Category: English

Some games have a hefty house advantage and the results will almost always end up favouring the casino – no surprise there! But by intelligent, disciplined use of betting strategies and your funds, you at least have the chance to win.

CRAPS
Craps is not very popular in the UK. Some casinos offer it, and it’s likely to increase in popularity if the Americanization of British casinos comes about. But, before writing it off, consider this: Statistically, the second-best bet in the casino is found on the craps table. The bettor is only backing a 1.4 per cent disadvantage when playing the pass or don’t pass lines. And when you add the “odds” bet, the casino advantage can be cut to less than 0.2 per cent. To get such advantages, however, you must risk plenty of money. If your funds can’t survive a loss when your big bet is on the table, craps can be a dangerous game.

BACCARAT
The casino’s most glamorous game, the bank bet on the baccarat table is the casino’s most advantageous bet. With a house advantage of only 1.17 per cent, baccarat offers one of the best chances to win.

But because baccarat is surrounded by ritual, and frequently hosts big gamblers to the exclusion of average players, many people looking for the best bets often look elsewhere.

The complicated rules have no bearing on the way you play the game. The game is deceptively simple, and once you get used to the pampering you get in the baccarat pit, you may never return to the “masses” of blackjack or craps players.

ROULETTE
One of the world’s most popular games, the American version of roulette is one of the worst bets in the casino. In a double “00” roulette game – the American version – you face a rather formidable 5.26 per cent. In Atlantic City, a special rule reduces the odds on even-money bets to 2.7 per cent. French, or European roulette – the single “0” wheel has that same 2.7 per cent house advantage for all bets. Roulette is an enjoyable game, but there are few opportunities to use either strategy or money management to combat those casino disadvantages.

Let’s get something straight right from the beginning. The more money the casinos can extract from the pockets of their Players, the more money they are going to make. It’s that simple.

So the basic principle is that the more money you can keep in your pocket, or return to your pocket after playing, the more money you are going to take home.

Casinos have come up with an innovation for slot machines that seemingly makes it easier for them to get that money out of your pocket and into the machines. In America it’s called a "bill acceptor", and provides a way for you to preload the machines with cash, being a method of pumping up profits. They don’t have to hire cashiers as they handle fewer coins, and they get greater play time because you spend more time on the machine.

What casinos have ignored, or simply overlooked, is that bill acceptors – along with the, credit meters on modern machines – offer an important and previously missing element: a way to keep score.

Table game players are able to track their funds, because they have their chips in front of them at all times. They know how much they cashed in and can determine how much they have at any time, so they can determine their wins or losses.
 
Until recently, slot machine players haven’t been able to keep score, unless you kept track by the number of the discarded coin wrappers at your feet.
Bill acceptors can make all the difference. Decide ahead of time on your budget, whether it’s What you have allocated for the entire session, or what you’ve allowed for a particular machine. Pre-load the machine with the whole amount. Since you don’t have to use coins, there’s no reason to start with part of what you’re willing to risk then dig for more if your initial outlay is lost. The newest machines even give you a read-out of,the exact amount of your stake. In the older games, the only maths you’ll have to do to keep track is to convert the number of coins to sterling (or your local currency).
 
Pre-loading the machine with your total budget and keeping score on the credit meter affords you several advantages. If your strategy is to quit when you’re ahead, your built-in scorekeeper lets you know when that moment has arrived.

If your strategy is to earn a profit, then try to hit the big jackpot; but not dip back into your original stake, you can monitor your progress by watching the meter.

If you have a loss limit, pre-loading these amounts into the machines helps reinforce the discipline you need to stay the course.

People have varying reasons for gambling. For most, it’s the excitement of the game, the escape from day-to-day reality, and the thrill of a potential cash windfall. It’s called “casino entertainment” these days because many people are willing to accept a reasonable loss in exchange for a few hours of action at the machines or the tables.

The loss is the price for that excitement, not unlike the price you’d pay for a ticket at a sporting event. The thing that makes casino entertainment different is that you always have the chance to get that excitement, and still come out a winner. It’s a version of the “something-for-nothing” factor, which everyone dreams about.

Since luck is involved in almost every gambling decision, it’s important to go into the games with the right attitude. While some people are willing to accept a reasonable loss for a reasonable amount of gambling time, it would be a mistake to begin your playing session by writing off your funds.

Positive thinking works wonders in real life, so there’s no reason it can’t be successfully utilized in the casino. Other people travel to a casino with one goal: to win. Entertainment doesn’t enter into their thought process; their only satisfaction will come from beating the house. More often than not, these types of players go home disappointed, and often bitter, about their casino experience. While many people with this attitude have prepared for their casino challenge by studying and practising, reality very rarely mirrors the ideal conditions they anticipated during their practice sessions. Gambling near a person of this sort can sometimes be unpleasant, as they often take a hostile attitude towards casino personnel and other players.

