New Ask the Wizard column

For the first time since January I have published a new Ask the Wizard column.

Every question has already been discussed somewhere in this forum, so I'm not trying to wake up old topics. Just announcing the new column. If you see any mistakes or anything isn't clear, please let me know.

Quote: Wizard

For the first time since January I have published a new Ask the Wizard column.

Every question has already been discussed somewhere in this forum, so I'm not trying to wake up old topics. Just announcing the new column. If you see any mistakes or anything isn't clear, please let me know.

Nit-pick: The equal sign on your "hint" image for the i^i problem is superscript when it should not be.

Congrats on the new column!

is it true that the odds favor yopu with the first roll of the dice

I've benefited from 8 card dealer bust on soft 17. Thanks for the breakdown.

AAA2A9AT which made the day at Turning Stone way back in 9112002.

Edit: Mine was an 8 card dealer bust. On a second look, your post doesn't apply.

"For casino promotions that still use regular tickets in a real drum..."

Outstanding response.

Though your site has answered about every question regarding gambling there is, having a regular "Ask the Wizard" could be a part of driving up traffic. Most people like to see their questions answered by the expert even if they could just search it and find the answer pretty easily...

Quote: RonC

Though your site has answered about every question regarding gambling there is, having a regular "Ask the Wizard" could be a part of driving up traffic. Most people like to see their questions answered by the expert even if they could just search it and find the answer pretty easily...

The problem is getting good questions that haven't been asked before or aren't addressed on the site somewhere already.

Is there a way to figure out a good time to try and hit a $1 video poker progressive jackpot when there are (4) suited progressives each with different amounts? For example, Hearts at $6,500, spades at $6,700, Clubs at $4,800 and Diamonds at $6,800? I've been playing lately, and getting my butt kicked. Usually, and I use that word carefully, I come out ok but no one has hit for quite some time. I know you write about increasing the players odds on a single progressive, but with four separate jackpots, it's quite different. Thanks Michael.

im a firm beliver that offering a newsletter to accompany any donation would work wonders for the site- even a small donation such as 12 dollars a year for a bi weekly newsletter- id defintely be willing to add content to it for free for a siple credit

Quote: Wizard

The problem is getting good questions that haven't been asked before or aren't addressed on the site somewhere already.

Wizard

I am going to donate per the other thread but had a problem with paypal. I will try again later. I love the ask the wizard questions and answers and I think that you could monetize them very easily. I propose that you could charge a nominal fee to ask a question that would be answered. I think that you may possibly get more questions then you could ever answer. I know personally that I can not always find exactly what I am looking for due to laziness or poor search inputs. I would be willing to pay a small fee to have an expert answer my question or point me in the correct direction.

Thanks for taking this into consideration,
Slack

Quote: Wizard

The problem is getting good questions that haven't been asked before or aren't addressed on the site somewhere already.

If it's already been asked, that's one thing.

But if the answer is somewhere on the site, and the questioner hasn't found it (or hasn't bothered to look), using the question and providing a brief answer with a link isn't a bad idea.

Quote: mikeabiomed

Is there a way to figure out a good time to try and hit a $1 video poker progressive jackpot when there are (4) suited progressives each with different amounts? For example, Hearts at $6,500, spades at $6,700, Clubs at $4,800 and Diamonds at $6,800? I've been playing lately, and getting my butt kicked. Usually, and I use that word carefully, I come out ok but no one has hit for quite some time. I know you write about increasing the players odds on a single progressive, but with four separate jackpots, it's quite different. Thanks Michael.

Add all the royals up then divide by four. In the case here the average is $6200. There are strategy adjustments too. A three card royal might play over a high pair in one suit but not in another.

Quote: mikeabiomed

Is there a way to figure out a good time to try and hit a $1 video poker progressive jackpot when there are (4) suited progressives each with different amounts? For example, Hearts at $6,500, spades at $6,700, Clubs at $4,800 and Diamonds at $6,800? I've been playing lately, and getting my butt kicked. Usually, and I use that word carefully, I come out ok but no one has hit for quite some time. I know you write about increasing the players odds on a single progressive, but with four separate jackpots, it's quite different. Thanks Michael.

Can you put up the rest of the payscale?

