Las Vegas Advisor

Posted on June 2, 2020September 18, 2023 by Bob Dancer — 11 Comments

Applying What I Know

I’ve been publishing and giving gambling advice for decades. Sometimes thinking like a gambler helps in areas far removed from gambling itself. Today I want to share such a case. (If you only want discussion of video poker, perhaps you should skip this week.)

Among other interests, I participate in Toastmasters, a group dedicated to helping you speak better. My reasons for this include being a better teacher, being a better interviewer on my podcast, practicing stories that I present in various locations, and even performing better in my Improv troupe. Insofar as following the “Pathways” programs and being awarded various designations by Toastmasters, I have no interest at all in that.

Posted on May 26, 2020August 24, 2023 by Bob Dancer — 6 Comments

A Lesson from Daniel Negreanu

Masterclass.com is a marvelous collection of world authorities talking about what they know best. I am very impressed with their teachers. I had heard about a 2-for-1 sale they were offering in early April, so I signed up. Usually it’s $180 per year for full access to thousands of hours of instruction, but the recent sale allowed two people to sign up for the same $180. The combination of the sale and lots of extra time due to the stay-at-home rules was enough to seal the deal for me. I sent an email out to a number of people I thought might be interested in partnering with me on this, and several responded with interest. The ones I couldn’t use, I hooked up with each other.

My primary interests are writing, comedy, and games of skill — and they have several courses in each of those categories. I’ll eventually get to classes further down my list of interests, but the courses on cooking and interior decorating will probably never make the cut for me.

Posted on May 24, 2020 by Dave Kamsler — 4 Comments

Since You Asked — Big Bus Tours

[Editor’s Note: As Las Vegas reopens, many visitors will be looking for ways to get outside more than usual. The open-air upper deck of the Big Bus Tour is a great way to do that. The tour is currently not running, but is expected to reopen as the casinos and the rest of the city do. Here, Dapper Dave Kamsler provides a first-hand account of the joys of the Big Bus Tour.]

One of my favorite ways to explore a new city is on the Big Bus Tours.

Posted on May 19, 2020August 24, 2023 by Bob Dancer — Leave a comment

A Look at 9-5 Triple Bonus Poker Plus — Part 3 of 3

Today I want to look at the advanced strategy features of 9/5 TBPP. Unlike the previous two weeks, I’m not comparing this game to another. I’m just listing exceptions to the intermediate rules.

I assume you’re generally familiar with penalty cards and the difference between ‘when’ and ‘with’ inside parenthesized exceptions. These are common for all the Dancer/Daily Winner’s Guides and strategy cards. If you’re not familiar with our notation, this might be tough going. It would take several thousand words to explain all the features of the notation, and that’s kind of tough for 800-word columns.

Posted on May 12, 2020August 24, 2023 by Bob Dancer — 4 Comments

A Look at 9-5 Triple Bonus Poker Plus — Part 2 of 3

Today I want to look at some of the interesting features of 9/5 TBPP at the intermediate level. If you’re not comfortable at this level, you probably should review last week’s column before you dig into this one.

I’m not going to print a strategy here. If you have Video Poker for Winners software, you can get a strategy there. If not, www.wizardofodds.com/games/video-poker/strategy/calculator/ provides an accurate strategy free of charge. I’m not crazy about the format of the WOO strategy, but when you start with free and accurate, it’s probably unfair to be too nitpicky.

Posted on May 5, 2020August 24, 2023 by Bob Dancer — 14 Comments

A Look at 9-5 Triple Bonus Poker Plus — Part 1 of 3

This game returns a robust 99.80% with perfect play, is found in a number of Las Vegas casinos, and for some reason I have neither taught nor written much about the game. That is about to change.

Today I’ll discuss the basics of the game. Next week I’ll talk about some Intermediate-Level peculiarities to the game. And in two weeks I’ll discuss some of the advanced penalty card situations.

	1 coin	5 coins

Royal Flush	250	4,000
Straight Flush	100	500
Four Aces	240	1,200
Four 2s thru 4s	120	600
Four 5s thru Ks	50	250
Full House	9	45
Flush	5	25
Straight	4	20
Three of a Kind	3	15
Two Pair	1	5
Jacks or Better	1	5

Posted on May 3, 2020 by Dave Kamsler — 3 Comments

Since You Asked — A Big BIG Steak

I like steak. A LOT. And in Vegas, it’s go big or go home. I’m not looking for some ridiculous timed eating challenge; this is a marathon, not a sprint. I just want the biggest hunk of meat I can find. My previous record holder was the 36-ounce double-cut New York Strip steak at the Palm at Caesars Palace, which was excellent. But on this trip, I was looking for something truly legendary.

My search took me to Herbs and Rye, an old-school steakhouse and cocktail lounge located at 3713 West Sahara, about two miles west of the Strip. It’s a quick Uber/cab ride from the north Strip, longer from the center or south Strip or downtown, especially during dinnertime rush-hour traffic. Or you can take the Sahara Express bus.

Posted on April 29, 2020 by James Grosjean — 35 Comments

Coronavirus II: The Congressman, the Scorer, and the Shooter

At 6:30 a.m. on September 11, 2001 (“9/11”), I was just walking into my room at the Main Street Inn (now the Bridger Inn) in downtown Las Vegas after an all-nighter playing and scouting. I turned on the TV and saw the fire at the World Trade Center, which had been hit by a small plane, they said. I grew up in sight of the towers (at least on a clear day from the cemetery on top of the hill), so it was surreal seeing them collapse. Then all domestic flights were grounded, and I found myself locked down in Vegas.

Today’s youth, and some of us old-timers, have forgotten who the luckiest person on earth was that day. Lost in the shuffle of 9/11 was one U.S. Representative Gary Condit. At the time, he was dominating the headlines after the May-2001 disappearance of Chandra Levy, an intern with whom he had had an affair. The public (read “I”) believed he had a role in her disappearance, or at a minimum was not sharing all of his information with investigators. Then 9/11 happened and the Condit Scandal evaporated, just like that. When Levy’s body was found in 2002, it was barely a story.

Posted on April 28, 2020 by Bob Dancer — 5 Comments

Something Good from Backgammon

As many of you have noticed, I’ve been reading some backgammon books recently to interview Gambling with an Edge guests. This is not going to become a backgammon blog. My main gig remains video poker.

Also, to prepare for the interviews, I watched some YouTube videos of international championship tournaments to see what had changed since I last played the game seriously almost 30 years ago.

Posted on April 21, 2020August 24, 2023 by Bob Dancer — 14 Comments

Another Lesson from Square Dancing

I’ve been writing these articles for more than 20 years and sometimes need to draw inspiration from all sorts of different places. Today’s inspiration comes from square dancing — but the subject matter will soon shift to gambling successfully.

The square dance callers (the people who stand up in front of the dancers and tell them what to do) in Las Vegas are probably adequate. Nothing special. It’s rare when one of our callers is paid to call somewhere else. At big conventions, when dancers from several states come together and dance to the best callers, our callers are never among those asked.

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