Beyond Video Poker
When I write here about specific casino games, I usually am giving video poker information, natural because that has been Brad’s and my primary game for the last 30 or so years. But if you have followed us from the beginning, you know that when we started out, blackjack was our main game for the first 4-5 years.
I am sometimes asked if we ever play blackjack or any other casino game besides VP these days. We rarely do, but you might see us at a blackjack table for just some recreational play on a cruise ship that has no good VP. We occasionally hit some slots when we are entertaining our family in a casino. And, no surprise, we might play any other casino game if we have a coupon for it. (This is why I put a chapter called “The Casino-Game Buffet” in my recent book The Frugal Gambler Casino Guide. I cover most any table game you might find, giving you suggestions on how to play it with a better chance for financial success.)
I do read a lot about gambling, especially online, since I like to keep up on all the changes in the casino world, not just those that affect our video poker play.
A Resource for Vegas Table Players
Recently I came across what might be helpful to players of blackjack and other table games. I don’t follow online betting opportunities so I don’t know which of these websites are legit or the best, but this survey of Vegas blackjack and other table games seems very thorough and up to date and looks like a valuable resource for casino table game players.
“2019 Blackjack Ball: The Inside Scoop”
Here are some links if you have heard of the “Blackjack Ball” and would like more information about it. Henry Tamburin has written a two-part article summarizing its history and giving a very detailed description of the 2019 event. Part 1 lists the 21 difficult test questions that face everyone and Part 2 gives the answers. You might want to take the test to see how you stack up to the experts!
The Frugal Gambler Audio Book
If you have been roaming around the Internet, particularly checking out gambling websites, you may have seen a Google ad with a picture of the cover of my recent book The Frugal Gambler Casino Guide. However, if you click on that ad, you will be taken to information about getting an audio version of one of my books, but it is not this recent title but the 2nd edition of my first book, The Frugal Gambler. Fortunately, the page to which this ad takes you has the correct (green) cover and there is no charge to listen to a sample of this book. Be aware this is the book that came out in 2005; although a lot of the basics of gambling haven’t changed, the casino conditions have drastically changed.
Bellagio blackjack data is far from accurate. 40 $10 minimum tables? None at all in several years. Two Switch tables, one $15 and one $25. The Free Bet table is $15, on a good night. Others.
A grammar error in your blog post??? (“which” rather than the correct “that”) That’s well-nigh unprecedented! Anyway…
Thanks for the link to the table games survey. In the past, I’ve found such surveys to be all but useless, as things like rules, playing conditions, and limits seem to change so much and so fast. For instance, the El Cortez recently cut waaaay back on its single deck games and doubled the minimums to boot, but that hasn’t been noted in the survey–it still lists “6” $5 single-deck games when in reality, they’ve converted to shoe games and rarely have more than one single-deck table now. More seriously, the survey lists incorrect percentages for “house hold,” by which I assume they mean house advantage (it’s decimals below 1.0, and if it was actually the hold, it would be a much larger number). But that’s peripheral information; the important thing is to know what games a given casino is dealing, and the site is valuable for that.
The only table game I play is Mississippi Stud and the table game resource you mention as valuable resource has a pay table that is totally inaccurate and the minimum bet it shows for most of the CE strip casinos is also incorrect unless there have been major changes since the last time I was in Vegas which was mid March 2019.