I’ve written about this subject a few times in the past, but not recently. If you’ve seen it before, check to see if you remember the correct answer. If you haven’t seen it before, now is the time to test yourself. All of us need to review from time to time to keep our skills sharp.
Assume you’re playing any version of Deuces Wild, where W represents a deuce, and we’re comparing the following two hands: W 6♦ 7♦ 9♦ T♣ and W 6♦ 7♦ 9♦ 8♣.
Continue reading Which One is Worth More?At www.gamblingwithanedge.com , in the comments section for a recent blog post of mine, a poker player said he had two stop limits–one for being ahead and on for being behind. (It’s possible he uses the same amount for each. He didn’t say.) He wanted to know if winning video poker players use this system as well.
In all gambling, money management is important. One of the key elements is being able to stay in the game. If you go broke, you’re out of the action.
Continue reading When Do You Quit?Author’s note: I ran this originally in December 2009, while I was teaching classes at the Eastside Cannery.
After this was published, Andy and Sharon became good friends with Shirley and me, and later Bonnie and me. Recently Sharon, real name Phillis, died after dealing with a brain tumor for years. Reprinting this article is one way to say, “Rest in Peace, Phillis.”
Continue reading A Sexy CorrelationI have played for more than ten years at Dotty’s, a chain of 15-machine (mostly) establishments located throughout Nevada.
While the promotions at Dotty’s vary periodically, one constant has been their Jackpot Bonus promotion where 10% of all W2gs receive a 10% bonus. That is, if you hit a $4,000 jackpot, 10% of the time you’ll receive an extra $400 in cash.
Continue reading You Can’t Do That!In Las Vegas, there was a 70-day break for the pandemic, assuming you played in the casinos on March 17 and returned on June 4. If you socially distanced before March 17, or didn’t rush back as soon as the casinos reopened, the break was longer.
Certain casino venues elsewhere in the country opened earlier or later than June 4, but for now, let’s assume we all had a 2¼ -month break, minimum. It’s close enough for today’s purposes.
Continue reading Are You Still Up to Snuff?When I was nine years old, I was an All-Star baseball player. It wasn’t part of the official Little League system. Our city parks in Gardena, a suburb of Los Angeles, had a minor league, from 8-10 years of age, a major league, from 10-12, and a pony league, from 12-14.
At the start of the summer, I was 10 years old. I could have played in the minor leagues or the major leagues. Most of my friends were a bit older and didn’t have that choice. So, I went along with them and signed up to play in the majors.
Continue reading Finding my SpotIn the middle of his famous poem “If,” Rudyard Kipling poses the condition, “If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster and treat those two impostors just the same.” At the end of the poem filled with twenty or so other conditions, comes the conclusion, “you’ll be a Man, my son.”
Although addressed to his son, this applies equally to daughters. The phrase is etched over the players’ entrance at Wimbledon’s Centre Court. I read it recently in a book by Maria Konnikova which I will review next week. This phrase was a very small part of the book, but it speaks to me as a video poker player as surely as it does to tennis players.
Continue reading Kipling Said It BestToday I want to look at the advanced strategy features of 9/5 TBPP. Unlike the previous two weeks, I’m not comparing this game to another. I’m just listing exceptions to the intermediate rules.
I assume you’re generally familiar with penalty cards and the difference between ‘when’ and ‘with’ inside parenthesized exceptions. These are common for all the Dancer/Daily Winner’s Guides and strategy cards. If you’re not familiar with our notation, this might be tough going. It would take several thousand words to explain all the features of the notation, and that’s kind of tough for 800-word columns.
Continue reading A Look at 9-5 Triple Bonus Poker Plus — Part 3 of 3This game returns a robust 99.80% with perfect play, is found in a number of Las Vegas casinos, and for some reason I have neither taught nor written much about the game. That is about to change.
Today I’ll discuss the basics of the game. Next week I’ll talk about some Intermediate-Level peculiarities to the game. And in two weeks I’ll discuss some of the advanced penalty card situations.
1 coin | 5 coins | ||
| Royal Flush | 250 | 4,000 | |
| Straight Flush | 100 | 500 | |
| Four Aces | 240 | 1,200 | |
| Four 2s thru 4s | 120 | 600 | |
| Four 5s thru Ks | 50 | 250 | |
| Full House | 9 | 45 | |
| Flush | 5 | 25 | |
| Straight | 4 | 20 | |
| Three of a Kind | 3 | 15 | |
| Two Pair | 1 | 5 | |
| Jacks or Better | 1 | 5 |
It was not my intention to spend a lot of time on backgammon, as backgammon is not my game of choice — nor is it really much of a gambling game anymore. But just as we were preparing to air two GWAE shows with Bob Wachtel on his Backgammon Chronicles, Richard and I received a review copy of Bill Robertie’s first book in his series How to Play the Openings in Backgammon.
Robertie is a two-time world champion in backgammon and author of numerous books on the game. In addition, he’s published several books on chess and co-authored a popular series of poker books with Dan Harrington. He’s the publisher for Gammon Press and moderates the backgammon forum on the Two Plus Two website. Simply put, he’s at the pinnacle of gaming/gambling writers.
Continue reading A Look at Bill Robertie’s New Series on Backgammon Openings