This is not to say you shouldn’t play to win. It’s simply that the expectation to win every time is not realistic, given the hefty casino advantage in almost every game.

Think of casino executives as skilled psychologists who understand how to motivate gamblers. If you understand the casino point of view, you have an opportunity to enhance your chances of winning and your enjoyment of the casino experience.
 
Gambling is the great equalizer. Sure, there is a definite class system in place in casinos around the world, but winning and losing affects everyone equally. While the levels of gains or losses vary between the slot (or fruit) machine and the baccarat or chemin de fer tables, the impact is usually similar. Winning brings excitement and exhilaration, losing brings disappointment and despair.

Casinos are the temples of gambling. From the small closets and back rooms of illegal gambling dens to today’s glittering entertainment palaces, casinos are generally where gamblers go to experience the thrill of placing their hard-earned money on the line.
 
But let’s not begin with any illusions. Gambling is a game for losers, for there is no way to beat the casino. The built-in house advantage at every casino game will grind down even the most experienced player in the long run. Those who have discovered a winning "system" are generally experiencing short-term deviations from the long-term law of averages.

But short-term is what most people play, so the chances of winning in a casino are much better than winning a lottery, bingo game or church raffle. By learning the games and understanding how to reduce the house edge to its lowest possible percentage, you can give yourself a fighting chance, and may even go home a winner. You can make the most of your casino experience by knowing what games to play and how to play them.

When a player bets at the end of the hand, he either believes that he has the best hand and he is trying to get you to commit more money to the pot before he cleans up, or he knows he doesn’t have the best hand and is trying to drive you out of the pot because if it came to a showdown, he thinks he would lose. Your job is to judge which he is doing. The answer is not always easy to fathom out, and it will be experience of the game, knowledge of what type of player your opponent is, and the betting so far on the hand, which will guide you to make the best decision.

Suffice to say that most inexperienced or intermediate players bet when they have a hand, and usually don’t bluff when they don’t. So, if your opponent bets, or raises your bet, he believes he has the best hand.

Very good players may bluff at any time and they choose their moments well so that you are never certain what is going on. They may decide to check at the end and then, when you try to make a small bet, they come in and raise you (a check-raise). Now, you don’t know whether they are bluffing or trapping you. Generally, if your opponent thinks that he holds the best hand at the end, he bets it.

Check-Raise
A check-raise is usually a very strong move but, like all moves at poker, it can be a complete bluff. With a hand you believe to be best, if you are first to act, you may decide to check, hoping to induce another player to bet (either because he has the second best hand, or on a bluff) and then raise that bet. That will make him think: are you really good or are you bluffing him?

If you had a choice, you should always prefer to be raising. There are so many advantages to raising: you may win the pot there and then; you may drive out threatening or even better hands than your own. You may be able to bluff successfully even if the flop misses your hand completely. It sets you on the high-ground – from below players will find it hard to attack you.

With the premium hands: AA KK QQ and AK, you should always raise, even if a player has raised before you. There are many players who prefer to slow-play strong hands. This means that they pretend that they have nothing until the end and then attack aggressively, hoping to lure in weaker hands. Such play is highly risky, very stressful, and extremely hard to judge well. Whilst it does, without doubt, produce some fabulous results sometimes, it also produces disasters in which players can lose a fortune.

Generally, with strong hands like those above, you should protect them by raising and driving out players with more speculative hands which might suddenly overtake you once there are three, four or five community cards with which to work. If no one calls, then the chances are that you would not have made much from the pot anyway. If you get callers, you may be set for some real action – with the odds on your side.

In the final analysis, you will decide what style of poker player you are. You may find that the other players at your table are very respectful of raises and, when you do raise, they mostly fold and concede the pot to you. If that is the case, you might even try raising modestly with all of the 21 chosen hands and seeing what effect that might have on your table… Of course, you may discover that you are surrounded by chancers, players who will pay right up to the end to see your cards. These punters are sometimes called "fish" or "fishes": they swim around "fishing" for the perfect card to make their hand a winner. Fish are usually slimy characters, poor, near-penniless souls who have failed to realize that, most of the time at the poker table, discretion really is the better part of valour – and that it is certainly cheaper in the long run.

So, how you act will have as much to do with the style of the other players at your table as the cards you hold in your hand.

When you have two cards of the same suit, which are touching in value, such as 9(C),8(C) or 10(D),9(D) you have a low-value hand, but with potential to form a strong, winning hand – such as a Straight, a Flush, or even a Straight Flush.
if and when you become a little more experienced, I would recommend calling the Big Blind bet in a late position and seeing the flop. If the flop hits your hand perfectly, then you have a chance to clean up. If the flop doesn’t hit you well, Just let the hand go and you’ve wasted comparatively little in your quest to win a big pot.
There are some players who call bets and even quite large raises with these suited connector hands but, once again, judging what to do after the flop is complicated and best left to those with plenty of experience.

