October 5, 2003
Real Time Gaming rule change
Be careful when doubling or splitting against a dealer ace at Real Time Gaming casinos. Many RTG casinos now follow the old Boss Media rule of not peeking for blackjack unless the player takes insurance. This rule results in the unusual situation in which taking insurance is sometimes worth the cost of being allowed to double or split safely, knowing the dealer does not have blackjack. The new basic strategy, based on four decks, can be found with my Real Time Gaming review and details on how I did the calculations are in the appendix.
Biloxi Visit
I have been invited to speak at another actuarial conference, this time in New Orleans November 10-12. After I'm done with New Orleans I'll visit Biloxi, probably Nov 12-14. Not only have I never seen these casinos before but have never been anywhere along the gulf coast in my life, so I'm looking forward to having a new experience.
Slot machine thieves
I often tie up two video poker machines at once, not to play both at the same time but rather to play one while I'm waiting on drawing tickets or hopper fills for the other one. When playing in downtown Las Vegas I notice that people often try to sit down at the machine I am not playing. Thinking they innocently didn't notice I had credit on the machine I politely ask them to play another machine. However an incident at the Four Queens caused me to rethink the motives of at least some of these people.
A friend and I were playing the 10/7 double bonus machines at the Four Queens. My friend asked me to watch his machine while he went to the men's room. Evidently I was concentrating too much because I suddenly heard coins dropping into the tray of my friend's machine. I turned to ask why he was cashing out so soon and saw a scraggly looking older man collecting the tokens. To make a long story short the head of security and at least three guards came over to see what the dispute was about. They ended up leading the alleged thief away, probably to read him the trespass act.
So the moral of this story is to keep a close on any machine you have money in that you are not sitting at. It helps to put cups on the seat and the deal button.
Casino.net
With the new month I made some advertising changes at WizardOfOdds.com. Casino Tropez, Casino del Rio, and iNetBet are gone. New are City Club and Casino.net. I may be running a special mailer for City Club soon, so you might want to hold off playing there to see if I can offer something better than their usual offer.
Meanwhile I would encourage you to consider playing at Casino.net. This may be the first time a Boss Media casino has ever been advertised on my site, and certainly the first since the re-launch of my site earlier this year. Boss Media casinos in my opinion are among the most reputable in the industry however they tend to not be very generous with bonuses. Casino.net is a welcome exception, with a nice 25% bonus on your first purchase up to $800, or $20, whichever is greater. In the short time since I played there myself I have been offered $500 in additional bonuses. All games are allowed and the play requirement is 10x deposit plus bonus. Personally I won $1232 on the initial promotion, including the bonus, but lost $446 playing a subsequent promotion.
If you have never played an Internet casino this would be a very safe one to test the waters with.
Thanks for reading. Until next time, set your expectations high.