I am sure you know the fable of the tortoise and the hare. They were in a race and the hare ran rings around the tortoise who slowly moved towards the finish line which was far, far away; while the hare danced, ran really, really fast, visited friends, partied, and I assume drank gallons of rabbit juice.

And the tortoise slowly, ever so slowly, kept inching towards the finish line which was a little closer now. 

After a long while, the hare had to finally take a nap and when he was happily snoring the tortoise slowly finished the race and beat the depleted hare. And there’s a lesson to be learned there.

And thus ends the tale, at least my version of the tale. The tortoise won because he took his time and headed slowly for the finish line, while the hare went nuts, spending his energy fruitlessly.

Roulette and Blaise Pascal

Blaise Pascal, a noted scientist, and philosopher of the 1600s, wanted to build the world’s first perpetual motion machine. He worked hard on that day after day. He failed as so many others before him and since him have failed.

But he did invent something that lasted from his time right up to our time and probably after our time. The roulette wheel. Maybe that wheel will continue to spin as long as humankind plays the very simple game Pascal created.

I am sure that if Pascal is in heaven, a place he truly believed in, he is looking down at Earth and is very, very pleased with himself. Heck, he’s won some people much money. Those people are, of course, the owners of the roulette wheels and today the casinos and churches that offer the game to gamblers.

The Two Types of Roulette Players

There are actually more than two groups of roulette players. You have shades and shadows of them up and down the line. But to write about that would take, oh I don’t know, perhaps a massive number of books. So, I am going to divide the groups in two but I want you to realize that the shades and shadows count. Indeed, you can add those to mine to get a fuller count.

Group One: Contains the hares, wild players looking to make a good score. They play recklessly, always hoping for the big hit, the big win. They use their energy and ultimately collapse from exhaustion. Recall the movie The Hangover where a group of friends head to Las Vegas where they go literally berserk and wake up not knowing what happened the night before.

Too many players do something such as that in the pursuit of fun. Why oblivion is fun I have no idea but there it is.

That is close to the hare syndrome. “Let me play like a maniac and I will beat this game or die trying.”

How do the hares play? They make large singular bets directly on the numbers. Yes, they are looking for that 35-to-1 payout on a hit. But the casino has a pretty good chance to wipe these players out. Watch how that is.

There are three roulette games in today’s casinos. The best game is the single-zero one (called the European/French game) which has one green zero that can be wagered upon. Here’s the rub. 

There are 36 numbers, 1-36, with that single green zero (0). The payout for a win should be 36-to-1 but for the casino to make money it reduces the payout to 35-to-1. That gives the casino an advantage of 2.7%; relatively low in the gambling scheme of things.

Then there is the American game, called the double-zero game, which added a 0 and a 00 to the mix. There are now 38 pockets in this game but the payout for a hit is still 35-to-1, when in true terms the payout should be 37-to-1. The house edge on this game goes up to 5.26%. That is a serious house edge indeed. It still has the numbers 1-36. 

Now the casinos have started to bring in a third roulette game – one I call the “YUCK” game that has 39 pockets with the numbers 1-36 with three added zeroes (0, 00, 000). And guess what? The payout for a win is still 35-to-1!

The house edge on this monstrosity is 7.69%. What do these edges mean in terms of money? 

The single-zero European/French game will cost a player an expected $2.70 for every $100 wagered. This is not too bad. There are plenty of other games that have much, much larger edges. 

You can find many of those larger edges at craps. Or at games with multiple bets, the games we call the “new” games. Almost all side bets tend to be bad.

The double-zero American game has a 5.26 percent house edge and that translates into an expected loss of $5.26 per $100 wagered. This is a so-so game, midstream I’d say.

And now for the “YUCK” game. You have to thank the churches and non-profit organizations for this game. The casino bosses were looking to increase the take on roulette players and boy did they. You still have the numbers 1-36 and those three types of zeroes, (0, 00, 000).

That house edge is now 7.69%, an expected loss of $7.69 per $100 wagered. This house edge is edging towards the ridiculous in this game. The casinos will advertise it as a game where you can get more in comps. Certainly. Why? Because you are expected to lose more money!

How the Hares Play Roulette

Playing one number means you have a one in 37 chance of winning in the single-zero game, a one in 38 chance on the double-zero game and a one in 39 chance of hitting that single number in the triple-zero game. These are not great odds and the house edges on all but the single-zero games simply grow larger and worser (is worser a word?).

The hares really don’t consider the games they play. In fact, they let it all hang out. Okay, maybe some of them choose the better games if they are offered them. Otherwise, so what? “I am here to run around and play, play, play! That’s my gambling philosophy.”

And many of them probably drink their fill. “Drink up. I’m treating!” says the hare as the cocktail server comes by with the free drinks. Okay, our hare will probably tip the server. He (or she) will also continue to consume large quantities of booze. Hey, he (or she) is here for a good time, like the characters in The Hangover had.

Now he or she bets one bet hoping to cash in. Now he or she has a one chance in 37 or 38 or (heaven forbid) 39 to make a winning bet. What does that mean? It could mean long losing streaks and more booze.

If the bet wins? Just more similar bets. In a pinch our hare might bet two or three inside numbers (maybe more!) – which merely means the expected loss is two or three times more. He or she isn’t going home with more money – at least that is the prospect. He or she is going home with less; much less.

Can our hare ever win? Maybe on very, very rare occasions; perhaps on those rare times when he or she didn’t get totally smashed.

The hare might go from casino to casino sampling the many wares of Lady Luck’s palaces. “The drinks are free so who cares that the roulette game has three different zeroes? [Hiccup!] I will be getting more comps, right?” 

So, our hero hare now heads home. He or she might not even remember how much he or she played or lost or drank.

And he or she has over time lost many, many races with chance. He or she is, after all, the hare of our story. The horrible, humble hare.

How the Tortoise Plays Roulette

Now we come to the tortoise. How does our tortoise play roulette? Slowly and carefully. Does our hero have an edge based on how he or she plays the game?

No. Definitely not. Sorry. All players have to face the house edge when they play. What our hero has is the ability to keep the roaring emotions under control. Even more, he or she is aware of how to avoid long losing streaks. How is that so?

Simple. Make bets that will stop really long losing streaks from occurring and there are such bets. You see there are roulette bets that can allow the player to stop long losing streaks to be a thing of the past (mostly things of the past that is, depending of your definition of “long”).

First, our hero, our tortoise, will have a certain amount of money set aside with which to play. Should that be lost, then the session is over. The trip might not be over, just that particular session. But quit our tortoise must do. He or she hasn’t lost the race. This is just a pause in the action.

What bets does the tortoise make? Ahh, here’s the rub! (A very good rub for the tortoise!)

If you look around the outside of the layout, you will notice bets that are called proposition bets such as the columns, the dozens, and the even-money bets. There are even other bets that allow the tortoise to select groups of numbers to play with only one chip!

The best of these bets are called the even-money bets. The bets pay even money. They are not (sad to say) 50-50 bets in terms of the odds. Still the tortoise will generally go back and forth, back and forth, between wins and losses.

On the single-zero game, the tortoise will face 18 wins and 19 losses. On the double-zero game the tortoise will have 18 wins and 20 losses. It’s 18 and 18 with the two green pockets being losers.

On the “YUCK” game the tortoise will have 18 wins and 21 losses. It’s 18 and 18 with the three green zeroes as losers. (You can see why this roulette wheel is a poor game.) 

Now, what are the actual even-money bets? They are red/black, odd/even, and high/low. Look at the scoreboard and you can plainly see that there are 18 reds and 18 blacks, 18 odds and 18 evens, and 18 highs and 18 lows – with the green pockets being losers at all three games. 

So, a single chip can cover quite a lot of numbers. You won’t win every spin of the wheels, but you will win a lot of them and you won’t go into many extended losing streaks as you can with inside betting. 

You can take your time too. The hare players will be raging during their betting choices; many of them covering the layout with their wagers. You have plenty of time to get your bets down.

Advice for Tortoises

• If you play the single-zero European/French game good for you. As long as you don’t have to play for much higher stakes, you should be in good shape. If you have to play higher stakes, then sit out a spin or two.
• On the double-zero American game, just relax and take your time. 
• On the “YUCK” game – come on, try a different casino. We don’t want to encourage casinos to offer bad games.
• Some good news. On the single-zero and double-zero games some casinos offer options that can cut the edges in half on the even-money bets.
• On the American double zero wheel, if the green numbers show, you do not lose your bet. You get it back. This called surrender.
• On the single-zero game if the green zero shows the casino will lock up your bet for the next spin of the wheel. This is called en prison. Generally, in Europe en prison is the rule.
• The house edges go down to 2.63% on the double-zero game and to 1.35% on the European/French game. That low house edge is a terrific bet!

