I think most successful athletes, scholars, writers, doctors, actors, chefs and, yes, casino gamblers often need a mentor; someone who can jog the unthinking fog that often settles in our brains when we perform an activity. I know I needed such a mentor or I would have been one of those lost, misty-eyed players you often see shambling about in the halls of Lady Luck.

My mentor was the late Captain of craps, the Atlantic City legend, about whom I have written six books. His thoughts about craps and casino gambling in general completely influenced me and, in fact, set the tone for most of my writing. 

What I offer to you today are a few of the Captain’s ideas. None of his betting methods can give you the mathematical edge but all of them will reduce the house edge over you. 

Indeed, the Captain realized that most craps players will never develop what he called a rhythmic rolling technique, and that means only a micro-small percentage will ever develop the ability to influence the dice which can turn the math of the game to favor the player. Rhythmic rolling is a skill mastered by a rare few.

[Please note: Rhythmic rolling is also called dice influence, controlled shooting, dice control, and rhythm rolling. While many Internet dice gurus claim to have this skill, players should be wary of spending their hard-earned money on teachers who really can’t do what they teach. Rhythmic rolling cannot be done on the Internet or electronic craps games.]

THE CAPTAIN ASKS: “THE ODDS ARE RIGHT BUT IS THE PAYOUT?”

It is important to realize that a craps payout has some components:

• The probability of the decision 
• The actual odds of the bet being a winner 
• What is actually paid to the winning craps player
• What is withheld from the winning bet

There are two ways the casino makes money from the players at craps – it can win more decisions or it can tax the winning bet.

If we take a look at the Pass Line bet, we discover that the casino will win 251 decisions and the player will win 244 decisions. The bet pays even money which means $1 for $1. We can see clearly that the seven decision difference gives the casino a 1.41 percentage edge over the player. The payout is in exact keeping with the odds of winning it – but, of course, the casino will win seven more decisions.

 

If we look at another bet we can see that the odds of winning the bet are not in any way changed but something else is – something extremely important. 

Look at betting the 2 which has a probability of one hit out of every 36 rolls; the odds of the bet are therefore 35 to one; the player wins on average one time but loses 35 times.  The casino usually pays 30 to one. Yes, that means instead of a 35 to one payout, it takes the “five” from the 35 and just gives the player 30. That five unit tax creates a house edge of 13.89 percent – or a loss of $13.89 per $100 wagered. 

[Please note: You will find this feature at many casino games but it is startlingly clear when it comes to craps. In blackjack, it is just the opposite in some cases. Because the casino will win 52 times to every 48 player wins, in order to make the game a closer contest, the house will give more back on certain wins – for example, blackjacks usually pay three to two – while in advantageous situations the casino will allow the  players to increase their bets.]

THE CAPTAIN ASKS, “IS TAKING THE ODDS AN EVEN BET?”

The Odds bet at craps is often heralded as an even-money bet. It is and it isn’t. To make this bet you must already have a Pass Line or Come bet. Those two bets have a house edge of 1.41 percent each. If you take the risk on them then you can place the Odds. You are adding extra money to your wager but that extra money is not increasing the house edge on the actual Pass or Come wager. 

Now the Captain showed us a way to make those Odds work even more for us. For example in a 2X game, if you are betting $10 on the Pass or Come, instead of taking $20 in Odds if the dice fall on a 6 or 8, you can usually place $25 in Odds on them.

If you are a $15 Pass or Come player at a 2X game, you can usually make your Odds on the 5 and 9 forty dollars and on the 6 and 8 fifty dollars. You will not see this advertised but many casinos will allow you to do it. I did have trouble doing this on cruise ships.

A $15 wager on the Pass or Come at a 5X Odds game can often have the Odds increased to $100 on the 5 and 9 and $125 on the 6 and 8 while the 4 and 10 stay at the actual 5X odds of $75. Again you are getting extra money out there without the house adding increasing edges to the game. 

[Please note: The Captain called increasing the odds on the Pass Line or Come bet “pushing the house” because you are pushing out more money on a bet even though the signage on the table does not state such money can be “pushed” out. Your expected loss is still the same on the Pass and Come but you have more money going against the house.]

The best way to play the Pass Line and Come, and the Don’t Pass and Don’t Come, is to make the original bet as small as possible but to get as much money in Odds as you can. If you were playing a 100X game, it is better to bet $5 on the Pass or Come and back it with $500 (or what you can afford). Your expected risk on the $5 is only 7 cents; your risk on the $500 is zero. So small is good on the Pass and Come and large (what you can afford) is good on the Odds. 

THE CAPTAIN SAYS, “CUT THE HEDGES FROM YOUR GAME.”

Are there ways to protect a bet on the Pass Line so a 2, 3 or 12 can’t knock your bet off? Yes, there are ways and they are bad bets at craps that protect nothing but the casinos’ profits.

Hedge bet is a method where you use one bet to offset the possibility of losing a different bet. Pretend you have Pass Line bet of $5 and you want to keep it safe from the 2, 3 or 12? Players who believe in hedging will then bet the Any Craps proposition that will win if the nasty numbers of the 2, 3 and 12 show their ugly faces. 

Therefore watch what happens: If 7 or 11 hits on the come-out roll, you win $5 on the Pass Line but lose that one dollar on the Any Craps bet. You are ahead by $4. That’s a good thing, right? 

So far hedging sounds like an amazingly terrific plan, right? Now let’s add everything up and see where we really are with this hedging concept. 

Here’s the (seemingly) good news:

You have a win of $40 on the Pass Line during the come-out roll (six wins on the 7 and two wins on the 11) 
You did lose $8 on the Any Craps; so you are ahead $32.
If an Any Craps number rolls, you lose $20 on the Pass Line bet. But you recoup with a seven-to-one payout on the Any Craps bet (there are four Any Craps numbers; one way to make the 2, two ways to make the 3 and one way to make the 12).
You now can smile because you are ahead by $8 plus that $32 that you won on the Pass Line for a grand total of $40 during the come-out rolls. 

Now to the (real) bad news:

• There are 24 other dice combinations that can roll (4, 5, 6, 8, 9, and 10) and on all those rolls you lose your one-dollar on the Any Craps wager.
• You have therefore lost $24. 
• Now you are only ahead $16 after the come-out rolls.

Here is the part that should make a hedger crestfallen: If you had merely played the Pass Line without hedging, you would have won $40 on the 7 and 11 minus $20 on the 2, 3 and 12 which means (yes, yes, here it comes) a total win of $20 – four more dollars than had you hedged. 
     
The Captain cautions, “What’s the game plan for place bettors?”

Place betting is very popular with craps players and some Place bets are pretty good, such as the 6 or 8, which comes in with a house edge of 1.52 percent. Of course, you pay a price for being able to Place the numbers you want as opposed to getting on the numbers by using the Come bet option.

If you Place the 5 and 9, the pay is $14 for your $10 wager instead of the real payback which would be $15. The casino has taxed you a dollar on your win. That gives the house an edge of four percent, an expected loss of $4 for every $100 wagered on the 5 or 9. 

If you Place the 4 or 10, the casino pays you $18 for a $10 wager. The real odds are two-to-one so the true payback should be $20. The tax in such a case is $2, a house edge of 6.67 percent, an expected loss of $6.67 per $100 wagered.

Although the Captain has methods for reducing the hit on the 4 and 10, most players can not follow his advice because it costs too much. 

[Please note: Players who make a bet on all the numbers at once or on the inside numbers are waging a lot of money on six or four bets respectively and need several hits just to get a little ahead. It is best not to do any betting method that requires such high house edges.]

THE CAPTAIN SAYS, “DON’T BE A CRAZY CRAPPER!”

While I do have fun writing about various strategies on how to play craps and roulette, I am aware that those high house-edge bets can sap a bankroll. When you play betting systems you have to be truly aware of your bankroll limits at all times. It is just too easy to go overboard.

The closer the contest, the better chance the player has to be ahead. While I like writing about craps strategies, I caution players to be ultra-careful when they play them. That’s self-defense.

So what are some of the Crazy Crapper bets? 

• Hard 4 or Hard 10: The house edge is 11.11 percent; an expected loss of $11.11 for every $100 wagered. 
• Hard 6 or Hard 8: The house edge is 9.09 percent, an expected loss of $9.09 for every $100 wagered. 
• The 2 or 12: The house edge is 13.89 percent. The player loses $13.89 for every $100 wagered. 
• The 3 or 11: The house edge is 11.11 percent. The expectation is to lose $11.11 for every $100 you bet.
• Any Craps: The house edge is 11.11 percent. The expectation is a loss of $11.11 for every $100 wagered. 
• Any Seven or Big Red: The house edge is 16.67 percent. The expectation is to lose $16.67 for every $100 wagered.
• C&E: The house edge is 11.11 percent or an expected loss of $11.11 for every $100 wagered.
• Field Bet: The house edge on this bet is 5.56 percent or an expected loss of $5.56 per $100 wagered. 
• Hardway Hop Bets: The house edge is 13.89 percent; an expected loss of $13.89 per $100 wagered. 
• Hop Bets: The house edge is 11.11 percent; an expected loss of $11.11 per $100 wagered. 
• Horn: The house edge on this horn high is 12.22 percent on the 3 or 11 and 12.78 percent on the 2 or 12.   
• Whirl or World: The house edge is 13.33 percent, an expected loss of $13.33 per $100 wagered.

All the best in and out of the casinos!

Let me float this by you right away. When I lose money the lost money has more intense emotions attached to it than when I win that same amount of money. Let us say, for argument’s sake, that I lost $1000 last night, how am I feeling? Correct, I feel rotten to the core; totally miserable, asking myself “what happened?” Now, if I won a $1000? Correct, I’m happy but I won’t be singing and dancing the entire next day.

In short, losses hit us harder than wins. The loss of emotion weighs more than the win emotion – given an equal amount of money being weighed.

When I first thought of this idea I did wonder if I were alone in my feelings. I’m not. I did a little survey of 15 people, some I knew, some I didn’t know, and 12 of them agreed with me that losses had a more powerful impact on them than an equivalent winning experience. The other three felt that both states of being were about emotionally equal. 

In my view, I maintain that losses really blast us; while wins were more ephemeral. Perhaps that’s why the daily “news” is generally about bad experiences as opposed to good ones. The headline “Man is love his wife” can’t outmatch “Man hate his wife.”

So then the goal of gambling should be to limit one’s losses or at the very least, the emotional toll of such losses so as to enjoy one’s wins far more. There are two ways to do that, by playing proper strategies and just as important with proper money management techniques.

[Please Note: Money management is not a method for overcoming the house edge. If the game has a negative expectation, money management cannot flip that expectation to favor the amateur or professional gambler. The player can, however, use money management to contain his losses.]

 

LARGE BANKROLL / SMALL BETS

My mentor the Captain of craps believed that satisfactory gambling can only occur if losses do not eat up one’s gambling bankroll. He posited that a large bankroll must back a casino player’s individual wagers. 

If one is betting $10 then having a bankroll of $20 is not sufficient to make one relaxed when a loss occurs; indeed, a two-loss streak ends the player’s chances. His bankroll is busted. Such a wipeout would be devastating. 

 

 

THE 401G

Actually, let’s take first things first – players must have gambling bankrolls. No player should attempt to play casino games with money necessary for food, housing, medicine and one’s daughter’s college tuition. Never stretch real money.

