Games and Recreation Blog

Look at them, video poker automates lined up at the entrance to any casino, or lurking in the corner of social clubs where the local gambling ordinances permit them. They play to the greed, the get-rich-quick in the poor saps who can’t resist them. . . They are there to take the hard-earned dollars from suckers. Keep hearing them complain they’re not winning enough. Keep seeing them coming back to the machines. There’s only one thing you can say about these people. They demonstrate the one important feature of the machines. The House has an edge. No matter where you go in the casino world, whether its to some swanky place or online, the paytables are set in a way that gives the House a mathematical advantage. That’s just the way statistics work their way to the one mathematical certainty. The House will win in the end. So let’s put those sore losers right. There will be times when players have a hot streak and it will seem like all the jackpots are falling. Then those streaks will go cold. There’s no way they will spoil a sure thing by risking detection as a fraud by regulators.

Casinos operated by Native Americans are getting a lot more common so I suppose the time has come to say a word about their video poker machines. The tribe has to trade a compact with the local State Government and, many tribes have done this already. But some decided that regulation was not for them. To get around the legislation, they devised electronic bingo games that look and feel like slots and video poker machines. The headline news in newspapers is that these machines don’t have a fixed hold percentage. All the machines are linked to a central piece of software that plays bingo games among all you players. No matter if you win or lose is decided by the virtual ball the software “picks”. Each game ends when a “winning” pattern in the game is achieved. It’s all very ingenious and, using this technology, the manufacturers of the games claim that the payouts are identical to the third class of game.

Just one ending thought: if the class two and three games are identical in the way they play, how come this is not illegal?

You want to see your pockets lined with cash but you don’t mind it so much if you walk away with thinner pockets? You’ve probably already a experienced casino gamer. From the land-based gambling halls to the online high-end slots and poker tables, you know what to expect and you know the techniques needed. You know when to double-down and you know when to walk away from the table. It’s all about fun, but you definitely have paid your dues and practiced enough to know how the online casino games are played. You’ve experienced all of the sides of the casino. Now, the stakes are higher because you’re done playing free slots online. You don’t want to play usual slots and you want to have the possibility to get a great jackpot. When you’re done with that you are ready to move onto the “bog boy” table, playing for real money and playing for keeps at online blackjack and online poker. But wait! You work hard every single day and have obligations. You won’t be able to get to the casino for a few months? How do you remedy this? Easy. Online casinos are real, virtual reality worlds in which you can win real cold hard cash. Start playing online slots and winning now.

I am skeptical of much of what books said about blackjack and other casino games, so I’ll quote from Mickey MacDougall’s MacDougall on Dice and Cards, which was published prior to any of Scarne’s books: “Many cool players dress up the game by giving prizes for certain hands. A favorite stunt is to offer ten times the size of the wager to anyone holding a natural twenty-one with a black jack. This adds interest to the game, but it also tempts a player to increase his stakes.”

In an honestly dealt single-deck game, this gimmick bonus would give the player a substantial edge over the house, thinking the player knew basic strategy (an unlikely assumption). I would also assume that a gambling house that offered this bonus would be using any number of illegitimate methods to assure the house a healthy edge.

That curious bonus payout that gave blackjack its name, however, has long since disappeared. There may be some casino somewhere that pays a small bonus if a player is dealt a natural 21 which includes a jack of spades or clubs, but that is no longer a normal rule of the game. Today, a blackjack is simply any initial two cards that consist of an ace and any ten-valued card.

Thorp was keeping the casinos on the run.

Still, the casino owners’ fears were mostly unfounded. The Complete Point Count was easier to use than the ten-count, but it was not a lot easier. It required players to keep two separate counts. In addition to the running count of the cards’ point total, the player had to keep a count of the exact number of cards remaining to be played. And in order to play his hand, he had to memorize a chart of 158 different strategy differs to be made according to the count.

That’s when Ed Thorp dropped another nuclear bomb. Under the auspices of their Old Paperback division, Random House published a revised and expanded edition of Beat the Dealer. And the most important addition was Harvey Dubner’s Hi-Lo counting system, which Thorp called the Complete Point Count. To the casinos’ frustration, this was a system that could more easily be applied to multiple-deck games.

