Archive for November, 2009

How to Place Your Craps Bet

Thursday, November 26th, 2009

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Pass Line Bet

You must place your bet on the pass line before a new shooter begins his roll or after a shooter makes his point. This craps bet must meet the table minimum. You win if the shooter makes a 7 or 11 on the come out roll. You lose if the shooter rolls one of the “craps numbers,” i.e. 2,3, or 12. If you’re the shooter, you get to keep rolling after a craps number comes up, but you lose your bet.

Don’t Pass Line Bet in Online Craps

The craps don’t pass line bet is made when you wish to lay a wager that the shooter in a craps game will lose. This bet must be made before the shooter’s first roll. The rules are opposite to the pass line bet: if the shooter makes 7 or 11 on the come out roll, you lose, and if he rolls a craps number, you win. You should be aware that these craps bets wouldn’t make you very popular. This is basic superstition and you won’t find it in any official craps guide, but “don’t” bettors are thought to bring long periods of bad luck to the table.

Come/Don’t Come

The craps guide will tell you that these are the same as pass/don’t pass, except that they are placed on rolls other than the come-out. You bet by placing your chip in the area marked “come,” and if for example 5 is established as the point on the come-out, you win if the next number rolled is 7 or 11. The come bet loses if a craps number comes up on the next roll.

Single Roll Bets

These include “Snake Eyes,” if the shooter rolls a 2, “Ace-Deuce” for a 3 and “Yo” for an 11. There’s also “Boxcars,” “Midnight” or “Cornrows” when the shooter rolls a 12. Then there’s “Hi-Lo,” which wins if the shooter rolls a 2 or a 12. “Any Craps” wins if the shooter rolls 2, 3 or 12. These are also known as proposition or service bets, and only the stickman or dealer can place them for players.

Big Six and Big Eight

These are bets that a 6 or an 8 will be rolled before a 7. They offer terrible odds: a 9.1% house edge, and should be avoided as much as possible. Even worse crap bets are available – for example “Hard 4” and “Hard 10,” which both offer a house edge of 11%. Although these odds look pretty bleak, single roll bets are even worse, giving the house a 13.9% advantage.

Casino and Online Craps Etiquette

Never throw your wager at the dealer: set it down on the table and clearly state the wager. Don’t fiddle around with the dice before your throw, and don’t throw it too hard. Do not throw it into the dealers’ working stacks, or into the mirror on the players’ side of the table. Finally, do not use two hands, and never try to conceal or take the dice beyond the edge of the table.

Keno Guide

Sunday, November 22nd, 2009

Playing keno isn’t just for Las Vegas casinos: the game is also very popular online. This keno guide should help get you on your way to playing and of course, winning. The game takes place on the keno board, which is numbered 1 through 80. Twenty numbers are selected in every keno game, giving each number a one in four chance of being picked. The board is divided into top and bottom, with the top containing numbers 1 to 40 and the bottom holding the remainder.

You increase the payoff amount by betting more numbers on your ticket. You can also win money for getting close. When a number you bet on comes up, it’s called “catching the number.” Numbers are referred to as “spots,” so if you bet three numbers, yours is a three-spot ticket. Each keno house, including online and video keno, has its own payoff amount and that’s why it’s important to shop around before playing.

Even if you want to play keno from the lounge area of the bingo casinos, you can be accommodated: There are so-called “keno runners” who will collect your ticket and deliver the winnings.

Guide to Playing Online Keno

Online keno is such a flexible game it can be played anywhere, including online casinos. It’s a game of pure luck, a little like the lottery and a little like bingo. The payouts are better online, significantly higher than the 60-70% offered at live casinos.

If you’d like to play online, download the software for your preferred game. Create an account and fund it, using your credit or debit card. After you select your chip size and you choose your numbers, the game will begin and the selected numbers will change color if matched with a drawn number. There is usually a payout table with information that you can use as your keno guide for any winnings if your numbers had matches. The game is usually available at both bingo casinos and rooms.

There are no tricks that can help you improve your chances of winning at online or video keno because all of the numbers are chosen at random, so no number is ever more likely to come up than another. The most important of keno tips goes for all games of chance: never gamble with “dear” money, use only “excess” money.

Keno is a very easy game to play, and it’s even better in the online casinos where there’s a certain amount of computerization that saves you from having to do the same thing repeatedly. The more numbers you choose, the better your chances become – there’s nothing complicated about keno. Just make sure you look at the payout table before you start playing in any live or online casino.

Mini Roulette Guide

Monday, November 9th, 2009

The ever-popular European roulette now has a miniature version, with a wheel comprising of fewer numbers. Mini roulette, as the junior version is called, is very easy to figure out, and can be played by anyone. It consists of only 13 numbered slots, labeled from 0-12 in non-sequential order. It is played just like European roulette, using a spinning wheel with numbered slots and a numbered table.

 

Using the Mini Roulette Wheel

Unlike traditional roulette, which has 36 numbers and a zero, the wheel in this type of roulette features only 12 numbered slots and one zero. Although it has less numbers than a regular roulette wheel, the cash rewards in mini roulette can be enormous. Your roulette winning strategy must start with the basics: click the chip value you want to wager, then click on the felt layout where you want to place that particular bet.

Any roulette guide will tell you that the mini version is a comparatively new variation to the old-style classic game. The bets differ slightly from classic roulette. The payouts are also different. Red/Black and Even/Odd bets provide a 1:1 payout, as do bets on number ranges. Bets on rows of numbers yield a 2:1 payout, while bets on a single number pay 11:1. The corner and column bet pay 2:1, and three-number and split bets pay 5:1.

