Every year, somewhere in Las Vegas, there’s a gathering of blackjack professionals, past and present, along with some gambling attorneys and a few other miscellaneous gambling professionals, including one video poker writer. Predominantly male, many bring wives or dates, but most come alone. Perhaps it speaks poorly of how often I get out of the house, but it’s a high point of my social calendar. The 2015 version of this event occurred recently. Continue reading Attending the 2015 Blackjack Ball — Part I of II
Author: Bob Dancer
Going Down in Stakes
I’ll begin this article by discussing live poker. Some of what I’m going to tell you is hearsay. I’m not a strong player at poker — but I believe what I am saying is true. When we discuss video poker later in this article, I’m on more solid ground. Continue reading Going Down in Stakes
What She Thinks Makes Sense
Bonnie, my wife of almost eight months, knows very little about intelligent gambling. Although she has assisted during a few semesters of my free video poker seminars, she concentrated more on running the projector accurately rather than evaluating what I had been teaching. Learning about gambling is simply not a priority to her.
After we returned from our cruises on December 14, I decided to start sending her text messages showing every jackpot I hit that was more than $8,000. That was a number picked somewhat arbitrarily–although it’s a target hit with some regularity, it’s still rare enough to be special. Continue reading What She Thinks Makes Sense
You Can’t Hope Your Way to Victory
I recently saw a Northwestern Mutual commercial which aired during the college football playoffs. Although it ended as an advertisement for their insurance company, the part that interested me said:
There are no accidental champions.
You can’t hope your way to victory.
Titles aren’t won at the end of the season.
They are won in the offseason. Continue reading You Can’t Hope Your Way to Victory
Whose Money is it Anyway?
You’re going on a two week vacation and back home you frequent a number of casinos. Let’s say they give you $40 a week in free play. How do you deal with that?
Some casinos, not many, will hold the money for you and let you collect it when you get back. Some casinos, again not many, allow at least some of their customers to pick up their free play any time during the month. If your regular casinos are like this, there’s no problem. You simply pick up your free play before and/or after your trip. Continue reading Whose Money is it Anyway?
Airline Fare Redemption
For the sake of discussion, let’s say I lived somewhere in New York and regularly flew to Las Vegas to play for big stakes. Further, let’s say the airfare cost me $600.
If I play enough at one casino, sometimes I can get them to pick up the airfare. It’s a lot harder than it used to be, but it’s still possible. Continue reading Airline Fare Redemption
How Do You Interpret?
As I wrote last week, Bonnie and I recently returned from a comped cruise on the Norwegian Dawn. Laundry service was included in the package, and on one particular night both of my long pants had been sent to the laundry. I had expected the laundry to be returned prior to dinner, but such was not the case. I had some clean Bermuda shorts, but no long pants.
There are two main dining rooms on the Dawn — the Venetian and the Aqua. The Venetian is larger and has windows overlooking the bow of the ship, but the restaurants themselves share the same galley and have identical menus. As far as most of the passengers are concerned, the two dining rooms are equivalent. Continue reading How Do You Interpret?
A Sense of Entitlement
Bonnie and I had to skip our European honeymoon six months ago due to her health. She’s feeling better now and so we went on two back-to-back cruises out of New Orleans-the first November 30 – December 7 on the Carnival Dream and the second departing a few hours later, December 7 – December 14, on the Norwegian Dawn.
All of it was casino comp. Our Carnival Cruise Lines trip was courtesy of the M Casino. Our Norwegian Cruise Lines voyage was a Seven Stars Signature Event from Caesars Entertainment. For our travel to and from New Orleans we used a Seven Stars annual trip. Continue reading A Sense of Entitlement
What Makes Ultimate X So Volatile?
I’ve been playing $1 Ten Play 9/6 Double Double Bonus Ultimate X (DDB UX) for about two years at the Palms. It’s supposed to be a 99.87% game when played perfectly. The perfect strategy is very complicated. The simplified strategy I use is worth a bit less. With the 0.25% slot club, mailer, drawings, etc., it’s a decent enough play.
In 2013, I lost more than $100,000 on this “decent enough” play. In 2014 I’m ahead. But still, how I can run so bad on such a good play? Continue reading What Makes Ultimate X So Volatile?
How Would I Go About It?
The following is a hypothetical problem set at an unidentified casino: Assume the games are single line, for dollars, and I play $20,000 coin-in a month. Assume the slot club pays 0.25% and the mailer gives me $160 a month (i.e. $40 a week times four weeks) as long as I play $20,000 or more coin-in.
One month, however, my mailer includes a coupon that will pay me double for four 4s with a maximum bonus of $500. If I’m playing a deuces wild variation, it has to be four natural 4s, and if I get five 4s with exactly one deuce, I get paid double for that as well. I get to cash the coupon once only and it expires at the end of the month. Continue reading How Would I Go About It?