The Online Casino Gambling Blog

Here are some basic tips from experienced baccarat players directed mainly at intermediate players who are looking to improve their game. These tips will be helpful mainly if you already have a strong grasp on the rules of baccarat even if you have no experience.

- Be ready to risk an intermediate amount of your gambling budget – baccarat is a high limits game so your bankroll should be in the area of 20-50 units.
- Keep track of each decision with a scorecard in every baccarat game. Most players use P for player and B for bank to enable swift note taking.
- For the opening 20-30 hands of the shoe you should only bet single units.
- Keep an eye out for trends during those first 20-30 rounds.
- Never make tie bets in a baccarat game!
- Betting with the house is to your advantage if the commission is less than 5%.
- Betting with the player is to your advantage if the commission is more than 5%.
- After a three streak of Banco or Punto stop betting until the streak ends or change your bet to go with the streak – it is never wise to bet against a streak of Banco or Punto.
- If both Banco and Punto are participating on short streaks and you’re on a roll you should parley your bet twice and aim for a win of three hands in a row.
- If your luck isn’t so great you should bet on whichever side that won the last hand doesn’t win the next three in a row.

The best thing about baccarat is that it’s a lot easier than it looks to play. Most of the actual play is dictated by the rules and handled by the dealer, all you really need to be able to do is decide how much to bet.

Mini baccarat is much more popular than traditional baccarat which is actually more difficult and usually only played for very high stakes. Traditional baccarat requires the players to handle the cards themselves but beyond that they’re played about the same.

There’s not even a lot of strategizing to worry about in baccarat in general as there’s very little you can do to improve your chances of winning. Even the usually foolproof strategy of counting cards is useless to you here.

In baccarat kings, queens, jacks and 10s are all valued at 0, aces at 1 and all the other cards at face value. The object of the game is to pull a two or three card hand that adds up to 9 or as close to 9 as you can get. If your hand adds up to 10 or more, for example if you draw a 7 and a 6 giving you a hand of 13, 10 points are dropped off it thus leaving you with a 3. In baccarat there is no bust.

Play starts by dealing the Player and the Bank two cards apiece. If the player or the bank’s hands add up to 8 or 9 both hands will automatically stand. If the player has a 6 or 7 the player will stand. If the bank has a hand that equals to 5 and the player stands the bank draws a third card. If the bank has a 7 it is required to stand. If the player has a 5 or less then the player will draw another card. Any other combination the next move depends upon the value of the third card drawn by the player if the player chooses to draw. For a total of 0,1,2 or a total of 3 the bank will ask for a hit unless the third card drawn by the player brings that hand up to an 8. The bank will hit on a total of 4 if the player asked for a hit and the card was valued at 8,9 or 1. The bank will hit on a hand with a total of 5 if the player asked for a hit and the card was valued at 1,2,3,8,9 or 0. The bank will stand on a hand valued at a total of 6 unless the player has drawn a card valued at 6 or 7.

In baccarat you have three options for betting you can bet on the bank winning, you can bet on the player winning, or you can bet that both the hands will tie. The house edge on the bank depends on the house’s cut – a percentage of the bank’s winning is paid back to the house when the bank wins a bit, the house edge can be as low as .6% if the cut is 4%, however it’s more commonly 5% which gives the house an edge of 1.06%. For the bet on the player the house edge is usually 1.24%. Never bet the tie - depending on the pay out the tie bet can give the house an edge ranging between 5 to 14% thus the odds are much worse than betting on either the bank or the player. Unless you know where the 4% cut lies, bets on the bank or the player actually end up having about equal odds and are thus the better route to take.

Now you know how to play baccarat.

Roulette is a game based on simple math and as such it may seem like it should be quite easy to come up with a foolproof strategy for winning. In fact many people have made quite a tidy sum selling these roulette systems to unsuspecting gamblers. The best part for them is that casinos don’t care if you use a system to try to win at roulette because unlike card counting at blackjack there is no actual fool proof system for winning at roulette. Roulette is truly a game of chance, every spin of the wheel is completely independent of the previous spin so you can never 100% accurately predict where the ball will come to land.

Of course this doesn’t mean you cannot find a roulette strategy that can improve your game. Pick a strategy that works for you and stick with it, just be aware that it will not work every time. Also, a quick tip for beginners – no system you could hope to come up with will remove the advantage held by the house which is as high as 5.26% for the American wheel and 2.7% for the English roulette wheel.

Now that you’ve been warned against foolproof schemes here are a few tried and tested strategies that can help your game.

