Video Poker: The 99% Game
Video poker is one of the few casino games where the player can stand in front of two machines that look almost identical and face meaningfully different mathematics. Sometimes the difference is only two numbers on the pay table, so advanced video poker begins before the cards are dealt.
The benchmark game is full-pay 9/6 Jacks or Better. The “9/6” refers to the payout for a full house and flush: 9 credits for each credit wagered on a full house and 6 for a flush. With optimal strategy, the long-term expected return is approximately 99.54%. That does not mean the player will get back $99.54 from every $100 session. Short-term results can swing because part of the theoretical return is tied to rare premium hands such as the royal flush. It means that across an enormous sample with perfect play, the mathematical house edge is only about 0.46%.
Three Card Poker: The Fast-Paced Casino Classic
Combining the excitement of poker with the simplicity of casino table games, Three Card Poker has become one of the most recognizable modern games on casino floors. The game may be relatively young compared to traditional casino favorites like blackjack, roulette, and craps, but it has earned its place among the most popular specialty table games. Combining familiar poker hand rankings with quick decisions, straightforward rules, and opportunities for substantial payouts, the game offers an entertaining alternative for players who enjoy poker but prefer a faster, more accessible casino experience.
Three Card Poker: Wild Winning Streaks
Of all the poker-based games that have carved out niches in table pits, Three Card Poker pays out its top jackpot the most often. That makes some unusual streaks not only possible—but inevitable, given enough play.
Take the reader who once emailed to share their experience of being dealt four consecutive straight flushes, each worth a 40-1 payoff on the Pair Plus portion of the game. That might pale in comparison to the 1,000-1 bonanza for a royal in Let It Ride or a progressive jackpot that can reach hundreds of thousands of dollars in Caribbean Stud. But any frequent player of Three Card Poker will tell you that straight flushes, with 1-in-460 odds, do come around. For most players, royals in Caribbean Stud and Let It Ride are a once-in-a-lifetime—if ever—event, with odds of 1 in 649,740.
Pai Gow Poker: Learning the Game
If you are looking for a new game to play in the casino that is easy to learn and can be very profitable, you should consider Pai Gow Poker. It is a combination of American poker and the Chinese domino game that shares its name. Similar to blackjack, it is a slow-paced table game with plenty of player interaction and dealer assistance. With a 5% house vig on your winnings, this game provides the player with a huge advantage which is why the house has to take a cut. The actual house advantage is 2.3 percent.
Casino Strategy: Short-Run Decisions
When you read gambling books and articles, you sometimes see a distinction made between the “short run” (tonight, this weekend, this week, this month) of a few hundred or a few thousand decisions, and the “long run” (a few years or more) of millions of decisions. In the short run, anything can (and does) happen. Players can go on incredible streaks of improbable wins or equally improbable losses.
The long run is a very long time. Usually, it can be stated as the amount of time, or number of decisions, necessary for the probabilities to be within a given range of results. A coin flip will be, in the long run, faster than a roulette wheel because a coin flip has only two possible decisions and a roulette wheel has 37 or 38, depending on the type of wheel. As I stated, in the long run, the math of a game will win out over any aberrations that take place tonight.
Finding the Edge: Three Card Poker VS. Mississippi Stud Poker
Three Card Poker and Mississippi Stud Poker are two of the hottest table games around. Their popularity doesn’t challenge long time player favorites blackjack and craps, but in some states they draw more players than baccarat or even roulette.
HOW GOOD IS YOUR SHOT TO WIN AT THOSE GAMES? WHAT IS THE HOUSE EDGE?
Those are questions that need to be answered in multiple steps, because both are games with more than one round of betting.The house edge can be expressed as a percentage of the ante that starts either game, or it can be expressed as a percentage of the average total wager, once subsequent bets are considered.Some people refer to these as “house edge vs. the ante” and “house edge vs. total action.”
Poker: The Art of Card-Reading
Here is a big news flash that will catapult you immediately from an intermediate player to an expert if you are not there already. The most important skill any player can develop at the poker table is the ability to read other players’ personalities, betting patterns, and, ultimately, their cards.
It is a euphoric feeling for the beginner when she realizes that although each player is dealt two personal, private cards, it is sometimes possible to know with near certainty what someone’s two hidden cards are. It’s almost as though you can see through both the cards and into a player’s brain to gather the information you need to make a good call, a good fold, or a great bluff. To be effective in reading cards, one must watch patterns. Is he aggressive, raising at every opportunity, or is he quietly calling? Such information will reveal the cards to you just as surely as if he were playing with his hand face up.
Video Poker: Sunshine in Casino Land
I believe that knowledge is a valuable asset if you want to excel at most things. That includes all sports, bridge, chess, science, math and a long list of myriad topics, including gambling. The gaming industry, however, is unlike most others in that certain topics are off limits and will never see the light of day. For example, the highest level of device technologists is called a bench tech (most manufacturers have around ten levels) and you will never ever see one on any casino floor or even on site. I spoke to a bench tech once due to unusual circumstances and he told me that they take their secrets to the grave. So, when a level one or two technician tells you which machine to play or how they work you should take it with a grain of salt. But there are many branches of gambling facts that are not just accurate but potentially profitable. The tough part is shining a light on legitimate facts so you can differentiate between the sunshine and the fairy tales.
Poker: Smart Play on the Flop
The Lodge at Deadwood Gaming Resort
Playing A-x Suited: Bad Flop
Suppose that a jackal has raised the flop, and you have called his raise with Ad- 5d, and then the big blind calls as well. If the flop comes down Js-Qh-3d and the big blind checks and the jackal bets, fold your hand. You have missed the flop (you don’t have either a pair, a straight draw, or a flush draw); you have only two bets in the pot at this point; and you were the caller before the flop, not the raiser. There is no warrant for getting further involved in this hand.
Poker: Playing Small Pairs on the Flop
You have 4-4 in the fourth position, and the player in the second position (two seats to the left of the big blind) makes it two bets to go. You’re playing my theory—“three-bet with small pairs”—before the flop, so you make it three bets. No one else calls, and the flop is Q-10-3. The player in the second position then bets out into you and you raise him, thus “representing” a queen (or perhaps K-K or A-A) but also gaining information.
