GamingTips

This is another strategy for Jacks or Better, which, although slightly more complicated to follow, also increases your odds slightly.  For the purposes of this table, a face card is J, Q, K, or A.  The hands are listed in order of best to worst, so if you can hold two or more of these options, choose the one highest on the list.

Four of a kind; straight flush; or royal

Four to a royal

Three of a kind; straight; flush; or full house

Four to a straight flush

Two pair

Pair of face cards

Three to a royal flush

Four to a flush

Any pair

Four to an outside straight

Three to a straight flush draw, if: the number of cards you are missing for the straight flush is less than or equal to the number of face cards

AKQJ unsuited

Two suited face cards

Four to an inside straight with 3 face cards

Three to a straight flush if: the number of gaps is only one more than the number of face cards; Three to a straight flush with an A low; 2, 3, 4 suited

K,Q,J unsuited

Q,J unsuited

J,T suited

K,Q suited; or K, J suited

Q,T suited

A,K unsuited; A,Q unsuited; or A,J unsuited

K, T suited

Any face card

Three to a straight flush (if it does not fit into a higher hand possibility)

Discard everything

So, we’ve already covered the strategy for the first round of Let It Ride.  So now the dealer has flipped one card.  Four of your five cards are showing.  What do you do now?

If you have four cards to an inside straight, but they are all 10s or better, “Let it Ride.”

If you have four cards to an outside straight, “Let it Ride.”

If you have four cards to a flush, “Let it Ride.”

If you have any hand which is a pair of 10s or better, obviously  “Let it Ride.”

Remember, play your hand this way regardless of what you had after the first round.  Have fun, and good luck!

So as I believe I mentioned before, one big difference between Indian gaming and traditional Las Vegas gaming is Bingo!.  Bingo is usually a major (if not the only) activity at Indian casinos.  What if you love playing Bingo, and happen to be in the Las Vegas area?

There are a few (okay, a large handfull, but only a few compared to the total number of casinos out here) places to play Bingo when you’re in Vegas.  Here’s a list.  A disclaimer that his is based on some internet research.  There may be more, and some of these places may not offer Bingo anymore.  Make sure you check out the websites to a) verify that they still offer Bingo, and b) figure out when you should go to get in on a Bingo game.

Arizona Charlie’s- 740 S. Decatur and 4575 Boulder Highway

Boulder Station - 4111 Boulder Highway

Cannery- 2121 E. Craig Road (North Las Vegas), 5255 Boulder Highway

Fiesta - 2400 N. Ranch Drive (North Las Vegas), 777 W. Lake Mead Parkway (Henderson)

Gold Coast -4000 W. Flamingo

Jerry’s Nugget - 1821 Las Vegas Boulevard N. (North Las Vegas)

Palace Station -2411 W. Sahara

Plaza-1 S. Main Street

Red Rock -11011 W. Charleston

Sam’s Town - 5111 Boulder Highway

Santa Fe Station -4949 N. Rancho Drive

Silver Nugget -2140 Las Vegas Boulevard N. (North Las Vegas)

South Point -9777 S. Las Vegas Boulevard

Suncoast-9090 Alta Drive

Sunset Station -1301 W. Sunset Road (Henderson)

Terrible’s -4100 Paradise Road

Texas Station -2101 Texas Star Lane (North Las Vegas)

As those of you familiar with Vegas may have noticed, none of these are strip casinos.  They are all “local’s casinos.”  That being said, my personal recommendations would be:

Location wise, if you are staying on the Strip, the Gold Coast (right next to Rio) or Palace Station (a few blocks west of Circus Circus) are probably your best bets.  If you’re on the south end of the Strip, maybe South Point would be closer.

Then there’s always the Plaza, which is a downtown classic.

On the other hand, Red Rock is an almost-new locals casino, which is extremely nice and worth the trip, even though it is one of the furthest casinos from the Strip.

Have fun, and good luck!

Like all old card games, there is much uncertainty about the true history of baccarat.  Since the word has both Italian and French origins, both can lay claim to originating the game.  One legend about its history is that it is based on a religious ritual in which a woman would pray to nine gods and roll a nine-sided die to determine her future.  If she rolled an 8 or a 9 (natural), she would become a priestess.  If she rolled a 6 of 7, she would be excluded from religious activity, and if she rolled less than a 6, she would walk into the sea.

Interesting, huh?  Well, long story short, the French version of Baccarat, “Chemin de fer” became popular among French nobility before being spread to England, and later South America (with, of course, some evolution in the rules).  It wasn’t until the Communist government in Cuba closed the Havana casinos in the 1950s that the game came state-side, at the Dunes casino.

Now that we’ve looked at the 3 card hand let’s take a look at the 5 card hand in a similar way.  To start with, with 5 out of 52 cards, there are 2,598,960 hands.  Of those, 4 are royal flushes; 36 are straight flushes; 624 are 4 of a kinds; 3,744 are full houses; 5,108 are flushes; 10,200 are straights; 54, 912 are 3 of a kinds, 123,552 are 2 pair, 760, 320 are pairs of sixes or better, and the remaining 1,640,460 are nothing.

