Advanced Strategy – Page 15 – Las Vegas Advisor

Posted on May 31, 2022August 24, 2023 by Bob Dancer — 9 Comments

I Get By with a Little Help From My Friends

The last week in May, Bonnie and I will spend aboard a railroad traveling through the Canadian Rockies. We’re scheduled to travel east from Vancouver and fly home from Calgary eight days later. Although we will be back in Vegas before you read this, and I may well write about that trip, I’m writing this blog while still in Vegas.

Why that’s important is because more than one of the casinos I frequent had monthly “playups” in May of various sorts, where for so many points during the month, I get certain prizes. One that takes a lot of time is the South Point half-price Chevron or Walmart gift cards, requiring almost $167,000 in coin-in for Bonnie and me combined. And I only have three weeks to get in that play instead of four.

Posted on May 24, 2022August 24, 2023 by Bob Dancer — 4 Comments

How Do I Prepare to Stay Awake?

I received the following question for Richard’s and my mailbag show on Gambling with an Edge. It’s too involved to answer on the air. I thought I’d give it a go here.

Can you describe the steps you take to prepare for a play that may require you play during a time of day (graveyard for example) that is not a normal time for you to be playing? How far in advance do you start to adjust your schedule, and what other steps do you take?

Posted on May 17, 2022August 24, 2023 by Bob Dancer — 10 Comments

Card Pulling Revisited

I was asked to answer a Question of the Day sent to The Las Vegas Advisor. My answer was “too long” for a QOD, but appropriate for one of my blogs. Since LVA hosts my blog and they have plenty of QOD questions “in the hopper,” I was allowed to answer this question here.

Is card-pulling at video poker still an effective way of minimizing wins?

Posted on May 10, 2022August 24, 2023 by Bob Dancer — 5 Comments

Figuring It Out

I received an email to be answered on the podcast. Here it is:

I have a strategy question about 8/5 ACE$ bonus. I’ve been told that you play it the same as you would 8/5 bonus with the following exception: when dealt a full house with 2 or 3 aces where ACE$ is possible, you only hold the aces. Is that true? When dealt 2 pair and one of the pair are aces in the right position do you go for the full house or just hold the aces?

Posted on April 26, 2022 by Bob Dancer — 15 Comments

A New Experience for Me

I’ve had an amazing experience that is new to me as a gambler.

I’ve been learning a bit about advantage slots — and playing them with moderate success. I’m not going to go into detail, but some games are the type that if one particular number is above 40 and another particular number is above 30, the player has the advantage for some length of time.

Posted on April 15, 2022August 24, 2023 by Bob Dancer — 4 Comments

How Much Does Complexity Cost

The following question was posed to me for inclusion in one of Richard’s and my mailbag shows on our Gambling with an Edge podcast. While I did give an answer to it on the air, I believe a fuller answer is appropriate and so I’m going to talk about it here as well.

“This version of Double Bonus Poker is called “Full Pay Double Bonus Poker” or “10/7/5 Double Bonus Poker.”

If Jacks or Better and Double Bonus Poker had similar strategies, it would be a no-brainer to select Double Bonus Poker as the preferred game.

Unfortunately, the strategy for Double Bonus Poker is more complex than the strategy for Jacks or Better making it more likely that mistakes will be made – mistakes which will cost you money.”

Posted on March 29, 2022August 29, 2023 by Bob Dancer — 6 Comments

Coupons at Golden Gate

I decided to use the coupons for Golden Gate in the Las Vegas Advisor Member Rewards booklet. There were three that were of interest to me — $25 match play (worth $12 or so); first blackjack pays 2-to-1, up to $25 (worth about the same); and playing $10,000 in coin-in within 24 hours on video poker gets you $100 in free play. (We’ll talk about how much that is worth.)

Posted on March 8, 2022August 24, 2023 by Bob Dancer — 6 Comments

Is It Worth It?

I was playing a very nice $5 progressive at Circa. It was on the 165-foot bar at the west end of their casino’s lower level. In addition to containing slots and blackjack, the machines have numerous video poker denominations from 25¢ to $5, and each denomination has numerous games all connected to the same progressives. The progressives on these machines are linked to similar machines at the Golden Gate (directly across Fremont Street) and the D (also on Fremont Street, but two blocks east).

When I started play on Valentine’s Day, the progressive was at $38,800 and the best game to play was 8/6 Bonus Poker Deluxe. I’d been tipped off by a friend. I know the 9/6 non-progressive version of this game very well, and practiced at this progressive level for a bit before I drove to the casino.

Posted on February 15, 2022August 24, 2023 by Bob Dancer — 28 Comments

What Would You Do?

Author’s note: Today’s story is a composite between two different incidents that were somewhat similar, but each different from the other. So, the final result is fiction but based on fact. Readers are invited to consider how they would have handled this situation had it happened to them in a game they played. Ignore for now that this game was larger than many of my readers play. This kind of situation can happen on a game of any size.

In 2002, there was one $5 Multi Strike Deuces Bonus Poker game at the ABC casino, along with three $1 versions of the same game. The game was worth about 99.6%, but with the slot club, mailers, and promotions, it was a good game. Especially since valuable weekly drawings were held and this $100-per-play game resulted in a lot of tickets obtained at an advantage.

Posted on February 8, 2022August 29, 2023 by Bob Dancer — 12 Comments

Video Poker Endowment

You’re playing dollar pNSU Deuces Wild, the 15-9-4-4-3 pay schedule also called Airport Deuces, five coins at a time, and you’re dealt W W W 7♦ 9♦, where each W indicates a wild card. Specifically, a deuce. This is a dealt straight flush, worth $45 in this game. Congratulations!

Category: Advanced Strategy