, hopefully at least, because you got the thrills you wanted from gambling with real money on the line. Mathematicians have a name for the kinds of winning and losing streaks...
Read more about Win Loss Streaks Triple & 5 Play Quarter Machines - July 8, 2008If you are new to video poker then most likely you tried learning the game on singlehand, 5 coin machines. Today however the casinos are putting in more and more quarter video poker machines and many patrons are moving towards the popular Triple Play, Five Play, or even Ten Play quarter machines. These machines may be popular, but they can be bankroll cleaners. A quarter Triple play, if you play the maximum number of coins on each hand, leaves 15 coins, or $3.75 at stake each time. On quarter...
Read more about Triple & 5 Play Quarter Machines Speed Count - July 8, 2008True card counters at the blackjack tables are a rare breed, but they have the unique ability to get an edge on the casino. Most people who try to count can’t keep an accurate enough number to make a difference, or they lose their concentration a little too easily. You don’t only have to have the ability to count cards, but also have a big enough bankroll to sustain a large losing streak. Dr. Henry Tamburin, who for a very long time had success using the Hi-Lo system, thought there...
Read more about Speed Count Pro Gamblers - June 23, 2008How would you like to become a professional gambler? Think about it, living in a casino, relying on betting for your livelihood? It’s a risky business, but full of excitement so just how would you go about doing it? Bankroll The first thing is, you absolutely need to have an adequate bankroll. Just like any other business, gambling can have its ups and downs periodically. An adequate bankroll will help carry a player during one of those expected losing streaks. Location Second, a person...
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