Legally, I need glasses to operate a car. Barely. In Nevada, you need to be 20-40 in both eyes (if you have two eyes) to drive without corrective lenses. My eyes are 20-40 in one eye and 20-60 in the other. I see better in the daytime than I do when it’s dark. I’m confident I can drive safely — but if I get pulled over for something, I might have an additional problem if I’m not wearing glasses.
Continue reading A Search for GlassesCategory: Advice for Players
A Look at Double Double Bonus Poker Plus
Perhaps this is a very old game, but I just saw it for the first time recently. It looked interesting, so I thought I’d analyze it.
I was playing $5 NSU Deuces at Harrah’s Cherokee and had just hit four deuces for a $5,000 jackpot. Always nice, but it’s a once-every-5,356-hands event on average, so it’s not all that rare.
Continue reading A Look at Double Double Bonus Poker PlusOne Time I Made a Deal
A few weeks ago, I posted a blog about not making an agreement with a player I didn’t know. (Did you notice that that blog was the first time I used an interrobang‽) That reminded me of a time I did make a deal. It wasn’t a deal where I had the advantage, but it was a deal to reduce variance.
It was at the Palms when it was still owned by the Maloofs. Perhaps 2007 or 2008, I’m not sure.
Continue reading One Time I Made a DealAn Opportunity or a Predicament?
It’s been a long time since I addressed this subject. The opportunity to actually do it hasn’t happened recently, so you should know that the situation I’m about to describe is fictitious, not factual. Still, the situation does happen periodically and knowing how to handle it when it does happen is worthwhile.
I’m playing $2 NSU at the South Point and a lady next to me is playing $1 9/6 Double Double Bonus. She’s dealt A♦ J♦ 3♦ Q♦ K♦. She doesn’t know me, but since I’m playing my game rapidly (by her standards) she assumes I’m knowledgeable and she asks me whether she should hold four or five cards?
Continue reading An Opportunity or a Predicament?Why is There a Difference?
You’re playing dollar Double Double Bonus with progressives on both the royal and aces with a kicker (AWAK). On the hands we’re going to talk about today, the only thing that matters are quads and full houses, so assume AWAK pays $2,200 and a full house pays $45. If you’re not familiar with the game, trips pay $15 and aces with the fifth card not being a 2, 3, or 4 pay $800.
I’ll start with the three hands in question, where suits don’t matter:
- AAA45
- AAA44
- AAA43
Video Poker and The Golden Rule
According to Wikipedia, “The Golden Rule is the principle of treating others as one wants to be treated. It is a maxim that is found in most religions and cultures. It can be considered an ethic of reciprocity in some religions, although different religions treat it differently.”
I’m not here to debate religion. Consider, however, the following:
- A juicy promotion begins at midnight. There are only a few machines that pay well during that promotion. This means only a very few players will get to play the good machines during the promotion, and most will be shut out. You get to one of those machines at 6 p.m. and play the machine slowly. This guarantees you will get to play the desirable machine and others won’t. After midnight you play much faster.
- Perhaps the same situation as above, perhaps a different one. You make a deal with another player to “take over” your machine while you sleep, and then give it back to you. Eight to ten hours later, you return the favor. This keeps the machine “in the family,” and others who want to play it, can’t.
- It’s a drawing with physical tickets. You’re a proponent of the theory that folding the tickets before putting them into the barrel gives you a better-than-strictly-random chance to win. But anything that increases the odds in your favor, decreases the odds of other players.
- A restaurant where you get comped meals has the policy that on your birthday, you get a free piece of Death by Chocolate cake, with forks for everybody else in your party so you can share. You claim about four birthdays a year at each restaurant that has a policy like this. This dishonesty reduces the profits of the restaurant owner for your benefit.
- At one casino, playing $20,000 coin-in a month maximizes the benefits you receive. You obtain ten multiple IDs and have a player’s card in each of them. This way, you can get far more benefits from this casino than the casino had designed.
- A casino ends a multiple point promotion at midnight, but so long as your card is inserted prior to midnight and remains inserted, you continue to get multiple points long after the promotion is intended to conclude.
- You believe that casinos are sleazy organizations and don’t deserve to be treated honestly. So, you look for ways to cheat them.
- Someone has left $20 worth of credits on a machine. You insert a $100 bill into the machine, play a few hands, and cash out for $115.
- There are only a few “good” machines available on a progressive bank. You want them for your friends. So you bring out foul smelling cigars and begin to smoke them in the vicinity. When other players leave in disgust, your friends sit down, and nobody smokes anymore.
- A floor supervisor taps you on the shoulder and asks if the $100 bill on the floor behind you belongs to you. In truth, you have no way of knowing. But your answer is, of course, “It must be. I pulled money out of my pocket and must have dropped that one. Thank you!”
- You’re too sick to go to work and expose people you know to your illness, but not too sick to go to a casino and expose strangers.
- You are dealt three aces and hold them, except you know you didn’t hold the third ace firmly. You draw the fourth ace, but the third ace “unholds.” Even though you know it’s your own fault, you call the slot supervisor over anyway and complain about stick buttons.
End of An Era?
In late May of this year, I sent an email to the powers that be at the South Point letting them know that I wished to resume teaching free video poker classes on Tuesdays in September. I was told that they would discuss it at the staff meeting and get back to me.
This is the way it’s been at the South Point for almost ten years. Twice a year, we’ve had this exchange of emails. The classes were postponed during the pandemic, of course. For the fall semester of 2020 and winter semester of 2021, my emails to them stated my belief that it was too early to resume classes again, and naturally they agreed with me.
Continue reading End of An Era?Going with the Flow
This happened to somebody else in the late 1990s. I think it was at Caesars Palace about four or five owners ago. I don’t think I have written about it previously and it’s worth discussing. I might have some of the details wrong, but overall, it pretty much happened the way presented.
“Al” was playing at Caesars at an event for invited guests. It was the kind of event where you earn one drawing ticket for every $1,000 coin-in. Then at the banquet on the last night, a drawing is held and lots of cash is given away.
Continue reading Going with the FlowMy Explanation
In the comments on gamblingwithanedge.com relating to a recent blog post of mine, a man named Tim wrote:
Perhaps this has been discussed multiple times, but why don’t the Strip casinos offer full pay video poker? For example, I would sit and play 10 play 9/6 Jacks or better quarters for hours (like I do at South Point). If there is only 6/5 bonus, I may sit at a bar and just play $20.
Continue reading My ExplanationDid You Notice?
I wrote the following article (minus the epilogue which I added later) and then passed it by South Point management for a fact check. As a sponsor of my podcast and the place where I teach my free classes, I have a special relationship with that casino, and I don’t want to screw it up by getting things wrong.
Turns out, I did get a rule wrong. At the end of what I originally wrote, I’ll explain how that rule change affected my behavior.
Continue reading Did You Notice?