If you follow the news about gambling than I am sure you have read about how PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker and other US based companies just got the b*tch slap from the US government! This is a huge blow to the US gambling market and may have lasting repercussions on the gambling industry! Thankfully many of the companies we have reviewed are not US based companies that are not affiliated with these companies. We stick to companies that have a long track record of success and accountability, but even than we have come to realize that even the best looking companies may be corrupt under the surface.
My poor friend experienced this first hand as he was an AVID PokerStars gambler.
I mean WTF? Money laundering?! What is this, a cheesy 80′s gangster movie called Casino? Ha, just kidding Casino was awesome but money laundering just seems gangster and not in the cool, Scar Face way but more like that stupid movie with Johnny Depp. Don’t get me wrong, Depp is a bad ass but even he makes bad movies.
But hey, don’t worry none of the sites to current knowledge were stealing or being unfair. They were just doing illegal activities on the side.
Now, I am not political but I blame the Republicans. After they passed that stupid bill in 2006 the “Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006.” I like paying lower taxes but I do not like being told how to spend my money. This sounds like something a Democaretoomuch would do, not a Regreedican! Reports say the US is losing out on like 3 billion dollars a year on this!
Oye, makes me want to drink.
Wow! Crackdown on the US companies!
Slot Rules??? How about a system.
Received an email from Larry in South Dakota (I didn’t even know people from S. Dakota even existed!) asking about hints and tips for slots. At first, a few of us laughed. Strategy for slots? Ummm, insert your coin but try to add some back spin, that increases your odds by 0.000001. Elevating yourself so that when you pull the lever, your finishing action is more like pushing as this increases your odds by 0.000001 (unless you push a button in which you must push as lightly as a butterfly landing on the petal of a flower). Ok, in all seriousness there is no strategy for slots. What I can give you is general advice and some honest truth.
Slots is a fun, low wager – high potential payout game much like the lottery. There are tons of types of slots games out there, with different layouts to entertain and engage the mind but regardless of its looks it still is a reel game. Insert some coins, push/pull button/lever and away you go. Pretty easy stuff. If there is any strategy in slots it’s looking for slots machines that post their odds. This gives you a realistic expectation of your odds and making sure you are using a machine that is above the 92% payout rate. If it isn’t, walk away and save your coin (or in our case, find a new online casino with a competitive payout). The best online casinos post their odds and are very transparent about it, if their is a lack of transparency leave.
Next would be to know your limits. If you plan to drop just $10 on slots machines tonight, stop when you lose more than $5 or win more than $20 (doubling your money). I understand the “hot streak” mentality, but in truth that rarely ever happens and is rarely sustained. I have seen many friends get “hot” and than end up busting because they rode their luck and made a risky bet that turned sour. While you can’t make a risky bet in slots, the idea is there. When you win big walk away to play another night. Which leads us to my next point
Look at any professional gambler and they have a system. Develop your own, learn your odds and shape up your discipline and next thing you know you will be grossing more at the end of the month. Personally I have my own excel spreadsheet which documents every single night. I have it broken down into games that I play, cash spent, money won and money lost, time spent, last months numbers, the average of all my numbers (about two years worth of records), and a few other categories at the end of my nights (when you probably wake up lol) I tally everything. My system is derived off a coworkers who has been at this much longer than myself.
For slots you are done there. For odds games like blackjack, video poker, etc you need to learn your odds. There are tons of books out there and most can be ignored. Look at the simple blackjack post below. Not a huge gimmicky book, but straight numbers and strategy to guide you. So basically go out and learn your odds! With online poker there is no “reading the table,” there is just what is on the table.
Well, this post is long enough. If you have any advice, or questions, comments or concerns email us!
No go worth and rake it in!
An odd approach to a night out
Yesterday a really good friend from high school visited me from out of town. Him and I are very close and have gone on some wacky adventures. He is crazier than I am, which is a good thing because he drives me to do stuff that I wouldn’t normally do. Now we have all had our adventures here in life so I won’t go into elaborate detail, but I am sure you yourself have had your own brand of fun. So we can relate that some stories best go unsaid. Like the one time we got caught in the middle of two strippers and the cartel… Just kidding. That does sound fun though.