All the best in and out of the casinos!

It’s 4 in the morning at Durango Casino and Resort. You’ve been riding the gambler’s roller coaster all night long, swinging between wins and losses, pressing bets and taking walks when they seem appropriate. Between it all, you capitalized on a comped dinner at the absolutely fantastic Nicco’s steakhouse. 

Unable to decide between fish or beef, you opted for both: citrus fed filet mignon for the entrée and a few langoustines as an appetizer. The warm butter toffee cake was impossible to resist for dessert.

But that was hours ago. In the gambling pit of recently opened Durango, you ran the gamut, going from slot machines to blackjack to craps. Then there were the pre-season football games you bet on – plus a futures bet for the Super Bowl champion in 2025. You started out with a crew of four friends. One by one, they disappeared – sick of gambling, having won enough or lost too much, and just plain tired.

Hero that you are, you kept going, loving the action and hanging on for the swings, until you are finally satisfied with your starting stake and a pocket full of multi-colored chips – including a couple of purples – for your trouble.

You could go to sleep. But, why? Instead, you repair to The George, Durango’s 24-hour eatery, for steak and eggs – more beef, but you are in Vegas and that seems like the right thing to do – and a reckoning of the night’s results. It is the perfect way to end your gambling spree.

The Durango, which opened late last year, is not the most obvious place in which to try your luck in Las Vegas. Located away from the neon drenched Vegas Strip, it stands on its own and is a luxurious, elegant, comfortable option for gambling as well as sleeping (the rooms are large and welcoming, with high ceilings and comfy beds). Great for those who want to avoid the bustle and congestion of what we think to be Vegas proper, it is a great alternative spot in which to get down and enjoy the action that defines Sin City.

 “You come into town and get here 80 percent quicker than you get to a place on the Strip on a Friday night,” Durango’s general manager David Horn tells 888casino. “For a lot of people, it’s refreshing to avoid the craziness and stay here.”

Luxury Away from the Strip

Gaming rules at Durango lean toward the liberal (which means that you win more or lose less, depending on how things shake out at the tables), all of the newest slot machines are in place and the crowd – many of whom are locals on nights off of working in other casinos – provides a nice change from the touristy throngs that dominate gambling joints on the Strip.

“We’re creating unique experiences,” says Horn. “We’re doing that with natural lighting, keeping the casino bright and being easy on the eyes [in terms of décor]. The idea is to make it feel tranquil in some places and high energy in others.”

The Durango has long been in the making, and the finished product ranks among the nicest casinos in Leas Vegas. The place has a clean, California-style aesthetic. All the standard games are there on the casino floor. High limit gaming areas for slots and table games both rank as showstoppers.

“We make sure high-limit is inviting,” says Horn of the table-gaming enclave where betting minimums begin at $100 per hand and go as high as $300 on busy nights. “There’s a nice bar in there – where players can relax and feel like they are in a bit of a hideaway. There’s a private cage” – for cashing out discreetly – “and TVs all over the place so that you never miss a game.”

Slot players with deep pockets do not exactly get the short shrift.

“The chairs are comfortable, and the room feels good, but customer service is key,” says Horn. “We swap out machines, set up requested machines ahead of a player’s arrival, move things around if need be. We have quite a few machines that are first to brand.”

Keeping Gamblers Happy

Because the casino is not on the Strip, where visitors to Vegas make a pastime of roaming from casino to casino, Durango has to be enticing enough to keep guests in house and occupied. Right now, the pool – “It’s set up,” says Horn, “so that you go there and feel like you are getting away from everything” – is one way of making visitors stick around. The sportsbook is another. No ordinary sportsbook, The George Sportsman’s Lounge is built into the aforementioned George.

“It wraps around an experience that is not just for the sports bettor,” says Horn. “You can come here, bet on the games, enjoy dinner and make a night of it by finishing up with a UFC party on the back patio.”

And if you get hungry during the day – of course you will – a well-thought-out food hall replaces the more standardized food court that has long been a staple of casinos aimed at locals. But in Durango’s iteration, there is no McDonalds in sight. Instead, there are Vegas outposts of cool local restaurants from around the United States as well as some unique to Durango.

As a New Yorker, it did my heart good to see Prince Street Pizza, a downtown Manhattan staple. And, like at the original, there was a line to get a slice. As always, the wait was worth it.

Other spots worth checking out for a quick bite: Irv’s Burgers, Uncle Paulie’s Italian deli and El Pono Café with Hawaiian street food. 

Plus, occupying a middle ground between gourmet and everyman is Fiorella, a pasta joint that comes courtesy of Italian food maestro Marc Vetri. 

More formal, after the sun goes down, are options that include the market-driven Summer House and Mijo Modern Mexican Restaurant, which lives up to its name.

High Rollers

Then, of course, there are the gamblers who never have to wait on lines for anything, the ones who gamble so high that the casino completely rolls out the red carpet for them. They take their shots in Durango’s private gaming rooms.

“We have three salons here,” Horn says, referring to the refined spaces for discreet gamblers who like to play behind closed doors – often with friends and karaoke machines and a selection of top shelf liquor to help things along – and wager between $1,000 and $10,000 per hand. “Games being played in the salons tend to be split between blackjack and baccarat. Maximum limits are discussed with the guests.”

Back inside The George, your chips are organized and you’re ready to cash out with a tidy profit. Your steak and eggs are finished off and you just found out that tonight the spot will feature live entertainment, right outside, on the patio – plus sports to be wagered on and watched on the big screen monitors.

It’s a good bet that you’ll be there to take it all in.

The “don’t” side of craps is usually given short shift when gambling writers delve into it. Why is that? Because it is (seriously) considered the “dark” side of the game. It is the side that should be avoided at all costs. It’s as if you are throwing your lot with the devil.

How so? Well, most craps players prefer to play the “rightside” of the game and they look at the “don’t players” as if they are the betrayers of their fellow craps players. After all, the “don’t” players are somewhat similar to Satan, as they are more than likely hoping the opposite hopes of the “rightside” players.

Often the “don’t” players are betting that the “rightside” group of the players will lose when the horrible 7 is thrown by the shooter. That is an awkward time at the table. At least, I find that so. I like to think of craps as “we are all in this together.”

Yes, on some occasions that 7 helps both the “rightside” player, who is betting on the “come” which wins when a 7 is thrown, and the “don’t” player. 

The “don’t” players are often referred to as the “darkside” players or simply as the “darksider,” who wants the point number or any number they are betting against, to be knocked off the board when the 7 thrusts its ugly self onto the layout. And obviously the seven can come up a lot.

The rightside players consider this a betrayal of the game and they don’t like the don’t players, those beastly darksiders, and would prefer that they don’t play at the same table as they do. In fact, some rabid rightside craps players (and there are plenty of those) wish the darksiders didn’t even exist. (I’m ending using quotes for the groupings from here on in.)

If you know the game of craps, you are certainly familiar with darksiders. On the rightside, the come-out roll wins for the player if a 7 or 11 appears. But for the darksider those are two losing numbers. The darksider wins if a 2 or 3 is thrown which loses for the rightsiders. The 12 is a push.

The come-out roll is good for the rightsiders but bad for the darksiders. The rightsiders will win eight times and lose four times. After that it is all in the darksiders’ favor because the 7 wins the game for the darksider as that number has 6 chances to hit. That is more than any other number in the game. On the come-out roll, the darksider loses three times and does not have an edge.

The house edge against the darksider is 1.36%. The edge against the rightsiders is 1.41%.

Playing the Game

From this point the game gets slightly more complicated. When the point number is established; the rightsiders will win if that number is rolled but the darksider will lose. But if the 7 is rolled, more than likely it will be, the rightsider loses and the darksider wins.

If the rightsider is betting on a lot of numbers, either through come betting and/or place betting, a 7 will wipe him or her out. That’s a big hit. And a big win for the darksiders.

About 95% of craps players are rightside players and only about 5% are darkside players. These are approximations. I never took a real survey.