The gambling bankroll should be a separate account, specifically kept in an interest paying checking or savings account. I call this the 401G account with the “G” standing for gambling.

There are basically two ways to create such an account. If you are fairly well off, you can simply take money from other accounts and create the 401G. Yes, that money was originally intended as an excess cushion for real life but if you know you can harvest it for gambling then do so. But that is it. You will not after this first dip touch your real-life accounts. Instead on a regular basis you will take a small percentage of your income to place in the 401G. 

The second method, which will probably be used by most players, is to set aside a small percentage of one’s ongoing income into the 401G. Many people have a 401K or equivalent account where regular deposits are made from their paychecks and the 401G should also have regular deposits. Such deposits will build and maintain the account.

[Please Note: Players want enough money in their 401G so that they never have to worry about losing it all. A bankroll should be constant or go up at any given time. This can be accomplished through patience and discipline.]

HOW MUCH MONEY SHOULD BE IN A 401G BANKROLL?

Here is my personal horror story: I once lost my entire gambling bankroll. It was almost 30 years ago and I was playing with a small amount put aside to gamble. I lost my head, I bet too much, I went on a complete losing streak and was wiped out.

My wife the Beautiful AP and I stopped by the Captain’s house on our way back from Atlantic City. The moment he saw us he said, “There they are with empty pockets.” 

He then told me in no uncertain terms what I had done wrong. It was simple really, I bet way too much for a way too small bankroll in total. Then we worked out what my bankroll should be to bet what I wanted. It took me a year of regular deposits to get the bankroll up to where it needed to be to assure me of never being wiped out again.

In my case (okay, hold your breath) it was five hundred to one. For every dollar I wagered I had to have five hundred dollars in my 401G. If I wanted to be a $10 bettor that would mean I was backed by five thousand dollars sitting comfortably in the account. I was teaching and running a theatre company at the time and I slowly built up the 401G. 

Over the years, I have built my 401G to the point where I can be a high roller without fear of winding up on the street should I experience a truly awful negative streak.

Now I think a five hundred to one distance between a single bet and a total bankroll is not farfetched and is reachable by just about anyone interested in being a “safe” gambler.  A five-dollar player just needs $2500 to get in the game. 

WHAT TO DO WITH WINS

Now, if you are adding to your 401G because of a good series of wins, that’s terrific. You will add the wins to the account and continue to add the percent of your wages to the account. 

Let us say you have a five-dollar to $2500 spread between a single bet and the total bankroll and you have now gone up to $5000 in total bankroll? You can double your single bet level or take the extra $2500 and use it to buy something you want.

[Please Note: You never stop putting money in your 401G account. I am assuming that anyone reading this is probably someone who enjoys casino gambling and goes more than once a year. It is important for regular players to keep a consistent pattern in their savings and playing.]

SESSION STAKES AND SAVING MONEY

When we go to casinos we usually don’t play one long session; we break our gambling day into several sessions, maybe morning, afternoon and evening. That is probably the best way to apportion one’s day. I think it is crazy to play endless hours of mesmerizing games – half the time you probably won’t remember what went on during such long hours.

So let us say that you have a $5000 total bankroll and your bet is $10. You are going to spend two days in the casinos. How should you break up your bankroll? Let us assume three sessions a day of between one and two hours on each session.

As a generalization, you should take one-half of your bankroll ($2500) and divide it by six sessions. That comes to a session stake of $416 per session; so let’s make that $400 per session. You do not want to risk your total bankroll on one casino trip. You might be a serious player who goes once a month or even more – you therefore do not want to risk all your money in a single trip.  Don’t bring all the money!

Now, I mentioned that you might want to play an hour or two per session, however that can be misleading. What if things are going really well, do you want to leave after an hour or two? What if (horror of horrors) you are getting pummeled? Do you play until you lose everything?

Okay, here is a quick and easy chart to show what to do in given situations and at the end of each session. This is for land-based casinos (cruise ships too). I will delve into Internet casinos after this.

Session One: Bet Level is $10. Session stake is $400. Maximum time of play is two hours.

LOSSES:

• One hour or less: If the loss is more than half your session stake, quit the session.
• Two hours: If you have any loss whatsoever you quit the session.

WINS:

• One hour or less: If you have a win of $200, you put aside $200 of your $400 stake and that is not to be gambled again in this session. You still have $400 with which to play.
• One hour or less: If you go up another $100, you take that out of original session stake. You still have $400 with which to play but $300 has now been set aside. With each $100 win, you take that from your original stake. Once you are playing with $400 in wins do not allow yourself to lose more than $200 of those wins.
• Two hours: Quit session or take one-third of your wins (assuming wins are substantial!) and play with that money. Anytime you lose half that money, you quit for that session.
• At end of session, any money, be it the initial $400, or what’s left over from a loss, or what has been won and the initial stake, goes in the safe and is not to be gambled with again. You safe now contains that session’s money, win, lose or draw – money not to be gambled with anymore.

The above approach should be used for all sessions. Once a trip is completed you take home whatever money is in the safe and put it into your 401G.

[Please Note: Using the above approach to each session will generally mean that you will not lose a session stake and you will be able to come home with some money, if not a win. No real limit is placed on wins but limits are fully placed on losses.]

 

ONLINE CASINOS MONEY MANAGEMENT

An online casino is either great or awful; whichever they are is totally up to you. With discipline and control, go ahead and have fun, but if you are the rambunctious type in your play then you had better be careful. Casino games have no heart; they are based on math. But you do have a heart and you can easily lose your head and your money if you ever lose control.

So what should be your money management technique on Internet casinos? I would limit myself to one session – at maximum – on a given day. I would also try not to play every day unless you are able to keep adding to your 401G without any strain on your finances. Keeping yourself at a hefty one to 500 spread would be harder if you are betting into that 500 every day without more money going into the account. You can see that to be careful is the watchword here.

 

WHAT GAMES TO PLAY

It is important that whichever games you choose to play that you use the best strategies. That means making the lowest house-edge bets at those games; even slot machines have better and worse ways to play them. What follows is quick playing advice which together with my money management techniques should be helpful in keeping your head above water. You will find more detailed articles on the various games on this site, make use of them!

Roulette: Best to make your roulette bets on the outside propositions of red/black, high/low, odd/even. You will not have seriously prolonged losing streaks on such bets even though the house edge is the same on these bets as on the inside numbers.

Craps: Pass and come with odds; don’t pass and don’t come with odds. No more than three bets at once and that is if you can make so many bets with your bankroll while playing craps. Never hesitate to make fewer than three bets. Do not make any of the other bets.

Blackjack: Play basic strategy perfectly. Buy a card with the basic strategy on it. Do not play by instinct.

Slots: No progressive games. Use a single credit on all machines – in a future article I will explain why this is the best way to play slots.

Video Poker: You can read here about video poker bankroll requirements.

There will be plenty of articles on all the game if I haven’t covered the ones you like in my above list.

All the best in and out of the casinos!

Baccarat: Do not make the tie bet.

Click here to read Part 1 of this article

As promised, at the end of this article you will find the questions with the answers to the challenging 21-question test given to the elite blackjack pros at the Blackjack Ball. Give yourself one point for each correct answer. (If you got 12 or more correct, you did better than all the blackjack pros that took the test.)

(Note: Several active players listed below used pseudonyms to protect their identity.)

Out of a possible 21 correct answers, the players with the most correct answers were:

• Wahoo (11)
• WRX (11)
• Bill Benter (10)
• Blackjack Hall of Famer John Chang and leader of MIT Blackjack MIT Team (10)
• Thea Marie Sankiewicz (10)
• Jake Jacobs (10)
• Tony S from Greek Blackjack team (10)

Because five players tied for third place, a tie-breaker question was implemented to eliminate two of them. (Only five can advance to the next round of the competition.)

The following tie-breaker question was implemented:

“Name a casino in one of the Four Corner states that was operating as of March 2018 and dealing blackjack.”

The four corner states referred to in the question are Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. The contestants kept naming casinos until either one couldn’t come up with a name of a casino or named an incorrect casino. The two contestants that were eliminated as a result of the tie-breaker were Benter (who couldn’t come up with the name of any casino) and Sankiewicz (who came up with a name of a casino initially but missed on the subsequent try). This left five contestants who advanced to Round One of the table competition. (This was conducted on a blackjack table with Munchkin dealing the cards.)

Note: Rubin announced afterwards that because Wahoo (and Chang) held onto their answer card for a minute or so longer than the other contestants, presumably to come with an answer to one (or more) questions (doing this was not mentioned in the current rules), there will be a new rule going forward which is: 15 seconds after the last question is read twice, each contestant must hold up his or her card for collection; otherwise, he or she will be disqualified. (Rubin intends to call this the “Wahoo Disqualification Rule.”)

Round #1:
The five contestants remaining were:  Wahoo, WRX, John Chang, Jake Jacobs, and Tony S. Munchkin placed a shuffled, double-deck of playing cards in front of each contestant and randomly removed three cards from each double-deck. Each contestant had to state what card counting system he was going to use to count down his decks. (All but one used Hi-Lo count.) On Munchkin’s go, each contestant had 45 seconds to rapidly count their decks and then slam them face down on the layout. The player who was the slowest at counting down his decks had to state what the three cards were that Munchkin had removed. For example, if a player used the Hi-Lo Count, and his count was zero, his three cards must either be three neutral cards (7, 8, and 9) or one neutral card plus a high card and a low card.

Three of the five contestants miscounted their decks and were eliminated (Chang, Jacobs, and WRX) and only Tony S, and Wahoo correctly answered what their missing three cards were.  Because Jacobs was the slowest to count down his decks and get it wrong, he was eliminated.

As an aside, Jake has his count correct (minus 1) but kept insisting it meant that one big card was remaining. Munchkin asked Jake, “Are you sure it’s a big card?” Jake responded, “Yes.” Then when he turned over a small card, he smacked himself for being such a bonehead, especially since he possible had the highest I.Q. of anyone in the room full of geniuses.

Round #2:
In this Round, the remaining four contestants were given 10 seconds to estimate a stack of cards that Munchkin had placed in a discard tray, and then write their estimate on a piece of paper. Wahoo came the closest (he estimated 131 cards), and WRX had the worst estimate and was eliminated. 

Round #3:
At this junction, there were three contestants left (Wahoo, Tony S, and John Chang). Munchkin spread a deck of cards on the layout.  Each contestant had 30 seconds to memorize as many cards as he could in order (card rank and suit).  After Munchkin picked up the cards, each contestant had to state what the card was.

The first two cards were a three of clubs and ace of clubs and all three contestants got them right. The third card was a six of spades. Tony S got it right but John Chang stated six of clubs and Wahoo, a six of diamonds.  It took several more cards until finally Wahoo correctly identified the next card in the stack and John Chang did not; therefore, Chang was eliminated. 

 

 

 

As an aside, this memorization test in the past usually went through several dozens of cards deep before someone got it wrong. Even though this year contestants had to recall the rank and suit of each card (not just the rank), Max believes “the result of this contest may have been skewed due to the copious amounts of premium champagne guzzled by the contestants for some five hours leading up to this contestant.”