The following roulette system gives you a maximum loss of 21 units and a maximum win of 945 units. Begin by picking seven numbers and place a bet of a unit on each number. If they all lose repeat the bet up to three times on the same numbers. If you haven’t won anything in three spins then move on. If you do win bet the winnings on the same seven numbers. If you win again do the same. If you win for a fourth time it is time to quit and walk away.

The next system takes a little more time than the first but it has the possibility of being more profitable than the first. It is based on the fact that roulette table columns have slight deviations each contains three columns with twelve numbers each is one third of the field (not counting zeros). The first column holds six red and six black, the second four red and eight black and the third eight red and four black. First you must decide whether to bet on red or black (this is a 50/50 odds bet). If you bet on black then make an equal bet on the third column. If you get on red, make an equal bet on the second column. If only the column hits you make a unit of profit, if your color hits you break even on your bet, if both the column and the color come up you will make three units on your bet! So keep going until you’re really raking in the cash.

Finally, here’s the most important piece of advice anyone can give you for playing roulette or any other casino game – always quit while you’re ahead.

The first thing you have to understand about roulette is that roulette is truly a game based entirely on chance. Therefore no system or strategy can guarantee you a win at the roulette wheel if every spin of the wheel is completely independent of the one before it then there is no way of predicting where the ball will fall on the next one.

Now that we’ve got that clear, there are ways to improve your chance of winning in that not all roulette wheels are built the same. It would be advantageous for you to for example find a single zero wheel to play with or casinos that follow the “en prison” or surrender rules as these can make the house’s advantage to as low as 1.35%.

Now just because there’s no guaranteed winning roulette strategy doesn’t mean you just start playing the game without thinking about what you’re doing. Any successful gambler knows you need to go into any casino with a plan as to how you’re going to spend your money. Decide how you’re going to bet, some players place bets over half the board for each spin while others only bet on one slot for the ball to roll into. There’s no right or wrong way to play roulette so have fun. But be sure set yourself a loss limit before you even begin to play and if you unfortunately reach it then you have to be able to walk away as casinos have a way of making you spend a lot more money than you intended if you go in unprepared.

Once you have mastered standard blackjack, blackjack switch should be a snap for you to pick up. Blackjack switch follows the same rules as regular blackjack except you play two hands with equal opening bets at the same time (the right hand first and then the left).

Here’s the main variation on blackjack switch: of the two hands dealt you have the option to switch the two top cards you were dealt before you hit. This works out very nicely in your favor if you were say given an 6 and a 9 as your top two cards and then a 9 and a 5 as your second cards. So now you’ve two hands that are a 6 and a 9 and a 9 and a 5, neither is really conducive to hitting a Blackjack. But if you were to switch them you’d have two hands that were a 9 and a 9, and a 5 and a 6 much more conducive to winning.

There is also the option of a “Super Match” bet in blackjack switch. This is a bet that wins if a player’s first four cards contain two or more matching cards. This is a nice little benefit to the game.

Blackjack Switch has its counter points though a Blackjack only plays 1:1 instead of 3:2 like it would in the regular game, however there is also a greater chance of getting a Blackjack with the added cards. In Blackjack Switch the dealer always hits soft 17. The dealer doesn’t bust with a total of 22 like in regular blackjack, if the dealer gets dealt a 22 the hand is then considered a push the only exception of course being a Blackjack which always wins out.

So you sit down at the blackjack table, you’re dealt your hand and all of a sudden you get the notion that this is a bad hand. What can you do? You’re going to lose all that money unless you do something! If you find yourself in this position you can use the lesser-known move of surrendering. If you surrender you can fold at half the cost of the bet you put down so a $100 bet becomes a $50 loss instead of the full amount.

Surrendering is not to be taken lightly, and the option is not offered at every table. It is an action that must be taken at once – if you have drawn, split or doubled down then you have forfeited your right to surrender.

You can surrender in one of two ways in blackjack – before the dealer checks his hand for a blackjack (which is called early surrender) or after the dealer has checked his hand for a blackjack (this is called late surrender). The kind of surrender depends on the table you are at. Most tables if they offer the option will offer a late surrender option as this gives the house the advantage. Early surrender is more beneficial to the player.

Knowing when to use the surrender option is a very valuable tool to have in your blackjack arsenal.

Video Slot Machines are essentially governed by the same principles of actual slot machines – a random number generator picks the combination of symbols to be displayed resulting in a loss for the player (more likely) or a win (less likely) depending upon the preset payoff percentage built into the game. The tips for real slot machines are thus applicable to video slots as well with a few minor changes.

1. Read all the rules for video slot machines – the rules, payouts and bonuses may be different than the ones you are accustomed to on actual slot machines. Also, like regular slots, some machines won’t pay out jackpots unless you’re playing with the maximum coins.