More aggressive players do not always wait until they have the best hand to put in a raise, they sometimes raise earlier in the hand, either to push out their opponents there and then, or to buy themselves some extra time and, in the long run, save some money. Let’s look at an example:
 
You hold           A(S),J(S)
and the flop comes Q(H),6(S),3(S)

Since, at present, you have no hand, you might think that you would just check and try to see the next card for free (and sometimes that might be right). However, some players would reason that, if another spade hits the board, they have made the top Flush and they put in a big raise to make their opponents guess whether they have the best hand now or whether they are on a draw.

The advantage of the raise here is two-fold. Firstly, everyone may fold, thinking that you have a very strong hand. This being so, your semi-bluff (you have nothing now, but the turn or river could bring you a monster) takes down the pot and you don’t even need to see the next cards to find out if you really were winning. The second advantage is that, if you get a caller or callers, they are unlikely to make a bet after the turn card since they will fear that you will raise them again. So, often they just check to the raiser (check around to you waiting to see what you will do) and you then check yourself and get to see the river card without having had to pay any more money. In other words, your earlier investment has had the effect of paying for two cards rather than possibly having to pay to see both the turn and then pay again, by calling bets, to see the river.

Even if you do get to see the river and still a spade has not appeared and given you the Flush, because you raised on the flop your opponents may believe that you genuinely do still have the best hand and it may be that one more decent-sized bet from you at the end may be enough to get them to lay down their cards and concede the hand to you on a complete bluff.
All in all, you can see that to check looks safe and conservative but to raise has so many psychological advantages. It’s up to you how you want to play – and you certainly do not need to make the same play every time.

Intention: try to win the pot now or make players pay too dearly to draw to their hand.

Similar is the player on "tilt" – a term flashed up on a slot machine if you attempt, physically, to attack it. This player has lost a few hands in a row, perceived them, rightly or wrongly, to be bad beats (results which seem to defy normal expectation) and starts throwing his money around like a petulant child. Don’t think you won’t do it, because you will. It happens to all of us sometimes. However, the key is, when it happens to you, to remember the feeling of utter desperation that comes with it, and use that feeling for the future as a warning signal to get up from the table (or the computer screen) and go do something else for a while.

There are three main styles of betting at poker:

1. Limit Poker
This style is played mainly in poker clubs and casinos in the US. Each round of betting is limited to an exact amount and the number of raises and re-raises is limited also. For example, if the limits were posted as $10/20, that would mean that the Blinds would be $5 and $10 and pre-flop you could only raise $10. When the flop appears, again, only bets of $10 and raises of $10 would be permitted. Following the turn and the river, these bets and raises would then be set at $20. You are not permitted to depart from this structure.

2. Pot Limit
This used to be the form most popular in European card rooms. The Blinds would be set and then the maximum bet possible would be the current value of the pot. If the Blinds were, say, $2 and $5, the first raise you could make would be $7. A subsequent re-raiser would then be able to bet $14 – the total in the pot so far. This meant that initial raises were quite small, but subsequent bets and raises could get very large. This allowed more players to stay in early on and see the flop, but allowed strong hands to drive out weaker players with big bets after the flop.

3. No-Limit
Simply the best. Now, most people play No-Limit Poker in one form or another. This style allows you to bet whatever you like, at any time. If the Blinds are set at $2 and $5, you can push all your money into the middle on a whim. It allows you to exert maximum pressure on your opponents and can lead to huge swings and unbelievably tense decisions.

From the off, playing no-limit, one fact must remain at the forefront of your mind – this could be your last hand you could be wiped out completely. Every hand you enter must be done wisely, and with courage.

However, the guiding principle is that you can bet only the money that is on the table in front of you. You cannot reach down and suddenly produce more cash from a secret hideyhole. Equally, as with all forms of the game, you cannot be pushed out of a hand, just because you run out of money. Once you have all your money in a pot – you are all-in – you compete for that pot up to and including all the betting made untIl you went all-in. If other players continue to bet, they form a side pot of extra bets for which you are not competing. You remain however in the main pot and get to show your, cards if you have won.

Perhaps the best form of the game is No-Limit with a take-down option. This is proving popular in home games because it combines the excitement of No-Limit with a few prudent safeguards.

You buy-in for an agreed amount – let’s say $200 – and, if you win, you are then permitted to remove extra funds over and above that $200. If you are winning, you must keep at least your original stake in front of you to give the other players a chance to win it back. Of course, you can choose to sit out a few hands, or cash-in if you don’t want to play any more.

This is the style I recommend as it best combines all the great elements of Texas Hold ‘Em Poker.