Round #4:
Two contestants were left: Tony S and Wahoo. They were each given a single deck of cards to cut with a cut card.  There was a six of spades on the bottom of each deck. After they cut, they had to state how many hands they wanted to play (in one round) in order to deliver the six to the dealer.   Munchkin then would take a deck, burn one card, and then deal that many hands specified by each contestant.  They must cut at least 10 cards.  If you cut the six of spades to the dealer’s hand, that is a perfect score.  Whoever is closest wins. If they tie, they cut again.

Wahoo cut 16 cards and was close (he was shooting for a 17 card cut, which if you dealt 7 spots after burning one card, would have delivered the six of spades to the dealer). Unfortunately, Tony S eliminated himself when he cut only nine cards (rules stated at least 10 cards cut). This meant Wahoo was the winner.

(Note: Wahoo is the only person to have been invited to and attend all 22 Blackjack Balls. Besides finishing first in this year’s Ball, Wahoo was on the final table at four other Balls and finished second, third, fourth, and fifth).

As an aside, Anthony Curtis, who was last year’s winner of the “World’s Greatest Blackjack Player” competition, would have had the highest score on this year’s written test but was disqualified for leaving one answer blank (i.e., he didn’t circle a true or false question). (Ouch!) 

As promised, below are the 21 test questions with the answers. Give yourself one point for each correct answer. (So, how many did you get correct?)

BLACKJACK BALL 2018: TEST QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

(Max Rubin’s answers are in red type below each question. Thank you, Max, for allowing me to reproduce the questions and answers.)

Question #1: True or False: There are at least two legal methods that world-class card pros can use, including solo and/or team play, that can actually gain the pro a tasty edge while playing Won Ton War in a casino.

Given that Won Ton War doesn’t even exist, except on this test, the answer to # 1 is False.

Question #2: Las Vegas casinos have hosted golf, tennis, Jai Alai, Grand Prix, and now Hockey. Which Vegas casino once offered live, onsite horse racing?

• El Rancho
• El Rancho Vegas
• Sahara
• Thunderbird
• Last Frontier
• There has never been a legitimate horse track in Vegas. The horses can’t run here because of the heat.

The track was Thunderbird Downs and the answer to number two is d.

A special thanks to Bob Dancer who provided us with about a third of our questions and is now disqualified.

Question #3: We all know that as a courtesy to Barona for housing the Blackjack Hall of Fame and the many other things they do for the professional Blackjack Community, including allowing Max to present the Blackjack Ball, everyone sitting here agrees to NOT play there—which is probably the smartest move a casino has made in the last 22 years since the Ball began. In part, because you don’t attack their games, Barona now has substantially more full pay pitch games than any other casino on the planet. By a mile. Sorta. Within three, how many full-pay 0.26% pitch double-deck games does Barona now have?.

Barona has 41 Full Pay Double-Deck Games. Any answer between 38 and 44 is correct.    

Question #4: True or False. Showing us just how savvy and fair the selectors truly are, ever since the NCAA Basketball Tourney was expanded to 64 seeded teams in the first full opening round, number 11 seeds have beaten the sixth-seeded teams more often than the number 12 seeds have beaten the number fives. True or False.

According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Sports section, the 12’s get a lot more ink when they win, but the number 11 seeds have won substantially more first round games than the number 12 seeds ever since the tournament was expanded to 64 seeded teams. The answer to # 4 is True. 

Question #5: As you know, UBER and Lyft are two companies that compete with Taxi Cabs. Which of this Blackjack Hall of Famers sometimes hires himself out as an UBER driver?

1. Arnold Snyder
2. Richard Munchkin
3. Ian Andersen
4. Bill Benter
5. Darryl Purpose
6. Gimme a break, we're talking Hall of Famers here, folks

Although we’re not sure if he picks ‘em up in a Rolls or not, a BJ Hall of Famer does sometimes hire himself out as an UBER driver. Don’t ask us why; just know that the answer to #5 is d (Bill Benter).  

Question #6: When we lost the Riviera Casino, we also lost the NAME of Riviera Blvd. What is the NEW name of Riviera Blvd?

Only in Vegas. Even though he never sang a word or threw his pelvis while performing onstage at the Riv, the old Riviera Blvd. is now called Elvis Presley Blvd.

 (Note: Another reason is that the old Riviera Blvd. ends at the “old Las Vegas Hilton where Elvis frequently performed.)

Question #7: True or False? In the NFL it is possible for the quarterback to throw a legal forward pass while his foot is beyond the line of scrimmage.

A quarterback’s entire body AND the ball must be past the line of scrimmage when the ball is released for it to be judged an illegal forward pass. The answer to #7 is True.  

Question #8: This comes from James Grosjean. Which of the following scenarios gives you the highest edge if you’re playing one hand?

• A Six as the Dealer’s up card in blackjack. 
• A Nine as the first card to a player hand in baccarat
• A ten as your card in Casino War
• A King as your first card in Three Card Poker

A six as the Dealer’s up card in blackjack will give you about a 23% edge, depending on the rules and number of decks. A Nine as the first card to the player hand in baccarat will give you about 21%. Edge. If you get a Ten as your card in Casino War, you get a hefty 28.5% edge, and a King as your first card in Three Card Poker only gives you just about a 22.7% edge.

Therefore, the answer is getting the ten in Casino War at 28.5%. The answer is c. 

Question #9: Another from the mind of Jimmy G. Within 3%, what’s the probability that in a randomly shuffled, standard deck there will be an Ace and Jack next to each other?

The answer is 48.6%. The question asked for an answer within 3%, so anything between 45.6% and 51.6%, inclusive, is acceptable. Man, he’s tough!

Question #10.  True or False? There’s this lady named Joan Ginther who’s had four winning scratch off lottery tickets totaling over $15 million dollars from the Texas state lottery. That much is true. True or False. Joan lives in Vegas and has a Ph.D. in Statistics from Stanford?    

Joan does live in Vegas, and she does have that stats doctorate from Stanford. She’s doing something, we just don’t know what it is, but the answer to #10 is definitely true.

Question #11: Where in Nevada do you find the Area 51 Travel Center, which includes an alien-themed legal brothel? 

• Armargosa Valley
• Barnhole Hollow
• Itchy Stick Canyon
• Long Dong Wash at Lathrop Wells
• Virgin Valley
• Sorry, I’m just messing with you. There is no alien-themed brothel in Nevada.

Well this one is just too stupid. That said, there is a brothel in Nevada that Vice News covered called the Alien Cathouse Brothel in an article titled “Take Me to your Boner.” The “Alien Cathouse” is in the Armargosa Valley, so the answer to # 11 is a. 

Question #12: Name a person sitting in this room who lives at least 5,500 miles away who is attending the Blackjack Ball for the first time.

Believe it or it, it’s his first time, but Gaming and Intellectual Legend Jake Jacobs is attending his first Blackjack Ball.

Question #13: True or False. According to the Nevada Gaming Abstract, compared to 2016, across the board, Nevada’s statewide gaming revenue fell in 2017.

Nevada won over $11,500,000,000 in 2017 while GROWING by 2.7%. The answer to
 #13 is False. 

Question #14: One more question from the 2017 Nevada Gaming Abstract. Which one of these statements is not correct?

• On the Vegas Strip, table games won more money than machines.
• Penny Slot Machines won more money than all of Nevada’s Nickel, Dime, Quarter, 50 Cent, Dollar, Five Dollar, Twenty-Five Dollar and Thousand Dollar Machines combined.
• The average blackjack game in Nevada won over $1,300 a day.
• The Exact Published Big Baccarat win for the 24 largest joints on the Vegas Strip was one billion, one hundred twenty one million, one hundred twenty one thousand dollars.
• On the Strip, table game win fell while machine revenue actually grew.
• All of the above answers are not incorrect.

On the Strip, Table Games won a little over $3 Billion and the machines only took in a little under $2.9 Billion, so that’s true.

Penny Machines hauled in over $3.2 Billion and won almost three times what all of the nickel, dime, quarter, fifty cent, dollar, five dollar, 25 dollar, 100 dollar, 500 dollar and 1000 dollar machines combined statewide.    And, get this: the Multi- Denomination machines won another $3 Billion, too. 

Statewide, blackjack games won $1302 a day, so that’s true. 

Believe it or else, according to the abstract, the Big Baccarat reported win was one billion, one hundred and twenty one million, one hundred and twenty one thousand dollars on the Strip in 2017. 

Strip table game revenues fell a bit under a half percent while machine revenues grew by more than 2.7%

This means every answer is True, which means none of them are Not Incorrect so f is the correct answer to # 14. 

Question #15: The Easternmost casino in Iowa is called the Wild Rose. It’s located in a town with the same last name as a former U.S. President. Name that town. 

In Iowa, there is a Wild Rose Casino in Jefferson, so if you wrote the name of our third president, you’re wrong. The Easternmost casino in Iowa is the Wild Rose (far away from there) in a town on the Mississippi River. The Answer to #15 is Clinton.

Question #16: True or False? Contrary to published facts, which may, in fact, be another example of “Fake News,” or just conveniently lost ancient history, the Las Vegas Knights are NOT the first team in the ENTIRE history of the NHL, MLB, or NBA to sweep their first playoff series in their first season of play.

Sure, they’ve been saying it for over a week now, but guess what? The Golden Knights ARE the first inaugural big sport team to sweep their first series in their first season, so the answer to # 16 is False.  

Question #17: You count down a single deck and with just three cards left, your Hi-Lo count is zero and your Silver Fox count is also zero. Which of the following statements must be true?

• The last three cards are all the same value.
• There are no Aces left.
• There is at least one 8 remaining
• You made a mistake in your count
• If we used the cards to deal the beginning of a heads-up round of blackjack, an Over 13 side bet would be a winner for sure.
• There is no such thing as a Silver Fox Count.

Out of all those, what we know is that in the Silver Fox count a 7 is a +1 and a 9 is a -1, which means that if the count is zero with three cards remaining, there must be at least one 8 remaining, so the answer to number 17 is c.

Question #18:  Other than Harrah’s, there has been one other casino brand that operated in Lake Tahoe, Reno, and Las Vegas at the same time. Name it.

When Del Webb was alive, he owned three Nevada casinos, one at the South Shore in Lake Tahoe, another in Downtown Reno and a third on the Vegas Strip. They were all called the Sahara. The answer to #18 is Sahara.

Question #19: Melanie Trump is the first First Lady who was not born in the United States. True or False?

Although Martha Washington was born in what is now the state of Virginia, there WAS no United States when she was born, so the answer to # 19 is false. 

For the professional squawkers, John Quincy Adam’s wife was also born in Europe, so you’re still wrong if you said true. 

Question #20: Which of the following is Not a racehorse that was active on a US track in the past year?

• Hip to be Don
• Munchkin Money
• Thorperrific SPELL IT
• I am Miss Brown
• A Toast to Max
• None of these are legitimate horses that run on US tracks.

I’m not sure of their exact records, but within the last year, you could have bet your money on Hip to be Don, Munchkin Money, I Am Miss Brown, or A Toast to Max. But you could not have made a bet on Thorperrific because he doesn’t exist, so the correct answer number 20 is c.

Question #21: Nevada once had Jai Alai with pari-mutuel betting at casinos in both Reno and Las Vegas that had the same name. What was the name of those casinos?

If you said Bally’s, you’d be close, but when those two giant casinos were serving up Jai Alai, they were owned by and called MGM. The answer to #21 is MGM. 

