As you know, I’m primarily a video poker player, but I have played table games at the Palms often enough that I sometimes get mailers for their table games. For February, they sent me four “First Card is an Ace” coupons — one useable each week. In blackjack, an ace as a first card is […]
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Losing $1 Billion at Video Poker — NOT
There’s a scandal involving former San Diego mayor Maureen O’Connor in which it was reported that she lost one billion dollars playing video poker. The U-T San Diego headline reads “How to lose $1 billion in video poker.” The problem is, however, that this never happened. It might be a clever headline designed to sell […]
Induction versus Deduction
Different people use different types of logic. I try to use “deduction,” whereby I learn the general rule and then apply that to specific situations. A friend of mine, Abe, uses “induction,” which is to look at specific events and then form a general rule that these events will usually reoccur in similar situations.
The 2013 Blackjack Ball
For the past seventeen years, a number of blackjack professionals have met annually at an undisclosed Las Vegas location to swap war stories, renew acquaintances, and to challenge each other with various contests. This shindig is called the Blackjack Ball and is hosted by Max Rubin and Barona Casino. Although I’m a couple of decades […]
Odd Man Out
This semester in my free video poker classes at the South Point, I’ll be teaching, among other games, 9/6 Double Double Bonus (DDB) (February 12), 9/6 Double Double Bonus Quick Quads (QQ) (February 19), and 9/6 Double Double Bonus Ten Play Ultimate X (UX)(February 26). These games have much in common with each other, but […]
Which Game to Play?
I’ve mentioned many times that on 2x point days at the South Point, I play 9/6 Double Double Bonus Quick Quads. This is a game that returns 99.65% when played well, and 2x points are worth 0.60%, so that gives me a 0.25% edge — plus a small amount for mailers. I play this game […]
The Eyes Have It
In 2001, I had Lasik procedures done on both of my eyes. Before that, I couldn’t see the big E on the eye chart without my glasses which I had worn for more than 45 years. I received the mono-vision version, which basically meant that I would see for distance with my left eye and […]
How Not to Run a Promotion
Michael Shackleford, my co-host on the Gambling with an Edge radio show, received an email from the slot director at the Riviera Casino in Las Vegas. The Riv was giving away $72,055 over the weekend of November 16-18 based on play from the prior ten days. In addition, play during November 10-12 would receive 5x […]
How Do You Convince Somebody?
Let’s assume that I think all video poker machines in Nevada are fair — and when I say fair I mean that each unseen card has an equal probability of showing up next. Now let’s assume that I play 200,000 hands of single line Jacks or Better and do not hit a royal. That’s about […]
Video Poker on Twitter
I have yet to join the Twitter-verse. For those still living in the 20th Century, Twitter is usually sent out over smart phones and is limited to 140 characters. Your ‘tweet’ (i.e., a message sent out on Twitter) goes out to all of your followers. They can then re-tweet and send it out to their […]
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