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Wednesday, 01 March 2006

Slot Machine Strategy

Slot machines have been a hit with both casinos and casino game players for decades. They give players a chance to win way more than they wager, which isn’t the case with a table game like Blackjack. They are also easy to play. Simply wager a coin on a payline, and spin the reels. If they stop on a winning combination, you win. If they don’t, you lose.

Part of the appeal of the slots is that there is no way to make the wrong “play”. Instead, they are an entertaining way to pass some time in the casino.

While slot machine payouts are set in favor of the house, there are several ways players can get more out of their time at the machines. Here are a few techniques that you can use next time you sit down to play the slots.

Play the loosest slot machine you can find. That almost goes without saying. Some of the slots in a casino have their payout percentages marked. Many online casinos have their slot machine payout records published on their sites, although to be fair these are the percentages for all of the slots combined, not a particular machine.

If you can find a machine that will payout 97%, which means that for every $100 wagered on spins, $97 will be returned to the player in the form of winners, you’ve found a good machine. The higher the payout percentage, the more winners (in terms of credits). And more winners can translate into more time at the machines enjoying yourself.

Play lower denominations. It’s easier to go through your $100 playing a dollar a spin than a quarter a spin. By playing lower denominations, you can extend your time at the machines.

Progressive Slots: if your goal is to spend the afternoon at the slot machines without breaking your bankroll, avoid playing progressive slot games. They need to take in more coins without paying out so they can award the super-large jackpots to players. This means less winning combinations will be coming your way on a regular basis.

On the other hand, if you want to “Go big or go home”, the progressive machines are a good place to seat yourself. When you win on a progressive machine, you are likely to win larger amounts. Sometimes, very large amounts. These jackpot machines are the ones that award life-changing winnings to those lucky few that hit it big.

Video Slots – pay attention to the credits more than the number of winning combinations that come your way. Hitting winners is always fun, but on a video slot, with so many paylines, it isn’t difficult to hit a winning combination that doesn’t even pay for the cost of the spin. In fact, you can hit winner after winner on these games, and end up losing money.

Take Advantage of the Player Rewards – whether you are playing at an online casino, or one of the land-based casinos, you should be playing with a player’s card. Make sure the casino knows that you’re spending time playing their games, and they will reward you. This bit of hospitality helps add some extra playing time, or some extra chances to hit it big to your experience.

Here’s How you Win at the Slots – quit while you’re ahead. If you’re interested in profiting from your time at the slot machines, you can’t count on staying ahead of the casino over the long run, so when you do manage to hit a winner and you jump ahead of the casino in the short run, take advantage of it. Walk away and enjoy your winnings!

Basic Blackjack Strategy

Tuesday, 28 February 2006

Basic Blackjack Strategy

There is perhaps no other gambling game that is easier to win and more fun to play than the game of blackjack.

If you are interested in testing your chances at gambling but you don't want to risk losing too much money, your best bet (pun intended) is to play blackjack because the rules are easy to understand and it's not that hard to master the strategies that you use for the game.

Learning How to Play the Game of Blackjack

If you have no idea how to play the game of blackjack then you'll certainly be surprised that you'll need less than ten minutes to understand everything there is to know about blackjack. In fact, you don't really have to listen to the gambling experts' advice on blackjack, but if you want to increase your chances of winning, you should try reading articles such as these to avoid committing mistakes common to gambling newbies.

In blackjack, the dealer first requires players to place a bet even without seeing the cards that they're going to be dealt with. This is de rigeur for all blackjack games, online or played in a real casino. After that, the dealer deals two cards to every player on the table. The dealer can deal himself one or two cards. One card would be ideal because it offers the other players better chances of winning the round.

And now it's time to look at the cards you've been dealt with. The object of the game is for your cards to reach the value of 21 or one nearest to it but definitely not a value that's greater or more than 21. A set of cards with an equivalent of value for example of 23 would immediately leave you out of the running because your bet is immediately lost.

Now, when it comes to the values of the cards, simply remember that face cards – King, Queen and Jack – are equivalent to 10 while the Ace could either be counted as one or eleven. Hence, if your cards contain a 10, a King and a Three, that's equal to 23 and means you've lost your bet.

The game of blackjack allows you to "hit" or "draw" as many as five cards. The value of your cards shall only be pitted against the cards of the dealer and no one else. So all you have to worry about is what the dealer's hand is.

And that's that. Blackjack's certainly easy, isn't it? Good luck gambling!

Keno History and Strategy

Wednesday, 01 March 2006

Keno History & Strategy

Keno is a game of pure chance and is very similar to Lotto games. The game was brought to the USA by Chinese immigrants in the 19th century. As with lotto games, it is a dead simple to play, and it is attractive as large prizes are on offer for very small wagers. Keno is played at bars, clubs and community centers all over the world today (I know when I go an play poker at my local club I always run the risk of getting run over by ticket toting Keno players by the hundreds). Unfortunately it shares another characteristics with lotto games - horrendous odds.

Logically, Keno found its way into online casinos as it was a simple game to develop, and casino operators wanted to capture the huge land based Keno fan base online. What was even more in the favor of online casinos was that many people were used to playing Keno on video terminals, so the move online was less of a hurdle that say with blackjack.

So here is how you play Keno (unless I fall asleep writing this!). You start off by selecting between 4 and 10 numbers from a total of 80 numbers. Each selection is called a "spot". In many online keno games, you can buy multiple tickets for the same draw, and in some games you can even pre purchase for future games.

Once you have submitted your selection, twenty numbered balls will "drop" into a tube from a barrel. If enough of your sports are drawn, you win. That simple. You will obviously win more if more of your numbers come up, like with lotteries. Most online keno games allow you to buy tickets between 5c and $5, and pay out in multiples of your ticket value. Jackpot prizes of up to $50,000 are not uncommon.

Easy? Yeah. So there must be a catch? Yeah. The house advantage with Keno is 30% or more, the WORST of any online casino game. The odds of hitting a number is 0.25%. Keno is by a long margin the worst game you could possibly play. If you want a game of chance play slots. If you want to throw money away, play Keno. Very few people actually make any meaningful returns.

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