 

It was a beautiful evening in Las Vegas for the 22nd Blackjack Ball, co-hosted this year by Max Rubin and Richard Munchkin. The gala was held at a secret location and security was tight. (To get in, you had to be on the invited list and also show a photo ID to a security guard.) This year a total of 110 highly selected, elite invitees, mostly blackjack professionals from around the world (one from as far away as Singapore), attended the party that featured some of the world’s best active and retired blackjack players and legends of the game (as well as a smattering of gambling writers, lawyers, and others who have contributed to the craft). (In total, 12 out of 16 living members of the Blackjack Hall of Fame were in attendance.) This unique group of professionals meets annually to renew old acquaintances, make new ones, exchange playing experiences, and compete for the coveted Grosjean Cup and title of the “World’s Greatest Blackjack Player.”

• Click here to read Part 2 of this article

(As an aside, the Ball had been held in January the past several years but because of a scheduling conflict with a key attendee, it was rescheduled to April. Weather-wise this turned out to be in everyone’s favor because rather than a typical cold, damp, and dark January evening in Las Vegas, it was warm and sunny when I drove to, and arrived at, the party. The reason the location of the Blackjack Ball is a closely guarded secret is if a casino employee were to discover its location and somehow infiltrate the event, it would make that employee’s career, while at the same time destroy the livelihood of many professional players. Additionally, an invitation to the Ball is so sought-after by players that untold numbers call, beg, and badger Max Rubin for a coveted invite.)

Note:  Here’s a little history about the Blackjack Cup that the winner receives. Several years ago, James Grosjean beat his peers in the Blackjack Ball competition three out of four years, and took second place the other year. Because of this extraordinary feat, Rubin told Grosjean, “Your game’s too good,” and barred him from further competition. However, the Blackjack Ball committee also acknowledged Grosjean’s accomplishment by renaming the Blackjack Cup the “Grosjean Cup.” (Note: Since 2016, the Grosjean Cup became a Nebuchadnezzar, a 15 liter, three-foot-tall, engraved bottle of Luc Belaire Rare Rose champagne, courtesy of Blackjack Hall-of-Famer Don Johnson. The winner also gets bragging rights as the “World’s Best Blackjack Player.”  Subsequently, Richard Munchkin won for the third time, and was also banned from future competition; however, to honor his three-peat accomplishment, the second place winner in this year’s competition received the “Munchkin Award.” Another distinction given to three-time winners Grosjean and Munchkin is they are allowed to submit questions to Rubin for the 21-question written test, which they did.)

Invited guests must bring a bottle of chilled premium champagne to the party to share with their colleagues. (Anyone bringing a “cheap” bottle of bubbly would be refused admittance and permanently removed from the invited guest list.) Additionally, all attendees chipped in twenty bucks to “seed” the pot for the Calcutta (more about this shortly).

 

 

The evening’s festivities began with hors d’oeuvres and drinks (with plenty of champagne!), followed by a delicious buffet featuring carved prime rib, salmon, and lots more good eats courtesy of Barona Resort and Casino. (They sponsor the Blackjack Ball and in return, the players in attendance agree not to play blackjack in their casino, a very smart move on their part because all other casinos are fair game.)

At this year’s ball, the attendees got to vote on a slate of seven nominees for induction into the Blackjack Hall of Fame. What follows is the process used to choose nominees for induction into the Hall of Fame (by Max Rubin).

“The living members of the Hall of the Fame sent names to me for suggested nominees, and all names were then discussed and voted upon. The seven prospective nominees that received the most votes were then placed on the ballot. 

“Much to their consternation, this process has prevented several well-known but lesser accomplished “one trick ponies” that have written introductory-level books or excelled at running numbers from joining the mix of truly worthy candidates that have achieved the highest levels of success, either on the tables or through their contributions to the craft.” 

The list of the seven nominees this year and a synopsis of their accomplishments are below. All bona fide professional blackjack players at the Ball selected only one name on their ballots (rather than two) out of the following seven worthy candidates. 

(Note: After you read their bios, whom would you have voted for?)

CAT HULBERT

Cat was selected as one of BBC’s 100 Women of 2016 – an honor given to “high profile women from the spheres of entertainment, sport, business and politics.” Chosen for being the first woman to break through the glass ceiling of professional blackjack in 1978, she played on the Czechoslovakian blackjack team in over 300 casinos worldwide. Cat’s aggressive play and fearlessness changed many opinions on the mathematical and emotional capabilities of women to bet-it-up under pressure.

Selected by Card Player Magazine in 1996 as one of the best and smartest card players in the world, she was one of only eight professional gamblers to be included in Richard Munchkin’s book Gambling Wizards. Along with teaching a woman’s-only poker class for many years at the Hollywood Park Casino, Cat also wrote Outplaying the Boys, a humorous book and guide for women published in NYC in 2005, which teaches ladies how to become more competitive in life and at the tables.

Cat was featured in LA’s “The Daily Breeze” and the Sunday LA Times for her top-notch card playing abilities in blackjack and poker. She was a contestant on Blackjack’s Tournament of Champions, and has been a guest on numerous radio shows including NPR, Gambling with an Edge, and BBC’s The Conversation. She is often sought out due to her unusual successful life choices and her mission to change how women are viewed – by men and by themselves alike. On December 7, 2016, the BBC published a biographical article based on her remarkable exploits that claimed to have received a million reads the first day it appeared on their homepage.

MIKE MICHALEK

Mike was one of the earliest card counters to realize that there were opportunities in blackjack beyond conventional card counting. Credited by many for creating some of the earliest shuffles- and ace-tracking methods, he was one of the very few AP’s that could walk through a casino, see a game or procedure, and often design unique plays to exploit new opportunities “on the spot.”

When Mike's name comes up among those in the know, the word “creative” often begins that conversation.  As the brain behind many successful sports and blackjack projects, many famous Advantage Players relied on the lessons learned from Mike to accumulate massive bankrolls, and most all of them attribute money they’ve made over the years to his influence.  Renowned professional blackjack players, including Tommy Hyland, Bill Benter, John Chang, Peter Wagner, Richard Dougherty, and many, many more often pay homage to Mike for taking their games to new heights.

Although Mike has been inactive for more than ten years due to serious health issues, some of his more clever Blackjack “inventions” are still being used by talented AP’s across the globe to harvest money from casinos that continue to be unfamiliar with the unique playing and betting techniques that he created decades ago.

RICHARD DOUGHERTY

Richard has long been one of the blackjack players casinos fear the most … and most often. Casinos have sent out literally hundreds of flyers, bulletins, and alerts about Richard during his more than three decades as a blackjack “road warrior” and yet he still marches on. Throughout his long, illustrious and (in)famous career, blackjack has been Richard’s virtually only source of income. No matter how many times the casinos back him off, assault him, and even go so far as to have him arrested for his legal activities, he never stops his relentless attack on their games.

Not only does Richard refuse to be intimidated by casino and surveillance personnel, he’s also “turned the tables” on casinos and extracted hefty scores via profitable lawsuits after suffering through illegal “back roomings,” and outright beatings in front of the public on the floor  of a Las Vegas Strip casino!  As if that weren’t enough to put Richard in the casinos’ crosshairs, as a fearless and fun-loving casino prankster, he’s also pulled off a number of clever and legendary practical jokes that leave everyone (other than the casinos) laughing with glee.

ROB REITZEN

There are few, if any, players that have won more money in the history of blackjack than Rob Reitzen. From simple card counting to shuffle tracking/sequencing to bottom steering to advanced computer play, Rob has beaten games in more innovative ways than most professional blackjack players even know to exist.

The founding partner of CORE, which went on to become the largest and most profitable player- banking operation in history, Rob was featured in an Esquire magazine article in which the  reporter followed him and watched him beat Caesars Palace in Las Vegas out of more than $500,000 on a single weekend, while using a sequencing technique he dubbed “The Hammer.” 

WALLY SIMMONS

Wally Simmons is quite likely the most underrated name in the blackjack world.  Although he hasn’t played in some 20 years, in the early days he was a very skilled, multi-faceted player that used sophisticated techniques long before they were well-known or fashionable to win countless millions of dollars.

As a computer programming genius, he also developed some of the first electronic shuffle tracking computers that harvested additional millions, as well.

Along with Bill Benter, Wally went on to parlay his blackjack money into incredible success as a technically savvy and data-driven horse racing programming prognosticator. 

If there were a “Nice Guy Hall of Fame,” Wally should be the first inductee.  He is also known for hosting the second most famous party for blackjack players, dubbed “Wally’s Super Bowl Party,” which went on for about 15 years, and was attended by many of the more famous and successful practitioners of the blackjack arts. Sparing no expense, the cost of one of Wally’s infamous parties would have easily funded most blackjack professionals’ entire starting bankrolls.

MARIA “THE GREEK”

Maria is the co-founder and one-time manager of “The Greeks” blackjack team. Having quit their day jobs as very successful New York attorneys, she, along with her brother and highly respected colleagues, formed the largest single group of players in history; at one time she simultaneously managed over 40 individual players.

She recruited only the top talent, with the most notoriously difficult set of tests required to pass in order to get onto the team. Additionally, Maria’s team won countless millions utilizing a “slash and burn” technique in which BP’s would wade into the middle of a game, often betting 3 x $10,000. Needless to say, each BP didn’t last long, but the enormous bets resulted in some of the largest card-counting wins in history. 

An extraordinary businessperson, she utilized her business acumen, extraordinarily high I.Q. (even among the best of the best) along with common sense to guide the most successful single card counting team this century. 

Along with being a master at sequencing, tracking and now a high stakes poker professional, Maria is also the only woman to have ever won the coveted title of “World’s Greatest Blackjack Player” at the Blackjack Ball.  (This was even in the days that arm wrestling, chip shuffling, card tossing and more, were among the 11 competitive events at the final table.)

PAUL RYLANCE

Paul was an early pioneer regarding team play, especially as it related to shoe-based 21. During the ’70s he implemented a professional and mathematically based approach to bankroll sizing that involved running blackjack simulations.  He is possibly the first player to organize a team and attack the European casinos. Paul organized and managed the Czech team. His team was able to play simultaneously in multiple countries on multiple continents. All players, including women, were treated with integrity and respect. He also organized and managed one of the largest 1979 Atlantic City teams and paired up with Ken Uston, which was written about by Uston in the book One-Third of a Shoe. 

NEWEST INDUCTEE INTO BLACKJACK HALL OF FAME

Congratulations to Wally Simmons for being voted by his peers into the Blackjack Hall of Fame.  (Simmons garnered two more votes than runner-up Rob Reitzen.)

Wally now joins an illustrious group of blackjack dignitaries in the Blackjack Hall of Fame. (You can view the physical Blackjack Hall of Fame at the Barona Resort and Casino, located in San Diego, CA).) The up-to-date listing of the members of the Blackjack Hall of Fame (and the year they were inducted) follows:

• Al Francesco (2002)
• Peter Griffin (2002)
• Tommy Hyland (2002)
• Arnold Snyder (2002)
• Edward O. Thorp (2002)
• Ken Uston (2002)
• Stanford Wong (2002)
• Max Rubin (2004)
• Keith Taft (2004)
• Julian Bruan (2005)
• Lawrence Revere (2005)
• John Chang (2006)
• James Grosjean (2006)
• Roger Baldwin, Wilbert Cantey, Herbert Maisel, and James McDermott, collectively known as the “Four Horsemen of Aberdeen” (2008)
• Richard Munchkin (2009)
• Darryl Purpose (2010)
• Zeljko Ranogajec (2011)
• Ian Andersen (2012)
• Robert Nersesian (2014)
• Don Schlesinger (2015)
• Bill Benter (2016) 
• Don Johnson (2017)
• Wally Simmons (2018)

CALCUTTA

Next on the agenda was the usual Calcutta (affectionately known as the “Charitable Calcutta Auction”), which is sort of a pari-mutuel wagering where the attendees can bet on who will win the coveted Grosjean Cup. Below is the list of the seeds (The Field). Each attendee was slotted into an appropriate grouping. Max posted the opening odds of winning for each seed, and then attendees bid from $600 up to $4500 on who they thought would win the Grosjean Cup.

