I finally got around to your request of including the rules for every blackjack game. (The paytable for the Blackjack Challenge payouts was and still is in the top right of the site though). Sorry for the delay and thanks for the congratulations.
In the meantime I also added...
Blackjack side bets like Dead Man's Hand, Trilux, Buster Blackjack, and Lucky Lucky
Strategy advice for some games like Deuces Wild Xtreme and Dakota Duel Draw
Progressive Jackpot for 3 Card
Blackjack War
Dai Baccarat and Golden Frog Baccarat
More 3 Dice Duel side bets
and as I mentioned in other posts, I added the games Wild 5 Poker and PokerJack
If anyone has requests for games or knows of any new games/side bets let me know :)
Today I added Battle 1-2-3, an AGS game, which I would describe as being very similar to war. I will publish my mathematical analysis of the game and its side bets in a post later. I will also add aforementioned side bets to my website too, but for now you can read the Nevada state government's document about the game.
I mentioned a couple of these in other posts but I also added 7 Up 7 Down, Dragon Tiger, Three Card Baccarat, Dream Blackjack, 2 To 1 Baccarat, Infinite Fortune Baccarat, Tiger Baccarat, Casino Brag, Double-Deck Spanish 21, and many blackjack side bets including Sweet 16, Match the Dealer, Fortune, Top 3, Bet The Set 21, and Bust'N Loose.
APs are the reason that single-deck blackjack is so rare these days. APs are the reason that the game Double Draw Poker is being retired. I don't want to aid in the demise of side bets or games, especially since life is already hard enough for inventors.
Quote: harrisI think you are assuming that casual gamblers and APs are on the same team which is not always the case.
APs are the reason that single-deck blackjack is so rare these days. APs are the reason that the game Double Draw Poker is being retired. I don't want to aid in the demise of side bets or games, especially since life is already hard enough for inventors.
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Of course. This forum is watched by casino managers and casino game security personnel. If a new sidebet hits the tables, called FlipFlop, and analysts on this forum start announcing that FlipFlop is countable with X percent advantage to the player then it is very likely that the FlipFlop sidebet is going to be pulled from casinos and go out of existence.
This forum has a private message system. Even the moderators (Dieter and I) are unable to see private messages that are not addressed to them. That is a far more appropriate place to discuss certain kinds of topics. Even there, most forum members are very reluctant to explain actual vulnerabilities in current games or specific dealers.
I have performed private analyses for APs, casino managers (in Asia) and game developers. For security and privacy, I always take those communications to email or a messaging system external to the WOV forum. Discretion is essential
I recently realized why Light & Wonder did not want me to have their games on my site. They sell digital versions of their games to be hosted on various casino websites. Understandable. Maybe I can write the strategies and house edges of these games on my website without making these games playable. This is essentially what the Wizard of Odds did so I don't think there should be any legal problem.
In your opinion, would it cause problems if for example, I made a website where you enter your Criss Cross poker cards and my website returns the optimal strategy?
Quote: gordonm888For Blackjack Challenge, please actually state the rules in your Rules section rather than the generic rules for BJ. For example:
Standard blackjack, with the following exceptional rules:
The player loses on ties.
Player's 21-point hand automatically wins.
Blackjack pays at least 2 to 1 and up to 5 to 1. (show the payoff table).
Five-card Charlie (player's non-busted five-card hand automatically wins).
P.S. Congrats on the girlfriend.
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Did anyone here ever see of play the video blackjack game that paid a progressive for getting three 7's? I only saw it when it first came out and it had a bug in it. Obviously it was supposed to pay the progressive if you had 7-7-7 for 21 but the software didn't check to see if you busted so it paid on any player hand containing three 7's. That was a huge mistake and gave the player a great advantage. I played it at Sam's Town and the next day it was gone. This was in the 1990's and I do not remember who the manufacturer was. If I remember correctly it was a $1 denom and the progressive reset to $50.
There used to be a game called catch the wave which was similar to mojo game. You had to guess if next card was higher or lower and you were paid odds depending on many times you guessed correctly. I think 8 was the max . The inventor is the same person who invented criss cross poker and double draw poker and the in between side bet.They used to deal catch the wave at Foxwoods
Quote: HunterhillHarris are you interested in table games that no longer exist?
Not right now sorry
I already have a list of 30+ existing games to add
Finally, my website has more table games (82!) than any other application out there. This has been my goal after the man now in "2nd place" bought harrismowbray.net after being angry about my online casino website. Lol.
I don't know what the future of the website is. I want to eventually add the 20 games left on my list, and then make some games to help dealers learn random skills (like counting the value of blackjack hands or setting Asia Poker hands ). I know my website has helped many inventors, dealers, and players - but my main goal was to use the website to enter the industry which I already achieved. So my motivation to keep working on this for years is not super high. If nobody else writes articles about the strategies for new games in the years following the Wizard's retirement, maybe my website can have that. But I would need to figure out how to make some money to be honest, right now my main motivation is just having a better website than a certain app that sounds like Liverboat Rambler :D
Cards are dealt; dealer shows an 8d; my hand has trip Aces! I bet. The dealer's hand reveals a pair of nines.