The Odds

Now there is a little bit of a wrinkle here as both rightsiders and darksiders can make use of a bet called “the odds.” This bet is made after the point is established (it can also be made on the come bets and don’t come bets). Come odds are used by the rightsiders; don’t come odds are used for the darksiders. In addition, odds also apply to the point bet. 

Overall, taking or laying the odds are good bets. The house has no edge on these bets.

The rightside player puts however much the casino allows behind his “line” bet – the “line” is the pass line. He will be paid the true value of the bet. So, if a 4 is the point, the payment will be 2 to 1 on the odds bet; if the point is a 5, he or she will be paid 3 to 2; the 6 and 8 will pay 6 to 5; the 9 will pay 3 to 2 and the 10 will pay 2 to 1.

The darksiders can lay the odds, that is they can take the long end of the odds bet. The darksider would have to place twice as much money behind his or her bet if it were a 4 as the 4 has two to one odds against it. (The 10, 5, 9, 6 and 8 can also be wagered this way. Come and don’t come bets can also use the odds.)

You can see that as the game shifts towards the point number and the come bets, the rightsider is behind the eight-ball a little. But the darksider is in good shape. He or she has a slight edge at the game.

Now, when those sevens roll, the rightside players will groan or curse and if a darksider is at the table, well, many rightsiders will tend to be irritated or angry at the darksider winning money while the rightsider lost his or her money. 

Projection is a powerful instinct and many rightsiders project on the darksider the bad luck they are experiencing. The darksider caused it. This is, I guess, a normal reaction. There is no cause for it.

The Captain’s Take

My mentor, the great legend of Atlantic City, the late Captain, first introduced me to the darksiders. I was in the process of learning the game of craps and how to shoot the dice. The Captain said, “See that guy over there?” I looked. 

A short man was making a bet, a don’t bet on the line when the shooter got the dice.

The Captain explained that this man, a short, squirrelly type of guy, was carefully making his bet. I noticed that he didn’t look at anyone at the table but some of the players were grunting. Remember this was 1990 and the table had many World War II and Korean War veterans. They seemed upset. You could see their lips snarling. Nothing like a snarl to alert you to the inner feelings of someone.

The Captain explained that this individual was a darksider, a player who played the opposite of most players, as he was betting against the dice. He didn’t want the rightside players to make any points or numbers. He wanted a quick seven-out. And the rightsiders knew this.

This was probably my fourth or fifth visit to Atlantic City. It was my first sight of a darksider. I didn’t know such a bettor existed, although I know I read about them but they were outside my conscious perception. I was kind of singularly focused on my craps education.

The Captain explained that the majority of darksiders played alone and would furtively come to the table and quietly place their bets. You’d usually notice them up in the corner of the table. They really didn’t bother him one bit.

Welcome to the New World

Now, the Captain’s sense of things was true for the 1990s but I once was at a table that was crowded with darksiders. Maybe six or seven of them. This was at Bally’s in Atlantic City. It was the late 1990s. Maybe, 2000.

You have to realize that Atlantic City had a lot of characters who played in the casinos. Some of these characters were interesting and worthy of a kind of appreciation, maybe even respect. Others certainly were not.

The group at the table playing the darkside were loud. They all sounded something like a poor version of Robert DeNiro. In short, they were true lowlifes. They would make anyone uncomfortable.  

There were a couple of other players who were trying to shoot. “Come on fella,” said the guy who appeared to be the leader of this mob. “Let’s see what you can do.” And they all placed don’t pass bets.

The new player shot the dice and established a point and then sevened-out. “Oopsy daisy!” said the leader. His gang laughed derisively. I was just standing watching but the other two guys at the table didn’t shoot. 

The problem was that there were only two tables opened at Bally’s, and one was full of players; the other was the table I was looking at. This was about two in the afternoon. The casino was not crowded at this time of the day or this day of the week. I was waiting for the Captain but I was a little early.

“Hey, buddy,” said the leader who was lighting up a cigarette. “Why don’t you shoot? You shoot; go ahead. You might get lucky, right? Make some money.”

“No thanks,” I said. “I don’t know the game,” I lied. “I’d hate to make you lose.” 

“We ain’t losing,” said the leader. The others laughed. Half of them were smoking. They were an annoying bunch for sure. I walked away. Being near these players was off-putting. 

That gang were the most obnoxious players I think I ever encountered. They were out of a Scorsese movie doing the worst parts.

Soon after, the Captain arrived with several of his crew. The casino opened another table and the Captain took his spot, as did the Arm, and Jimmy P. There were a couple of other players who came to the table too. So, we had a session. 

The Scorsese gang then came to our table. We had a pretty high minimum bet ($25, which was high in those days) but no one cared about that.

All of them made their don’t pass bets. The Arm was shooting. She rolled several sevens in a row. The gang guffawed. 

“Keep that up and we’ll lose,” laughed the leader, lighting up another cigarette. It was a non-filtered cigarette I noticed. In fact, his fingers were somewhat yellow from the nicotine. Figures.

“You might want to leave,” laughed the Captain. “This lady can shoot.”

Now while “this lady can shoot” was a true statement, she told the Captain she didn’t feel like shooting after she sevened-out. And we left. The obnoxiousness of the gang was too much for her. By this time, she was hitting 80 years old. So was the Captain.

After this, the Captain and the Arm passed away. I wish this story would have ended with the Arm destroying the Scorsese gang but, well, it didn’t. Sometimes the good guys lose. And that’s the way it was and is.

Did Anyone Else Play the Darkside?

In my craps career, I never played with a friend who was a darksider or even stayed at a table with one if that person was loud. Usually, darksiders stayed quiet. Today, you do get some players who cheer if the dice clobber a rightsider but these people aren’t legion.

The concept of going against people who were rooting for me to fail turned me off. I wasn’t superstitious but shooting at a table while other players were hoping I would fail just didn’t sit well with me.

Once at the Venetian in Las Vegas I went to a table and had a great roll with two darksiders at the table. They left. I stayed.

I don’t have too many great stories about knocking out darksiders. I may have done so a few more times than I didn’t do it, but still, I didn’t want to play with players who were rooting against me. 

In the End

The darkside isn’t for everyone and that is why most gambling writers aren’t all that interested in writing about it. Still, it should be covered, at least superficially. Well, I did it!

All the best in and out of the casinos!
 

The best time to leave a casino is … when? I have not done a study of casino players on this topic, but it is my belief that most of them have no idea when the best time to leave a casino is for them personally.

They may bring along a certain casino playing stake (or, worse yet, choose to hit the ATM for their playing cash) and have some general idea how much they are willing to lose before giving up the quest for riches and heading home. 

It is a sad fact that most gamblers do not have any plan regarding when they will leave the casino. Most will play as long as they are able based on how they feel and how long their money lasts. Some of them will play even longer by hitting the ATM to replenish the initial (and then ultimately lost) bankroll.

When is the best time to leave the casino? This article explores the topic.

Contents

1. Types of Casino Player
2. Good Times Charlie
3. Ima Got-rocks
4. Careful Carl
5. Summary

Types of Casino Player

It is very difficult to provide the best time to leave the casino that covers all types of players. Each type can have a different answer. This article will cover the following types of players. 

• Good Times Charlie - Players who come to the casino strictly for entertainment. They have a somewhat limited gambling budget. They may know the rules of how to play the games they play, but they know nothing about things like basic strategy in blackjack or strategy for optimum play in video poker.
• Ima Got-rocks – Money is the least of this player’s concerns. The money they win or lose means nothing. It is a contest between them and the house. They may or may not know they best bets or games with the best return. They are in it for the action all the way.
• Careful Carl - Players who know the proper strategy for playing the games they like to play. They make low house edge bets such as the line bet – possibly with odds at craps. They know how to determine the video poker games with best return and know the proper way to play them. They bring gambling funds that are strictly reserved for playing and are not need for living expenses.

Good Times Charlie

Most players who fall into this category tend to leave the casino when they run out of money. Upon hitting a big win, most of this class of players will continue to play hoping for another big win. Most Good Times Charlies are focused on playing as long as they can. Far too often, even with big wins, “as long as they can” is until they run out of money.

There is technically nothing wrong with this approach – if they are playing with money they can afford to lose. That is, money that has been set aside and is reserved for casino play.

If this is the case, these Good Times Charlie players may go home depressed, but there is no long-term impact. The best time to leave for these Good Times Charlie players is whenever they like. They will be happier leaving if they are ahead, but they came for entertainment. Entertainment costs money and they are willing and able to pay the price.  