Bidding was lively amongst this group of advantage players. (The reason, of course, was due to the overlay created when we all chipped in $20 at the door to seed the pot. There was some serious money to be won in the Calcutta, and the group of advantage players knew it.) Max, of course, was the auctioneer, and he kept extolling the virtues of players in each seed to bump up the bidding, which was often fast and furious. (Note: The money collected from the highest bidder for each seed goes into a pool, and the prize money was disbursed to the persons who purchased the finalists finishing first, second, and third (win, place, and show), and 10% was awarded to the winning bidder for the fourth-place finisher, in the competition for the “World’s Greatest Blackjack Player.”) Also, the attendees in each seed are allowed to purchase up to 50% of themselves from the highest bidder. 

The competition for the title (and bragging rights) as the World’s Greatest Blackjack Player consists of several rounds, the first being a challenging, 21-question, written test followed by a series of subsequent rounds conducted on a blackjack table that test the player’s card counting skills.  

(Note: The test includes a mix of questions on blackjack, gambling trivia, and general knowledge because, as Rubin puts it, “A world-class blackjack player should know lots of stuff because you never know when it might come in handy.”)

Below are instructions were given to everyone by Richard prior to reading the test questions. Put on your thinking cap and try to answer them. 

BLACKJACK BALL: ROUND ONE QUESTIONS

As always, to prevent advantage play and outright cheating, as you fill out your game card, you must completely answer each true or false question or multiple choice question and fill in the blank before we move on to the next question. All answers must be marked with dark ink. You cannot change your answer once you have marked your card. If there are any blanks or changed answers on your card then when it is graded and handed in, you will be disqualified. It’s happened before, so be sure to complete every answer. One time only—with NO revisions. 

Please write your name on your card now to make sure that your pens are working. If they aren’t, hold up your hand and we’ll bring you another one. 

Also, anyone who looks at their cell phones for any reason, other than to take an emergency call, in which case we will all wait until that emergency has been dealt with, will also be disqualified from play. You are allowed to use the back of your playing card to calculate your answers. 

I’ll repeat each question only once. Ready? 

1. True or False: There are at least two legal methods that world-class card pros can use, including solo and/or team play, that can actually gain the pro a tasty edge while playing Won Ton War in a casino.
2. Las Vegas casinos have hosted golf, tennis, Jai Alai, Grand Prix, and now Hockey. Which Vegas casino once offered live, onsite horse racing?
   1. El Rancho
   2. El Rancho Vegas
   3. Sahara
   4. Thunderbird
   5. Last Frontier
   6. There has never been a legitimate horse track in Vegas. The horses can’t run here because of the heat.
3. We all know that as a courtesy to Barona for housing the Blackjack Hall of Fame and the many other things they do for the professional Blackjack Community, including allowing Max to present the Blackjack Ball, everyone sitting here agrees to NOT play there—which is probably the smartest move a casino has made in the last 22 years since the Ball began. In part because you don’t attack their games, Barona now has substantially more full-pay pitch games than any other casino on the planet. By a mile. Sorta. Within three, how many full-pay 0.26% pitch double-deck games does Barona now have?
4. True or False.  Showing us just how savvy and fair the selectors truly are, ever since the NCAA Basketball Tourney was expanded to 64 seeded teams in the first full opening round, number 11 seeds have beaten the sixth- seeded teams more often than the number 12 seeds have beaten the number fives. True or False.
5. As you know, UBER and Lyft are two companies that compete with Taxi Cabs. Which of these Blackjack Hall of Famers sometimes hires himself out as an UBER driver?
6. When we lost the Riviera Casino, we also lost the NAME of Riviera Blvd. What is the NEW name of Riviera Blvd?
7. True or False? In the NFL it is possible for the quarterback to throw a legal forward pass while his foot is beyond the line of scrimmage.
8. This comes from James Grosjean. Which of the following scenarios gives you the highest edge if you’re playing one hand?
   1. A Six as the Dealer’s up card in blackjack. 
   2. A Nine as the first card to a player hand in baccarat
   3. A ten as your card in Casino War
   4. A King as your first card in Three Card Poker
9. Another from the mind of Jimmy G. Within 3% what’s the probability that in a randomly shuffled, standard deck there will be an Ace and Jack next to each other?
10. True or False? There’s this lady named Joan Ginther who’s had four winning scratch-off lottery tickets totaling over $15 million dollars from the Texas state lottery. That much is true. True or False. Joan lives in Vegas and has a PhD in Statistics from Stanford?
11. Where in Nevada do you find the Area 51 Travel Center, which includes an alien-themed legal brothel?
    1. Armargosa Valley
    2. Barnhole Hollow
    3. Itchy Stick Canyon
    4. Long Dong Wash at Lathrop Wells
    5. Virgin Valley
    6. Sorry, I’m just messing with you. There is no alien- themed brothel in Nevada.
12. Name a person sitting in this room who lives at least 5,500 miles away who is attending the Blackjack Ball for the first time.
13. True or False. According to the Nevada Gaming Abstract, compared to 2016, across the board, Nevada’s statewide gaming revenue fell in 2017.
14. One more question from the 2017 Nevada Gaming Abstract. Which one of these statements is not correct?
    1. On the Vegas Strip, table games won more money than machines.
    2. Penny Slot Machines won more money than all of Nevada’s Nickel, Dime, Quarter, 50 Cent, Dollar, Five Dollar, Twenty-Five Dollar and Thousand Dollar Machines combined.
    3. The average blackjack game in Nevada won over $1,300 a day.
    4. The Exact Published Big Baccarat win for the 24 largest joints on the Vegas Strip was one billion, one hundred twenty-one million, one hundred twenty-one thousand dollars.
    5. On the Strip, table game win fell while machine revenue actually grew.
    6. All of the above answers are not incorrect.
15. The Easternmost casino in Iowa is called the Wild Rose. It’s located in a town with the same last name as a former U.S. President. Name that town.
16. True or False? Contrary to published facts, which may, in fact, be another example of “Fake News,” or just conveniently lost ancient history, the Las Vegas Knights are NOT the first team in the ENTIRE history of the NHL, MLB, or NBA to sweep their first playoff series in their first season of play.
17. You count down a single deck and with just three cards left, your Hi-Lo count is zero and your Silver Fox count is also zero. Which of the following statements must be true?
    1. The last three cards are all the same value.
    2. There are no Aces left.
    3. There is at least one 8 remaining
    4. You made a mistake in your count
    5. If we used the cards to deal the beginning of a heads-up round of blackjack, an Over 13 blackjack side bet would be a winner for sure.
    6. There is no such thing as a Silver Fox Count.
18. Other than Harrah’s, there has been one other casino brand that operated in Lake Tahoe, Reno, and Las Vegas at the same time. Name it.
19. Melania Trump is the first First Lady who was not born in the United States. True or False?
20. Which of the following is not a racehorse that was active on a US track in the past year?
    1. Hip to be Don
    2. Munchkin Money
    3. Thorperrific SPELL IT
    4. I am Miss Brown
    5. A Toast to Max
    6. None of these are legitimate horses that run on US tracks.
21. Nevada once had Jai Alai with pari-mutuel betting at casinos in both Reno and Las Vegas that had the same name. What was the name of those casinos?

2018 TIE BREAKER

Everybody cut cards. High card goes first. If two tie, they cut again until we establish the order. Line up.

Tiebreaker: Name a casino in one of the Four Corner states that was operating as of March 2018 and dealing blackjack.

If you miss, you are only out if the next person up can name a Four Corners casino and we move to the next person. If they get it, both of you are out. After three misses, we will go to another tiebreaker.

Note: You’ll find the answers to the test questions in part 2 of this article as well as a summary of the subsequent rounds in the competition for the World’s Greatest Player and who won the competition. 

It' s long been said that the players who get the best deal on the offline and online slots are those who bet bigger. Casinos generally put higher payback percentages on slot machines with higher coin denominations, and at least on three-reel games, payback percentages usually are highest with maximum bets.

One former casino company even had a cartoon character called "Max Coins" to remind players that bigger bets brought increased returns.

Players have tried to read extra meaning into that information for decades and have come up with many recurring questions about slots betting. They ask how casinos make sure bigger bets pay more, whether increasing or decreasing bets changes combinations they see on the reels, and more.

The big question, of course, is "Can bigger slots betting improve my chance of winning at slots?"

Let's look at some questions and answers, with one big caution: You can get a higher payback percentage and still lose more money. If you're betting 40 cents per spin with a 90-percent return, your average loss is 4 cents per spin. If you get 95 percent but bet $4 per spin, then your average loss is 20 cents per spin.

Make sure you keep your bets in a range you can afford. Don't bet outside your comfort zone for the sake of a higher payback percentage.

How do casinos make sure higher slots betting brings higher payback percentages?

Casinos usually put higher payback percentages on higher denomination games, so that games with base betting units of $1 pay more than 25-cent games, which pay more than 5-cent games, which pay more than 1-cent games.

 

 

That can be done by increasing the pay table on higher denomination machines, by mapping numbers from the random number generator onto more higher paying symbols, or by mapping the random numbers so that winning combinations appear more often on higher-denomination machines.

Some machines have disproportionately higher payoffs when you bet more.

Three-reel games with a jump in the top jackpot are good examples of this. When you look at the pay table, you might see the top jackpot at 500 coins if one coin is wagered, 1,000 if two coins are wagered, but leaps to 2,500 coins if three are wagered.

That disproportionate rise in the top jackpot leads to a higher overall payback percentage when more coins are wagered.

That includes machines with progressive slots jackpots if only players who bet at a qualifying level are eligible for the progressives.

Do I get a higher payback with higher slots betting while staying at the same machine?

Only if there is a disproportionate rise in the pay table, as described above. That's rare on multiline video slots or online slots.

If all payoffs are proportionate to wager size, the payback percentage almost always is the same regardless of whether you bet one coin per line, 20 coins per line, or any other available multiple.

There are exceptions. On some machines, betting more unlocks paying symbols. If, for example, bells are losing symbols if you bet one coin per line but are winners if you bet at least five coins per line, then the extra winners increase the payback percentage for those who make qualifying wagers.

If I bet $5 per spin and at a 1-cent game and $5 per spin at a 25-cent game of the same type, am I getting the same payback percentage?

In most cases, the higher payback will be on the 25-cent game, even if the bets are equal. 

Most players at the 1-cent game will be betting considerably less than $5 a spin. For example, if the game has 50 paylines, a player betting one coin per line bets only 50 cents per spin while raising bets to 10 coins per line brings the total to $5 per spin.

