Poker Winner Blog

The rowdiest game in the casino is dice, also called craps, a fast and exciting game with a language of its own. Players shout, cheer, scream, curse and gesticulate. The shooters elaborately shake the dice, blow on them for luck and yell for them to fall on the desired score, while the stickman commentates incessantly. For novices, dice appears complicated due to the arrangement of the layout and the terminology used, but it is actually quite simple once the basic aim of the game is understood. Craps is extremely popular everywhere, not only because it is fun to play, but also because it is the best value game in the casino. The house advantage on some bets is less than one per cent. Read the rest of this entry »

A wide choice of bets can be played on craps, some of which are better value for the player than others. Before betting it is best to compare the difference in house advantage (the profit made by the casino) for each bet. The best-value bets are the pass/don’t pass and come/don’t come bets. These allow the player to make an additional bet called odds. By playing the odds bets, the house advantage is reduced to less than one per cent. Read the rest of this entry »

LUXOR

A vast 30-storey pyramid encloses the world’s largest atrium, measuring 820,000m³ (29 million cu ft). From its summit, the world’s brightest beam of light reaches 16km (10 miles) into space. Attractions include the Ra nightclub; Lasting Impressions - a show starring Bill Acosta; a replica of Tutankhamen’s tomb, discovered by Howard Carter in 1922; Luxor Live, a simulated talk show with hologram characters; and an Imax cinema. Read the rest of this entry »

Baccara

Baccara, the forerunner of baccarat and punto banco, is played mostly in European casinos. It is particularly popular in both France and Germany. High minimum stakes are the norm in baccara and it is not unusual to find games with a minimum stake of US$100. Some games even start as high as US$1000 minimum. Read the rest of this entry »

Poker conjures up images of saloons in the old West where hustlers and gun fighters did battle. It seems that no Hollywood Western is complete without a gunfight over a poker game, but this way of life was often the reality for professional gamblers in the Wild West. In 1876 one of the west’s most famous lawmen, James Butler ‘Wild Bill’ Hickok, lost his life in a poker game in Deadwood, South Dakota. To this day his last hand — a pair of aces over eights — is known as the ‘dead man’s hand‘. Read the rest of this entry »

Slot machines are always popular because they pay out potentially huge jackpots for small stakes. A Las Vegas woman won the world’s biggest slot machine jackpot in January 2000 at the Desert Inn on The Strip. After staking just US$27, she won nearly $35 million on the Nevada Megabucks slot machine. The jackpot is paid out to winners over a 25-year period and shortly after winning she received her first instalment Read the rest of this entry »

BALLY World Famous Casino

Hollywood movie stars Cary Grant and Raquel Welch performed the opening ceremony when Ballys was built in 1973, at a cost of $100 million.

In 1981 a second tower was added and the hotel was expanded to over 2800 rooms. Now owned and operated by Park Place Entertainment, the Art Deco interior recently had a $72 million restoration. The complex includes restaurants and a shopping arcade. Read the rest of this entry »

Each player receives two cards face down. Five cards are placed face up in the centre of the table. These cards are called community cards and are used by all the players. Each player uses a combination of the two cards in his or her hand and the five community cards to make the best possible five-card hand. Read the rest of this entry »

These are played on smaller tables and are dealt at a faster speed than baccara. Minimum stakes are around US$5, which is considerably less than the high stakes normally played for at traditional baccara tables.

Baccarat and punto banco differ from baccara in that the casino acts as the banker, paying out winnings and collecting losing bets. In American casinos, baccarat players take turns to act as the dealer, but in punto banco that role is fulfilled by the casino. Read the rest of this entry »

BINION‘S HORSESHOE

Situated in the Horseshoe Hotel on Fremont Street in downtown Vegas, Binion’s gives a taste of how gambling used to be in the Old West. Opened in 1951 by Benny Binion, a former Texas bootlegger and gambler, the casino evokes the atmosphere of a traditional gambling hall — no shows, no music, just gambling. Minimum stakes are $2 on blackjack and $1 on craps. The poker tables are not for beginners though, as many professional players make their living here. Read the rest of this entry »

