Life is game, game is life

Couple of Common Mistakes in Blackjack

admin — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 04:27:20 +0000

Mistake: The most common mistake beginners make is to stay too often on their stiff hands containing only 12,13,14,15, and 16. Players are naturally afraid to hit these hands because every one of them could make a total of 22 or more with a single hit and cause their lose. But when the dealer has a card 7, 8, 9,10, or ace showing, your best odds of winning come from hitting and giving yourself a chance of making a better total.

Tip: Here’s how many players think: If I hit this 14, I risk busting my hand right here and now. But maybe the dealer has a 6 in the hole. If I don’t take a hit, my hand still has a chance. Maybe the dealer’s hand will bust.

Every player is afraid that he will be responsible for his own loss. But that 14 you are holding is already in dire jeopardy when the dealer shows a 10 up. You must fight for the hand’s survival by taking the hit, giving it a chance of becoming a stronger hand against that 10.

On the other hand, if the dealer’s upcard is 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6, and you are holding a stiff hand, you should stand. Since the dealer must hit his stiff hands, and chance busting even when you are stiff, hitting your weak hands is not advantageous against these weak upcards.

Mistake: Some beginners think the best way to play is to play the same way the dealer plays: Hit all sixteens and stand on all seventeens. This is not true. The object of the game is not to make a hand as close to 21 as possible, but to beat the dealer. Often the best way to do this is to stand with a low total, sometimes as low as 12.

Some beginners think the best way to play is to play the same way the dealer plays: Hit all sixteens and stand on all seventeens. This is not true. The object of the game is not to make a hand as close to 21 as possible, but to beat the dealer.

Tip: This is the basic logic of casino blackjack. There are exceptions to these guidelines, as the actual basic strategy decision for any given hand is determined by working out all of the mathematical probabilities. But if you just consider this logic when studying the basic strategy charts, the pattern will become clear to you and it should not be too difficult to memorize.

Blackjack and wonging: a story of success

admin — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 12:04:21 +0000

In 1975, Stanford Wong came out with Professional Blackjack. Wong had a Ph.D. in economics from Stanford University, hence his pseudonym. The casinos looked for card counters by watching for their betting spreads. It had never occurred to the casinos that a counter might be watching a table from the aisles, waiting for an advantageous count before jumping in to bet. Wong’s table-hopping approach to shoe games was in many ways similar to Al Francesco’s Big Player team approach, but allowed a solo card counter to attack shoe games invisibly, and without a team of spotters. This playing style has since become widely known as wonging.

The counting system Wong published was the Hi-Lo Count, and like Revere’s count, used the easy divide-by-remaining-deck(s) approach to running count adjustments. So, at last, some twelve years after Harvey Dubner had proposed the Hi-Lo count values, his system was available in a format both fully optimized with strategy indices, and presented with a simple methodology of play.

What is The Culture of Slots?

admin — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 08:29:18 +0000

When people join clubs, it is usually for the shared interests, enthusiasm and passion that everyone in the group shares. For the most part, folks join already knowing what their counterparts are like. Book clubs, movie groups, knitting circles… they all have terms and ideologies about their group’s topics that can be, well, predictable.

Playing online slots can be a different experience, though. When you initially sign up with a casino online you find that you may be new to the terms and phrases. Things like “progressive slots” may go right over your head. When this happens, it is usually okay and common to ask questions and even get together with other online slots players.

After you begin to play online slots a few times and you learn more about the lingo that slots players use, you will find that you are not alone. There is a community of slots players who choose slots over any online casino or traditional casino game out there. They do this for many reasons; one is of course the ease of online slots. With this, they take to the community of online slots always, forsaking all other games in the casino. There are levels of the slots community. Tiers of slots players begin with the novice player. Soon, you can build your way up to the professional level, that’s how easy it is to learn slots and develop a passion for winning money at the game.

In the beginning of the levels of slots online, you will see that there is always a willingness to help from more advance players. When you are playing in a regular online casino, you will see other players look over when they see you struggling. They will always help you out if you have a question. The culture of slots in traditional settings is a pretty uniform in comparison to online slots. While the majority of slots players in land based casinos are more inclined to drink or smoke given the social circumstances, online casino players will come in various shapes and sizes. Keep in mind that online casino players are playing from the convenience of their own homes and PCs. This means that anyone from Joe Law Student to The Mailman or your local Elementary teacher may be playing a fun stress relieving game of slots online.

The culture of slots online is a very unique one because it is made up of so many kinds of people.

Blackjack games

admin — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 22:22:28 +0000

The fact is that during that two-week experiment, Resorts’ overall win from their blackjack tables was not reduced one iota. In fact, the casino win had substantially increased during that time, as their tables were so crowded with players who were trying to count cards but could not. The counters, however, thoroughly embarrassed the casino, and in the midst of the counters’ bragging about their huge wins, the dealers felt they had been stiffed.
By the end of 1979, two new casinos had opened in Atlantic City, with half a dozen more in planning or under construction. The Boardwalk Regency, operated by Caesars, opened in June, and the Park Place, operated by Bally’s, opened in December. All three were averaging about $500,000 per day in winnings from their table games, more than any of the Las Vegas Strip casinos at that time. Card counters were being barred from the tables daily, but Ken Uston was in the process of suing the Casino Control Commission for its decision to allow the casinos to prohibit counters from playing. Meanwhile, the casinos-worried that Uston’s lawsuit might succeed-were petitioning the Commission for numerous proposed changes to their blackjack games. They wanted the right to deal blackjack from eight-deck shoes, to eliminate the early surrender option, and to deal out only 50 percent of the cards in a shoe at their discretion. Where this battle would end was anyone’s guess.