Now on to percentages.  That means there are: less than  1% each of getting a royal, straight flush, four of a kind, full house, flush, or straight; about a 2% chance of getting a three of a kind; just under 5% of getting two pair; just under 30% of getting a pair of 6’s or better; and about a 63% chance of getting absolutely nothing.   So if you get the slightly more than 1 in 3 hands that pays, what can you expect?

Royal-500

Straight Flush-100

Four of a Kind-40

Full House-12

Flush-9

Straight-6

Three of a Kind-4

Two Pair-3

Pair (6’s or higher)-1.

Overall, this particular hand gives the house slightly over a 4% advantage.

So, here’s the basic strategy for the ante/play side of three card poker.  It’s pretty easy, and straight forward.

You should play if you have a Q/6/4 or better.

A few tricky points:  Any pair counts, even if your top card is lower than a Q.  Remember, we’re going by overall hand rank.

That being said, assuming that you don’t have a hand, hand rank goes by top card, then second  card, then third card.  S any hand containing a King is better than a Q/6/4.  A hand containing a Q/7/? is better than a Q/6/4.  And a hand with a Q/6/5 is obviously better than a Q/6/4.

On the other hand, a hand with a J/10/7 is lower than Q/6/4 even though two of the three cards are better.  Have fun, and good luck!

Jacks or Better is the most common, if not the most popular, version of video poker.  It is also the basis for most of the variations on the game.  So I figured a good place to start with video poker strategy would be with this game.  The strategy guide below is relatively easy to follow, but there are some more complicated (and higher paying) strategies that we’ll get to later.  The way this works is that I’ve ranked below all of the possible hands/ways to play them, in order of best to worst.  That is, if you have a hand which could be, for instance, either a pair or 4 to a flush, you look at the list below, and see which is higher, and hold those cards.  Let me know if you have any questions!

Four of a kind; straight flush; or a royal

Four to a royal

Three of a kind; straight; flush; or full house

Four to a straight flush

Two pair

Pair of Jacks or better
3 to a royal

4 to a flush

Pair of tens or lower

4 to an outside straight (four connected cards,excluding AKQJ or A234)

2 suited face cards

3 to a straight flush

2 unsuited face cards (hold the lowest two if you have more than two)

Suited 10/J; suited 10/Q; or suited 10/K

One jack or better

If you have none of these hands, you should discard the entire hand.  Hopefully this is helpful.  Let me know!

Alright.  Here’s my advice on the first round of Let it Ride, and when you should “Let It Ride” versus pulling your cards back.  By first round, I mean after you have dealt and looked at your three cards, but while the “dealer’s” cards are still face down.

If you have three cards which could make up a straight flush, “let it ride” when a) they are all connected (except A-2-3), b) Two or more of them are 10 or higher, or c) there is only one gap in between the numbers, and at least one is 10 or higher (8,9, j; 7,8, 10; 7,9,10). Obviously this rule includes 3 cards to a Royal.

Any hand which already contains a paying hand (10s or better, 3 of a kind), you should let it ride.

Any other hands, you should pull back your bet.

The only real factor in Keno (other than dumb luck) is how many numbers you pick and how much you bet.  Here’s my advice on strategies for keno.  The first piece is universal.

Look at the keno pay table where you are playing.  Sometimes there are weird quirks.  For instance, hitting 3 of 3 could actually pay less than hitting 4 of 4.  Why then would you try to get 4 of 4?  If there are quirks, or places that seem to pay more than they should given their difficulty, by all means, take full advantage of it.  Remember, though, that there are two factors.  first, there is the factor of maximum payout.  This is what hitting 1 of 1, 2 of 2, 4 of 4, etc. is.  How much does it pay if all of your numbers come up?  The second factor is the minimum “catches” you need to break even or get paid.  For instance, if you play 4 spots, do you need 1 or 2 numbers to get your bet back?   Remember to take both factors into account.

Which brings me to my next point.  Before you play keno, know your goal.  Are you trying to pass some time, and looking to stay in the game for a while?  Or are you pursuing the unlikely possibility that you’ll hit a big jackpot, and then planning on walking away?

If you plan on sitting with your keno cards for a while, you should look for numbers that have low minimum catches to break even or win.  For instance, if you play 10 spots and need 4 catches to win, or 11 spots and need 4 catches to win, it is easier to get 4 out of 11 of your numbers than 4 out of 10.  Take advantage and play 11-spot, even if the in between and high end payouts (10/10 and 11/11) are slanted dramatically toward playing 10-spot.

If on the other hand, you’re looking to win or lose big, and are okay with getting up and leaving shortly either way, you want to do the opposite.  Say that the payouts for 11/11 and 12/12 are the same, but you only need 4 numbers to break even either way.  Ignore the minimum number of catches.  They’re not going to be the jackpot you’re looking for, right?  Play games with a higher maximum payout.  And, in general, bet more numbers.

There’s no real “winning” strategy in a game like Keno, but you certainly can adjust your style of play to fit your personal ambitions.