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 #9

Edition Date: Apr 1, 2000

First of all, thanks for providing reliable gambling info. You are one of only about 4 or 5 sites on the net doing so. In your opinion, is it possible that a mathematically sound method (card counting etc.) could ever be devised to give a positive expectation in baccarat? There has recently been some speculation (and wild claims) on the bj21 ’other games’ forum.
— Gavin Parnell from Bury, St Edmunds, England

Every respectable gaming analyst that I know of who has studied baccarat has come to the conclusion that only with a very wide betting spread (like 100 to 1) could the player gain a very small edge by card counting. The potential advantage by card counting is much better in blackjack and with less risk. I went to bj21.com to see the discussion you mentioned and not surprisingly the person making these claims was secretive about his system and had only his own limited experience as evidence.

What is the value of the blackjack system called "Mastering the Flow?" It’s marketed via an infomercial, and the website is www.changetheodds.com. It claims not to be a counting system, yet the vague description of the system that the website gives makes it sound like counting to me. The claims are pretty out-there: "Win every time" etc. I count cards (using the KO PREFERRED), and understand that this new "system" has to be either a simplistic count strategy, or a scam. Would you look into it for us, the gullible public?
— Michael Graves from Henderson, Nevada

I had a look at the web site and also found that little he says about the theory behind his system makes it sound like card counting. However I’m deeply skeptical of anything that claims to "blow old fashioned card counting away." I think we can file this under "If it sounds too good to be true is probably is."

Recently, I visited one of the Indian casinos in our state (had an out-of-towner visiting.) They have Let It Ride, however, the payoff is only 500 to 1 on the Royal Flush. I would like to know what that does to the vig on the game?
— Gary from Albuquerque, New Mexico

This increases the house edge from 3.5056792% to 3.73654%.

One thing I don’t notice on your site about online gambling is the legality of it. I understand that in some locations it is illegal to gamble online and many of the online casinos are actually offshore.
— Dave from Gaithersburg, Maryland

The way I see it the legality of online gambling in the US is in legal limbo. There are laws that prohibit gambling in all but licensed establishments. However it could also be argued that the gambling is not taking place in the US but wherever the server for the casino is, usually the Caribbean or Central America. Probably the better answer is that it doesn’t matter. As long as you’re not hurting anyone but yourself and no government authority is stopping you then I say don’t let the legality stop you.

I was recently told a story that I could not believe!! A friend of mine told me that at a friendly poker game at his house, he and his friend both pulled a natural straight flush in the same hand without drawing any cards!! (in five card draw) I find this hard to believe and from your site i computed the odds of one straight flush to be approx 65,000 to one, what would the odds of 2 in one hand be with 6 players in the game (without drawing any cards??)
— R.E. from New York

I’m going to give an approximate answer by assuming that each player was dealt a hand from a separate deck. This should not change the odds much. The probability of any one player drawing a straight flush as found in my section on probabilities in poker is 36/2,598,960. Lets call this probability p. The probability of two players drawing a straight flush is combin(6,2)*p²*(1-p)⁴ = .0000000028779. In other words the odds against this happeneing are 347,477,740 to 1.

Any tips on money management in blackjack? - I usually double after a win, go back to my original bet after 3 wins (or any loss), and play the game according to the book. I usually do pretty well, but it’s slow and steady and not very exciting. Any tips?
— Jackblack from New Jersey

I don’t put a lot of emphasis on betting systems. In the long run you will lose the same percentage of money bet no matter what system you use. So my advice is use a system that maximizes the fun of the game. If you use anything more exciting you will need to increase your betting spread which is more risky. It is up to you to find a balance between fun and risk.


