I periodically check the wizardofodds.com strategy calculator to make sure I’ve gotten every one of the special cases mastered. The format used in that application isn’t as user friendly (to me) as I’d like, although I’m sure that for some players it is easy to understand.

For example, in discussing the hands where there is a suited AQ and an unsuited AQJT inside straight draw, he lists the following as all the cases where you go for the straight (although the site has it in one column not two, and the labels in front of each hand were added here by me so I could refer to them more clearly): Continue reading A Strange Play in 9/6 Double Double Bonus Quick Quads

More than four years ago I began co-hosting a weekly Thursday evening radio show called Gambling with an Edge. It took awhile to find our stride and settle on the best co-hosting partnership, but it’s now a popular show among both advantage gamblers and wannabe advantage gamblers. A surprising number of casino employees listen as well, partly to see what the players are up to. My co-host, Richard Munchkin, is knowledgeable about all sorts of gambling with the exception of video poker, which is where I come in. Continue reading Change Coming

I know of no casinos in Las Vegas that offer auto-hold, a feature on some video poker games where the machine offers a suggested play which the player can either accept or change. Years ago when I was teaching at Barona Casino, near San Diego, they had auto-hold on their video poker which was particularly bad. On a hand like 35678 of mixed suits, it would routinely suggest tossing the 8 (which left you with only four cards that could complete the straight) rather than tossing the three (which left you with eight such cards). The machine would regularly recommend holding a suited ace-ten in Jacks or Better — which is a horrendous play. And the auto-hold would treat all 3-card straight flushes as being equivalent, no matter how many gaps the combination had. Continue reading A Legal Case Involving Auto-Hold

I teach a lot of classes and one of the most frequently asked questions I get is, “If I’m having a bad session, when do I change machines?”

My answer was always some version of, “It doesn’t matter. Changing machines has absolutely nothing to do with the winning process.”

Several years back I started trying a different answer. Not that the old answer was wrong, it’s just that the newer answer stressed things a little differently. Continue reading A New Way to Answer an Old Question

I lived in greater Los Angeles from my birth in 1947 until 1993 when I moved to Vegas. I was a fan of the local sports teams — primarily Dodgers and Lakers, not so much the Angels, Kings, or Ducks. Perhaps 40 years ago I was listening to a Lakers basketball game on the radio. The main announcer would have been Chick Hearn but I’m not sure who his sidekick was at that time. Probably Keith Erickson but it might have been Lynn Shackleford or even Pat Riley before he traded in his broadcasting job for a chance to be a coach — a career move that worked very well for him.

After two minutes of play, the Lakers had not scored and were behind 12-0. Their coach called a time out. Hearn’s sidekick deadpanned, “If things keep up like this, the final score will be 288 to zero.” Chick almost fell on the floor laughing. Continue reading Comparing Video Poker to Basketball