Dealer: 9d 7s 2h 9s 8d
Player: Ac Ah Qc 4c As
And the screen freezes. No payout, no congratulations for the correct strategy. Fold and Bet buttons still there but unresponsive.
Quote: acesideI looked into this website and found it expanding. However, one main casino game branch is still missing. Nowadays, casinos often have multiple-table linked jackpot games. They costed me a lot of money, but I’m still not sure if their probabilities from appearance is real or fake. For example, one jackpot is called Triple Diamond Xtreme 16 spinning wheel. Can you investigate the probabilities?
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While those progressive jackpots are available side bets at tables, I do not believe they are "table games" in any reasonable sense.
You can pay extra and get a sweepstakes entry along with your table play.
Quote: gordonm888Canberra POKER GLITCH:
Cards are dealt; dealer shows an 8d; my hand has trip Aces! I bet. The dealer's hand reveals a pair of nines.
Dealer: 9d 7s 2h 9s 8d
Player: Ac Ah Qc 4c As
And the screen freezes. No payout, no congratulations for the correct strategy. Fold and Bet buttons still there but unresponsive.
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Hi, thanks for letting me know.
I intended to remove Canberra Poker from my website which is why you cannot find it in the main menu anymore. I have now blocked off the entire game so that people do not play it.
The reason for this glitch (and for the game's removal) is because you can now just go to Caribbean Stud Poker and select the pay table that Canberra Poker uses.
Quote: acesideI looked into this website and found it expanding. However, one main casino game branch is still missing. Nowadays, casinos often have multiple-table linked jackpot games. They costed me a lot of money, but I’m still not sure if their probabilities from appearance is real or fake. For example, one jackpot is called Triple Diamond Xtreme 16 spinning wheel. Can you investigate the probabilities?
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The spinning wheel looks like each outcome is equally likely but there are weightings. Some of the possible weight-distributions are publicly available online - but I don't think you can ask a pit boss for the weights in the same way you can ask them for game rules.
Either way I am never playing a table game that uses something other than physical items to determine my outcome. Maybe this makes me old-fashioned but I think that transparency and tangibility are what separate table games and slot machines.
Quote: harrisI found this document which says that the top two payouts can have variable weights. I wonder if they keep the RTP below 100% and avoid APs by lowering the weights for the top pay outs as the progressive grows. Would that be legal?
Either way I am never playing a table game that uses something other than physical items to determine my outcome. Maybe this makes me old-fashioned but I think that transparency and tangibility are what separate table games and slot machines.
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harris,
So no Pai Gow Poker for you that randomly selects which spot gets the first hand?
Dog Hand
P.S. Would you kindly stick to a single avatar? You change yours more frequently than I change my car's oil 😀
Also I don’t like Pai Gow Poker when the house way is unknown for the same reason I stated above.
I will not stop changing my avatar 😆
The PGP tables I have seen lately use an ASM to shuffle the cards and spit them out in groups of seven, and they have an RNG that displays a number from 1 to 7 to indicate which spot gets the first hand.
The last time I have seen hand-shuffled and hand-dealt PGP was over 10 years ago on a cruise ship. They used dice to select the first hand.
Dog Hand
Quote: harrisI found this document which says that the top two payouts can have variable weights. I wonder if they keep the RTP below 100% and avoid APs by lowering the weights for the top pay outs as the progressive grows. Would that be legal?link to original post
I would assume that the specific values are determined by operator configuration based on the size of the progressive and desired return.
I doubt that they are worried about APs considering they are slapping a potentially 78% RTP bonus feature on triple zero roulette.
Quote: harrisAdded 3 Dice Yahtzee :) enjoy
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Sometimes when a Yahtzee comes up (with a bet in the Yahtzee rectangle) the payout is report as NaN and then the player's bankroll is frozen at "NaN" for the rest of the game.
Additionally, I am creating a new section on my website that will show the math or code I use to obtain the house edge of various side bets. If anyone is interested in contributing to that with any new side bets they see, please let me know.
The Master of Cards.
I've thought of some more names for the website yet but I don't want to talk about it now to avoid domain squatters. I don't think tablegamesacademy.com had an owner before I made my site but it does now (at least I'm pretty sure about this). I might just get some obscure country's ccTLD like .gq or something.
Quote: harrisAlso I’m thinking of buying a domain name but I don’t have a good idea for a name. I’ve been spending months trying to think up something as creative as “Wizard of Odds”
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EdgeMaster
Quote: harrisAlso I’m thinking of buying a domain name but I don’t have a good idea for a name. I’ve been spending months trying to think up something as creative as “Wizard of Odds”
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What's wrong with "Table Games Academy" - well, except for the fact that people might think it is for board games?
