I usually participate in drawings at the Palms one weekend a month. I play all week long to earn tickets and on either one or two nights over the weekend they call some names and give away some money. All their drawings are a little different from the others, but they are all usually “about the same.” Continue reading Throwing a Football
Another Look at EV
A friend, “Tom,” and I were talking about the senior drawing at Silverton as it exists in August 2012. There is optimism that it will change soon. Memorizing how it currently works isn’t important. Seeing how to use the rules of the promotion to calculate how much it is worth is important. Continue reading Another Look at EV
Which Game is Best?
Let’s say you’re visiting a particular casino for the first time. Your game of choice is single line $1 9/6 Jacks or Better, and fortunately, you find it in two different machines. As near as you can tell, it takes $1 to earn a slot club point on each machine and neither machine has a sticker on it indicating that it is restricted in any manner. Continue reading Which Game is Best?
A Bob Dancer Rule
In March of 2011, Gold Coast had a promotion involving a wheel spin. Basically, it was like a Big 6 Wheel, only there were 20 spaces instead of 60. Each of the spaces had a prize ranging from $250 to $5000. The players selected (that’s the hard part!) got to spin the wheel. So long as it went around at least once, wherever the wheel landed was the prize won. Continue reading A Bob Dancer Rule
A Look at KTx
If you’re unfamiliar with my notation, KTx refers to a suited king and ten with a third card in the same suit that is too low to be part of a KQJT9 straight flush or an AKQJT royal flush. Specifically, that limits us to KT2, KT3, KT4, KT5, KT6, KT7, and KT8. In games without wild cards where you get your money back for a pair of jacks or better, each of these combinations has the same value. Continue reading A Look at KTx
Getting on a Game Show
On last week’s Gambling with an Edge show, I shared a story about when a friend tried out for the Jeopardy! game show. Although it doesn’t relate to video poker, there is clever strategy involved. After I told the story on the air, several people wrote flattering emails to me requesting that I publish the story. Here goes, in a slightly modified form. And long-time readers of mine might remember I wrote about this more than a decade ago. Continue reading Getting on a Game Show
A Tax on Ignorance
I was reading a 2011 interview of Edward Thorp, a mathematical genius who created the first widespread blackjack card-counting system (Beat the Dealer) some fifty years ago, and then published a methodology for investing in various markets (Beat the Market) a short time later. He is widely credited with being the first “quant,” which is someone who uses advanced quantitative models for deciding where to invest. Continue reading A Tax on Ignorance
About the Elder Wisdom Circle
This article is not about video poker. It is about a worthwhile organization for which I volunteer. Continue reading About the Elder Wisdom Circle
How the Mighty Have Fallen
I was playing 25¢ Ten Play 9/6 Jacks or Better at the Palms. For some promotions, it’s the best game at that casino to play. They have a strange rule at the Palms that the number of drawing tickets you earn is based on the lowest denomination games on the machine you are playing — rather than the game itself. For example, if you play a 25¢ game on a stand-alone machine you earn half as many tickets per coin-in as you do on the same game which also has penny or nickel games on the same machine. If I play the $2 9/6 Jacks or Better game I only receive one-fifth as many tickets as 25¢ Ten Play. Continue reading How the Mighty Have Fallen
No Excuse
Shirley and I attended the Harrah’s Seven Star Event in Atlantic City about a month ago. They provided travel money, food money, gift cards, and various events to make the weekend interesting, and on Thursday they gave us a game in which we had a small edge. Continue reading No Excuse