Advanced Strategy – Page 18 – Las Vegas Advisor

Posted on April 27, 2021 by Bob Dancer — 6 Comments

Backgammon Then and Now

Author’s Note: I played backgammon professionally for almost 20 years, then gave it up completely. I reached the high intermediate level, but most of the players that were interested in gambling with me were better. That was a prescription for disaster. I needed to get a job because I was not a winning player anymore. Today’s blog has nothing to do with video poker, but it does have to do with gambling.

I played most of my backgammon at the Cavendish West, which was in the West Hollywood section of Los Angeles, from about 1974 to 1993. Some of the regulars back then who are still active in tournament backgammon are Bob Glass, Jim Pasko, Steve Sax, Joe Russell, and Bob Wachtel. (There are likely others I don’t know are still playing.) They were all better than me back then, and they’ve kept studying the game while I’ve devoted my attention to other things.

Posted on April 20, 2021August 24, 2023 by Bob Dancer — 27 Comments

Unrealistic Expectations

Many of you know that I participate in storytelling events. I’ve been regularly attending a workshop to improve my skills.

Recently, after we had all practiced our stories online for the day, Pete, the leader who lives on the East Coast, asked me if I would be willing to take him around and show him how to play were he to come to Vegas.

Posted on April 13, 2021August 24, 2023 by Bob Dancer — 5 Comments

Further Analyzing Dotty’s Double Up Promotion

Last week I went through the basics of playing NSU Deuces Wild for $75 per hand and using the Double Up feature every hand until it was either at least $1,200 (generating a W2g) or reduced to zero.

I never played this personally. I didn’t believe the promotion would last, and so I let others do it. But, for today, I’d like to discuss my method of figuring out how much it was worth.

Posted on April 6, 2021August 24, 2023 by Bob Dancer — 30 Comments

A Further Look at Double Up

Anthony Curtis and Andrew Hunt have a YouTube podcast called “In the Wild,” where they address Las Vegas Advisor-kinds of questions. Basically, straight talk about the basics of things gamblers want to know.

Recently, they addressed the Double Up feature in video poker seen here. Other than once confusing the term ‘Double Up’ with ‘double down’ (a term in blackjack), what they said was correct.

Posted on March 30, 2021August 24, 2023 by Bob Dancer — 19 Comments

A Very Different Approach

On February 23, my blog addressed the subject of quitting while you’re ahead and other similar strategies that do absolutely nothing to the expected return of a game. I received a number of comments to that blog, including the one I’m going to share with you today:

“I stop when I’ve won a decent jackpot, usually a four-of-a-kind that kicks out $200 or more. I’m good with winning a $200 hand. $200 will buy a nice evening out with my wife, so really, we both win.”

Posted on March 23, 2021August 24, 2023 by Bob Dancer — 19 Comments

Looking at a 50-coin Penalty for the Straight Flush in 10-6 Double Double Bonus

There is a version of 10-6 DDB that pays 200 for the straight flush rather than 250 and that change drops the return from 100.06% to 99.96%. Casinos which have a firm policy of never offering a game returning more than 100% sometimes have this game. I refer to the games as 10-6-50 and 10-6-40, where the 50 and 40 represent the one-coin return for the straight flush.

The strategy for the two games is very similar, of course, but not identical. If I had places where I could play both games, I’d likely use one strategy for both. But I don’t know of any casino with the 10-6-50 game where I want to and am welcome to play, so I concentrate on the 10-6-40 strategy. The Dancer/Daily Winner’s Guide for Double Double Bonus covers the 10-6-50 game completely. Today I’ll just discuss the differences between the two games. All money amounts assume you are playing for dollars, betting five coins at a time.

Posted on March 2, 2021August 24, 2023 by Bob Dancer — 16 Comments

A Lesson Relearned

Today we’ll have a personal anecdote about what happened to me recently. I’m not sure how widespread my situation is, but perhaps some of my readers will relate to it.

I’ve been gambling at video poker since 1994. For the right promotion, I’ll go any time of the day or night. To make this work, I also need to be able to sleep any time of the day or night so I can be at my best when I play. Sometimes I’ll play daytime for one promotion, sleep four to six hours, and then go play graveyard at some other promotion. At age 74, it’s more difficult to do this than it was when I was younger.

Posted on February 23, 2021August 24, 2023 by Bob Dancer — 14 Comments

Quitting While You are Ahead — Does it Work?

Recently, a poster on the videopoker.com forum wrote words to the following effect: “I have no doubt that if I could ever learn to quit while I was ahead, I’d be far ahead at video poker, even though I play games returning only about 99%.”

Let’s look more closely at that statement.

Posted on February 16, 2021August 24, 2023 by Bob Dancer — 37 Comments

Who Are the Patrons?

On our February 4 Gambling with an Edge podcast, Anthony Curtis brought up something that I had experienced, but not understood why it was happening. With some notable exceptions, numerous Las Vegas casinos have really tightened up. Slot clubs are less generous. Promotions are smaller. Games aren’t as loose as they were.

In my opinion, this is not the smart way for these casinos to be acting. Their customers are hurting. Their customers have less money. At least some of the customers are wary about venturing into casinos at all until the percentage of our population vaccinated is much higher than it is now.

Posted on February 9, 2021August 24, 2023 by Bob Dancer — 17 Comments

Two Stories

I have two brief things that came up recently and are worthy of writing about, but neither is sufficient to fill up an entire blog. So, I stacked them together. Hope you don’t mind.

New Rules

Category: Advanced Strategy