Casino bonus: January 2014

In the decades when three-reel games ruled slot floors, it was easy to know how to get the most of out the games. It took maximum-coin bets to get the highest payback percentages, and average returns were best at highest coin denominations. Betting the max was a must to be eligible for progressive jackpots. If you weren’t going to be the max, then you were far better off on a non-progressive game.

Then, as now, smart players never overbet their bankrolls and didn’t play a coin denomination they couldn’t afford.

That was about the sum of slot sense, through about the mid-1990s. But in the video age, all the added bonus events and features mean there’s more to learn. Here are a few things you should know in terms of slot cents, sense and sensibility.

DO VIDEO SLOTS PAY AS MUCH AS THREE-REEL SLOTS?

For the most part, no, because most video slots are lower-denomination games, and higher denominations bring higher payback percentages. All slot machines are made available by manufacturers with a variety of payback percentages, and it’s up to the casino which version to buy. A few casinos opt to put paybacks on nickel video games as high as those as quarter three-reelers, but most don’t.

Your wagers might be as high on a penny video slot as on a quarter or even dollar three-reeler, but the penny game still will have a lower payback percentage. That’s partly because players are drawn to the video slots by their entertainment value --- casinos offer lower payback percentages on the games because the customers still play them. It’s also partly because most players don’t make max bets on the penny games, and partly because you make fewer bets per hour on games with bonuses than on basic three-reel games. The bonus events give you time on device during which you’re not risking additional money.

HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO COVER ALL THE PAYLINES?

That depends on how bonus rounds are awarded. If bonus symbols must land on an active payline to trigger free spins or a second-screen event, then covering all the paylines is a must. When you’re playing a bonus event, you’re winning credits and spending time on the game without betting any extra money, so you want to get to the bonuses as often as possible. The more spins per hour you make that require wagers, the more it costs you to play.

Besides, the bonus events are why most video fans play, and we don’t want to cost ourselves chances at that entertainment.

ARE BONUS RESULTS PRE-DETERMINED, OR DO CHOICES MAKE A DIFFERENCE?

Choices do make a difference in pick’em-type bonus events. The random number generator sets the possibilities, and then our choices determine the outcome.

By setting the possibilities, the programmer sets the odds of the game. Some players will have long bonus events and win a bunch of credits, some will have short ones and go back to the main game with a small bonus. In the long run, it’ll average out, the odds will hold up and the game will pay out what it’s expected to pay out.

WHAT DOES “CHOOSE YOUR VOLATILITY” MEAN?

Would you rather take your chances at a big jackpot, with fewer wins, or have more frequent wins with less of a chance at something really big? The big jackpot games are more volatile, and the frequent hit games are less volatile.

Incredible Technologies has gone farthest down the choose your volatility path with its Magic Touch games, including Cars and Fish Store. On the initial game, you can touch the screen to choose Win Often, Win Steady or Win Big --- low, medium, or high volatility versions of the same base game. Graphics and gameplay are the same, you’re just deciding whether you want a better chance at big wins with fewer small wins, or more big wins with increased scarcity of the big bonanzas.

Others have limited the volatility choice to bonus events. Bally’s Hot Spin is a U-Spin game that lets you choose the volatility of the bonus event. There are six levels of volatility available, represented by different reel symbols.

Do you want a lot of chances to spin the wheel, or do you want the chance at a really big jackpot when the wheel comes up? You get to choose.

It’s an extra tool in the designer’s kit, something that wasn’t available to players when all slot machines had three mechanical reels and no bonus events. Understanding volatility when it comes time to make the choice stands right alongside jackpot eligibility, covering paylines and other factors in an expanded slot sense for the video age.

Look for John Grochowski at www.casinoanswerman.com, on Facebook (http://tinyurl.com/7lzdt44) and Twitter (@GrochowskiJ).

Gambling Expert-Everyone Has a System

By John Grochowski

When I first started writing about casinos and casino games, I used to have people pitching systems to me all the time.

“You’ll want to talk to me,” one fellow’s phone message started. “I’m the only one who knows how to beat craps.”