Most Good Times Charlies have a different style, however. They may bring what they feel they can afford to lose, even though it may be needed for rent or groceries. These players hope to win to help with upcoming expenses. Worse yet, some of these players will run through everything they brought and then hit the ATM for additional funds. Rather than quitting when they are lucky enough to score a big win, they play until this is also lost.

Unfortunately, the best time for these players to leave the casino is – before they arrive. The casino has a house edge on everything. Players who don’t have the discipline to amass the funds to play plus stay within that budget should not tempt themselves.

Ima Got-rocks

Obviously, the best time for this type of player to leave the casino is whenever he or she wants. The money does not matter. They are playing for fun and/or excitement. Let them have it. They can certainly afford it.

Careful Carl

For Careful Carls the best time to leave the casino is a bit more complex. They are doing everything properly to give themselves the best chance of winning or playing for the maximum time possible.

Obviously, they will leave when they lose their bankroll. They will not hit the ATM. Leaving then will not hurt them. But, what about leaving when they are ahead? Many pundits promote this.

Sounds like a good idea, doesn’t it? The problem is, how do you define “ahead?” If they win the first hand of blackjack, they are ahead. Is this the best time to leave? They may never be ahead after this win. Leaving now would not make the trip worthwhile. One hand and quit? Really?

No, there needs to be a way to balance leaving when you are ahead and playing for a reasonable length of time. 

Some authors promote trying to reach a certain win level of perhaps 10 units before calling it quits. 

One method I like is locking up a percentage of each win. With each win, put 30 to 50% of it aside. This is not to be touched. This is profit to be taken with you with you when you leave. Continue playing with the remainder of your allocated bankroll until it is gone or are ready to leave for other reasons. Using this method, it is virtually impossible to leave the casino empty-handed. 

For Careful Carls, this is the best time to leave the casino.

Summary 

The best time to leave a casino depends on the type of player. 

• Undisciplined players should leave before they come. 
• Those with (nearly) unlimited resources can play all they want before leaving.
• Disciplined players should set aside a portion of each win to be taken with them when they leave.

Giving slot players fresh ways to play is bread and butter for online casinos, live casinos and game designers alike. What better way to keep players engaged that with new experiences.

Among the new experiences recently added online are games from Betsoft, ELK Studios and Pragmatic Play. Let's take a peek at what they have to offer.

Tiger's Luck Hold and Win (Betsoft)

Hold-and-respin games are among the most popular around today, regardless of whether you're playing online slots or in live casinos.

Betsoft puts a couple of twists on the format with Tiger's Luck Hold and Win. It has five reels, each four symbols deep, and 100 paylines. 

The Asian-style images are set in a bamboo forest with animal symbols including tigers, crocodiles, bears, red pandas, lanterns and gold coins with red ribbons, wild symbols, big gold coins without the ribbon as feature trigger and red collection symbols. The a usual collection of low-payers with 10, J, Q, K and A also are part of the symbol mix.

As with other such games, a bonus is triggered when six gold coins land on the screen. Each coin displays a credit award. Those symbols lock into place for respins. You spin as long as you keep collecting coins and credits until you go three spins in a row without landing another on the reels. Then the round ends and you collect all the credit awards.

One twist: If the red collection symbol appears, it collects all the credits on your gold coins. It deposits those credits on your meter, but the amounts remain on the gold coins and you win them all again at the end of the bonus. The red symbol disappears and your round resumes.

The collection symbol can appear several times in one respin round, giving you the chance at really big wins as you collect all the credits several times over.

Another twist: if you choose, you can buy the hold feature without waiting to trigger it with a reel spin. For 30 times your regular bet, you can buy a bonus, but it takes only one miss to end the round. For 40 times your bet, you get at least two respins, and for 50 times, you get the usual three.

That's pricey at $30, $40 or $50 for someone who usually bets $1. Bonus return can fall short of those bets, but the chance the payoff will far exceed the bet lures jackpot hunters.

The main game has a twist, too. Wild symbols in the base game are sticky. Land wilds on the reels, and they not only help with that spin, they lock in place for the next two.

On average, you'll see a respin bonus about once per 92 spins, and sticky wilds once per 26. It's a high volatility game with a lot of intrigue as you twist through that bamboo forest.

Squeeze (ELK Studios)

On a sandy seaside beach, lies a grid of fruit-like symbols all ready to be squeezed. The grid is six symbols across and seven symbols deep, and though each symbol is a rounded square, they're very like fruit cross sections.

Small-paying symbols are just colors – blue, green, yellow and red. Higher-payers come in the same colors but have pulp lines or sides. A green square with white pulp lines and black seeds looks very like a kiwi cross section. 

In that way, Squeeze is similar to cascading reels games where winners disappear and new symbols drop from the top to fill vacant spaces. But here, the squeeze comes from the sides and only the winning spaces are affected. Symbols already in place don't drop down, or move in from the sides.

The squeeze remains on as long as new winning combinations appear. There's a chance at a long winning streak on a single paid spin. A really big win with 17 symbols of the same type can pay up to 250-1, and with bonus features, there's a maximum win of 10,000 times your bet.

There are lots of potential bonuses. To the left of the reel grid are four feature meters. Fill the blue meter to get the swap feature, where symbols swap places to potentially create wins. The yellow meter yields a "make big" feature that supersizes a symbol to either 3x3 or 4x4 to create at least 9- or 16-symbol winners.

The green meter brings the upgrade feature, which upgrades winners to the next higher symbol value. And the red meter brings "spawns wild" to replace six symbols with wilds.

Sometimes you'll see a "bounce back" feature where squeezed symbols return in place, multiplying the win. 

And for fans of free spins – and that's just about every slot player – there are a couple of levels. Three scatter symbols trigger five bonus games, and on each the squeeze mechanic applies so you could win several times on each game. If at least one of the scatters is a "super scatter" symbol, you get the super bonus. You still get five free games, but on each game, one of the bonus meters is filled and you get the corresponding feature.

That leaves a lot of ways to win in a fun, attractive setting. Be aware that Squeeze is a high volatility slot. You can win big, but the losses can also come fast. Take your shot, but stick to your bankroll limits.

Running Sushi (Pragmatic Play)

Those who love sushi bars in Japanese restaurants will instantly recognize the situation here. As reels spin, a conveyor underneath brings sushi pieces into view. You get the chance to collect value on the sushi pieces as well as any winners on the reels.

Running Sushi has five reels, each four symbols deep, and is a 1,024 ways to win slot. Instead of traditional paylines, any path across the reels from right to left can form a winning combo.

Reel symbols include sushi pieces, chefs and servers as well as low-paying heart, club, diamond and spade icons. As you spin, the conveyor brings anywhere from four to seven pieces of sushi into view. Above each piece is a multiplier, so a roll with 2x above is worth two times your bet, a 5x roll is worth five times your bet, and so on. Winning those values takes landing three "Take Sushi" symbols depicting female servers. When that happens, you win values of all the sushi on the conveyor.

Three scatter symbols consisting of a sushi chef in white hat launch a round of 10 free spins. An extra in the free spins can bring big wins. A gold-clad chef serves as a "Take All" symbol and he also appears to the left of the reels. Under him to left, values are tallied of all sushi pieces you see on the conveyor for the free spins.

Then if you land three Take All symbols on the reels, you not only win the sushi on the conveyor, but all from earlier in the round that have been tallied on the left. Those are the moments for Running Sushi players to savor.

Free spins are such an important part of the game that you can add an extra 25% to your bet to increase their frequency. On average, you'll launch the freebies once per 298 spins. Bet the extra, turning a $2 bet into $2.50, for example, and you'll get the feature about once per 149 spins.

The extra bet does not increase the payback on any winners, but it does get you the potentially lucrative free-spin round more often. It adds to volatility but not to payback percentage. Whether you bet the extra depends on whether you'd want to risk more and increase frequency of losing sessions in order to increase the possibility of a big win.

I doubt many video poker players even consider this question. They head to the casino (or play online) hoping their luck will bring them riches – or at least buy them some decent time playing their favorite video poker game.

Serious video poker players – those who learn and practice perfect video poker playing strategy for the specific game and pay table they will play are betting on the game being random. Each line of playing strategy assumes that video poker games are random. If the game is not random, the strategy is flawed and perhaps worthless.

So, what is the truth? Are video poker machines actually random? Will playing strategy based on a random game have the desired results? This article addresses these topics.