Last night him and I decided to go to the bars. Normally we are only weekend warriors, but in honor of his visit we decided to punish our livers. Jaeger shots began the night and plenty of beers followed. Of course we had our eyes open and saw some potential chicks to engage. Our strategy is simple, he is the wrecking ball and I am the clean up crew. Ha, I wish. He is an ice breaker and fearless but can be reckless and go to far. I am mellow and stay cool, which balances us both out. What was said about this night, wasn’t our failed attempt to pick up chicks but that I started doing the math beer math in my head. My love of gambling at online casinos is both a curse and a blessing. A blessing because I can afford to pay for both our drinks at a nice bar; a curse because I’ve become an odds stacker and a penny pincher.
My thought process last night, 6 shots, 3 beers, cab fare home before meeting girls $42 ($3 shots, $4 beers, $12 cab fare). Since I usually start at $5 a hand in blackjack, that’s 8 potential hands. Getting pricey, but it’s a special occasion. But than we started talking to the chicks, order round of drinks. Girls = 2x$6, guys 2x$4 (we are now at $62 or 12 hands). Friend starts getting pretty drunk and orders round of shots (happy hour special tequila) at 4x$3 (now at $74 or 14 hands). Now normally on a good night at the online casino I double my opening amount of $200 and walk away with $400. On bad nights I cut myself off after losing $100. Thankfully if things are going bad I know how to cut myself off. Unless I have been drinking, like last night. At this point in the story I am pretty damn inebriated. I am also getting close to cutting myself off. If we didn’t get numbers soon I might surpass my $100 dollar limit of failure. This time I order another round two rounds of tequila, I need to make a big bet here and try and capture at least some digits to save the night (98$ or 19 hands) and to make money you gotta spend money.
At this point the girls are getting very giggly and me and my buddy give each other the nod. It’s was time to get serious and we seriously failed. They had called a cab already and had ‘thoroughly enjoyed our company’ and my booze. They had baited us perfectly and got us (me) to buy them drinks all night. I had to applaud them, they had lured me into the pot with their girlie wiles, and I bet big and lost. After the tip, I was out $113 with only a drunk friend to show for it. I had bet 22 hands and had lost big that night. Now had I won… well we all know the value of a good night.
After last night I hope that I am not the only one who recalls nights out like nights at the casino.
Black Jack Strat Guide
I was sitting at a black jack table (okay, it was a virtual one…) and I turned a Q5. The dealer had an up card of 6. General strategy states that you hold. While you are sitting low, the chances the dealer has an ace is minimal and so it is more likely the dealer will have an under card forcing a hit. Hopefully the dealer busts trying to beat your 15. It’s not an desirable spot, but chances dictate your move. Hitting at 15 is risky if the dealer has a low up card.
This time probability wasn’t on my side. The dealer turned a three which gave him a total of 17. Last night went like this for me and I started to take risks which ended up costing me more money. Once I saw I was in quicksand, I bailed from the table and returned to my chart. I thought it was fool proof.
Let me know what you think.
~Jay
Slots, hummmm. What Are The Odds?
It’s still night on the strip in Las Vegas; you’re a little buzzed, you know the sun will be up in a couple hours , but you’re still up and on the prowl for that perfect slot machine. The one with your big payout waiting inside it’s metal belly. The one that’s going to turn your luck around tonight.
You stumble though the door at the Wynn and you are instantly hit by the sounds of loud bells “ding, ding ding, ding, ding,” flashing lights and the sound of coins pouring into large meta troths; someone has just won the jackpot! $100,000 bucks — those lucky bastards! But it wakes you up and suddenly remember something you once read in one of your “How To Win In Vegas” books. Casino’s like to place big paying slot machines near the door so more please see people wining and want to play there. It makes you think back, “yes” you say to yourself ” I have seen a lot of people by win and I think mostly they were near the front of the casino…”
Is that fact or fiction? Fiction of course. Slots are totally random and are based on a set payback percentage set by the casino; generally in the 90 – 98 percent range, there are lower. There aren’t many higher.