He phoned me off and on for three years, and finally sent me a detailed computer simulation. Let’s just say it didn’t live up to the hype.

Another touted a roulette system. When I pointed out the mathematical flaws, he insisted the system works in the real world. And when I refused to review his product, he wrote letters to my bosses at three levels of the newspaper hierarchy complaining about my obstructionist attitude in refusing to give my readers this very important information.

I don’t get as many systems pitches nowadays, a couple of decades after I started writing about gambling. So it seemed like old times in early November when a middle-aged gentleman spotted me in a casino. He’d attended a park district seminar I’d given some years ago, and now he had something for me.

“What would you say if I could show you how to beat modern blackjack?” he said.

I told him I’d probably be looking at a wrinkle in counting cards. The game has changed, with tougher rules in most casinos, but getting an edge still comes down to knowing the proportions of high cards to low cards remaining to be played, and adjusting bet size accordingly.

“What about when they only pay 6-5 on blackjacks?” he asked. “Will your card counting help you then?”

An advantage player would avoid such games, I told him. So should average players. The extra 1.4 percent the 6-5 rule tacks onto the house edge makes the game too tough to beat for advantage players and makes the losses mount too fast for the rest of us.

“I can beat that game,” he said confidently, with a heavy emphasis on the “I.” “It’s so simple, I’m surprised this isn’t already the talk of the blackjack forums. And I’m going to give it to you.”

I had time, so I told him I’d listen.

“OK, good,” he said. “Listening is the first step to learning. Blackjacks come up once per 21 hands, right?”

Right, I told him. I had a good idea where this was going, and it was nowhere productive.

“Right. So I sit down at a $10 table and make minimum bets. I don’t know where we are in the deck, so I make minimum bets. I keep doing that until I get my first blackjack. Then I start the count.”

I played along. “You said this wasn’t about counting,” I said.

“Not counting cards,” he replied. “Hands between blackjacks. I figure once I get one, the deck is trending away from blackjacks. So for the next 11 hands, I keep my bets to $10. That takes me to past the midpoint of the average hands between blackjacks. Now I figure the deck is trending toward blackjacks instead of away, and I raise my bet to $25.

“So I’m betting the most money when the deck is trending toward blackjacks, and the least when it’s trending away.”

I asked what happened if he was dealt a blackjack within the 11 hands with minimum bets.

“That resets the count,” he said. “Then I’m at $10 for the next 11.”

What if another player gets a blackjack?

“I ignore it. I figure the 1 in 21 applies to everybody. Everybody gets their own count.”

I thanked him for the explanation, and turned toward a bank of video poker machines.

“You’re not going to use it, are you?” he asked.

No, I told him. One blackjack per 21 hands is a statistical average, but you can get blackjacks two hands in a row, or not at all for 100 hands. Further, the frequency of blackjacks is affected by the composition of the deck. When there’s a higher concentration of Aces and 10 values in the remaining deck, blackjacks are dealt more often than once per 21 hands. If you’re making small bets in a rich count, you’re costing yourself money. You’re also costing yourself money if you’re making large bets in a period of depleted Aces and 10s just because you haven’t had a blackjack in a while.

“Well, I like it,” he said. “I’ll keep on using it, if you don’t mind.”

I don’t mind at all. People can do what they like with their own money, and I’ve seen far worse systems than this. It doesn’t do anything to overcome the house edge, but it doesn’t add to it, either. The system doesn’t point you toward the best time to raise or lower your bets, but neither do other non-card counting systems such as betting progressions.

As systems go, I’d rate this one as mostly harmless. It doesn’t do what its inventor claims, but in the world of betting systems, that’s par for the course.

Look for John Grochowski at www.casinoanswerman.com, on Facebook (http://tinyurl.com/7lzdt44) and Twitter (@GrochowskiJ).

GAMING GURU-Talking Blackjack at the Table

Blackjack players can be a bit uncomfortable talking strategy during breaks at the table. The more advanced players may not want to tip the casino off to how good they are, though it really doesn’t take much observation to tell those who know their basic strategy from those who don’t.

