18 August 2008 - 9:01Top gambling destinations

In 1978, Resorts International opened in Atlantic City, the first legal East Coast casino in the twentieth century. Their four- and six-deck blackjack games offered a new form of surrender, dubbed by card counters as “early surrender,” since the casino allowed players to surrender half a bet even when the dealer showed an ace or 10 up, and before the dealer checked for a blackjack. This rule gave basic strategy players a small edge over the house right off the top, without any card counting whatsoever! And the advantage to card counters was even greater. From opening day, card counters had a field day at Resorts’ tables. Ironically, as word spread through the gambling community that card counters found the Resorts’ blackjack game to be the most lucrative game for players in the country, gamblers from all over the world - most of whom knew nothing about basic strategy or card counting - flocked to their tables. And, ironically, Resorts International was soon the most profitable casino in history, winning an average of $650,000 per day.

A team of professional blackjack players whose founders were from Czechoslovakia that had been playing in Las Vegas flew all of their members to Atlantic City to take advantage of this new surrender rule. This team, which later became known in the casino industry as simply the Czech Team, found the Resorts’ game to their liking and stayed for months.

A New Jersey college student named Tommy Hyland, who had just turned twenty-one, started going to Atlantic City in 1978 when he heard about the favorable black-jack game at Resorts. Within a year, he had organized about twenty of his college and golfing buddies into a team of blackjack players. Hyland’s team continues to this day as one of the most successful casino gambling operations in history.

It was also in 1978 that the first MIT blackjack team was started. This team actually consisted of students from MIT, Harvard, and other East Coast colleges. Johnny C.j now a legendary player who joined the team in 1981, plays high-stakes blackjack to this day and continues organizing teams of professional players. The Czechs, the Hyland teams, and the MIT teams would be the scourge of the casino industry for decades to come. Many believe these teams owe their existence to the Resorts’ game with its early surrender rule that made the game so easy to beat. College kids found that they could pool their money, play blackjack with a modicum of intelligence, and get rich quick.

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18 August 2008 - 8:57Winning Big in No Limit Texas Holdem

As the name suggests, no limit poker gives players the opportunity to win the biggest pots. When there is no limit on betting, there is no limit on winning. People who play with no limits are generally skilled players, and the strategy you need to win a no limit game is very different from the strategy that you would use in a limit game. While the basics of limit versus no limit games are the same, the psychology of the players is very different. You have to know how to play in a no limit Texas Holdem game. If you know how to gain a psychological advantage over other players in a no limit game, you will have a huge advantage that can lead to big winnings.

Here are some things to remember when playing no limit Texas Holdem:

First, realize that you can gain a much bigger edge over your opponents when there are no limits games. In limit Texas Holdem, you can take small advantages over other players. In no limit games, the edge is increased because here you are really playing against other psyches, not other cards.

Skills like bluffing and varying bet size are much more effective in no limit games than they are in limit games. This is especially true for more experienced players. In no limit games, players will be much more cautious about taking what they perceive to be big risks. So if you are more crafty and deceptive than your opponent, you can be very successful.

Take control of the pot. In all poker games, you are at an advantage when you can do this, but in a no limit game where you can bet and raise without limit, those moves put you at a much greater advantage. In a no limit game, the value of taking control is even greater than it is in a limit game.

The size of your bankroll is another huge factor in no limit Texas Holdem. If you have more money or more chips than your opponent by a margin that is large enough, you can force them out of the game by betting big whether their hand is a good one or not.

In a no limit Texas Holdem game, the odds of losing if you take a risk by bluffing or if you play a bad hand are much higher than they are in a limit game. This means that your opponents are less likely to call you or to stay with a poor hand in no limit games. It is important to be aware of this because you can use it as part of your strategy. In no limit games, the odds always favor better hands.

The bottom line is that in no limit Texas Holdem, the stakes are higher, but the winnings are bigger! So in order to be successful in a no limit game, you have to know what you are doing. You may be able to make mistakes and still win once in a while by luck in a limit game, but with no limits, you will suffer from your mistakes. No limit games are not for the inexperienced card player. But for players who know how to play, there is an advantage that cannot be found in a limit game. The potential for winning big in a no limit Texas Holdem game is just that - without limit. You can take an opponent’s entire bankroll in one hand if you play your cards right! A no limit game can be very vicious, but it can also be very rewarding. You just have to have the stomach for it!

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6 July 2008 - 17:47Casino of my choice

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13 May 2008 - 10:29Maneuvering

Whenever the tournament format restricts the session to a fixed amount of time, the players who get in the most amount of pulls or spins have the advantage. Here are three strategy tips from the Las Vegas Advisor for playing in a “timed” tournament:
- Prepare. Before playing, familiarize yourself with the combinations that produce large payoffs and rest when you hit one. Take care, however, to resume play as soon as the meter stops registering credits. Players who sit for close to a minute without realizing that their machine is ready to play again aren’t uncommon.
- Play fast. Stay focused and concentrate on your own play. If you stop in the middle of a round to cheer for someone else who’s hit a jackpot, you reduce your own spin total.
- Conserve energy. If you frantically pound the spin button, even when the credits are tallying, you tire and lose spins. Tapping the button lightly is more efficient.
The preceding tips help give you an edge, but the best strategy is to look for tournaments that have overlays (see “Taking advantage of overlays” earlier in this chapter) or other enticements. In addition, many tournaments routinely offer free rooms, hats, T-shirts, or some meals, all of which add extra value to the event.

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13 May 2008 - 10:26Slot and Video-poker tournaments

Slot tournaments are popular because they retain the fun and competitive elements of a sporting event but require little or no skill. Video poker, on the other hand, does offer some mental challenge. Slot and video-poker tournaments differ from table-games tournaments in several aspects. You start with a fixed amount of credits rather than chips, and play either for a set time (usually 10 to 30 minutes) or for a certain number of spins. The object is to accumulate as many credits as possible, so hitting big jackpots or royal flushes is the ticket to winning.

In slots and other machine games, you typically compete against all other players in that session. For example, 50 players compete in the round, and the overall ten highest scores from that session advance to the next round.

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6 May 2008 - 10:18Calculating the Odds in Casino Games

If you’re good at math, you often can detect when the casino payout odds are lower than true odds (see the section “Factoring in the odds” earlier in this chapter). With dice, for example, you have 36 different combinations, and the odds are 35-to-l for each combination. But with other games, the odds can be impossible to calculate. Take casino slots, for example: The thousands of possible reel combinations and ever-changing progressive jackpots make it difficult for anyone to calculate the odds of winning.

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