Contents

1. How video poker machines work – the RNG
2. What is random when it comes to video poker machine certification?
3. Do video poker strategies work on today’s video poker games?
4. Summary

How do video poker games work – the RNG

The engine producing “randomness” in video poker is called a Random Number Generator or RNG. It is a routine that generates a series of numbers very quickly based on some starting “seed” number. Given the same seed number, the RNG will produce the same sequence of numbers.

That does not sound very random, does it? Technically it is not random. Because of this, RNG’s are said to produce “pseudo-random” numbers. 

Here is how the RNG works in a video poker machine. When the machine is first powered up the RNG begins generating numbers. It continuously generates thousands of numbers a second in the background whether the machine is being played or not.

Whenever a player hits either the deal or draw button, a series of numbers produced at that instant is captured. These numbers are then translated into the recognizable cards with a suit and rank based on the captured numbers. 

Previous versions of video poker machines (they are now antiques), would capture and translate 10 numbers into cards. The first five would be the initial deal and the second five would replace any of the original cards that were discarded.

Current versions capture only the initial five numbers for translation into the original hand. When the player hits the draw button, additional numbers are captured and translated into the positions of the discards.

Keep in mind that the RNG is constantly working, generating thousands of numbers every second.

What is random when it comes to video poker machine certification?

The gaming control boards or commissions of each gaming jurisdiction certify video poker machines. They are responsible for certifying the “fairness” (randomness) of each game that is installed on a casino gaming floor. 

They are well aware that these casino games could be rigged to unlawfully skew the results and therefore give the house an unlawful advantage. 

Rigorous tests are performed to determine that over time, the results are well within the expectations. The results must match the mathematically produced frequencies dictated by a random game.

The results may not exactly match the mathematical results, but they must be very, very close. If they are not, the approval is rejected.

Do video poker strategies work on today’s video poker games?

The short answer is yes – as long as the game is certified. Keep in mind that video poker strategy is based an infinite number of hands. Certified games will necessarily be based on a finite, though very large Sampling.

The machine may be off by a very tiny amount. A certified game is only certified to be close enough to random to be considered random.

As a side note, there have been some strong doubters that video poker games are random.

In an effort to prove that games were not random, one such individual took data during actual play. The number of hands played and the number of selected winning hands such as full house, and/or flush were noted. The “proof” was the number of these select winning hands did not match the frequency from a random game. This could be anecdotal proof, but from the numbers I saw, there were nowhere near enough hands in the sampling to make the results meaningful.

I decided to do my own test. For seven years, with a total of over 450,000 hands, I tracked the number of full houses, straight flushes, four of a kinds, royal flushes and number of hands containing four of a flush that became a flush.

During those years I played exclusively at one casino. As far as I know, I played perfect or very nearly perfect strategy as witnessed by my practice sessions at home.

I kept track of the information by machine number and game. There were 12 different machines. The frequencies initially were all over the place. As more hands were added, however, the frequencies settled into something very near that of random. 

Even though each of these machines had a computer generated RNG, the results appeared to mimic those of a random game.

Summary 

• Video poker games are powered by a computer routine called a random number generator (RNG).
• Because it is a programmed routine, by definition, it cannot be called random. Instead, it is called a pseudo random game.
• RNGs generate many thousands of numbers every second.
• Capturing some of these generated numbers at the instant the player presses a button adds a random variable to the cards these captured numbers are translated into.
• This combination of circumstances makes video poker games close enough to random to be considered random.

One important part of video poker strategy has nothing to do with what cards to hold or discard. Optimal play starts with being able to tell the higher-paying games at a glance.

That means comparison shopping to find games with the highest paybacks on winning hands. The most common way for a casino to raise or lower the payback percentage if offers video poker players is to change the returns on full houses and flushes.

But be aware that changes also can be found elsewhere on the pay table. As a rule, changes on more common hands that rank low on the pay table have the biggest effects on your overall return.

With that in mind, let's look at pay table variations that have the biggest impact on payback percentage and your shot to win in non-wild card games. 

Two Pairs

Ever wonder how a game such as Double Double Bonus Poker can pay at least 50-for-1 on four of a kind with jackpots up to 400-for-1 on four Aces with a 2, 3 or 4 as the fifth card? For a five-coin bet, that's a whopping 2,000-coin bonanza, while Jacks or Better pays only 25-for-1, or 125 for five coins, on any quads.

Some players think four of a kind must be rarer in Double Double Bonus than in Jacks or Better, but that's not it at all. Nothing in the composition of the deck or the frequency of cards dealt is changed at all.

The difference is in the payoff on two pairs. Jacks or Better pays 2-for-1, or 10 coins for a five-coin bet. Double Double Bonus reduces the two-pair pay to 1-for-1, or 5 for a 5-coin wager. That's enough to cover all the bigger payoffs on four of a kind hands.

In 9-6 Jacks or Better – with the "9-6" standing for a 9-for-1 pay on full houses and 6-for-1 on flushes – the average return with expert play is 99.5%. If the two-pair return was dropped to 1-for-1 with no other payoff changes, that average return would plummet all the way to 86.7%. 

A fall of 12.8% drop in payback is enormous, plenty to pay for bigger four of a kind returns. In 9-6 Double Double Bonus Poker, the paybacks on all winning hands except two pairs and four of a kind are the same as in Jacks or Better. Two pairs drop to 1-for-1. Four 5s through Kings rise from 25-for-1 to 50-for-1, four 2s, 3s or 4s to 80-for-1, four Aces with most fifth cards to 160-for-1 and four Aces with the low-card kicker to 400-for-1.

Offset those huge quad paybacks with the reduced two-pair pay, and 9-6 Double Double Bonus returns 98.98% with expert play.

Jacks or Better and Bonus Poker are the only standard games that pay 2-for-1 on two pairs. There are many games that reduce the return to 1-for-1, including Double Bonus Poker, Super Bonus Poker, Bonus Poker Deluxe, Super Aces and White Hot Aces. All have big increases in quad pays, and the smaller return on two pairs makes those increases possible.

Full Houses & Flushes

Let's take these two together since full houses and flushes are the most common pays changed when casinos raise or lower payback percentages. Players in the know refer to games by returns on those hands, with a number for the full house return followed by the flush return. A 9-6 Double Double Poker game pays more than an 8-5 version of the same game, and 8-5 Bonus Poker pays better than 7-5 Bonus Poker. 

You can find multiple versions of each game online, and sometimes in live casinos you can find higher and lower paying versions on different machines on the same casino floor.

Neither has as profound an effect as the two-pair reduction. Each unit changed in payback on a full house or flush raises or lowers the overall return by a little more than 1 percent. 

If you started with 9-6 Jacks or Better with its 99.5% average return to experts and dropped the full house payback to 8-for-1, the resulting 8-5 JB game would drop to 98.4%. Then if you drop the flush by a unit, the resulting 8-5 Jacks or Better would offer experts an average return of 97.3%.

Though the payback change isn't a steep as on two pairs, full houses and flushes are important because variations are so common. Virtually every wild card game is available with a many full house-flush payback combinations. 

It's the first place you should look when comparison shopping among non-wild card games. If all other paybacks are the same, a Jacks or Better game with higher returns on full houses and flushes will average a higher overall return than those with lower paybacks. The same goes for Bonus Poker, Double Bonus Poker, Bonus Poker Deluxe or any other game. Look first at those hands, then compare the rest of the pay tables.

Four of a Kind

Video poker developed a loyal following from the moment Jacks or Better hit casino floors in the 1980s. But interest went through the roof when huge paybacks on four of a kind came into vogue, edging that way with Bonus Poker in the late 1980s, then really taking off with Double Bonus Poker, Double Double Bonus Poker and more in the 1990s.

Big returns on quads, and especially on four Aces, made players feel like there were attainable hands that could make a big winning session.

Nearly all common video poker casino games pay a big jackpot on royal flushes, usually 250-for-1 but jumping to a 4,000-coin windfall for a five-coin wager. On a 25-cent game, that's $1,000 making for a great day in the casino. But royals occur only once in about 40,000 hands, with the exact amount depending on game and drawing strategy.

Next on the Jacks or Better pay table is straight flushes, paying 50-for-1 – 250 coins for a five-coin bet that amounts to $62.50 on a 25-cent game. That's not an overwhelming return and it comes up less than once per 9,000 hands.

