Author: Bob Dancer

A friend of mine, Steve, is someone I know from square dancing. He is retired and recently decided that he wanted to increase his monthly income by gambling, so he asked me which game he should learn first. I told him Full Pay Deuces Wild for quarters. It’s a relatively easy game to learn and it’s available in a few places close to where he lives (specifically Sunset Station, Fiesta Henderson, and Sam’s Town — possibly other places as well). He will only make $6 an hour or so playing the game and he needs significant study to get good enough to even do that. Still, it’s a place to start. Continue reading Simple Math for Deuces Wild

I’ve recently written about Dan Ariely’s free course that I’ve also been taking. One of his books is called The (Honest) Truth about Dishonesty.. I’ve been wondering how some of what I’ve learned by reading that book can be applied to my normal life — which for me means life in casinos.

Today I want to apply this to an on-going promotion that is offered at the Palms Casino in Las Vegas. Variations of this promotion occur elsewhere as well. Continue reading Musings About Dishonesty in Casinos

Most of us occasionally switch from game to game. The strategy for each game, and even each pay schedule, is a bit different. Today I’m going to give you eight different hands with three games each. In each case, two of the games will have the same play and one of them will have a different play. Also in every case, the reason for the differences in how you play the hands is determined by the pay schedules.
Continue reading How Do You Play These Hands?

I started college 51 years ago. I earned some degrees and over the years went back and took a number of non-credit courses. I enjoy the learning process and I’m positive that this is one major key to my success as a gambler and instructor.

There’s a new way to learn, called MOOC, which stands for Massively Open Online Courses. A year ago I heard about a free MOOC course offered by Dan Ariely of Duke University called “A Beginner’s Guide to Irrational Behavior.” I was too busy to take the course, I concluded, and so I skipped it. 140,000 students found time to take it. To me that’s a startling number. Continue reading Sign Up for this Course Today!

On the January 23, 2014 Gambling with an Edge radio show, Anthony Curtis and Richard Munchkin both said good things about American Roulette, a book by Richard Marcus. So I went to the library and checked it out. (Understandably it’s a title that’s easy to find in a Las Vegas library but perhaps not so easy if you live in Peoria.)
Continue reading A Look at American Roulette