So the table talk at shuffling time often turns to asking the dealer about her hometown, or finding out if other players have tried the steakhouse, and the occasional gem about something unusual that’s happened at casinos games.

But every once in a while, players let their guard down, and a little strategy is mixed in with the tales people tell at the table. The table talk that follows was collected on three different casino trips.

Bradley wanted to talk about the even-money form of insurance. When you have a blackjack and the dealer has an Ace face up, you can call for even money, and take a win equal to your bet. If you don’t take even money, you could wind up with no win at all if the dealer has a 10-value card face down to complete a blackjack, or you could get a 3-2 payoff if the dealer doesn’t have blackjack. The better percentage play is to turn down even money and play out the hand.

“You know how dealers are telling you to take insurance?” Bradley asked as dealer Tom exchanged one six-deck pack for another in the shuffling machine. “What about you, Tom? Do you tell players to take insurance? No? Well, I hear a lot of dealers saying that.

“I was playing some $15 a hand blackjack, and was on a hot streak. I got a blackjack, and the dealer had an Ace face up, and he asked if I wanted to take even money. I shook it off, the dealer didn’t have blackjack and I won $22.50. It happened a couple of more times within 15 minutes, and I won those, too.

“Then another guy got a blackjack, and the dealer had an Ace, and the guy asked the dealer what he thought. The dealer told him he was sure to win if he took even-money, that it was the only sure thing in the casino. So the other guy took the even money, and sure enough, the dealer had a blackjack. And the guy said, ‘I guess that’s why you make that play,’ and the dealer smiled and nodded. I shook my head, but didn’t say anything. I was happy with my wins.”

Jonas knows basic strategy calls for the player to hit soft 18 whenever the dealer’s face up card is a 9, 10-value card or Ace. A “soft” 17 has an Ace being counted as an 11, such ace Ace-7 or Ace-2-5. If you draw a 4 or higher, you don’t go over 21 and bust the hand, the Ace just counts as 1 instead and you go from there.

“I had Ace-7, and the dealer had a King face up,” he recalled. “I signaled to hit, and a lady called out, ‘Wait!’ The dealer looked a little startled and looked at my while the lady called out again, ‘You have 18!’ I signaled to hit again, and the dealer nodded and dealt me a 3. I had 21 and I needed it all, because the dealer had a 10 down.

“That other player said, ‘You got lucky this time, but you shouldn’t be hitting 18.’ I just smiled and took my chips. I wasn’t going to go through the whole strategy explanation.”

But for Gina, the strategy play where the reactions of other players get her every time is when she hits 12 when the dealer has a 2 face up. That’s the correct basic strategy play, but she said a couple of other players had been downright peeved the night before when she took a hit.

“I was sitting at third base,” she said, referring to the position all the way to the players’ left, making her the last to play her hand before the dealer. “I had a 7 and a 5, and the dealer had a 9 face up. I hit, and this man and woman both groan at once, ‘What are you doing?’ I drew a 9 and made my 21. The dealer had a 2 down. If I hadn’t hit, she’d have made 21. Instead, she drew a 4, then an Ace for 17. A couple of players won, a couple lost, but if I hadn’t taken the hit the dealer would have beaten the whole table.

“Well, this pair didn’t notice that. They told me that third base was a team spot and I had to stand on those hands and not risk taking the dealer’s bust card. I said, ‘Unless you’re funding my bets, there is no team. I’m going to make the right plays for my hand.’ They made a couple of snippy remarks and left, the other guys laughed, and I kept right on playing basic strategy.”

Look for John Grochowski at www.casinoanswerman.com, on Facebook (http://tinyurl.com/7lzdt44) and Twitter (@GrochowskiJ).

This article is provided by the Frank Scoblete Network. Melissa A. Kaplan is the network's managing editor. If you would like to use this article on your website, please contactCasino City Press, the exclusive web syndication outlet for the Frank Scoblete Network. To contact Frank, please e-mail him at fscobe@optonline.net.