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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 #9 Edition Date: Apr 1, 2000 First of all, thanks for providing reliable gambling info. You are one of only about 4 or 5 sites on the net doing so. In your opinion, is it possible that a mathematically sound method (card counting etc.) could ever be devised to give a positive expectation in baccarat? There has recently been some speculation (and wild claims) on the bj21 ’other games’ forum. — Gavin Parnell from Bury, St Edmunds, England Every respectable gaming analyst that I know of who has studied baccarat has come to the conclusion that only with a very wide betting spread (like 100 to 1) could the player gain a very small edge by card counting. The potential advantage by card counting is much better in blackjack and with less risk. I went to bj21.com to see the discussion you mentioned and not surprisingly the person making these claims was secretive about his system and had only his own limited experience as evidence. What is the value of the blackjack system called "Mastering the Flow?" It’s marketed via an infomercial, and the website is www.changetheodds.com. It claims not to be a counting system, yet the vague description of the system that the website gives makes it sound like counting to me. The claims are pretty out-there: "Win every time" etc. I count cards (using the KO PREFERRED), and understand that this new "system" has to be either a simplistic count strategy, or a scam. Would you look into it for us, the gullible public? — Michael Graves from Henderson, Nevada I had a look at the web site and also found that little he says about the theory behind his system makes it sound like card counting. However I’m deeply skeptical of anything that claims to "blow old fashioned card counting away." I think we can file this under "If it sounds too good to be true is probably is." Recently, I visited one of the Indian casinos in our state (had an out-of-towner visiting.) They have Let It Ride, however, the payoff is only 500 to 1 on the Royal Flush. I would like to know what that does to the vig on the game? — Gary from Albuquerque, New Mexico This increases the house edge from 3.5056792% to 3.73654%. One thing I don’t notice on your site about online gambling is the legality of it. I understand that in some locations it is illegal to gamble online and many of the online casinos are actually offshore. — Dave from Gaithersburg, Maryland The way I see it the legality of online gambling in the US is in legal limbo. There are laws that prohibit gambling in all but licensed establishments. However it could also be argued that the gambling is not taking place in the US but wherever the server for the casino is, usually the Caribbean or Central America. Probably the better answer is that it doesn’t matter. As long as you’re not hurting anyone but yourself and no government authority is stopping you then I say don’t let the legality stop you. I was recently told a story that I could not believe!! A friend of mine told me that at a friendly poker game at his house, he and his friend both pulled a natural straight flush in the same hand without drawing any cards!! (in five card draw) I find this hard to believe and from your site i computed the odds of one straight flush to be approx 65,000 to one, what would the odds of 2 in one hand be with 6 players in the game (without drawing any cards??) — R.E. from New York I’m going to give an approximate answer by assuming that each player was dealt a hand from a separate deck. This should not change the odds much. The probability of any one player drawing a straight flush as found in my section on probabilities in poker is 36/2,598,960. Lets call this probability p. The probability of two players drawing a straight flush is combin(6,2)p²(1-p)⁴ = .0000000028779. In other words the odds against this happeneing are 347,477,740 to 1. Any tips on money management in blackjack? - I usually double after a win, go back to my original bet after 3 wins (or any loss), and play the game according to the book. I usually do pretty well, but it’s slow and steady and not very exciting. Any tips? — Jackblack from New Jersey I don’t put a lot of emphasis on betting systems. In the long run you will lose the same percentage of money bet no matter what system you use. So my advice is use a system that maximizes the fun of the game. If you use anything more exciting you will need to increase your betting spread which is more risky. It is up to you to find a balance between fun and risk.
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Ask the Wizard #9

Recently, I visited one of the Indian casinos in our state (had an out-of-towner visiting.) They have Let It Ride, however, the payoff is only 500 to 1 on the Royal Flush. I would like to know what that does to the vig on the game? — Gary from Albuquerque, New Mexico

One thing I don’t notice on your site about online gambling is the legality of it. I understand that in some locations it is illegal to gamble online and many of the online casinos are actually offshore. — Dave from Gaithersburg, Maryland

Any tips on money management in blackjack? - I usually double after a win, go back to my original bet after 3 wins (or any loss), and play the game according to the book. I usually do pretty well, but it’s slow and steady and not very exciting. Any tips? — Jackblack from New Jersey

Recently, I visited one of the Indian casinos in our state (had an out-of-towner visiting.) They have Let It Ride, however, the payoff is only 500 to 1 on the Royal Flush. I would like to know what that does to the vig on the game?
— Gary from Albuquerque, New Mexico

One thing I don’t notice on your site about online gambling is the legality of it. I understand that in some locations it is illegal to gamble online and many of the online casinos are actually offshore.
— Dave from Gaithersburg, Maryland

Any tips on money management in blackjack? - I usually double after a win, go back to my original bet after 3 wins (or any loss), and play the game according to the book. I usually do pretty well, but it’s slow and steady and not very exciting. Any tips?
— Jackblack from New Jersey