Many casinos form part of hotel and leisure complexes located in tourist destinations, such as Sun City in South Africa and Atlantis in the Bahamas. However there is nowhere else that embraces the gambling culture quite like Las Vegas. Over the years, it has grown from a desert oasis into an international resort and holiday destination, offering round-the-clock gaming and top-quality entertainment in outstanding, Read the rest of this entry »

Another Englishman who had success on the roulette tables at Monte Carlo was Joseph Hobson Jaggers, a worker at a textile mill in Bradford. With his experience of the textile industry, he knew that wooden spindles were subject to wear and tear. On a visit to Monte Carlo in 1873, Jaggers was interested in the mechanics of roulette wheels. He realised that if the spindles of the roulette wheels were worn, the wheels would not be perfectly balanced. This would mean that some numbers would come up more often than others. He theorized that if he could find such a wheel, he could develop a system for winning. Read the rest of this entry »

Roulette is one of the most popular casino games in the world due mainly to the large odds that it pays. A winning number on roulette pays 35 to 1, which means that a small stake can potentially turn into a fortune if a player has a winning streak. By reinvesting winnings, a player with a $1 initial stake could accumulate $46,000 in just three spins of the wheel. Read the rest of this entry »

Subliminal Practices

Casinos use a variety of subliminal practices to ensure they get the maximum amount of money from visitors before they get anywhere near a gaming table.

Casino design is no accident. Almost every feature is built in with profit in mind. Exteriors are lavish and use every marketing trick to get players to walk through the door. This is taken to the extreme in Las Vegas, where shows put on outside the casinos get people to stop and watch, and, hopefully, go inside. Read the rest of this entry »

Gaming is all about winning and losing, so it makes sense to manage your money effectively. It is very easy to get carried away by the excitement, and lose your stake. By understanding the rules of the game, the odds paid, the chances of winning, and when to quit, players can ensure their casino experience is pleasant.

Gambling should be treated like any other form of entertainment. Expect to spend your money and have a good time doing so. Unfortunately most gamblers not only want to win, they actually expect to win and can take it extremely badly when they lose. Once the initial stake has been lost, they attempt to get it back by making increased bets. Most gamblers do not keep records of how much they win or lose. Big wins are fondly remembered, while losses tend to be forgotten. Even professional gamblers can delude themselves into thinking they either always win or break even. Read the rest of this entry »

Games of Chance and Skill

Casinos offer a choice between games of skill, where the player can affect the outcome; and chance, where players have no input and rely on luck.

Games of chance include roulette, slots and punto banco. Once players have decided what numbers to play there is no further action to take.

Poker and blackjack are games of skill. As players make all the decisions about taking cards, they are able to use their intelligence to win. With games of skill, a combination of knowledge and experience can make the difference between winning and losing. Read the rest of this entry »

In the USA you will find the record useful if you have a big win, as gambling wins are subject to tax. Players can offset gambling losses against winnings, but the IRS requires players to keep an accurate record of dates, bets made, address of gaming establishment, names of people with you and the amount won or lost. Comps also count as winnings. In addition, proof of expenditure, like casino receipts and bank records, will need to be shown if you are audited. Read the rest of this entry »

Although the strategies herein were developed for the Sands World Championship of Casino Games Tournament in Atlantic City, they are adaptable to any tournament in any casino.

If you are entering a tournament with only a single game, e.g., Sahara Blackjack Tournament, you would risk the entire buy-in amount instead of 25% of it as described herein. Read the rest of this entry »

Every strategy here is usable in your normal gambling sessions!

You divide your session into a beginning, a middle, and an end game. Your division will be based on money won instead of completed hands, rolls, or spins. I will develop this concept later in this section.

You then decide how much you wish to risk for your gambling trip, e.g., $1,000. Divide that by the number of days in your trip. For example, if you are going down for the weekend, you should allocate $333 for your Friday- evening sessions, $333 for your Saturday sessions, and $333 for your Sunday sessions. Read the rest of this entry »

Some players really do have bankrolls that can outlast their life expectancy. In Southern California, where there’s always lots of loose money at play in card casinos, these players have the derisive nickname “trust-fund pros.” Many play every day and will swear to you that they are long-term winners. Trust-fund pros seldom deceive their opponents no matter how strongly they claim to be winning players. They delude only themselves, and their opponents know it. Read the rest of this entry »