2. Don’t think the machines work logically. Just because a machine hits a jackpot on this play doesn’t mean it is more or less likely to hit another on the next play. Don’t sit there thinking you’re due a pay off because you’ve been playing for a long time or the machine has taken x amount of your money.

3. Don’t stay at a machine that isn’t giving you payouts, move on if after three or four spins you haven’t won anything yet. Finding the slot machines with the higher preset payoff percentage gives you a better chance at winning more.

So why play the video slots if they’re the same as the actual slot machines? Well for the most part it’s personal preference. Video slot players actually win more often than actual machine but video slot machines also tend to have smaller payoffs. Some people enjoy the special features found on video slot machines like bonus screens, special features and animations. Virtual slot machines often allow players to make smaller bets, sometimes even as low as pennies a spin. They also let you make multiple line bets with multiple denominations per line. But beware if you’re making multiple line bets don’t get carried away when making multiple line bets at multiple coins a line if you end up making five line bets with five coins a line that’s $1.25 on a five cents a spin machine.

So if you don’t want to leave the house but still want to play the slots, if you enjoy bonus screens and animations and winning more often even if it’s a smaller pay off then video slot machines are the online game for you.

Firstly, there is no real winning slot machine strategy and anyone who tells you otherwise is mistaken or lying. However, there are some general guidelines that can be used to improve your chance at winning when playing the slots that you will find in this article.1. Know the game you’re playing. There are innumerable variations on the basic slot machine each with its own rules and jackpots that can be different in the extreme from the last game of slots you played even if the machine looks all but identical. So player be wary and always read through the posted game rules before you put your money in.2. Decide on your limits before you start playing – your overall loss limit (how much you’re comfortable losing) and your spin without a win limit (how many rounds on the machine you’re willing to take without a payoff). For the first note well that Casinos want to take your money from you, they make profit more if you gamble wildly and without thought. If you have a preset limit of how much you’re willing to gamble then you won’t find yourself without your rent money at the end of the night. As for the second limit – the whole point of gambling is to win money if a machine has gone through three or four spins with you without a pay off then you should switch machines. Note well that every spin of a slot machine is independent of previous spins so if a machine makes you lose three times in a row this absolutely does not mean it’s going to give you a jackpot anytime soon to make up for it

At Craps you can either be a Right Player or a Wrong Player but fear not, neither of those designations refers to whether you win or not. A Right player bets with the dice, hoping the numbers will repeat featuring a lot of sevens and elevens. The right player wants the dice to pass and so bets with the dice.

However, your odds are about the same betting for or against the dice thus it doesn’t matter if you’re a “Wrong Player” or a “Right Player” as it’s equally likely the dice won’t feature a lot of sevens and elevens. Casino Craps is not a game of skill, it can only be won by luck. However this doesn’t mean you should play without any thought at all, after all if you make imprudent bets where the house has an advantage over you then it’s highly unlikely you will walk away from the craps table a winner.

The smartest way to play is to only place bets that give the house a minimum of advantage over you. This means making a passline wager and taking the maximum odds on a point if a point has been established. Now if you are unsure what the minimum bet you can make on an odds bet you can always consult the dealer.

If you’re feeling a little bit more adventurous you can instead make a come bet or two taking the maximum free-odds. With this bet if you hit a lucky roll of the dice you can win quite a pretty penny and you’re only giving the house 0.8% in a single odds craps game or 0.6% in a double odds game.

This type of betting of course makes you a ‘tough player’ because you’re giving the house little advantage by making the best and smartest bets. If you follow this method and lady luck smiles on you, you can walk out of that casino with a very nice hand of cash.

Experts at the blackjack tables often rack up unimaginable winnings by employing a very simple method to predict their likelihood of winning – they keep track of the cards already played out. This is called card counting and while a lucrative strategy, if caught the player is often barred from playing at that casino and most likely will not receive their winnings.The detailed semantics of the blackjack card counting strategy will not be covered in this article beyond the obvious statements – a deck where many of the smaller cards (2s through 7s) have already been dealt out is of course favorable to the player whereas a deck where many of the 10-value cards and aces have already been dealt is favorable to the house.In a

single deck blackjack game any player who is watching the game closely can get a good idea of the cards left in the pack. Say in the first round the scenario occurs where mainly aces and tens were dealt, the player who is paying close attention will immediately know the deck is unfavorable to the players and will subsequently pull out of further rounds. If the opposite were to happen where mainly smaller number cards were dealt in the opening round then the player will know it would be in his or her favor to stay in the game for further rounds as they have stumbled upon a favorable deck.This attentive player would then sensibly raise the bet when the first round leads to a favorable deck and lower the bet when the first round held a higher proportion of tens and aces.