The best thing you can hope for is the casino actually listing their payback percentage, well at least in terms more useful than “up to”. In Vegas and nearly all other casino’s in the US (I can really speak for other countries as I have never played, nor done the research to find out. This a fact in psychical casino’s, but when it comes to the Best Online Casino. Online Casinos have become extremely competitive so as a way to get more people playing the have started displaying their payback percentage . Not only do they show you, they compete on those percentages, so you have a fair idea of what you are getting into before playing. See our Online Casino Reviews for information on the best paying online casinos.
When it comes down to the mathematics of Slot odd, it gets quite indepth, Below I will go into details, but for those of you who don’t want to read that much it pretty much breakdown like this:
If we imagine that there are 10 different symbols on one reel and that the slot machine has three reels, then the odds to hit the same symbol one every reel on an active pay-line is 1 on 1.000 (10^3). With a 5 reels video slot the odds to get a jackpot are even less, 1 on 100.000 (10^5).
Here’s a deeper and more detailed example:
| Centre Payline | Pays |
| 3 Bars | 5000 |
| 3 Cherries | 1000 |
| 3 Plums | 200 |
| 3 Watermelons | 100 |
| 3 Oranges | 50 |
| 3 Lemons | 25 |
| Any 2 Cherries | 10 |
| Any 1 Cherry | 2 |
Lets assume this is a standard three reel electromechanical
slot machine with the following payoff table based on the centre line:
|
Weight Table |
|||
| Symbol | Reel1 | Reel2 | Reel3 |
| Cherry | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| Blank | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| Plum | 3 | 2 | 2 |
| Blank | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| Orange | 4 | 3 | 3 |
| Blank | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| Lemon | 4 | 3 | 3 |
| Blank | 5 | 5 | 8 |
| Bar | 4 | 3 | 1 |
| Blank | 5 | 5 | 7 |
| Cherry | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| Blank | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| Plum | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| Blank | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| Watermelon | 3 | 2 | 2 |
| Blank | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| Orange | 3 | 2 | 3 |
| Blank | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| Lemon | 4 | 3 | 3 |
| Blank | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| Total | 64 | 64 | 64 |
There seems to be always 22 actual
stops on each reel of a slot machine. The following table shows the symbol
on each stop as well as the weight.
There are two interesting things to note at this point. First notice that
the first reel is weight the most generously and the third is the least.
For example the bar has 4 weights on reel 1 and only 1 weight on reel
3. Second notice the high number of blanks directly above and below the
bar symbol. This results in a near miss effect.
|
Total Weight Table |
|||
| Symbol | Reel1 | Reel2 | Reel3 |
| Bar | 4 | 3 | 1 |
| Cherry | 5 | 4 | 2 |
| Plum | 6 | 4 | 3 |
| Watermelon | 6 | 5 | 4 |
| Orange | 7 | 5 | 6 |
| Lemon | 8 | 6 | 6 |
| Blank | 28 | 37 | 42 |
| Total | 64 | 64 | 64 |
Most of the symbols occur twice on the reel,
and the blank 11 times. The following table shows the total number of
weights of each kind of symbol.
Given the two table of weights and the paytable it only takes simple math
to calculate the expected return. Following are the specific probabilities
of each paying combination. Note that each virtual reel has a total of
64 stops so the total number of possible combinations is 643 = 262,144.
3 Bars: 4*3*1/262,144 = 0.000046
3 Cherries: 5*4*2/262,144 = 0.000153
3 Plums: 6*4*3/262,144 = 0.000275
3 Watermelons: 6*5*4/262,144 = 0.000458
3 Oranges: 7*5*6/262,144 = 0.000801
3 Lemons: 8*6*6/262,144 = 0.001099
2 Cherries: (5*4*62 + 5*60*2 + 59*4*2)/262,144 = 0.008820
1 Cherry: (5*60*62 + 59*4*62 + 59*60*2)/262,144 = 0.153778
The average return of the machine is the dot product of the above probabilities
and their respective payoffs:
0.000046*5000 + 0.000153*1000 + 0.000275*200 + 0.000458*100 + 0.000801*50
+ 0.001099*25 + 0.008820*10 + 0.153778*2 = 0.94545 .
Thus for every unit played the machine will return back 94.545%.
Courtesy of WizardofOdds
So as you can see there really isn’t a way to beat the odds, its totally random. If you are going to play slots, remember that fact and play with the right knowledge, not the rumors you hear.
Now go forth and play.
Maybe next time i’ll write about poker, and other table game odds, which are better.
