GamingTips

Okay.  So, I thought I’d take a minute to address the issue of online versus brick and mortar gaming.

Most people will probably thinnk of this as a poker issue, because of the abundance of online poker rooms, but this also applies to online casino gaming.  I’ll adress several issues here.

Choice of games.  Online casinos and poker games offer a wider selection of betting limits and, in poker rooms, games, than brick and mortar casinos. The reasoning here is quite simple.  If, at any given time, a brick and mortar casino wants to open another table, be it for a different game or a different limit, it costs them about $6/hr just for the dealer.  The added expenses of the chip runner, the casino porter, the cocktail waitress, the brush, and the attendant adds up quickly.  In addition, they have to know ahead of time that they want the particular table open, so that they can schedule this staff appropriately.  So, even if 10 people show up wanting to play $100/200 Omaha HL on a Wednesday night, the casino has a tough time accomodating them.  Additionally, you’re unlikely to find a lot of low limit games.  The rake on poker hands makes a lot less money than the hold on table games.  So a casino really doensn’t like having a lot of $1/2 tables.  In online casinos, on he other hand, you’re likely to find an abunance of not only $1/2, but even $0.50/$1 tables.

Oponents.  This one really is limited to online poker.  When you play in a real poker room, you can see your oponents, and read their faces.  You can look for tells.  You can tell who is experienced and who isn’t.  Online, you know nothing about your oponent, unless you and them frequently wind up at the same table, which given the volume of players on any given site, and the number of tables, is unlikely.

Practice and learning.  This is, in my opinion, one area where online casinos hands down have the advantage.  First, for practice.  There are an abundance of sites offering free play money games, both in poker and in other games.  This allows a player new to the game to practice for free.  Casinos are not going to pay staff to work at play money tables, which do not generate revenue.  In terms of learning, nothing is more annoying than the person who consistently either asks the dealer or other players to explain things, or keeps pulling out a book or strategy card.  Don’t get me wrong.  You should definitely be comfortable asking for help, advice, or clarification.  Occasionally.  When it doesn’t disturb the flow of the game or the other players.  Online, you can have a table open in window, and a strategy or how to website in another.  You can have your book on your lap between you and your computer keyboard.  Also, if there is a question that you, the other players, or the “house” don’t have an answer to, you have a reliable source of information at your fingertips.

Atmosphere.  The atmosphere, obviously, is totally different, and this can be a pro or a con.  Casinos are exciting, and fun.  A great place to see and be seen, have a few cocktails, hang out with friends, etc.  On the other hand, particularly for new, or shy, players, the comfort of your own home can be great.  And you don’t have to worry about the person at the table next to you being drunk and obnoxious, or somebody spilling their drink on you, or whatever.  It’s also much easier to leave a table and join another one if you don’t like the conversation or the people at your table.  It’s not only easier, it’s more comfortable and less awkward.  Also, many times, you can just click a squelch, silence or ignore button instead!

Tournaments.  As with a variety of tables and limits, this is an area where I think that online casinos have a huge advantage.  Because of the lower cost of doing business, online poker rooms can offer tournaments almost any time.  Brick and mortar houses need to offer them during prime times, and can only offer so many.  Online, you can find a tournament with just about any buy in and format at just about any time.  Free rolls, high limits, sit and goes, single table, heads up, HORSE, whatever you want.

Convenience.  Depending on where you live, getting to a casino can be a real pain in the ass.  Even if it’s not (for example, you, like me, live in Vegas), I can guarantee it’s easier to go online and play.  If you don’t have a lot of willpower, this can obviously be a negative, but for most of us, this is a huge plus.  Also, it makes it possible to play in your downtime.  You can log on and play 20 minutes of blackjack or poker, something few people do at brick and mortar casinos.

Money making ability.  I would argue that in poker, this aspect depends more on your skill level and the place you play than anything.  For instance, in Vegas, you’re likely to find more of an online-like group of players.  You don’t know them, they don’t know you, they’re of varying skill levels, and you’re unlikely to see them at the tables again.  At local casinos and poker rooms, however, the game is entirely different.  If you are a regular, you likely know your opponents, their habits and their tells very well,  This can be an advantage, but keep in mind that they also know you.  Where it gets interesting is when you’re NOT the regular.  Similar to the stereotype about women who play, I always found that as a young man going to Indian casino poker tables full of old townies, I had an advantage.  I looked young and dumb, and nobody there knew me.  Quite frankly, I could follow the townies’ reactions to the other townies.  If one of them folded after a bet by another, I often folded borderline hands too.  On the other hand, none of them had any idea how I played.

This next bit applies to poker and other games.  It revolves around two key facts.  First, online games move quicker.  Second, it’s easier to walk away from online games.

First, the game moves quicker.  This means that you have the potential to win (or lose) more money faster.  For instance, many online blackjack tables pull 120+ hands/hour.  That’s right, two a minute.  If you hit a hot streak, you can (as I have recently done), win $1000 in less than an hour.  At a $1 or $5 table.

Second, it’s easier to walk away.  Or at least it is for me.  If I went to a real casino (even living in Vegas) to play blackjack, I would plan on making a morning, an evening, or a night out of it.  If I was up (or down) significantly in a matter of 15 minutes, and my money management strategy told me to leave, I’d likely chuck it.  I didn’t drive to the casino to stay for 15 minutes.  And I’m probably waiting for a free drink.

