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Reason #4 why the Wizard likes Bovada:

One-Stop Shopping

Bovada offers the triple crown of gambling: casino, poker, and sports. Many other casinos have tacked on poker as an afterthought, and many poker rooms have tacked on a casino as an afterthought, and the lack of attention shows, sometimes painfully. And very few of these sites let you make sports wagers.

But Bovada doesn’t just offer all three, they do each one well, and everything’s integrated. It’s easy to play all three off one deposit, off just one account.

Another nice thing about Bovada is that you don’t need a separate account to play casino games with fake money. In fact you do not even need an account for that at all, you can just click over there and play. Finally, Bovada usernames are only six or seven characters long making them possible to remember. By contrast some competitors’ usernames are extremely long and cumbersome.

Visit Bovada

Ask the Wizard #23

Edition Date: Aug 20, 2000

What are the odds (and frequency) in 100,000 rolls of the dice (craps/dont pass line) of losing a DP bet 2x’s.3x’s 4x’s 5x’s 6x’s 7x’s 8x’s or 9x’s in a row.
— Derick from Minneapolis, USA

My craps appendix shows how to work out the odds for any one bet. There you will see the probability of losing the don’t pass bet is 2928/5940. The probability of losing n bets in a row is (2928/5940)n. The frequency in 100,000 of losing n is a row is 100,000 * (2928/5940)n, assuming that each roll is the beginning of a new sequence. In other words counting overlapping DP streaks. Note that this also counts ties as breaking a series.

 

I just have a couple more questions for you and then I wont bug you again for a really long time. Promise. : 0 ). What the jackpot would have to be on a 8/5 20 nickel game for it to be a 100% game, keeping in mind that it takes 20 nickels to be eligible for the jackpot? What about the same machine on a 7/5 game? And finally, what would it have to be on an 8/5 quarter machine that requires 8 coins to be eligible for the jackpot. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank you for your sage advice. It has made gambling a lot more enjoyable!
— Vladimir

You’re welcome! In an 8/5 game the jackpot would have to reach 37,704 coins to reach 100%, assuming you have to play 20 coins to win it. Assuming only 8 coins the meter would have to reach 15,082 coins. On a 7/5 machine and 20 coins required the meter would have to reach 46,956 coins. These figures assume you are playing the proper strategy for these paytables with a per coin payoff for a royal flush of 800. As the jackpot grows some strategy adjustments are called for to more aggressively try for the royal. These adjustments were not calculated in this answer. It doesn’t make any difference what the coinage is.

 

I have just started gambling online and I am having a difficult time believing that these online casinos are really fair. although I have tried just three different casinos, they seem to be very hard to beat. I am a fairly consistent winner in Vegas at Blackjack, but these online guys are tough. So the question is-- are the online Blackjack games really fair. Thanks and by the way, I really enjoy your site. I have learned a great deal and am looking forward to applying some of your knowlege during my next trip to Vegas. Thanks again!!
— Larry R. from Nucla, USA

Thanks for your kind words. I think that the vast majority on online casinos are fair. However I won’t claim that all of them are. Check out my casino blacklist for casinos I had problems with. Assuming you aren’t playing one of the few bad ones I would suggest your losing is just the result of bad luck.

 

What is a put bet in craps?
— Tony L.

A put bet is a pass or come bet made after a point has already been established. Making this bet is not a good idea. The odds of winning a pass or come bet on the first roll are greater than losing, thus it would be foolish to give up this first roll. However if you absolutely must cover a certain number and the the table allows a large multiple on the odds, like 10X, then a put bet backed up with maximum odds may be a better bet than a buy or place bet, depending on the number and the multiple allowed.

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