Has this been asked before :
I recently read in a book that casinos always put a tight slot machine on each side of a loose slot machine. So they can penalize a player who plays two machines at a time. Is this TRUE ?

Quote: Buzzard

Has this been asked before :
I recently read in a book that casinos always put a tight slot machine on each side of a loose slot machine. So they can penalize a player who plays two machines at a time. Is this TRUE ?

I can actually answer this. No, they don't always do that. You only need find three video poker machines in a row with the same pay tables to verify that I'm correct.

This is in reference to slot machines where you can not determine the payouts, like penny slots ? THANKS again for the G2E passes.

Quote: Buzzard

This is in reference to slot machines where you can not determine the payouts, like penny slots ? THANKS again for the G2E passes.

With my experiences with casinos and penny slots, I do not believe this is done anymore. One problem is that even a loose penny machine is very tight. I don't know of anyone on the strip that is placing penny games looser than 90%. Even if they mixed in a couple of 90% games it wouldn't be noticeable against the standard 85%-88% offerings. A small casino in northern Nevada that I do work with has about half of their penny machines at 92%. That is about as loose as it gets.

Quote: DRich

With my experiences with casinos and penny slots, I do not believe this is done anymore. One problem is that even a loose penny machine is very tight. I don't know of anyone on the strip that is placing penny games looser than 90%. Even if they mixed in a couple of 90% games it wouldn't be noticeable against the standard 85%-88% offerings. A small casino in northern Nevada that I do work with has about half of their penny machines at 92%. That is about as loose as it gets.

With the amount of revenue that goes through penny slots, I'm gobsmacked at your figures of 85-88%. That seems incredibly low to me as it should be around 91 to 93% I would imagine.

Seems like greed is taking a hold all over the valley unfortuantely :(

I wonder if people will realize at some point that longevity is more important than the quick score?

how do i ask a question on this website

some true count conversion methods say 1/2 deck and others say 1 deck but the illustrious 18 sometimes is for both i think. should not the illustrious 18 be different if one is dividing by 1/2 deck instead of 1 deck. and when books show deviations and they recommend dividing by 1 deck it seems that these are the same charts used by other books or teaching discussions that use 1/2 deck methods. If I have 2 decks remaining and i divide by 2 how the hell is it the same count number if i divide by 4 (meaning four half decks) no one has ever been able to explain this to me or i have never seen an explanation of why the charts or deviations are exactly the same for 1/2 deck conversion or full deck. This is why teachers have degrees in teaching because the obvious has never been shown to me in an adequate way. The people replying or making these deviations obviously never taught anyone, they assumed that by osmosis one would understand the major subtleties involved with what I am talking about. Some one tell me how dividing by 16 or dividing by 8 is something trivial and the same and how this would not empirically change any deviation chart drastically. How would it not change the apparent true count and reflect the apparent advantage if i am dividing by 4 and my friend over at the other side of the table is dividing by 8 because he is using 1/2 decks and if a situation came up that required a plus 4 count to deviate and my count was plus 4 but his was plus 2 because he divides by 1/2 decks. I make the deviation he does not. Someone with adequate knowledge please explain this. Look up the illustrious 18 and you will see web sites showing the same chart and some say to divide by full decks the other by 1/2 decks. What am i missing?

Quote: DRich

With my experiences with casinos and penny slots, I do not believe this is done anymore. One problem is that even a loose penny machine is very tight. I don't know of anyone on the strip that is placing penny games looser than 90%. Even if they mixed in a couple of 90% games it wouldn't be noticeable against the standard 85%-88% offerings. A small casino in northern Nevada that I do work with has about half of their penny machines at 92%. That is about as loose as it gets.

So, I have a question about this.

Is it true that a penny machine with a max bet of 300 credits ($3 per bet) will be tighter than a dollar slot machine with a max bet of 3 credits ($3 per bet)? I'm talking about the return at the max bet here.

Quote: AxiomOfChoice

So, I have a question about this.

Is it true that a penny machine with a max bet of 300 credits ($3 per bet) will be tighter than a dollar slot machine with a max bet of 3 credits ($3 per bet)? I'm talking about the return at the max bet here.

Excluding the $1 wide area progressives, I would say yes 99.9% of the time. In general the bet size on the penny games does not increase the payback percentage. If you bet 30 coins or 300 coins you are still playing the same percentage (probably a crappy 90% or lower).