Advanced Strategy – Page 21 – Las Vegas Advisor

Posted on August 11, 2020August 24, 2023 by Bob Dancer — 9 Comments

Not My Thing

I was beginning my play at the South Point for their July “Spin 2 Win” promotion, playing, for variety, the 25¢ Good Times Pay version of NSU Deuces Wild. This is a Triple Play game where you get multipliers from 1x to 7x on each of the three lines (averaging exactly 2x). This uses the same strategy and has the same EV as regular NSU. Although it is slower to play than the $2 single line version that I would play were I in more of in a hurry, in my opinion it is more enjoyable to play. At least sometimes.

Two machines over (the one between us was turned off for social distancing reasons) was an Ultimate X machine that goes up to 25¢ Triple Play. The 9/6 Double Double Bonus version of that game has basically the same return as NSU and is much more difficult to play correctly, but is far more exciting.

Posted on July 28, 2020August 24, 2023 by Bob Dancer — 4 Comments

Gambler’s Bonus Reminiscences – Part II of II

Last week I wrote about a juicy game that lasted for several years in 15-machine pubs in greater Las Vegas. If you read that article first, this one will make more sense.

Near the end of the time when this game was available, the manager of one of these pubs asked if I could meet him for lunch away from the pub. Sure. No problem. He had been to some of my classes and we were friendly.

Posted on July 21, 2020August 24, 2023 by Bob Dancer — 9 Comments

Gambler’s Bonus Reminiscences – Part I of II

For a five-year period ending about a decade ago, I played a lot at certain 15-machine pubs in the southeastern section of the Las Vegas valley. Places such as Village Pub, Raye’s, Doc Holliday’s, and Franklin’s. Most of these places have changed owners and names since then. All have removed the game I played.

My game of choice was a version of Deuces Bonus in the Gambler’s Bonus system called Deuces Plus. Today, the best IGT version of this game pays 45-20-20 for straight flushes, quads, and full houses with a return of 99.45%. The version at the pubs paid 50-20-20 with the royal returning 1,000-for-1 rather than 800-for-1. This made it a 100.35% game. Plus slot club. Plus bonuses. And all these places had the game for ten-coin $5 — meaning $50 hand.

Posted on July 14, 2020August 24, 2023 by Bob Dancer — 4 Comments

Two Simple Applications of the Binomial Distribution

A month or so ago I answered the Question of the Day for the Las Vegas Advisor and I answered it in terms of the Binomial Distribution. There were some comments posted after that QOD indicating that people wanted to know more about it. This is a lightly edited version of a 2012 article that I published should be sufficient to respond to those questions.

I receive a lot of mail asking such questions as, “If I am dealt four cards to the royal flush (such as A♥ K♥ Q♥ T♥) and I am playing Fifty Play, how many royals will I usually end up getting?” or, “I played more than 200,000 hands of Jacks or Better and only received three royal flushes. How unlucky was this?”

Posted on July 7, 2020August 24, 2023 by Bob Dancer — 1 Comment

Two Sucker Bets

“S-U-R-P-R-I-S-E!” sixty people shouted as my wife Bonnie entered her sister’s house. Her 75^th birthday party was off to a noisy beginning.

I sighed in relief. We had pulled it off. All the invitations and such had been sent out and responses received with Bonnie having no clue. I had ordered a cake from BabyCakes, the bakery within the M Resort, where I had a large number of comps.

Posted on May 26, 2020August 24, 2023 by Bob Dancer — 6 Comments

A Lesson from Daniel Negreanu

Masterclass.com is a marvelous collection of world authorities talking about what they know best. I am very impressed with their teachers. I had heard about a 2-for-1 sale they were offering in early April, so I signed up. Usually it’s $180 per year for full access to thousands of hours of instruction, but the recent sale allowed two people to sign up for the same $180. The combination of the sale and lots of extra time due to the stay-at-home rules was enough to seal the deal for me. I sent an email out to a number of people I thought might be interested in partnering with me on this, and several responded with interest. The ones I couldn’t use, I hooked up with each other.

My primary interests are writing, comedy, and games of skill — and they have several courses in each of those categories. I’ll eventually get to classes further down my list of interests, but the courses on cooking and interior decorating will probably never make the cut for me.

Posted on May 12, 2020August 24, 2023 by Bob Dancer — 4 Comments

A Look at 9-5 Triple Bonus Poker Plus — Part 2 of 3

Today I want to look at some of the interesting features of 9/5 TBPP at the intermediate level. If you’re not comfortable at this level, you probably should review last week’s column before you dig into this one.

I’m not going to print a strategy here. If you have Video Poker for Winners software, you can get a strategy there. If not, www.wizardofodds.com/games/video-poker/strategy/calculator/ provides an accurate strategy free of charge. I’m not crazy about the format of the WOO strategy, but when you start with free and accurate, it’s probably unfair to be too nitpicky.

Posted on May 5, 2020August 24, 2023 by Bob Dancer — 14 Comments

A Look at 9-5 Triple Bonus Poker Plus — Part 1 of 3

This 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

Posted on April 28, 2020 by Bob Dancer — 5 Comments

Something Good from Backgammon

As many of you have noticed, I’ve been reading some backgammon books recently to interview Gambling with an Edge guests. This is not going to become a backgammon blog. My main gig remains video poker.

Also, to prepare for the interviews, I watched some YouTube videos of international championship tournaments to see what had changed since I last played the game seriously almost 30 years ago.

Posted on April 21, 2020August 24, 2023 by Bob Dancer — 14 Comments

Another Lesson from Square Dancing

I’ve been writing these articles for more than 20 years and sometimes need to draw inspiration from all sorts of different places. Today’s inspiration comes from square dancing — but the subject matter will soon shift to gambling successfully.

The square dance callers (the people who stand up in front of the dancers and tell them what to do) in Las Vegas are probably adequate. Nothing special. It’s rare when one of our callers is paid to call somewhere else. At big conventions, when dancers from several states come together and dance to the best callers, our callers are never among those asked.

Category: Advanced Strategy