Without disproportionate payoffs, progressive jackpots or buy-a-pay features, betting 50 cents or $5 on the same $1 machine brings the same payback percentage. But since higher-denomination machines usually are set up with higher payback percentages, someone making similar-sized bets on a 25-cent machine usually gets a higher percentage back.

I have noticed lately when I bet the minimum I have won way more frequently than when I bet max on a machine. Is the RNG programmed to hit more on minimum bet and less on maximum bet?

That's an illusion of small sample size that would even out with extended play and observation. In this case, slots betting patterns make no difference. 

The random number generator that determines what you see on the reels doesn't know how much you've wagered. It just goes on generating random numbers.

Your wager size doesn't change the random numbers or the probability of winning combinations landing on the payline. Streaks happen, both good and bad, with big bets and small, but the probability of seeing winning combinations on any given machine is the same regardless of how much you bet.

Do the reels change in any way if bet more or fewer coins per line? Is there a change in the number of symbols on the reels or the number of high-paying symbols in the reels?

No, slots don't change the assignment of random numbers to make some symbols come up more often when you bet more, or some symbols to come up with.

There are ways to accomplish what this question suggests, but slots don't change the assignment of random numbers to make some symbols come up more often when you bet more, or some symbols to come up with.

There are ways to accomplish what the reader suggests, but they are not permitted by regulators in any American jurisdictions.

One way would be to use the same set of random numbers with large bets as with small, and change the way the numbers are mapped. For example, if you bet one coin per payline, random No. 1 could be assigned to a low-paying 10 symbol if you bet one coin per line but a high-paying jackpot symbol if you bet five per line.

Another way would be to change the set of numbers the RNG has to work with.

Imagine the RNG works with 1,000 numbers when you bet one coin.

Now imagine you bet five coins, that the RNG works with 800 numbers instead, and that the 200 numbers that have been eliminated all had been mapped onto low-paying symbols. The result would be more higher-paying combinations.

Either could be done, but both are illegal within any one game in U.S. gaming jurisdictions.

If you change games in a multi-game machine or change machines, it's a different matter. If you move from a 1-cent version of a game to a 5-cent version of the same game, they may work with different random number sets or have the numbers mapped differently.

But if you stay at the same game, betting more or less does not change the probability of landing winners on the reels.

Can increased slots betting help you win more?

That, of course is the heart of the matter. As detailed earlier, bigger bets can bring bigger payback percentages if the pay table is disproportionate, if you move to a higher-denomination machine, or if there are buy-a-pay symbols to unlock.

But bigger bets also bring the risk of bigger losses. It's up to you to decide if betting more is worth that risk, but smart players NEVER bet more than they can afford to lose.

 

*Credits for main photo in this article belongs to Eran Alergant

James Grosjean has never been one for mincing words or suffering fools. Still, several years ago, when I bragged to him about having strong card counting skills, I couldn’t help but be taken aback by his response. He told me that he thinks of casino advantage players - that is, sharp people who deploy strategies to beat the games - as evolutionary. “Card counters are salamanders crawling out of the water,” one of the most brilliant, most lauded advantage players in history told me. “Meanwhile, I am a fully evolved human.”

In other words, anyone who wastes time card counting resides at the bottom of blackjack’s evolutionary chain. Argue as I might for the craft that I had proudly learned to excel at, James Grosjean had a point. Card counting is undoubtedly a grind. It requires lots of hours at the gaming table and is easy for casino personnel to detect. While counting cards remain legal, it is frowned upon by the house and you will be booted from the table if it becomes clear that you’re employing it with proficiency.

Happy to be doing things that are more profitable and less obvious, he crowed, “You’re more heated up than I am!”

Worst of all, perhaps, the card counter’s advantage is no more than two percent. “A lot of bad things can happen when you have such a small edge,” Grosjean told me. “It’s why you hear counters talking about having losing years.” His point being that he does not play games where you can plug away for 365 days and wind up in the red. Underscoring it all, not long after our conversation, I heard a story about him paying off a professional gambler who had helped him out with a high-level play. 

As he handed her the money, he cheekily said, “I hope this supports your gambling habit for a while.”

The habit Grosjean referred to, of course, was card counting.

James Grosjean is not alone in thinking this way. Most professional gamblers who made their bones as card counters have moved on to bigger and better things. They bet sports, beat poker, devise strategies for extracting money from various machine games. According to an email exchange between the astute professional gambler Nicholas Colon (himself a former member of the seminal MIT blackjack team) and casino consultant Bill Zender, the number is low enough to make counting sound like a horse and buggy in the age of Henry Ford. “I believe there are only 100 to 125 professional level card counters in all of North America,” Zender wrote.

Clearly, the ranks have thinned. But does that mean card counting is dead? “It’s not dead,” says Colon. “But card counting is on its way out the door. The games are more difficult, the rules are worse than ever and it is getting progressively harder to make any significant money. During the MIT days, it was not uncommon to see someone betting $20,000 on a hand of blackjack. Now it is unheard of.”

Plus, Colon points out, the most advantageous moves will result in swift back-offs.  When warranted by the count, “Splitting 10s and doubling with 10 against the dealer’s 10 can be profitable,” he says. “But you don’t want to take the risk” of being caught and tossed from the table.

Colon’s advice for getting away with card counting? He suggests keeping betting limits low, limiting spreads (the escalation of bets made as the count goes up), learning and deploying obscure counting systems that casino employees might be unfamiliar with, and reserving play for the most opportunistic games. In other words, you should play free blackjack the way pensioners handle their retirement savings: Forsake profitability by being conservative and living to fight another day.

Henry Tamburin, an esteemed expert of the game and a former blackjack pro who’s moved on to greener pastures, believes there are opportunities if you really want to spend your time adding and subtracting ones (which is the way counters keep track of the decks’ status) while looking out for heat. “I try telling people that card counting is not dead but you have to be selective in terms of the games,” Tamburin says. “I would recommend a double-deck game with 1.1 or 1.2 decks before shuffling and make sure that the blackjack rules allow doubling after splitting. Without that rule, I wouldn’t bother if there is not tremendous penetration."

Rocking it old school, Tamburin suggests limiting time at the table to 90 or so minutes, acting like a gambler (high fives all around when the dealer busts; eyes rolled toward the heavens when you do) and breaking out the occasional strategy card. He advises intentionally making rookie blackjack mistakes, keeping one’s bet-spread reasonable and playing with the kind of camouflage that deflects attention even if it crimps profits.

While Tamburin is quick to say that counting is not as easy as it used to be, he does report a bit of a silver lining. At this year’s Blackjack Ball – an annual gathering, held in secret, which attracts the gambling world’s most notorious advantage players – he encountered young guys who “find the good games and make a good living at card counting.”

The really uplifting news, in fact, is that by going against the slow and steady grain, blackjack profits can be mind-blowingly significant. Just ask Richard Munchkin, a seasoned advantage player, co-host of the podcast “Gambling with an Edge” and author of “Gambling Wizards.” For years, Munchkin had been in Grosjean’s camp, writing off card-counting as a strategy with the relevance of an abacus. No longer. “We’ve been having guests on the show who have adopted the attitude of going into casinos, spreading enormously, hiding nothing and playing until they get thrown out,” says Munchkin, sounding pleased. “Some places they last 30 minutes, other places they last three days. Then they move down the road and hit the next place.”

Munchkin likes the take-no-prisoners approach, though he warns that it is not for those averse to travel or gamblers who enjoy eating comped meals at Las Vegas restaurants. “Things are bad for counters in Vegas,” he says. “Over 50 percent of the games pay 6-to-5 [on blackjacks, meaning that a $50 bet yields $60 instead of the $75 paid by 3-to-2 games, which used to be the standard]. Plus, the Vegas casinos are very quick to catch card counters and communicate the information to other casinos.”

Hence, he adds, operating as a serious card counter now means “living out of a suitcase and frequently being on the road.” Advantage players doing really well with the strategy, he adds, “go away for two weeks and have a general itinerary. Several have traveled in RVs.” One key in all of this is to not quit playing until you are asked to. “I heard about one guy who played for weeks and won a million dollars before they threw him out.”

For all of that, though, Munchkin acknowledges that he is out of the counting game and has no plan to get back in any time soon: “The last game I straight counted was in Russia in 2001. It was a special situation with an advantage right off the top. For me, right now, there are better ways to spend my time.”

Then there is Tommy Hyland, another master of blackjack. Unlike Munchkin, he still plugs away at card counting. His assessment of current conditions is very positive. “You can make an argument that card counting now is as good as it has ever been,” he says. “Even though the games used to be better and the casino personnel weren’t smart in the late 70s” – which led to good opportunities back then – “there are so many casinos right now that strong games are out there.”

Hyland’s idea of a good game? “Dealers standing on soft 17, good penetration, the number of decks [less is better] and surrender. Surrender is an underrated thing. It may not be worth much off the top [at the beginning of a shoe] but it is good when the count gets high. It is good for fluctuation.”

Making things even better, according to Hyland, is the reality that the proliferation of casino gambling in America does not result in increased intelligence among those who run the joints. In fact, he maintains, quite the opposite is true. “I don’t think casino people, in general, are very smart,” says Hyland. “Now, with so many casinos, the smart ones are spread thin. They can’t watch everybody all the time and you can get in some hours before they get you.”

Considering that, he agrees with the approach of hitting blackjack tables with guns blazing and not letting up until you’re forced to. “I’ve played aggressively my whole life,” says Hyland. “I never played with much camouflage or cover. I always thought it was important to play for the money. If you play a tame game and have a very little edge, you take a chance with your casino bankroll.”

As for those who preach the gospel of playing for longevity, Hyland shrugs it off. With casinos spread across 30 states, being ejected from a blackjack table is not something he stresses about. “You can always find somewhere else to play,” he says. “Then, by the time you get thrown out of all the casinos, you go back to the first one and start all over again.”

This exploration deals specifically with American roulette, which has a 0 and 00 space. This really doesn't make much of a difference for the purposes of this discussion except when we talk about the exact number the ball will land in if it rolls N number of spaces. European wheel players have a lower house edge at roulette approx 2.7 instead of 5.2 as well as a better roulette culture. The American wheel derivations presented here can easily be translated to the European wheel with just a little effort.

If you're betting one chip per spin on either wheel, you need to hit on average once out of every 36 spins to take the house edge to zero. If you can hit once out of every 35 spins, your edge will be 2.86%; once out of every 34 spins, 5.88%; once out of every 33 spins, 9.09%. So remember the ideas do not have to hit every time and even a little skill goes a long way when applying the visual roulette prediction methods.

CAN YOU WIN AT AMERICAN ROULETTE?

In the almost two decades I’ve been in casino gaming I have come across a number of roulette system sellers; books and DVD products put out on legitimate to semi-legitimate to completely absurd methods for beating roulette. I’ve been taught methods in person by people who have proven they know how to beat roulette under a very specific set of conditions. So the answer is YES, but only sometimes.

AMERICAN ROULETTE: THE HOW AND WHY

 As stated a few things need to happen for a skilled player to start attacking Roulette.