Maybe "Casino Table Games Academy"?
Quote: harrisQuote: harrisAlso I’m thinking of buying a domain name but I don’t have a good idea for a name. I’ve been spending months trying to think up something as creative as “Wizard of Odds”
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EdgeMaster
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Edge you later!
I've decided I do not need to make a special name for my casino activities. Nothing will ever be as creative as "Wizard of Odds"
Anyways, Harris is already a sufficiently special name :)
Quote:Anyways, Harris is already a sufficiently special name :)
Well, it's no Biff Tannen's Pleasure Paradise, but... ;)
I feel like I should further differentiate my website from Wizard of Odds but I am not sure how yet. I was thinking of openly posting the code used to find the math in each instance. I can't think of a downside, it might get more people interested in the field, but it also might not be interesting to more than a dozen people, the majority of whom are retired/semi-retired Wizard of Odds forum members.
Let me know what you think of this idea or if you have any other suggestions.
Quote: harrisA very cool person in the table games industry recommended I make a new website for the strategy/math/odds part. Such a website would be really easy for me to make look good since I wouldn't have to worry about glitches like I do on my casino demo website.
I feel like I should further differentiate my website from Wizard of Odds but I am not sure how yet. I was thinking of openly posting the code used to find the math in each instance. I can't think of a downside, it might get more people interested in the field, but it also might not be interesting to more than a dozen people, the majority of whom are retired/semi-retired Wizard of Odds forum members.
Let me know what you think of this idea or if you have any other suggestions.
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Differentiate it from WoO? Easy- have profanity!
Not really joking. All respect for those who keep it clean, there's a place for that, but in an industry that is explicitly for adults only, under law, why does anything need to be "kid tested, mother approved?" Instead, you can present a cocktail of vices: dirty humor, strong porn, games the theme of which transgress societal norms, "where to buy coke in Vegas," whoremongery... everything a growing boy needs. And of course, gaming math! Your audience will be all male so you won't need to dumb down the math.
Quote: AutomaticMonkey
Differentiate it from WoO? Easy- have profanity!
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That's why my website has a Discord server but I try not to promote it here out of respect for the Wizard of Vegas forum administrators. However I think it's important that casino game inventors have a non-public place to discuss things sometimes.
Another thing I notice is that you list a lot of video poker games there, but these things are disappearing from casinos, as far as I know.
Quote: acesideI like your website very much because I've learned how to play several new table games there. However, my impression is that this website is a collection of many without emphasis. You need to introduce an elimination tournament to rank these games in terms of popularity. You are the editor of your site, so you must suggest and highlight these most popular games.
Nobody cares about what games I declare to be popular. That's also something really hard to objectively measure.
Quote: aceside
Another thing I notice is that you list a lot of video poker games there, but these things are disappearing from casinos, as far as I know.
I've heard that but I have seen video poker at pretty much every casino I have ever been to (all of which were in 2025/26)... I have seen more casinos with video poker than table games.
I am going to remove video poker from my website eventually because I can just improve my separate Video Poker website.
Quote: acesideIn my opinion, video pokers are not table games.
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I agree with this opinion / objective fact :)
Definitely more than 1% but it varies by state. I’ve seen many machines that have video poker and traditional slots for example in Illinois
Quote: harrisQuote: acesideIn my opinion, video pokers are not table games.
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I agree with this opinion / objective fact :)
Definitely more than 1% but it varies by state. I’ve seen many machines that have video poker and traditional slots for example in Illinois
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In Vegas local culture, all of the non-casino gaming lounges are predominantly video poker. This includes bartops (places like PT's and PKWY) and the games you find in supermarket lobbies, gas stations and convenience stores. Among the locals there are a lot of people who aren't quite APs, but use gaming as a lifestyle enhancer- get your free gifts, your mailers, cruises, nice meals, a place to put up your relatives when they visit etc. and those people know the difference between paytables, know how to chase a progressive, how to generate free play, useful stuff like that. So actual slots, I think they're a lot less popular among the local crowd and a game where your skill can outpace the theoretical loss for the general population is preferred.
I could not down grade my betting credit amounts.
For the first time in Wizard of Vegas history, I took Aceside's advice and removed Video Poker from my website. My website will only be focused on table games now, I have improved my separate video poker site to add more games and pay tables.
Quote: harrisIf people really want I can let you play sub-optimally on my site with a 1 credit bet.
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If you do, I'd suggest adding a conspicuous popup notice like "Are you a bonafide knucklehead? Single-coin play uses a reduced paytable that increases the house edge by a factor of 6.2!" (...or whatever the penalty is.)

I am moving and found these two Pai Gow Poker house ways I obtained in Florida. The small pamphlet might be the simplest Pai Gow Poker house way I’ve ever seen! Do you think I should use that one for my website when I inevitably add Pai Gow poker?
I know I’ve been delaying Pai Gow poker and tiles by adding literally every game on earth other than those. But the time for Pai Gow is finally coming…