At home, if I’m way up, and lose a hand, I close the window and walk away.  If I am way down, I close the window and walk away.  I don’t feel cheated out of a good time.

This goes hand in hand with the key difference between recreational and professional gambling.  When I go to the casino, I go as a leisure gambler.  I am playing more for the fun of the game than to make money.  If I lose more money than I wanted, or win less money than I could have, it’s alright.  We pay money to go to the movies, a show, a tourist attraction, or the bar, right?  It’s entertainment.  Online, the fun of the game is still important to me.  But, if I need to cut my losses or quit while I’m ahead, I don’t feel cheated out of my night of fun.

 Closing words.  I play poker and blackjack online a lot these days, and I’m doing fairly well at it.  Very well, in fact, when you consider my starting bankroll.  I only play on one site, Absolute Poker, so that’s where I would recommend getting started.  User friendly format, a variety of games (including blackjack), and a great selection of limits and tournaments, including some wonderful freerolls.

Alright.  This is the other very common betting system in blackjack. I’ve heard it called by another name, but I can’t think of what that name is at the moment.  I’ve always called it reverse progressive.

 This betting system works almost exactly the opposite of progressive betting.

The basics.  Start off with a minimum bet, or whatever you decide your base bet is.  Then, each time you lose a hand, double your bet.

The theory.  Each time you play, you’ll be shooting for the same amount of money.  That is, if you start out betting $5, with $100, you’re aiming for $105 on the first hand.  If you lose, you have $95, and bet $10.  Now you’re shoting for $105 again.  You can’t lose every hand, right?  This way, you can always walk away after winning any given hand up for the night.

The details.  Unlike regular progressive, here it is very important that you bet exactly or at least double your original bet.  Otherwise this theory doesn’t work.  on a $5 table, the progression should be $5,$10,$20, etc. unlike in progressive, where it should be $5, $7, $10, $15, or something similar.  When you push, you should bet the same.  When you win, you can either hold your bet or drop back down to your base bet.

The problem.  Again, eventually, you either a) run into the table limit, or b) run out of money.  While it is true that you will eventually win a hand, if you play enough hands, remember that luck is blind.  Just as tables get hot, they can get cold.  If you sit down with $100, and you lose just 4 hands, you’re done.  This is a big part of the reason that casinos have table maximums.

The advice:  This can be fun, and if you plan on playing for short periods of time, with a relatively large bankroll, this can be a great strategy.  Sometimes I even combine it with progressive, so that my bet goes up on each hand except a push, just varying how much it goes up by.  But, like progressive betting, this is not the holy grail of blackjack as its supporters would have you believe.

Alright.  Here’s a post on one of the two common blackjack betting strategies.  It is known as progressive betting.

 First, the basics.  Start out at the table minimum, or whatever you decide your base bet will be.  Then, each time you win a hand, you increase your bet slightly.  Every time you lose a hand, you go back to your base bet.

 The theory.  The theory behind this is that you can increase your winning potential without actually increasing your exposure, since every time you increase the bet, you’re actually betting more money that you just won, not your own money.

The details.  Progressive betting really only works if you increase the bet by less than the previous bet.  That is, you can’t double your bet.  So, when you bet $5 and win, you should bet $6 or 7.  If you win again, go up to $10, then $15, etc.

The problem.  The problem with progressive betting is that it doesn’t take into account the possibility of losing multiple hands.  That is, if you are already down when you start winning, you are still increasing your bet, but increasing it with your money, not the house’s.  For example, you sit down at a $5 table with $100.  You win one hand, so you are now up to $105, and you bet $6.  You lose.  You’re now down to $99.  You bet $5 and lose again.  You are down to $94.  You bet $5 and win.  This time, you go to $99.  You now bet $6 and lose.  You are down to $93.  Even though you have won several hands.

The verdict.  Great if you hit a hot streak, but not the “cure all” people think it is.  A fun way to bet, and a pretty basic strategy for money management.

Alright.  I’m not going to get into a lot of detail, as much as I’m going to justify the posts I plan on following this one.  Money management really is the big differential between professional gamblers and recreational gamblers.  People think it’s knowledge of the games, and to a certain extent it is.  But, the biggest knowledge that the pros have of the game is that the odds are always slightly against you (unless you’re counting cards or cheating).  Poker players have a little more light at the end of their tunnel, but they also understand that you never know who you’re playing against or what their skill level is.

 That being said, professional gamblers control the one thing that is not luck.  The choices they make about their money.  Some key points I’ll discuss in following posts: appropriate bankroll; how to decide what to bet; understanding and using table limits; when to cut losses; when to quit while you’re ahead.  All of these are important factors to people who actually make money gambling.

 And, as a final note, nothing I say in the following posts is meant to judge you or tell you that the way a winning player should manage their money is the way you should manage your money.  In fact, it’s not the way I manage my money when I play.  If you’re a recreational player, you should be more concerned about having a good time.   That means sometimes rolling the dice with less of a bankroll than you “should” have.  It means sometimes continuing to play when you should quit, especially if you sit down at the start of a short hot or cold streak.

 So, look foward to posts on this topic, and know that I plan on being a little hypocritical.