Four of a kinds occur a little less often than once per 400 hands. Given that most experienced players get in more than 500 hands per hour, a majority of sessions will include quads. But in Jacks or Better, they pay only 25-for-1, 125-for-5, or $31.25 in a quarter game. That'll keep you going for a while, but it won't send you home feeling like a big winner.

Video poker needed an attainable secondary jackpot to go with the royals. Four of a kind did the trick. Bonus Poker was a start. It raised four 2s, 3s or 4s to 40-for-1 and four Aces to 80-for-1, $100 for a five-coin bet on a 25-cent game. Then Double Bonus Poker doubled all quad payoffs, upping four Aces to 160-for-1, or $200 for five coins on quarter machine.

That did the trick, catching interest from players who hadn't caught video poker mania. Other games upped the voltage, such as Double Double Bonus Poker paying 2,000 coins for a five-coin bet – $500 on a quarter game – when four Aces are accompanied by a 2, 3 or 4. 

Quads are attainable, but not so common that a small increase on the pay table with make a big impact on the payback percentage. Four of a kind returns have to be huge to offset the effect of reducing the two-pair return. 

So the quad returns are enormous on many games, drawing in players with jackpots other than royals that can make your day.

Minor Changes

Two pairs, full houses, flushes and four of a kinds have common pay table variations that make a big impact on our shot to win.

Returns on straights and three of a kind are less commonly changed, but are important to their specific game.

Original versions of Double Bonus Poker paid 5-for-1 on straights instead of the 4-for-1 common to other games. That's important enough that players refer to Double Bonus games by three numbers instead of just the full house and flush returns.

The first release of Double Bonus was a 10-7-5 game, paying 10-for-1 on full houses, 7-for-1 on flushes and 5-for-1 on straights. That's rare today, though sometimes seen in Nevada. The best you're likely to find in most of the U.S. and online is 9-7-5, and even that's not everywhere.

Watch out when the pay table goes lower. A 9-6-5 Double Bonus game has an average return with optimal play of 97.8%. Many casinos drop the straight payback to 4-for-1, reducing the overall return to 96.4%. If you're going play Double Bonus, look for that 5-for-1 return on straights.

Increasingly popular is Triple Double Bonus Poker, a roller coaster of a game that pays 4,000 coins for a five-coin bet on four Aces with a 2, 3 or 4 as the fifth card. 

With other enhanced quad paybacks, it takes more than just the usual reduced two-pair return to offset the quad bonanzas. So three of a kind is reduced to 2-for-1 instead of the usual 2-for-1. That reduces overall return by a little more than 5%, enough to offset the jumbo four of a kind pays.

But the straight and three of a kind changes are special cases. The others are the bedrock of video poker variation. Look for those changes and choose wisely whenever you play.

Check out more of 88casino's video poker tips.

People have a tendency to catalog other people, places, and things as greats or not-so greats. This must be a part of our emotional constitution to define everything and everyone. 

Fighting? Muhammad Ali versus Joe Louis? Who would win? Ali versus Marciano? Ali versus any name you want to put here. Ali versus Tyson; the young Tyson? Sometimes these debates can turn, well, brutal. I rarely take part in them. But I am certainly aware of them.

What’s the greatest building in the world? The tallest? The widest? The prettiest? Is a pyramid better than the original Taj Mahal? What mud hut has the best design in the Amazon jungle?

The world of gambling has its greats too. I’ve met some of them. In fact, I have been helped by some of them. In fact, one of them is my mentor – or was my mentor. 

Ken Uston versus anyone? Paul Kean? The one and only "Arm"? The very Captain himself?

Poker? Who was the greatest poker player? Who won the most money at roulette? I wish I had the answers to all these questions. I don’t. But I do have some answers to some questions.

Here we go.

The Greatest Dice Controllers of All Time? 

Yes, some players through training or innate talent can control the landing of the dice at craps. They can have consistent winning rolls.

'The Arm'

I would put "the Arm" right at the top. I have never before or since seen anyone with dice control the way she had it. Interestingly enough she was not a gambler! She was a part of the Captain’s crew composed of about 22 or so players who frequented Atlantic City in the 1970s, '80s, and early '90s.

The Captain would ask her to roll the dice. He’d put up a pass line bet for her and that was that. 

The Arm then rolled. She was not perfect; no shooter is but her sense of the game was beyond amazing. There were nights when the Captain’s crew were taking a licking and the Arm would pull them out of it. Often.

When she entered a casino (I swear) the other players would open up an area in front of her and let her through – like Moses parting the Red Sea. They were anticipating a miracle and often they got it. 

Her craps throw was unique. I could never duplicate it. Trust me I tried. No one I ever met could duplicate it either. It was geared to her body I guess. It certainly wasn’t geared to mine. Or anyone else that I ever met. 

I don’t even know how she set the dice. At the time I met her, I was in awe and I didn’t ask her any questions. I was always in awe. Yes, that was stupid of me but what can you do? It would have been presumptuous of me to ask. You don’t question a goddess. 

How old was she at the time I met her? Probably 70-something or so. 

I am guessing that the glorious Captain and his crew are playing craps in the afterlife. And right there with them is the Arm; a one-of-a-kind shooter.

The Captain

At one time he held the world record for the longest roll – nearly 150 numbers in a row. 

The Captain had the most profound effect on me. He taught me everything I know about casino gambling. Although he was a craps player, he had a strong penchant for understanding the human psyche of the typical gambler. And he taught me about it. He taught me how to avoid the pitfalls of gambling.

He taught me how to manage my money and how to make sure I had enough funds to make it through the rough patches in my play.

The Captain understood that most players often had no idea of what those house edges they faced meant and what those edges meant for their money. His belief was simple; players thought they could win but they were counting on luck and luck was fickle. I saw this all the time. Someone got hot but that never lasted a long time. Then they got cold and cold could last almost forever.

Indeed, when I taught courses in dice control I was disappointed, then aghast, at players who continued to bet stupidly after the class. They were told that these bets would do them in … yet they continued to make them. And then (believe it or not) some of the teachers encouraged them to make these bets as well. I left teaching the subject when I realized that nothing I taught was getting through. 

I was wasting my time. These players were gamblers. Could some students actually learn dice control? Indeed, they could, if they gave up the gambler’s idea that bets with ludicrous house edges could be beaten.

Interestingly, the Captain never pushed his ideas on anyone. Some of his crew were wild gamblers – that was their choice the Captain would say. Even some of his crew played the slot machines!

But the Captain stuck with his method of play and his method of shooting. He influenced Jimmy P., who became a good shooter when he reined in his inner gambler. And there was the Arm too. And me. And a few others.

I would say without question that the Captain was the greatest player I ever met. He’s long gone now, as are all the members of his crew. If there is an afterlife, these folks are waiting for the Arm to appear to get them out of their holes.

Those were the days.

Jerry “Stickman”

At the table, Jerry would remove his hearing aides (both of them) and the noise of the casino would disappear into a stillness and a kind of calm quiet. Then he would shoot those cubes. 

He was (and still is) a great shooter. He only made the best bets and he never showed off or bragged. He was the consummate professional. You don’t meet many people like him.

He is also six-foot-four. And skinny. With long arms; a body especially made for dice control. When he bent over the table his arm could go past the real stickman.

I met him when I was teaching the dice control classes and when I quit he soon left too. I became great friends with him and for years we would both meet up in Atlantic City and shoot craps. Now our interests have become far broader.

I’ve lost most of my interest in beating the games, although I still enjoy the casinos and Stickman, my wife the Beautiful AP, and I continue to travel together. (And here this is our loving nod to Stickman’s deceased wife.)

My Blackjack Life 

The best blackjack game I ever played was at the Maxim Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas in the early 1990s. Every card except one was dealt from a single deck. When the cards ran out, the dealer grabbed the cards that already had been played, shuffled, and then dealt them.

The game had the best rules. You could surrender your hand; you could double any first two cards; you could split pairs and double after splits.

Even a basic strategy player had an edge on this game and my wife and I had a huge edge. We were $5 players back then. We were just learning how to count cards. We literally stumbled on this game as we were staying in this hotel.

We were going to stay in Vegas for a week but with this game? We stayed eight weeks; playing two hands each and playing for about eight hours a day. Oh, and if you got a blackjack while betting $5 you received a token that could be used anywhere in the casino – including at the gourmet restaurant.

At night, I practiced my dice control technique. And this game brought Paul Kean to our attention.