King Sized Bed, Please. $30, Please.
Ok, so this doesn’t really have to deal with Online Casinos, or Online Casino Reviews, and really not everything we post on this blog will be, but I can say one thing is for sure, our blog post will tie into gambling somehow. We here are Online Online Casino are pretty geeky (don’t let the tattoos, cigars and Pennywise T’s shirts fool ya), so we get up in the morning and start reading about the latest news in the gambling world albeit Online, Vegas, Reno, underground, or otherwise, we love it and read about it everyday and just figured we’d share it with you, our few readers. Anyway I’m very off topic at this point; the point of this post is to talk about this ridiculous fact that MGM Resorts in Vegas are wanting to add fees just to guarantee you a king sized bed, or a non-smoking room… We think its absolute CRAP!
So this is the deal: MGM is going to start charging what they call “Resort Fees, ” these fees will be to “guarantee” different amenities such as bed size, or smoking or non-smoking rooms. In true Vegas style they are rewarding bad habits; instead of you having to pay more for a room you can smoke in, now they want to charge you to not breathe in cancer causing toxins. Hey I even smoke when i’m drinking and gambling, but I sure has hell don’t want my room smelling like the casino. I need a break when they finally tackel me from the tables and drag me to my room! And I sure and heck don’t want to pay and extra fee for a clean smelling room.
Thankfully MGM did away with its non-smoking room charge. “We regret having implemented this policy before recognizing the inappropriate message it might have sent to some of our customers,” MGM spokesman Alan Feldman said in a statement. One down!
But what about the bed? So now I have to pay more to guarantee the kingsized bed I reserved 3 months in advance is going to be available when I get there. EFFFF that! I spend enough in Vegas between the gaming, the food and the drinks. A nice room should just be part of the deal. After all it is what people go to Vegas for, a nice room that makes you feel rich, so you are a bit looser at the tables, right? I’m I just out of my mind, or do you agree?
A representative of MGM was quoted as saying:
“These options provide yet another tool for us to personalize the guest experience, according to each guest’s individual preferences,” MGM officials said in a statement. “We’re receiving some very positive feedback from guests.”
I call BS, yep total BS! I can tell you this… If i’m going to be charged more just to guarantee the my bed size, i’m sure as sh*%t not saying there. I’ll stay off strip if I have to. Hell I was already bent over by the airlines on my trip out there with the $30 checked bag charge, $7 beers, and $7 pillow, i’m not getting doubled teamed by the Hotel once I get to my destination. After all the more money I keep in pocket, the more I have to play with which is the whole point of the trip.
What do you guys think? Am I right about this, or do you think I should just chill out and shell out the extra money?
Comments are welcome.
Gambling Geeks: How We Got Started Rating Online Casinos!
A lot of us here love to play poker and most of us live on our computers for what we do. Well when one of our coworkers suggested playing poker online (during work, haha), we knew this was something that was going to be awesome. At first it was for play money, but being the competitive individuals we are it soon escalated to real wagers. Nothing ridiculous, mostly “I’ll buy lunch” today kind of wagers or “I’ll get the first round.” That’s when it started, some of us really started to like playing poker online.
We had seen all the big dog companies advertise online card games but it seemed pretty boring only being able to play card games. When ever we head out to the local casino (an hour drive for me) a few of us would play Hold’em or Blackjack, while most would hit up slots and grab a drink. So we started talking about the online casinos we had been checking out. We talked about bonuses, payouts, tournaments, customer service and things like rules and terminology that we had learned. We started to debate which ones were better.
It wasn’t too hard to see after a while what we had to do. Many of us enjoyed playing online (and tried to play at the same time. Geeks and VoIP man!). So we created a ranking website for ourselves, our colleagues and for everyone else. We didn’t realize that rankings were so competitive and seeing that really pushed us further. We figured if we are going to do this, we have to ‘go for broke,’ right? No point in doing a bad job (I guess us geeks are perfectionists).
So here we are now, one of the best casino ranking sites out there. It’s validation of our hard work and the quality of our reviews. We enjoy online gambling, the best online casinos & the technological innovations that have come from it (casino’s love their security and love having the best).
So that’s our story! If you have any good stories from an online casino, write me and let me know!
