National Video Poker Day

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National Video Poker Day

Back in March, I wrote about National Blackjack Day.  March 2 was selected for this day because it is written as 3/2 and an major push for this day was to get casinos to go back to paying 3 to 2 on blackjacks.  When I did a little bit of research on that day, I found that there is no organization that officially assigns ‘National’ anything day.  Essentially, anyone can pick any day to be anything they want.  There may be significance regarding which day is picked as in National Blackjack Day or with May 4th being Star Wars day.  In some cases, it might be more random like ‘Talk Like a Pirate Day’.

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Tempted by Temptation

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Tempted by Temptation

           Last week, I discussed cursorily two scenarios that occurred recently at a blackjack table I was playing at.  This week, I'm going to explain a bit more about each of these circumstances and why they are both rather egregious.  The two situations were splitting 10's and hitting a 'soft' 21.  We'll deal with splitting 10's first.

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Follow The Leader

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Follow The Leader

           I'm not sure where the idea came from.  But, it would appear that lacking any real knowledge of casino table game strategy, someone came up with the idea of just following what the Dealer does.  In some games, it is not a horrible idea, but it is still not ideal.  In the game of Pai Gow Poker, playing the House Way will get you very close to the best possible payback.  Given what it would take to memorize the few exceptions to the House Way rules would likely cost you more in errors than it would save you in added payback, following the Dealer here is not a bad idea.

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G2E 2016 PRE PREVIEW

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G2E 2016 PRE PREVIEW

           The Global Gaming Expo is just a few days away.  This week, I'll begin to discuss some of the games that will be on display at the Scientific Games display.  If you take a closer look at the games, you'll see that they are a blend of games from the inside, games from the outside and even some blended sources.  I don't know of any table game company that hasn't promoted games from outside inventors.  The key is a successful game.  The source of the creativity is just not a primary concern.

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Leave the Math to the Professionals

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Leave the Math to the Professionals

           I've always been good at math.  Well, at least for as long as I can remember.   When I was 8 or 10 years old, this meant that I could quickly add numbers together.  When I got to my pre-teens, it meant that I could quickly multiply numbers together.  I still have these skills.  I pretty much take them for granted and admittedly sometimes am amazed that most everyone else can't do the same.  I don't expect everyone to be able to multiply two 2-digit numbers together, but the numbers of times I'll hear someone ask something like what's 500 divided by 25 and not be able to do the math in a split-second is mind boggling to me.

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Not Your Father's Oldsmobile

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Not Your Father's Oldsmobile

            Earlier today, a colleague sent me a link to an article on The Motley Fool written by Jeff Hwang a few months ago, entitled The Millennial Problem: Why We (Don’t) Gamble.  One of the questions that was being asked a great deal at last week's Global Gaming Expo (G2E) was regarding the millenials and how to get them into the casinos to play.  As a father of one of these millenials, I get a lot of first-hand input on this topic.  I think this article covered alot of the same points that my son makes regarding what it would take to get his generation into the casino AND PLAYING.

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More About Expected Value

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         Maybe somebody beat my father to it, but I think the was the first person to use the expression 'expected value' when referring to gambling options.  The concept pre-dated him as my father was hardly the first person to analyze blackjack.  In blackjack, when a strategy was developed that told the Player to double on an 11 looking into a 10, this decision was based on which of the two options (hit or double) had the higher expected value.  Well, sort of.  Since the wager amounts are not the same when you hit vs. double, this had to be taken into account as well.  In reality, in blackjack, it is not possible for the expected value (without taking into account the wager size) to be higher on a double vs. a hit.  But that's for another time.

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Expert Advice

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Expert Advice

            The internet is a wonderful thing.  You can look up almost anything in an instant.  You can get sports scores, movie times, restaurant maps and loads of news.  Of course, one of the problems is that the quality of news on the internet is not quite what it used to be in the printed newspapers.  I'm an avid baseball fan (Mets specifically).  The number of times I've read a recap of a game and wondered if the writer had even watched the game is staggering.  The article will have wrong information about what happened in the game and wrong background information.  This past season, I flipped through a headline that blared "(Ryan) Howard hits eighth home run against the Mets."  Interesting as Howard plays for the Phillies and the Mets played the Cardinals that night!  It turns out the home run was against the Rockies.

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The Non-Intimidation Factor

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The Non-Intimidation Factor

           It is virtually impossible to predict which game will be a success in the casino as it is being invented.  As I've written in my column numerous times, predicting which game will fail is much easier.  Frequently inventors will look at past games and try to replicate what appears to be a formula for success for that game.  But I have longed believed that if you look at successful casino games you will see a progression and not just a replication of success.  To put it another way, I think that if Three Card Poker were invented today and put up against the other games that are out there, it would not have done nearly as well as it did.  In similar fashion, if Ultimate Texas Hold'em had been created in the mid 1990's, I don't think any of us would have ever heard of it.

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The Essence of Expert Strategy

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          There are many aspects to our lives to which people apply the notion of the importance of having a strategy.  Very few of us actually use them for all aspects of our lives.  We tend to focus on some important part and then formulate a strategy.  Maybe you formulate a strategy for getting out of debt, or for paying for your kids' education.  Perhaps you're the type of small businessman who makes sure he has a strategy to make his business a success.  We all know there are tons of strategies for how to lose weight. 

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Walking a Tightrope Blindfolded

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Walking a Tightrope Blindfolded

           A few months ago, Nik Walenda walked across a tightrope between two Chicago skyscrapers blindfolded.   I'm not all that impressed.  I think he should try analyzing casino games for a living.  Most days it seems a lot like walking a tightrope blindfolded too.  Only, if I mess up, I don't just hurt myself.  I might cause a casino to lose a lot of money if I allow a game to hit the floor with a Player advantage.  After more than 10 years in the industry, I've never done it, but I have heard cases where it did happen due to a math mistake.

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New Sheriff in Town

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New Sheriff in Town

             There may be a new sheriff in town.  No, I'm not talking about the upcoming primary elections here in Las Vegas.  I'm talking about a game called Free Bet Blackjack.  Free Bet Blackjack is owned by Bally Technologies and invented by Geoff Hall, who also gave us Blackjack Switch.  Geoff's key patent covers the concept of the Dealer pushing on a 22.  This means that any Player hands that have not busted (and were not a Natural Blackjack) will PUSH if the Dealer busts with a final count of 22. 

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When To Walk Away

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When To Walk Away

Another week, another inspiration thanks to a Facebook post.  This one comes from a friend who posted up a blog entry a friend of his had written.  The topic of the blog is unimportant.  It dealt with world events and the importance of knowing when to walk away.  A phrase such as this one is undoubtedly going to draw comparisons to gambling.   More important than knowing when to hit a 17 or when to bet on red is knowing when to walk away is roughly what was written.  I read it about a dozen times and finally could only utter "HUH?"

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Switch It Up

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Twenty years ago, if you walked into a casino, you had four choice of what to play that covered about 95% of the casino floor - Blackjack, Craps, Roulette and Slot Machines.  Flash forward to 2013 and the casino floor is quite a different place.  If I had to take an educated guess, I'd say that Blackjack and Slots have given up the most square footage.  Slot machines yield space to video poker and Blackjack yielded space to the myriad of new table games that have been invented and successfully invaded the casino.  For most of the time, only one blackjack variant managed to make any inroads.  This was Spanish 21.  While its popularity has diminished a bit, it is still quite a powerhouse in the industry.

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