1. First, you must find a wheel with a predictable ball fall-off point. This is where the ball actually leaves the track and begins bouncing on the wheel before it settles into a basket. This is done by finding a croupier who has a predictable initially velocity as well as a consistent launch point.
2. You must be able to determine the approximate point within revolution at which to make your prediction. This is three to four revolutions before the ball actually drops from the track and into the basket.
3. You must make your prediction based upon a visual observation of the ball in relation to both the position and velocity of the wheel. This is essentially a complex roulette physics problem, but fortunately for us, we only need an approximation and not the exact answer. This is why computers are outlawed for roulette because they can get the exact answer. Finally, you must place your bets on the layout all before the dealer says no more bets.

The traditional roulette strategy of betting once a player had his prediction has been to bet a sector of the wheel. This is ¼ of the wheel, or nine consecutive numbers on the wheel in the area of where you predict the ball will land, 4 on either side of your number. Some visual roulette players suggest betting a random subset of other sectors to camouflage your play. This will not make much difference to your EV. 

Older deep-pocket wheels could be beaten in this way. There are a number of problems with this method in actual casino play. Essentially, The modern game, as dealt in the US, on modern low-profile wheels, makes it impossible to make any money with these methods. This article will not discuss these problems but will give enough information to leave readers in a position to begin to win at roulette (at least those who are willing to practice and develop the necessary skill set.) 

For now, it’s important that readers understand that the traditional method of winning at Roulette. Everyone who is a successful visual roulette predictor has used it as their foundation much like the basic strategy is for blackjack players.

DEFINITIONS

Rotor: The rotor is the spinning part of a roulette wheel. It contains the numbered pockets where the ball will land.

Stator: The stator is the stationary part of a roulette wheel. It contains the spindle on which the rotor turns, as well as the sloped track that holds the spinning ball and the apron where the deflectors are located. The ball must pass across the apron, and through the deflectors, to enter the rotor and a numbered pocket.

Deflectors: Deflectors are the vertical and horizontal obstacles on the apron leading to the rotor. They are typically thicker and wider in the center, and thinner at the ends. They are spaced evenly and symmetrically around the wheel, with alternating vertical and horizontal obstacles. Most casino roulette wheels have 8 deflectors; a few older wheels have 16.

Frets: Frets are the dividers between the numbered pockets on the rotor.

Apron: The slanted surface on which the deflectors are placed, located between the roulette wheel track and the spinning rotor.

Wheel Track: A slightly sloped track on the vertical side of the stator that holds the ball in its spin around the outside of the wheel before it drops onto the rotor and into one of the numbered pockets.

AN EXPLANATION OF BALL ROLL

Assume for a moment that you are trying to predict where a roulette ball will land on a stationary wheel. The casino dealer has launched the ball into its spin an initial velocity. If you knew that velocity and exactly how much energy the ball dissipated on a revolution around the wheel track, you would be able to predict the numbered pocket under the point where the ball was going to fall off the track.

When the ball falls off the track its remaining velocity is not sufficient to keep it spinning fast enough to sustain its position on the nearly vertical track, but there is still a given amount of velocity remaining from the launch that must be dissipated before the ball can come to rest in a pocket. The velocity at the moment of fall-off will be approximately consistent from spin to spin. The point of fall-off, the ball will have a given its initial velocity, essentially is equal because the fall of velocity is equal each time because velocity needs dissipate in its roll before it can come to rest in a pocket.

If the ball’s path from the wheel track to the numbered pockets on the rotor is free of obstacles, the remaining launch energy will be dissipated in a pretty consistent way. Sometimes the ball will hit a pocket in such a way that it makes contact with a lower portion of a fret and then flies out of the pocket in such a way that it will skip over the next fret or two before making contact with another fret. Other times the ball will skip in a more consistent way across the tops of the frets, lightly hitting each one in its path.

In either case, the distance the ball will roll across the numbered pockets will be remarkably consistent. When a ball flies across several frets without touching them, it avoids dissipating the energy it would have lost in contact with those frets. But in order for a ball to take flight over several frets, it requires a certain kind of contact with an initial fret when the ball has too much energy to stop. In fact, that the ball is propelled out of the pocket into flight. The distance the ball then travels before stopping in a pocket is about the same as the distance it would have traveled if it had lightly touched and skipped across several frets.

You will see some rolls where stranger things happen.

There are some things that truly randomizes where ball roll will land. For instance when a wheel that’s spinning so fast that the ball’s first contact with a fret hurls the ball entirely out of the wheel and up into the air. 

Ed Thorp who invented the first roulette computer and card counting calls the behavior of the ball upon hitting the frets “spatter,” and notes, correctly, that it has some randomizing effect, but not enough, according to his measurements to deter him from developing the roulette computer. The spatter tends to look a lot crazier than it really is, and that overall a fixed amount of energy tends to take a ball a fixed distance across the numbered pockets on a rotor, especially on the newer wheels with low frets that now dominate the game in Las Vegas and most of the U.S. 

These are very broad strokes for players, but it should be enough to convince the active student that it is possible to beat the game of live roulette. Unfortunately, a significant investment of either time or money is required to practice and see the patterns emerge. So the next time you’re at a casino have a look at the wheels and pay attention to what was discussed here as it is acted out on the casino floor and you will be on your way to becoming a visual roulette predictor. 

Those who play video poker with any regularity generally have one or two favorite games they play. It may be some of my favorites such as Jacks or Better, Deuces Wild, or Double Bonus Poker – games which have a high payback and low variance. Others prefer a bit higher risk, if it gives them a shot at more “jackpot” sized payoffs – such as Double-Double Bonus Poker. Still others – usually those who don’t play very regularly – will try any game they come across and try to get lucky. If you're playing video poker regularly and find yourself getting a little bored with the same low-variance game, you might consider trying Ultimate X Video Poker.

• Warning: This game is not for the faint of heart.

DESCRIPTION

Ultimate X Video Poker is a variant of video poker that plays the same as standard video poker when playing one to five credits per line. The real allure of this game, however, comes when the player doubles the max bet from five to 10 credits per line. When this happens, each winning line sets up a multiplier for that line on the next game played.

• Ultimate X Poker is manufactured by IGT and is available in several of the more popular games types.
• These include Jacks or Better, Bonus Poker, Bonus Poker Deluxe, Double Bonus Poker, Double-Double Bonus Poker, Deuces Wild, Joker Poker, and Triple Double Bonus.
• Ultimate X games are available in 3-play, 5-play and 10-play variations.
• Most machines offer multiple denominations ranging from five cents through 25 cents.
• It takes 10 credits per line to activate the Ultimate X feature.
• This means: 
  • On a nickel 10-line game the total bet per game is five dollars - 10 nickels (50 cents) per line for 10 lines.
  • On a 25-cent game, the full 10-play bet comes to 25 dollars. 

MULTIPLIERS AND RETURN

The multipliers for winning hands vary depending on the type of game, pay table, and the number of lines per game. Here is an example of the pay table and multipliers from actual Ultimate X Bonus Poker games. The table below shows the returns for 3-play, 5-play, and 10-play games. The multipliers increase a bit as the number of plays increases. The return for a standard 6/5 Bonus Poker game is 96.87 percent.

The multipliers increase the return by about 1.5 percent making a miserable return for a standard 6/5 Bonus Poker game a merely not so good return in Ultimate X. Keep in mind that better pay tables are available – they just might be a bit difficult to ferret out.

Most Ultimate X pay tables are configured at less than “full-pay” levels (as in the example above). The multipliers raise the returns. Several examples for video poker games are shown below.

 

 

 

 

Notice the improved returns for the Ultimate X games. In fact, the 9/6 Double-Double Bonus Poker return is better than full pay (9/6) Jacks or Better standard play making this game the most popular Ultimate X game.

HOW TO PLAY ULTIMATE X POKER

To help understand how this game is played, some samples of play are very helpful. 

The illustration of a three-play 7/4 bonus poker game below shows a screen after 10 credits per line for three lines (a total of 30) are bet and “Deal” or “Bet Max” button is pressed. Notice the “Ultimate X Poker ACTIVE!” in the lower right portion of the screen. This is the player’s confirmation the feature is activated.

One line is dealt. The player then holds the desired cards (in this case the pair of aces). This is a good situation since each of the three lines is a guaranteed video poker winner.

This is what the screen looks like after the aces are held. The player then hits the “Draw” button. The aces are held for all three lines and the three remaining cards in each line are filled by a separate deck with the 47 cards remaining for each line.

Unfortunately, none of the lines improved, and even though each line is a winner, the player lost money on this hand (bet 30, paid 15). However, a winning hand on the next game on any of the three lines will win two times the normal amount as indicated by the “Next Hand 2X” to the left of each line. 

Another 30 credits are bet and the next hand is dealt.

The “Ultimate X Poker ACTIVE!” is again displayed in the lower right corner of the screen. In addition, a “2X” is also displayed to the left of each line indicating that a win on these lines will be doubled.

This time the initial line contains two pair. This, combined with the “2X” multipliers, guarantees this hand will be a money maker as the least that will be won (with the proper hold) will be 10 credits per line which will be doubled to 20 credits per line for a total of 60 credits.

The player properly holds the kings and 5’s and hits “Draw”.

None of the lines are improved from the two pairs, so the player gets 60 credits added to the credit meter and is up for this session. Any winning lines on the next hand will have the pays tripled as indicated by the “Next Hand 3X” to the left of each line.

Another 30 credits are bet and “Deal” or “Bet Max” button is hit

This time the proper hold for this 7/4 Bonus Poker game is the two high cards, which are held.

The two bottom lines are winners with a high pair in each. Thanks to the “3X” multipliers, this hand breaks even. Winners on the next hand in the bottom two lines will have the win amounts doubled.

Another 30 credits bet, the “Deal” or “Bet Max” button is pressed.

The pair of 9’s is held

The “Draw” button is pressed.

The top and bottom line are both winners with two pair in each. Because of the “2X” multiplier on the bottom line, the player breaks even on this hand. Winners on the top or bottom line of the next hand will have the win amount tripled.

Hopefully, the above examples gave you a good feel for how the game is played. 

STRATEGY

Obviously, the strategy changes slightly from the standard game due to the multipliers. Those hands with a higher multiplier will tend to be favored a bit more. To play perfect optimal video poker strategy would require a separate playing strategy for each different multiplier table. In video poker practice, however, a single strategy per game yields excellent results. 

VARIANCE

Playing Ultimate X is like riding a roller coaster – an extreme roller coaster. The sample hands that are shown above turned out well for the player. However, due to the nature of Ultimate X Poker and the double the standard max bet required to activate the Ultimate X feature, the variance of this game is extremely high. If you get a high multiplier winning hand dealt and winning hands on the following game, credits come flooding in. But as seen by the first winning hand in the samples, not all winning hands (even if dealt to you) mean you make a profit. If you hit even a fairly minor losing streak, your bankroll for video poker is vanished before your eyes. To play this game, a properly sized bankroll is an absolute must.

ONE WORD OF CAUTION

Before you leave a game, make sure you play off any multipliers that remain. Don’t leave them for the next player. You earned then – use them. In this case, however, only bet five credits per line. You are leaving. You won’t be playing any multipliers the next game. Also, when you first sit down, run through the game types to check for any stray multipliers that may have been left. Play them with just five credits per line – no sense wasting an additional five credits per line hoping for multipliers on the next hand.

ENJOY, AND...

• Look for the best video poker strategy return available.
• Have the proper strategy for the game and pay table you select.
• Limit your exposure to what you can afford to lose.

There are times craps shooters are cold, times they're hot, and times they're on fire. It's for those time shooters are burning through the points that the craps fire bet was devised.