If you are new to the game, a good roulette winning strategy would be to watch how other people place their bets. For example, are they betting on single numbers? Do they go for more of a range? Also, keep an eye out for the amount the table is paying out for various bets. This varies according to the type of roulette you’re playing. Roulette is one of the few casino games with almost 50-50 odds of winning.

The mini roulette wheel is spun counter clockwise, and a ball is spun clockwise around it. The players place bets on what color or number the ball will land on. Because the wheel has fewer numbers than in conventional roulette, the odds of winning cash in the mini version are greater. The mini version includes a special Refund on Zero feature, where 50% of bets placed on other numbers are refunded to the player when the ball lands on 0.

 

Online roulette guide

Click on a chip of the desired value to start playing, then click on any bet area on the table. Every click on the area adds one chip of the selected value to the bet. Click spin to set the wheel spinning. You can develop your confidence by playing in “fun” or “offline” mode. When you’re ready to play for real money, click the button at the lower edge of the game window, which will take you to your account creation page.

Slot machine guide

Monday, November 9th, 2009

This short slot machine guide covers important information on the most popular casino game. For starters, any casino gambling mechanism with three or more reels that spin when a button is pushed can be termed a slot machine, also known as a fruit machine (British) or poker machine (Australian).

Thanks to their ability to leave the gamer flat broke, and also because they were initially controlled by a lever on the side instead of the modern button on the front panel, casino slot machines are also known as one-armed bandits.

 

Secrets of Internet Slot Machines Revealed

The Slot machine has become the most popular way to gamble in Las Vegas. They take up most of the space on casino floors, and contribute largely to overall gambling revenues. The first thing you need to do when playing slots machines is to decide what your hard line betting number will be. Our slot machine guide research led us to some simple conclusions. We recommend three-reel pay lines, because when learning about how slot machines work, we discovered that these machines frequently pay the most and the most often.

Both spinning reel and video have their slots payout based on a random number generator (RNG). They all have a programmed amount of winning and losing combinations. Of course, there are far more losing and small win combinations than there are large and top prize combos. If you get a near miss, don’t fall victim to the “I’m about to hit the jackpot” mindset – that’s precisely what the casino wants. Each spin is unrelated to the last, and is selected by the RNG.

 

Slots on the Internet

Internet slot machines are pretty straightforward. The random number generator chooses three figures in a three-reel game, each of which matches up to a stop on each reel, and then the machine directs the reels to stop on the spots chosen by the RNG. Five-line video slots use the same principle: five random numbers, one for each reel. By the time the reels start spinning the game is already over – the RNG has already picked the stops and the reels spin only as a courtesy to the player.

Casinos initially installed slot machines as entertainment for casual gamers. In due course the machines moved off the sidelines to become the most popular and lucrative game in town, bringing in excess of 60 percent of the yearly gaming profits in the United States – the idea of slots had proven to be a monstrous success. Trying to figure out how slot machines work has become difficult since there are so many varieties. Classic mechanical designs have been almost totally replaced by computer-controlled machines.

One of the biggest myths about slot machines is that they stop on different numbers with equal probability. This is not true of modern machines: a slots payout is more likely on some slots than on others. Every attempt you make on the machine is random, and unaffected by past attempts.

Beat the Slots – Some Slot Machine Tips

Monday, November 9th, 2009

We’ve already covered how slot machines work in our slot machine guide, so now we are going to talk about some tips to try and beat the slots. Although no method is guaranteed, some of these tips might help.

Always remember that casino operators are several steps ahead of your efforts to locate the one machine that’ll pay you big. That said, the first step you need to take is to familiarize yourself with how slot machines work. Begin your visit by testing the penny machines with a $5 limits. If you don’t get at least hit from a dozen tries, move on: that machine is probably not player-friendly.

 

Slot Machine Strategy: How to Win (Most of the Time)

    1. Casinos tend to put the slot machines that have better odds of winning at the front and on the ends of rows, so people walking by will see winners.
    2. Check your budget to decide how much you want to bet during the session, so you can know which machines you can play.
    3. In our study of how slot machines work, we found that you should bet the maximum if you want to start beating slot machines. Most casinos will give you a bonus for winning if you bet the maximum so it pays off to max out.

In spite of these strategies, winning at slots is tough; because there is no way anyone can determine the exact outcome of a machine roll. Modern slot machines use random number generators to produce millions of number combinations for each spin. Even the idea of the “loose” machine suggested by many strategists is now considered by experienced gamers to be a myth.

One of the few ways of beating slot machines outright is to play progressive slots. Simply note what the basic jackpot is, and when the progressive ticker brings it to three times what it started at, begin playing. If you favorite game’s jackpot starts at $1000, for example, wait until the progressive jackpot is up to $3000 and then start playing keenly. As the progressive jackpot rises, the expected value gets better and better, until at one point it becomes positive.

Because of this slot machine strategy, and the ever-increasing payouts of these machines, many players are attracted to progressive slots. The system sets no limits on the jackpot, and as more and more players try the machines, the jackpot grows. There are several types of progressive machines offered in casinos nowadays. Most casinos only keep one type for easier regulation.

 

No Slot Machine Strategy Is Guaranteed

Video slot machines are like reel slot machines when you get down to the basics. This is especially important when playing video slots. Winning at slots, whether it’s live or online, entails knowing the rules, so make sure you read them before you play. And don’t fall into slot machine myths: if a video slot machine hits a jackpot it doesn’t mean it can’t hit another on the next spin.

Random number generators take less than one-hundredth of a second to crunch numbers. It is always generating numbers, even when idle. Keep in mind that slots are games of chance, and there’s no way to learn what will happen next, but that doesn’t mean you can’t play smart!