Reason #3 why the Wizard likes Bovada:

Excellent Odds

In my opinion many online casinos are too stingy when setting the odds on their games. They think they will make more money that way but I believe they are misguided, because when players lose too quickly it’s not fun, and those players might not come back.

Bovada is one of the few casinos that understands this. They offer generous odds to let you play longer and get you a better chance of winning. Among their generous offerings are Full-Pay Jacks or Better returning 99.54%, six other video poker games paying over 99%, single-zero roulette, and my favorite, Pick ’em Poker, returning 99.95%!

Kudos to Bovada for not being afraid to give their players a good gamble.

More about Bovada

Visit Bovada

Ask the Wizard #24

Edition Date: Aug 27, 2000

I liked your article about the cancellation betting system. What sort of a cancellation system would you follow if instead of betting on either black or red, you placed a bet (of the same amount) on two of the three blocks that cover 12 numbers (e.g: 1 to 12 & 25 to 36) on each roll?
— Bob

Start the same way as I explained with even money bets. Each bet should be the sum of the left and right numbers. However following your two column strategy you should add double the amount to the right if you lose.

Your Spanish 21 basic strategy at your web site gives the opposite tables for dealer hitting soft 21 and standing on soft 21 from those given in Casino Player September edition. Casino Player magazine gives table 1 for dealer hitting a soft 17 and table 2 for standing. Your web site gives the opposite charts. Which is correct? Also, hard 17 vs. dealer ace says surrender on first 2 cards, otherwise hit. Do you hit hard 17 vs. ace?
— Rod from Newburgh, USA

Casino Player reversed the two charts in their layout. I’m very embarrassed by this mistake. Yes, you should hit a hard 17 against an ace if you can’t surrender.

How do you get your odds software for seven card stud?
— Ron from Orlando, U.S.

I wrote a program in C++ to test all combin(52,7)=133,784,560 ways to arrange 7 cards out of 52. For each one I formed all combin(7,5)=21 ways to arrange 5 out of 7. Then I scored each one of these hands. The highest score of the 21 ways was the value of the 7 card hand. So overall I had to score over 2.8 billion hands, this took the computer all night if I remember correctly.

Is there a way casinos can change the odds of a standard video poker. For example can the game be programmed to allow certain cards be duplicated to create a lower probability outcome or are the odds the same for every poker game and casinos just change the payout table to lower the payout.
— James from U.S.

The casinos just change the payout table to lower or raise the odds. The cards are dealt fairly.

First off-- great web site! I love it! In Reno I saw a game with the following rules: six decks, dealer hits soft 17, double after a split, resplit anything except aces, and the player could double on any number of cards. For example the player could draw to a 4 card total of 11 and then double? What is the house edge on this game?
— Andrew from Solovay

According to Stanford Wong’s Casino Edge software the house edge under these rules is 0.39%. The rule allowing doubling on any number of cards lowers the house edge by 0.24%. However note that they slipped in the rule that the dealer hits a soft 17, this increases the house edge by 0.22%. So you are only 0.02% better off than a regular six deck game where the dealer stands on soft 17.


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Reason #3 why the Wizard likes Bovada: Excellent Odds In my opinion many online casinos are too stingy when setting the odds on their games. They think they will make more money that way but I believe they are misguided, because when players lose too quickly it’s not fun, and those players might not come back. Bovada is one of the few casinos that understands this. They offer generous odds to let you play longer and get you a better chance of winning. Among their generous offerings are Full-Pay Jacks or Better returning 99.54%, six other video poker games paying over 99%, single-zero roulette, and my favorite, Pick ’em Poker, returning 99.95%! Kudos to Bovada for not being afraid to give their players a good gamble. More about Bovada Visit Bovada	Ask the Wizard #24 Edition Date: Aug 27, 2000 I liked your article about the cancellation betting system. What sort of a cancellation system would you follow if instead of betting on either black or red, you placed a bet (of the same amount) on two of the three blocks that cover 12 numbers (e.g: 1 to 12 & 25 to 36) on each roll? — Bob Start the same way as I explained with even money bets. Each bet should be the sum of the left and right numbers. However following your two column strategy you should add double the amount to the right if you lose. Your Spanish 21 basic strategy at your web site gives the opposite tables for dealer hitting soft 21 and standing on soft 21 from those given in Casino Player September edition. Casino Player magazine gives table 1 for dealer hitting a soft 17 and table 2 for standing. Your web site gives the opposite charts. Which is correct? Also, hard 17 vs. dealer ace says surrender on first 2 cards, otherwise hit. Do you hit hard 17 vs. ace? — Rod from Newburgh, USA Casino Player reversed the two charts in their layout. I’m very embarrassed by this mistake. Yes, you should hit a hard 17 against an ace if you can’t surrender. How do you get your odds software for seven card stud? — Ron from Orlando, U.S. I wrote a program in C++ to test all combin(52,7)=133,784,560 ways to arrange 7 cards out of 52. For each one I formed all combin(7,5)=21 ways to arrange 5 out of 7. Then I scored each one of these hands. The highest score of the 21 ways was the value of the 7 card hand. So overall I had to score over 2.8 billion hands, this took the computer all night if I remember correctly. Is there a way casinos can change the odds of a standard video poker. For example can the game be programmed to allow certain cards be duplicated to create a lower probability outcome or are the odds the same for every poker game and casinos just change the payout table to lower the payout. — James from U.S. The casinos just change the payout table to lower or raise the odds. The cards are dealt fairly. First off-- great web site! I love it! In Reno I saw a game with the following rules: six decks, dealer hits soft 17, double after a split, resplit anything except aces, and the player could double on any number of cards. For example the player could draw to a 4 card total of 11 and then double? What is the house edge on this game? — Andrew from Solovay According to Stanford Wong’s Casino Edge software the house edge under these rules is 0.39%. The rule allowing doubling on any number of cards lowers the house edge by 0.24%. However note that they slipped in the rule that the dealer hits a soft 17, this increases the house edge by 0.22%. So you are only 0.02% better off than a regular six deck game where the dealer stands on soft 17.
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Ask the Wizard #24

I liked your article about the cancellation betting system. What sort of a cancellation system would you follow if instead of betting on either black or red, you placed a bet (of the same amount) on two of the three blocks that cover 12 numbers (e.g: 1 to 12 & 25 to 36) on each roll? — Bob

How do you get your odds software for seven card stud? — Ron from Orlando, U.S.

I liked your article about the cancellation betting system. What sort of a cancellation system would you follow if instead of betting on either black or red, you placed a bet (of the same amount) on two of the three blocks that cover 12 numbers (e.g: 1 to 12 & 25 to 36) on each roll?
— Bob

How do you get your odds software for seven card stud?
— Ron from Orlando, U.S.