The Party’s Over

admin — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 22:21:20 +0000

On January 31, with the blessings of the Casino Control Commission, Resorts International began ejecting professional blackjack players from their tables. The casino had no problems identifying many of them, as during the Experiment most of the team players openly discussed what they were doing, some going so far as to taunt the casino dealers and bosses who were powerless to remove them from their tables. Many experts now believe that if the card counters had gone quietly into Resorts, had refrained from boasting about their wins while still at the tables, and not dragged the media into the event to brag about their skill and their winnings as Uston had done, the Casino Control Commission may never have buckled under to the casino’s pressure to allow them to bar card counters.

Guide

admin — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 17:25:20 +0000

I’ll be your tour guide as we take in the sights and sounds of a modern-day casino at ground level and I’ll tell you about blackjack rules. As we walk, I’ll try to add as much commentary as possible on how what we see relates positively or negatively to the advantage player interface.
Imagine it’s a warm, balmy night in late August. Seagulls are flying high in the air above - white dots against the dark backdrop of a clear sky interrupted only by a large superstructure rising up out of the marshland before us. A slight breeze blows in off the ocean. Did I say “ocean”? Where else can we be but in Atlantic City, New Jersey, right?
As we walk through the doors of AC’s newest casino, the first thing that captures our attention is the decor. Indirect lighting, columns, and a spacious landscape combine to offer a cuttingedge, post-modern blanket of visual stimuli.
Then we see them - rigid shapes aligned in rows, military style. Solid forms with blinking lights and colored glass. Steadfast soldiers in waiting, with anxious people standing before them. The mechanical sound of moving levers gives way to a whimsical melody as reels with bars and fruit and various logos spin and then stop in programmed succession. We can play blackjack there.

The lessons

admin — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 17:16:03 +0000

The guy in seat number four slams the table with his fist. We move on there. Nobody likes being watched while getting massacred.
The lesson here is that emotions run high at the blackjack odds table . So to best blend in you must smile and “celebrate” a decent win, and likewise show obvious disappointment upon losing. As ridiculous as this might sound, when I first started playing in casinos for blackjack, I didn’t get “mad enough” at times, probably because I knew that in the end I’d end up a winner. That’s a common mistake made by rookie card counters. Get mad when you lose and smile when you win. Look around for examples of how to act - good ones are everywhere. Of course, don’t overreact. Nothing bombs more than someone pretending to be either elated or disappointed.
Actually there is one thing more detrimental than a phony act. And that’s hanging around for longer than you should, otherwise known as “wearing out your welcome.” Had we actually been playing all this while, it might have been time to move on - for any number of reasons ranging from how many units we were up or down to the sudden interest of our friendly pit boss in the way our bets seem to rise and fall. Nothing is better than preserving your longevity. And that’s exactly what we decide to do when time start playing blackjack.

Bankroll in Slots

admin — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 18:57:47 +0000

The amount of your bankroll should be determined by the kind of machines you intend to play. If you want to play $5 reel slots, then your bankroll should reflect that. If you want to play higher limits than that, then your bankroll should be proportionally higher. If you plan to play $1 reel slots, or the video slots games which may be nickels but require you to play $2.25 per spin (45 coins) or more, then your bankroll should adjust to that. In addition, whatever your intended action, your bankroll should be adequate to withstand fluctuations, not only in your fortunes as you play, but also in your decisions concerning the kinds of games you will play. For example, you may have decided to play $1 reel slots on this trip and allocated your bankroll for that action. But when offering a Progressive Jackpot you get to the casino, you discover that the kinds of machines you wanted to play are occupied, unavailable, or no longer there. Now what? Your bankroll should have a “slush” factor, allowing it to withstand the necessity for such on-the-spot decisions. What if you saw another kind of machine and decided to play that instead? Your bankroll should be adaptable to such deviations from your initial starting strategy.

So how do you arrive at the bankroll figure? Hard to say. It’s different for each player Special blackjack. You know yourself and your circumstances. I don’t know you or your circumstances. Therefore, all I can do is offer you guidelines, with the hope that you will have learned enough in this book so that you can intelligently adapt this guideline to your specific situation.

my aim

admin — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 19:04:10 +0000

My aim is to let you in on the “secret” which will allow you to overcome these problems, these feelings, and these moments of anger. That’s why knowing these principles, as I have outlined them, is so important. Not because you will become perfect, or a professional gambler. But because you will become more secure in your gaming, more steady in your approach, more confident in your end result, and more conscious of your expectations. And these are the real secrets to your success playing slots. So, in more detail, I will now address each of those principles individually.

Begin!

admin — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 18:02:41 +0000

Many people feel uncomfortable at the beginning. Either because they are among those very “green” novices, or have only recently become more familiar with casinos, the casino environment, and the slot machines found there. As with most things we human beings do, there is what is called a “learning curve.” This simply means the time it takes most of us to learn at least the very basics of whatever it is we are planning to do, or are doing. Once that is achieved, then there is another concept commonly known as the “comfort factor.” This is the point we reach, eventually, after having done whatever we have contemplated through the learning curve process. We reach this point of the comfort factor when we have had direct experiences with that particular situation and found that we liked it, that it was good, that it was profitable, or that it didn’t really hurt that much.