Win the fire bet, and you could walk away with a 999-1 payoff, turning a $1 side bet into a cool $1,000. That's the kind of payoff not available on standard craps, where the pass line pays even money and long shots such as bets on 2 or 12 reach only 30-1.

This fire bets craps strategy is there for the same reason Caribbean Stud Poker has it progressive side bet and some casinos offer the Lucky Ladies side bet in blackjack. It adds excitement for players who love long shots and live for jackpots.

It's not for everyone. Big payoffs require long odds, and the odds against winning the fire bet are longer than those on any other craps wagers.

WHAT IS THE CRAPS FIRE BET?

The fire bet is a wager the shooter will make at least four different points on the pass line before sevening out.

They have to be different numbers — the shooter could make four 6s in a row, and that would count as only one number.

As craps players know, there are six potential point numbers: 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 or 10. In the most common fire bet pay table, making four of that point pay 24-1, making five of them pays 249-1 and making all six pays the big jackpot of 999-1.

HOW TO PLAY THE CRAPS FIRE BET

Not all offline and online casinos offer the fire bet. At those that do, here are the set of rules for craps fire bets:

1. You begin on the comeout roll by putting your chip or chips on the layout and telling the dealer you want the fire bet.
2. Comeout wins on 7 or 11 or comeout losses on 2, 3 or 12 do not affect the fire bet. In fact, as long as those are the only results, you may take your bet down.
3. Once the shooter establishes his first point, the fire bet must stay in action until it wins or loses.
4. If the shooter makes a point, a dealer puts a fire disk on that number. Play then moves on to another comeout. 
5. If the shooter then establishes a different point number and makes it, a dealer puts a fire disk on that number, too. The same procedure would follow if the shooter made additional points.
6. Anytime the shooter makes a point he already has made, no additional fire disk is placed on the layout. Disks are added only after points made for the first time in the fire sequence.
7. If the shooter sevens out with zero, one, two or three fire disk covering made points, then you lose your fire bet.
8. If the shooter sevens out with four or five fire disks on the layout, or if he makes all six points without sevening out, then you're paid according to the pay table.

CRAPS FIRE BET ODDS

You will win at craps by using the fire bets slightly more than 1 percent of the time.

There are several pay tables available, but the most commonly used are:

• 24-1 on four numbers made
• 249-1 on five numbers and 999-1 on five numbers.

It's common for casinos to list the fire bet at odds-for-1 so they can display a nice, even, 1,000-unit payoff for six numbers made. A 1,000-for-1 payoff is the same as 999-to-1. If you bet $1 and the shooter makes six numbers, you get your $1 bet back and collect $999 in winnings for a total of $1,000.

Calculations are complex because of the need to make specific numbers. If the shooter starts by making a point 6, then he needs to make 4, 5, 8, 9 or 10, and making another 6 doesn't help the cause. If he then makes a point 10, he then needs to make 4, 5, 8 or 9, and neither 6 nor 10 help, and so on.

Because of that, calculation's can't strictly focus on odds of making a point. They have to include odds of making a point in a decreasing field of available numbers.

Michael Shackelford calculated the chances of the shooter making four different points before sevening out at 0.88 percent.

Multiply that 0.0088 chance by 24 -- reflecting the 24-1 payoff, and you get 0.211. Basically, four points give you back 21 cents of every dollar you wager.

There's a 0.164 percent chance of making five in a row -- 0.00164 time 100 to convert to percent. Multiply 0.00164 times 249 to reflect the payoff, and you get 0.408, meaning winning with five numbers get you about 41 cents per dollar wagered.

Finally, there's a 0.0162 percent chance of making six in a row, or 0.000162 times 100 to convert to percent. Multiply 0.000162 times 999 for the payoff, and you get 0.162. The shooter making all six numbers gets you 16 cents per dollar wagered.

Add up all the paybacks, and you see that the average return for all craps winners combined is about 78 cents per dollar wagered. There are some rounding issues at work, and the total return really is a bit more than 79 cents.

That leaves a house edge of just under 21 percent -- 20.8 percent, to be a bit more precise.

More rarely seen pay tables include one that returns only 10-1 on four numbers and 200-1 on five, but pays a big 2,000-1 jackpot on six. The house edge is 24.9 percent.

Another starts payoffs at 6-1 on only three numbers, then pays 29-1 on four numbers, 149-1 on five and a smaller than usual jackpot of 299-1 on all six.

Any of those house edges are higher than others at craps, which usually maxes ou at a 16.67 percent edge on any seven.

Craps players who are happy to try to grind out a profit on low house-edge bets such a pass plus free odds will see the fire bet as one to avoid.

But for long-shot players who revel in jackpot chances, a hot shooter and the fire bet go together like smoke and flames.

FreePlay vouchers are readily available to online casino players across a wide range of attractions including table games, card games, and slots games. FreePlay is essentially that – Free Play. FreePlay vouchers are offered in specific amounts that can be used for playing online casino games. The beauty of FreePlay offers is that it is possible to win jackpots with these vouchers. Reputable online casinos provide ongoing FreePlay promotions to players. Players are not typically required to make a deposit to be awarded a FreePlay voucher.

When funds are limited, you can always boost your gambling bankroll with a FreePlay offer. When it comes to real money play, every spin, and every draw matters. That’s why FreePlay is a valuable resource to boost your chances of winning. FreePlay bonuses are usually provided to players for specific casino games. For example, you may be offered a casino freeplay voucher for slots games. You can then divide this FreePlay bonus among your preferred slots and win for real.

Qualifying for a FreePlay offer is easier than you might imagine. Every FreePlay promotion provides specific details about how to receive your bonus. Be advised that wins which accumulate through FreePlay gaming are subject to the wagering terms and conditions associated with the FreePlay bonus. You will need to use the whole FreePlay amount before you can withdraw your winnings. There are notable differences between FreePlay offers and it’s important to understand these differences. Some FreePlay offers may require you to make a deposit first before you can withdraw any of your winnings.

Freeplay promos may be associated with x 30 wagering requirements indicating that you need to bet at least 30 times the bonus amount + deposit before you can make a withdrawal. Fortunately, online casinos provide detailed instructions on how to qualify for FreePlay bonuses via email notifications. What is FreePlay worth to you as a player in terms of winning a jackpot? FreePlay offers do not prevent you from winning a jackpot. On the contrary, FreePlay gaming is the same as real money gaming – it’s simply a promotional offer provided to you by the online casino. FreePlay vouchers can be spent on an exciting selection of online slots games, card games, and table games.

HOW DO YOU CLAIM A FREEPLAY BONUS?

Online casinos typically send FreePlay offers to their players via email. When you register at an online casino, you have the option to specify email or no mail. It’s always a good idea to accept email updates from online casinos – that way you’ll never miss out on specials and promotional offers. Daily, weekly, or monthly casino promotions may include generous Free Play vouchers for players. 

You may be wondering why casinos offer players FreePlay vouchers. This is a fair question. Casinos face stiff competition from other casinos, and one of the ways they can gain an advantage over the competition is by providing incentives to players in the form of Free Play coupons and vouchers. These incentivized gambling options really work. Not only are they the same as free cash, they also allow you to play real money games and win real money jackpots. Casinos understand the risks involved in giving players free spins, or free games. The random nature of online casino games ensures that players have a real shot at winning every time they spin slots reels, roulette wheels, or draw cards.

 

GETTING REELED IN WITH FREEPLAY OFFERS

FreePlay offers should be thought of as bait used by casinos to get you to play, hoping that you will spend money on many other online casino games as well. Some players are fortunate enough to win life-changing jackpots off FreePlay offers, while others may simply break even and enjoy an extended gaming session. Everyone gets to enjoy the benefits of FreePlay options – including low rollers and high rollers. It’s always a good idea to use your FreePlay vouches on games where you stand a high chance of winning. Slots games have a much lower RTP than blackjack and baccarat games. If your FreePlay vouchers are limited to games with a lower RTP, they may be less beneficial to you then games like craps, blackjack and baccarat.

Players must ask themselves several questions when receiving a FreePlay bonus. These include the nature of the FreePlay bonus offer. In other words, can you use the FreePlay bonus in increments, or does it have to be used all at once? If players are using FreePlay vouchers on craps, are specific bets permitted? The most player-friendly bets in craps include pass and don’t pass. If it is possible to use FreePlay vouchers on games with a low house edge, they can be hugely beneficial. Another important point to consider is what happens when you win using a FreePlay bet. Will the casino keep your winnings? Will you have to re-bet? When do the FreePlay vouchers expire? 

Casino aficionados advise players to claim a FreePlay bonus to try games that they otherwise would not have tried at the casino. For example, if the cost of playing live blackjack is too prohibitive for you, use a FreePlay bonus to cash in and learn the ins and outs of blackjack play. For many online casinos, it’s a no-brainer: FreePlay is a great way to give something of value to a player, without actually giving anything at all. Since most casino games are chance-based attractions, and each FreePlay is associated with wagering terms and conditions, you must meet the T&C to cash out your winnings from the bonus.

Many players prefer to use FreePlay offers on slots games since no skills or strategies are required to win these games. Everyone approaches a gaming session with a set bankroll. If you have $300 and you expect to play slots games for 3 hours, that translates into an hourly burn rate of $100. With a FreePlay offer, you can increase the length of your gaming sessions and improve the likelihood that you will win a prize in the process. Consider that slots games can pay out handsomely at any time. You may win a jackpot on your very first spin, your 100th spin, or not at all. It is completely based on chance. 

People rightly believe that the longer they play, the greater the likelihood that a generous prize will come their way. With FreePlay vouchers, you are putting yourself in contention to win a jackpot. Players should always maximize every possible opportunity to extend their gaming sessions at no cost to themselves. Bonuses, promotions, free spins, FreePlay vouchers and the like have proven to be highly profitable for players. Casino experts recommend that players examine the terms and conditions of FreePlay offers beforehand, to ensure that any and all winnings can be cashed out in a timely fashion. With FreePlay, you are not spending your own money – you are being gifted complimentary gambling cash (vouchers, comp points, free spins etcetera) to participate in real money gaming sessions.

YOU CAN’T DO A RUNNER WITH FREEPLAY OFFERS

Contrary to popular opinion, slot machines do not go cold when you use FreePlay vouchers to play. Truth be told, an increasing number of social gaming sites, online casinos, online poker rooms and the like are now using FreePlay to incentivize gaming activity. These may be in the form of matching deposit offers whereby you spend $20 and get $20 in FreePlay etcetera. If you’re thinking of pulling a runner on the casino, think again. FreePlay masquerades as free cash – but it’s actually in-game cash only.

You cannot withdraw the FreePlay money and make a run for it. If you play your proverbial cards right, you will be able to benefit from a FreePlay offer provided you don’t overspend by trying to meet the FreePlay requirements. It’s always a good idea to split your gaming activity into multiple sessions. That way you don’t play on tilt, and you won’t be chasing your losses to satisfy the playthrough requirements. 

Just in case you were wondering whether RNGs (random number generators) care about FreePlay or real money play – they don’t. It’s all the same. Gaming experts recommend that players keep a log of their FreePlay, free spins, and other promotional offers vis-a-vis how many spins or deals you have, and the number of wins you are accumulating along the way. Once you start investing more than you’re getting back, take a breather and come back to play another day.