Category: Video Poker

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An Open Invitation

It hasn’t been much of a secret, but Bonnie and I are celebrating a wedding commitment ceremony on Friday, May 23. The ceremony itself will take place in the late afternoon and there will only be about 30 family members and close friends in attendance.

However, the reception afterwards, from 7:00-9:30 p.m., is an open affair. Anyone who has warm feelings toward the bride and groom is welcome to attend. It will not be a “typical” wedding reception — if there is such a thing. It will be a square dance! Continue reading An Open Invitation

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An Interesting Combination in Deuces Wild

It’s been a while since I’ve written about hands such as the ones we’ll discuss today. If you’ve read every one of my columns, you can find the first mention back in 2001. But this will be new for most of you.

Letting a W stand for a deuce, let’s compare the two hands W 6♥ 7♥ 9♥ 8â™  and W 6♥ 7♥ 9♥ 5â™ . In each hand, we have to choose between a 4-card straight flush with one inside Continue reading An Interesting Combination in Deuces Wild

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Dodging a Bullet

I recently approached the four Quick Quads machines at the South Point. There was a lady I didn’t recognize sitting on the far right (call it Chair 4) and I rather arbitrarily sat down in Chair 1. Because of my classes, I’m recognized by far more people than I am able to remember, so whenever someone says “Hi” in a casino, I respond in a friendly manner. But this woman said nothing, which was fine. Continue reading Dodging a Bullet

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Appearance Money

Sometimes casinos give you money just to come in and play. There are a number of considerations concerning how you should deal with this.

For this article, I’m going to assume the amount the casino offers you is $1,000. I understand this is much higher than many of you receive and much lower than others receive. There is no one number I can pick that will duplicate what each of my readers would get — so I decided to pick a round number which should allow each of you to adjust accordingly. Continue reading Appearance Money

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Simple Math for Deuces Wild

A friend of mine, Steve, is someone I know from square dancing. He is retired and recently decided that he wanted to increase his monthly income by gambling, so he asked me which game he should learn first. I told him Full Pay Deuces Wild for quarters. It’s a relatively easy game to learn and it’s available in a few places close to where he lives (specifically Sunset Station, Fiesta Henderson, and Sam’s Town — possibly other places as well). He will only make $6 an hour or so playing the game and he needs significant study to get good enough to even do that. Still, it’s a place to start. Continue reading Simple Math for Deuces Wild

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Comparing Strategies in Deuces Wild

There are many, many Deuces Wild pay schedules found around the country. Unlike games such as Double Double Bonus where all pay schedules are played approximately the same way, in Deuces Wild there are some great differences in strategy necessitated by the pay schedule changes.

These strategy changes are systematic — meaning once you know the code, you can get pretty close to a correct strategy just by knowing the pay schedule. Today we’re going to be looking at four different variations of Deuces Wild to see how the strategies change in some pretty basic hands. Continue reading Comparing Strategies in Deuces Wild

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Musings About Dishonesty in Casinos

I’ve recently written about Dan Ariely’s free course that I’ve also been taking. One of his books is called The (Honest) Truth about Dishonesty.. I’ve been wondering how some of what I’ve learned by reading that book can be applied to my normal life — which for me means life in casinos.

Today I want to apply this to an on-going promotion that is offered at the Palms Casino in Las Vegas. Variations of this promotion occur elsewhere as well. Continue reading Musings About Dishonesty in Casinos

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Risk Aversion for Gamblers

A few weeks ago, I strongly recommended that my readers take the free course on Irrational Behavior offered by Dan Ariely. I have no idea how many readers actually followed my suggestion, but I’m now in the middle of the course, enjoying it, and learning from it.

One of the topics discussed in the course is risk aversion. Consider the following experiment: You are offered a chance to flip a fair coin. If it turns up heads, you win $1,100. If it turns up tails, you lose $1,000. Would you willingly do this? Continue reading Risk Aversion for Gamblers

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How Do You Play These Hands?

Most of us occasionally switch from game to game. The strategy for each game, and even each pay schedule, is a bit different. Today I’m going to give you eight different hands with three games each. In each case, two of the games will have the same play and one of them will have a different play. Also in every case, the reason for the differences in how you play the hands is determined by the pay schedules.
Continue reading How Do You Play These Hands?

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Good Bye, Jackie Gaughan

John D. “Jackie” Gaughan (1920 – 2014), one of the founding fathers of Downtown Las Vegas, passed away last week. Gaughan had a number of casino licenses through the years, but is probably best known for the Union Plaza (later Jackie Gaughan’s Union Plaza), El Cortez, and Western. Howard Stutz of the Las Vegas Review-Journal wrote a nice tribute which may be read here.

My recollections of Jackie are more personal. For six months or so back in 2007-2008, I sat in on marketing meetings at the El Cortez. I didn’t last long at this because my suggestions to the El Cortez management were not very well received. Continue reading Good Bye, Jackie Gaughan