Paul Kean

I went to the Gambler’s Book Club and asked the manager Howard Schwartz if he knew someone who could teach me some tricks at this amazing game. He introduced me to someone who worked in the store, Paul Kean.

“He’s the best blackjack player in the world,” said Howard.

So why was he working in a book store? Best in the world?

Here is his story, edited, and made as short as possible which was always Paul’s wish. He learned card counting in the 1970s. He even taught Ken Uston, the flamboyant "King of Blackjack" way back when. 

He was working the bookstore now because all the casinos in Vegas had banned him or gave him the option of betting no more than $15 on any hand. (He had some friends in the casinos.) 

I told Paul about the game and invited him to dinner with my wife the Beautiful AP.  He knew the game and a free meal? Why not.

“I can show you a method almost no one knows about,” he said. “It’s called end play.”

There was a time in Las Vegas when some casinos offered this type of blackjack game. End play was the method wise players used when the cards were about to be reshuffled. What would the count be at that time? Would you have an edge? How did you maintain an edge if the cards were taken from the discard rack, shuffled and replayed? How should you bet?

We went to our room and Paul gave us a detailed lesson on end play. Paul accepted the invitation(s) to dinner and we worked together on this “end play” and on other aspects of blackjack. End play was actually pretty easy.

The other things? As they say in Brooklyn (where I grew up) “forgetaboutit.” I couldn’t get a handle on any of these things. Follow clumps of cards in the shoe game? Couldn’t do it. Cut the cards so that the aces would come out right away. What?  I was no Ken Uston but I didn’t have to be. Not really.

I was going through a divorce from my first wife and I was broke and $40,000 in debt. 

How would I recover? The Beautiful AP told me this as we sat on the beach at Cape May in New Jersey: “You are going to become a famous writer. Money? You’ll have no money worries at all.”

She was right. The Beautiful AP and I were $5 players when we started our blackjack life. We’d range our bets from $5 to maybe $25 in high counts. By the time we left the Maxim? We were betting a hundred dollars and we’d move up to a thousand in high counts. And the casino was pleasant about this too. Remember, we played four hands! And had free gourmet dinners every night thanks to plenty of blackjacks!

When we were getting ready to leave to go back to teaching, one of the bosses said to me, “Frank, how can you afford to leave this game?” I thought he was going to have me arrested. “I, uh, haven’t lost too much …”

“Frank, Frank, how can you afford to leave this game. We’ll be closing it down soon.” Then I understood. He knew what we had done in our weeks at the Maxim.

“I miss my kids,” I told him truthfully. “And I’ve got to get back to teaching.”

“Say hello to Paul, if you see him,” he said.

“Sure,” I said. I never met Paul Kean again. 

Sadly, I don’t know what happened to Paul Kean but I do know about End Play in blackjack. The Maxim was the only time I got to use it in a casino. But that game and then meeting the Captain started me on my path to where I am now. 

I write. 

I enjoy my life.

And my wife, the Beautiful AP was right about my future writing career. It is great to have a smart wife who loves you unconditionally. 

… and my kids? They are pushing 50 now. Hard to believe. They will never know some of the greats that I have known and from whom I’ve learned.

All the best in and out of the casinos!

There are casino games where you win more bets than you lose and games where you lose more bets than you win. The total game’s results may be a loser for the player but this bet or that bet can go for the player more often than not.

There are games where the players’ losing streaks can go on and on. Take traditional roulette for example. If you are betting on one number, the ball can land in 37 or 38 or 39 different pockets – and that means you can go on a massive losing streak.

[Please note: The casino world now has three roulette games. You have the most popular American double-zero wheel, with a usually green 0 and 00; or the European/French single-zero wheel, with one usually green 0; or the new game of the triple-zero wheel, with the 0, 00, and 000 generally in green. 

The payout for a winning single number is always 35 to 1 on all games. Yes, that triple-zero wheel is a killer when it comes to losing streaks because you have so many more pockets where the ball can possibly land! And the house edge is massive too. Deep breath: 7.69%! While the double-zero game comes in at 5.26% and the single-zero game comes in at 2.7%. 

Oh, a little note here: the triple-zero game was created in a church! A church!]

Roulette Bets

Let us say, oh, you decide to bet all the numbers. Hey, why not splurge? Every spin will be a win! Hurrah! But every spin will also be a loss of either 36, 37, or 38 numbers depending on the wheel you are playing. Yuck! So, that’s a lot of losses for a single win. Yuck again.

Is there a way to make roulette more of a 50-50 game? Almost but not quite. 

You can choose to bet the even-money bets of red/black, or odd/even, or high/low. Sadly, these even-money bets will pay even-money but they are not 50/50 propositions. You will win fewer times than you lose but betting this way can forestall very long losing streaks. 

Sadly, no roulette game offers you the possibility of winning more bets over time than losing more bets over time. Still, some methods of betting are somewhat close contests in terms of winning or losing your individual bets. The even-money bets are decent wagers if your goal is to hang in there without being quickly wiped out.

Remember that roulette was James Bond’s favorite game but even Agent 007 couldn’t beat it.

Blackjack: The Most Popular Game

Yes! Yes! Yes! A game where you win more than you lose. Hurrah! Hurray! Hu-uuu-uum (cough, cough, cough).

No, no, sorry. Not so. You do not win more hands than you lose. I don’t know where you got that idea. You actually lose more hands than you win. 

Players win about 44 hands, lose about 48 hands, and tie the rest of them. (These are approximate numbers but you get the idea.)

You see blackjack is a close contest where the house has about a half percent edge over a basic strategy player, but how that house edge is created has to do with premier or bonus hands. Here are some examples: 

• The player receives a blackjack and is paid 3 to 2. (Some blackjack games have reduced this pay out to 6 to 5. Avoid those. That’s a big hit on your bankroll. No one needs that. If no one plays those 6-to-5 games, the casino will remove them … maybe.)
• The player can double down on certain hands. Which means putting up a separate bet on your hand and getting only one card. It is advantageous to double down correctly.
•  The players can split pairs. The player can double down on some splits.

These hands bring the player more money if played correctly. You want to win more money in such favorable situations. This is where the players can overcome the high number of hands the casino wins at the game. More money is leaving the game than coming into the game.

Okay, so how do you play blackjack correctly? You learn the correct basic strategy for the blackjack games you wish to play. This strategy is the absolute perfect way to play your hands.

Now, if you are going to learn blackjack correctly don’t make the mistake of throwing in with “gamblers” who decry basic strategy as wrong based on their individual “eccentric” opinions. Basic strategy is the computer-derived proper play of every hand versus the dealer’s up-card. Period. Follow it and play the game correctly. Don’t follow it and your losses will be magnified.

If you have trouble memorizing the correct basic strategy most casinos will allow you to bring a basic strategy card to the table. Do so.

Some helpful hints for maximizing your chances of winning:

• Play at full tables. The fewer hands you play the better your chances of winning. The more hands you play the better the chance you will be behind. The fewer hands you play, the better the chance you will be ahead. This falls into a simple saying: The more money you bet on different hands, the better chance you will be behind.
• Go to the bathroom when the dealer is actually dealing and not while he or she is shuffling. There is no casino law that says you have to wait to go to the bathroom. You’ll generally get credit for your time even when you are in the bathroom if the casino is crowded. 
• Do not play more than one hand. You are simply throwing more money into the casino house edge when you play more than one hand. Just lost a couple of hands in a row? Sit out the next hand.
• Take your time deciding what to do with your hand – even if you already know what to do! It is important to slow the game down as much as you can. A slow game will have you play fewer hands. The dealer's job is to deal fast and some dealers take that seriously; the player’s job is to slow it all down. Few players take that seriously.

Blackjack is a great game but you have to be careful with your playing decisions. A great game can become a bad game if you do not play correctly. Playing correctly is totally in your court.

Craps: The Exciting Game

World War II was the time craps ascended to become the favorite game of soldiers around the world (at least allied soldiers). 

The game originated “down south” along the Mississippi River. It was a street game in the cities as it moved North. Have an alley near you? Great. The exact right place to play a game of craps. 

The original name for the game was “crabs” but as the game moved North, northerners started calling the game craps since “crabs” sounded like craps to northern ears.

In the years of the great war, the game flourished. You had poker and craps, the two favorite gambling games. When the war ended, craps became the favorite table game in the casinos until blackjack deposed it due to the card counting revolution. 

Craps is still in second place. By the way, if you check out a craps game you will discover that the game is a “man’s game” as most tables rarely have women players. When I learned the game, you would rarely (rarely, rarely) see a woman playing.