You can decide what game is created right for you simply by chosing any and continuing with some. What do I mean by that? If you find yourself browsing, looking for the best in casinos online and you find one that you like, go for it. If you enjoy the casino games offered and what to try them out, why not? However, being that playing these online casino sites is really one big game of chance and odds, it would be safe to say that by trying your luck at more games, you are increasing your odds all the way around, right? So be smart when you find the online casino that’s right for you. Find one that offers more games, more odds, nice payouts, and amazing software to work with. You’ll be feeling like you are playing smart, increasing the odds that you will be back to patronize that particular gambling site. If the site offers a variety of the game that you like plus provide you with the other famous casino games you want to try out, you should definitely get in on the action. All too often, folks find a game that they like and stick with it which is fine.

Choosing to play casino games could spell the difference between being that guy who fishes on the weekends and being that guy who wins thousands on the weekends. You have to decide for yourself if casino games are for you. Here’s how you can decide: do you like to win? Do you enjoy the feeling of learning a skill and getting better at it? Do you enjoy cash? If you answered yes to these questions, chances are you are not that guy who likes to fish on the weekends! Let this be the best part of being an adult!

With thousands of ways to play some of the best loved casino games around, you might need to map out how you go about playing! You can pick and choose how you spend your time and money. If being a winner of casino games, whether they are online casino games or any other casino game online, you can be sure that you will find the right game. The only trouble now is that you have to decide which game to play first.

Casinos online have been sweeping the country and changing the way we view entertainment. While some play these casino games online for fun, other treat it as pure business and who can blame them? We see how people walk away as losers and winners and trust me when I say that there is a big difference! Good luck!

Some of my friends are seduced by idea of making some reckons that will allow them to get to the edge of the house. Damn, but some of this stuff is good! Makes me wanna give up the poker and the slot machines, and settle down with a bottle or two to enjoy my retirement. Anyways, the young fellah just called. Caught me in a mellow mood for once. He thinks - well, we can suspend judgement on that for so long as he keeps paying me - he thinks I should explain myself. In one piece I’m saying there’s, “a proper mechanical playing strategy for video poker.” To think that next card can be predicted is a great players’ mistake. He thinks they doesn’t fit right together. So here’s a few words to make it all crystal. Did you ever see Ocean’s 11 - don’t matter whether it was the original Rat Pack version or the new ones with George Clooney and his pals? Did you notice how they always robbed the casinos. There was never a hint of walking through the door with a system for winning at the tables or on the slot machines. Hollywood got it right for once. The only way you guarantee a big score at a casino is as a thief - and you’ve to be lucky to enjoy your “takings” and avoid the hail of bullets if you get caught by wrong people. Look around online. You’ll see a small army of people touting their systems for beating all casino games with a house advantage. Play slot machines, win big. Win at blackjack without counting. Well, the same goes for all these salesmen pushing betting systems for slot machines. They’re trying to scam you outa your money. Take it from me. There ain’t no system around that even dents the House edge on games where the probabilities are set in the House’s favor. Math is math. Mind you. It’s not my money - you wanna fool yourself you can shade the odds in your favor on video poker, then feel free. So, how do these systems work? You’re supposed to base your bets on the most recent outcomes. E.g. roulette. People think that if black is winning all over the time, soon red must become a winning color. In fact that is NOT true. When I worked for casinos, we always nodded wisely when someone cautiously asked if they could play a system. Another little chicken ripe for the plucking. My father was counting deaths by the million over decades for the life companies. Probabilities and statistics only make sense in the long view. Short-term, you’ll find anomalies in all slot machines but, over time, the basic patterns are set in stone and in the House’s favor. You’ll see lucky streaks that look like they’re never going to end. But, so long as the House keeps its nerve, the winner will lose it all back again. It’s the same with the so-called systems. They aim to build up the small wins to offset the big losses. You’re not going to quit while you’re ahead, are you? Which means that any small winnings you picked up on the good days will all get given back to the casinos on the bad days. It’s just the way the House edge works. Like I say, you can’t beat the math. Which leaves me with my strategy, which I’ll get back to when I’m good and ready.