My first experiences with craps came when I met the late Captain, an Atlantic City legend. He had a “crew” of 22 high rollers and these folks were in the casino almost every weekend.

I was studying to do the lead role in a play, "The Only Game in Town" by Frank Gilroy, and I met the Captain in Atlantic City one night. Boy did I learn about craps and casino gambling from the man! 

My entire gambling career began when I met the man. I dumped acting, directing and producing and teaching for the excitement of challenging the casinos. That’s a whole other story of how my wife the Beautiful AP and I tackled “chance and circumstance” and many of my books and television shows reference the Captain. It is rare in life that one person has so much influence over another but in my case, the Captain did.

The best way to play craps? Make one or two bets These can be the pass line and come bets with odds – forget the worse bets which is almost all of them and forget the darkside – why be hated? Also place the 6 or 8; all this after finishing the Five-Count. (In a future article I will write about the Five-Count.)

Mini-Baccarat: A Good Game Ruined by Speed

Two things you should be aware of when you play mini-baccarat: the speed of the game (when I say speed I mean SPEED) and the superstitions of some very superstitious players. Most superstitious players are quietly superstitious, right? But not in mini-baccarat. If they are superstitious they can be loudly superstitious.

You will note that the seat for number 4 usually has a number 5 as its number. Why is that? Superstitious players have requested that the casinos eliminate that position on the table – the number of that position that is – because the sound of that number reminds them (I think it reminds them) of death. 

The casino didn’t want to kill anyone so they changed the number of the seat. They also want those players, many of them high rollers of the highest order, to play at their tables. Can you blame them?

The original game of baccarat used to be played on an extra-long table that had several dealers – males in suits or tuxedos; females in evening dresses. The game was expensive but it was also leisurely. Those long tables are now mostly gone; replaced by a somewhat large blackjack-styled table.

One of the fun parts of the game was the fact that players could deal the cards. Could such a rule have any impact on the game? Not at all but it was fun. Players no longer deal the cards. There is just one dealer, in a typical casino uniform who now deals.

Mini-baccarat has three bets: the bank, the player, and the tie. The bank’s house edge is a tiny 1.06%; the player has a somewhat larger house edge at 1.24% and the tie bet? A waste of your money! The bank pays even money but a commission of 5% is taken from a win since the bank bet actually wins more than 50% of the time; the player bet also is paid 1 to 1; while the tie bet – forget about it.

If mini-baccarat were played at the same speed as normal baccarat then, other than comfort, there is no harm done. But mini-baccarat is fast – so fast that its speed can go over 160 hands per hour! And the players are expected to bet fast and maybe even faster than that.

The tables usually have a host of side bets that they can make – usually crummy bets. These bets just suck the money from the players’ bankroll. You can almost hear the vacuuming sound as the money is sucked from the table. Woosh!

The low house edges on the bank and player hands are great; the speed of the game is not great and the side bets are awful. This is, sadly, a formerly terrific game, now ruined by the incorporation of speed.

HOWEVER, if you can cut your play down to playing only half the hands, then you should be okay. Add that to cutting out all bonus hands and all ties and (oh what the heck) all “player” hands and you still have a decent game. Try to slow down the game even more if you can by going to the bathroom during game time and not during shuffles.

Summary

Players love to gamble. That’s why they go to casinos. But there are better and worse bets. Make the better bets? You have a decent chance to win. Make the worse bets? Forget about it. You might get lucky tonight but over time? Seriously, you know the answer to that question.

All the best in and out of the casinos!

Though new slot machines pop up all the time and it can sometimes seem like they grow on trees, as if each one is some kind of a natural resource. Of course, in reality, that is not the case. Technology, creativity and an understanding of gaming regulations are all behind the appearances of the most popular slot machines. 

One that people find impossible to turn away from, at the moment, is Rome: Fight for Gold – Deluxe 20000X. Themed around the Roman Empire and its legions of leather-clad soldiers, the game is designed to put players right into the thick of things as they capitalize on the collect feature, bonus feature and boost features.

Inside Game Development

This game is the brainchild of Foxium. Based in the Northern European nation of Estonia, Foxium lives up to its sly-sounding name by devising games that feature strong story-telling components.

The company was founded by Daniil Sanders and Ake Andre in 2015, with the mission of creating innovative video slots with groundbreaking features and narratives that make playing a game as engaging as watching a movie. 

The appealing part for players who come across a Foxium game on 888casino – besides Rome: Fight for Gold, the company’s hit titles include Lucky Bakery and Adelia – is that they can be entertained and still have a chance of winning money. The combination is irresistible.

An up-and-coming producer in the world of cool slot machines is an outfit called Dream Spin Studios. The company, founded in 2023, recently dropped its first game Buzz Thrill. If you play it on 888, you’ll see that it is out of this world in every sense of the word. The game is set in outer space with re-spins that go up to 46,656.

Founded by Josh Green, James Rosen and William Barnes – all of whom, according to Green, “are passionate gamblers at heart” – Dream Spin Studios is particularly interesting for the fact that it ranks among the few companies to transition from being a slots streaming firm to being a full-on boutique games studio.

Now engaging in the creation of cool slot machines, it has the advantage of being run by guys who are astonishingly well educated on what makes a good slot. 

“We can proudly claim to have played nearly every type of slot, old and new, more than anyone else involved in a game studio,” Green stated in Casino Beats. “If we don’t understand what makes a good slot, it’s doubtful anyone does. 

As put by Green, “We are extremely excited to turn our ideas and visions for thrilling game play into reality.”

Having gotten our first taste of the fantastic Buzz Thrill, we at 888 can’t wait to see what they will come up with next.

More on the Horizon

One of the tastier options out there, when it comes to cutting edge slot machines, is a company called Gameburger Studios. In operation since 2019, the company promises to offer slots that are “going to be as juicy and delicious as the best hamburgers.”

Even the website plays off the name, promising offerings that are “fresh and right off the grill.”

Humorous as all of that may be, Gameburger is serious about putting out online slot machines that players find difficult to turn away from before filling up on action.

Capitalizing on years of experience in designing land-based games, the company’s employees and managers focus on reconfiguring and improving Microgaming titles so that they work in the digital environment. Included in the company’s roster of hits: 9 Masks of Fire, 9 Pots of Gold, 11 Champions, Break Da Bank Again Respin, Playboy and 12 Masks of Fire Drums. 

Among the hallmarks of these games: Higher RTP percentages (that is, money returned to players), great visuals, memorable audio effects and HTML5 technology. That last bit means that the games can be played on laptops, desktops or mobile devices, all with the same great experience. Whatever is employed, the quality will be consistently strong. 

That has not gone unnoticed by influential folks in the gaming world. In 2023 at the International Gaming Awards, Gameburger snagged nominations for game of the year and rising star of the year.

As far as players are concerned, they’re bound to go wild for 12 Masks of Fire Drums, the newest Gameburger offering, which dropped on July 30. What makes the game so good? Besides the strong graphics for which Gameburger is justifiably famous, this slot machine has 96% RTP, high volatility (which makes the payoffs more exciting) and 20 paylines. 

Promised by promotional material for this epic game: “Feel the beat of the African heat.” No doubt, players will feel it as they push hard for ever-escalating bonuses. 

Vegas Vibes

While playing online, it is easy to forget about the shimmering allure of Las Vegas, the gambling capital of the world and the place where it all began. Anton Kuhlman and Serena Petersen, co-founders of AreaVegas are making efforts to keep online game players enjoying the vibe of Vegas and all that it has to offer. 

They founded AreaVegas in 2022 and, as is made clear on their website, the company is “inspired by the glitz, the glam and the games of Las Vegas.”

The pair’s goal is to provide online players with optimal experiences that are every bit as good as what they can enjoy in favorite brick and mortar casinos on the famous Vegas Strip. 

Proof of that can be gleaned via AreaVegas’s just released, fabulous, debut game called Phoenix. Loaded up with compelling features, the game offers fireballs that lead to the hatching of eggs, which, in turn, jack up money that can be won and lead to re-spins that can go up to 5X on each spin.

Make your way to valuable eggs of the phoenix herself and there is the potential of 5,000x. Phoenix provides a visit to a mythical land where players want to be. We predict that this game serves as a harbinger of what’s to come to come from the very promising AreaVegas. 

Committed to quality, the people at the core of AreaVegas vow to create winners, “both in our games and players.”