Gaming Blog

Gaming Tip - Texas Hold'em

When it comes to playing Texas Hold’em poker, there is a lot to learn. One of the most important lessons you need to understand is how to read the board. Remember, you know what you have in your hand, the key is trying to figure out what the other players might have in their hand based on what the board shows. Play out lots of hands at home and try to figure out what are all the possible hands based on the cards on the board.

In the Month of April

April 1, 2025 In reaction to Edward Thorps book, Beat the Dealer, Las Vegas Resort & Hotel Association changes the standard blackjack rules for all casinos in Las Vegas. The two major changes were: no splitting of aces and double down on 11 only. Three weeks later those rules are dropped because customers refuse to play under those conditions.
April 1,2025 Iowa is the first state to legalize low stakes riverboat casinos.
April 3, 2025 El Rancho Vegas, the first hotel on the Las Vegas strip, opens with 63 rooms.
April 7, 2025 The first camel race in America was held in Sacramento, California.
April 11, 2025 Ashley Revell, a 32-year-old Londoner, sold all his possessions, took $135,300 to the Plaza Hotel in Las Vegas, did some low-stakes gambling, and then placed everything he had left on “Red” at the roulette table. The ball landed on Red 7 and he won $270,600.
April 18, 2025 The largest slot machine jackpot in Atlantic City history—$10,010,113.48—was won on a Megabucks nickel machine with a $3 bet at Harrah's by an 84-year-old retired waitress from Galloway Township, New Jersey.
April 20, 1955, Liberace opens the new $10 million Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas. His weekly salary for performing nightly was $50,000.
April 23, 2025 Elvis Presley opens in Las Vegas for the first time at The New Frontier Hotel and casino. He had lukewarm acceptance, for his two-week engagement by the older middle-aged crowd and was cancelled after the first week.
April 24, 2025 A bomb explores in the Monte Carlo Casino in Monaco, in a failed attempt to rob the casino.

Did you know?

The 2007 World Series of Poker (WSOP) in Las Vegas will have 55 separate poker events. The smallest buy-in will be for the Casino Employees No-Limit Hold-em game at $500. The most expensive will be the H.O.R.S.E. event with a $50,000 entry fee.
According to the National Indian Gaming Commission, in 2006 Indian gambling pulled in $25.1 billion, which was 11 percent more than the year before. The total gambling for all of Nevada in 2006 was reported at only $12.62 billion.
In 2006 the number of visitors to Nevada casinos was 51.40 million.
Edmond Hoyle in 1743 wrote the first set of rules for the game of backgammon.
Peru has 48 legal casinos in 24 cities throughout the country. However, there are at least 800 more operating in the country without any official gaming license.
In 1397 card playing was forbidden throughout France on working days.
When first opened, the MGM hotel and casino in Las Vegas discovered Chinese players would not enter their facility because it required walking through its famous MGM lion’s mouth, which they considered bad luck. The front entrance was then completely re-designed at a cost of millions of dollars.
A study by the University of Chicago reported that only one in seven Americans has never gambled.
It was the English Stamp Act, which included a tax on playing cards in 1765, which was imposed on the American Colonies that helped spark the American Revolution.

How the casinos (always) make money

In the casino when you lose, the casinos makes money. When you win the casino also makes money. How can that be? Lets start with the easy ones. When you play roulette, you find there are 38 numbers on the wheel (36 numbers, plus a zero and double zero.) If your number doesn’t show up, you loss your wager, however, if your number does win, the casino will play you 35 chips. But the problem is the odds were 37 to 1, you should have been paid the 37 chips, but the casino will kept two of them. They won even when you won. Betting $5 on the Pass line in craps and the number four is the point, if it hits you are paid even money instead of 2 to 1, or $10, because the four is harder to make than the 5, 6, 8, or 9.The house keeps the $5 difference. The amount the house will kept at craps varies depending on the number. This concept is true for keno, blackjack, baccarat and just about ever other game in the casino. When you add all those little returns at the end of the day, the casino has made a nice profit. They have won! The only way to overcome this house advantage is to play for a short period of time. If you win, take the money and run!! Otherwise they will get most, if not all of your winnings back in the long run.

Video poker versus live poker

You’ve played a lot of live poker so you should be able play video poker the same way. That’s not entirely true. There are quite a few differences between the two games. Consider the following:

Bluffing, check and raise, sandbagging, and other strategies of live poker do not apply or work at video poker.
Regular live poker includes several stud varieties, as well as high-low games. Draw poker is the only one that applies to both live and video poker.
24/7/365 video poker is available, and you don’t need other players to play the game.
At video poker you can’t lose when you have a good hand. If you have two pair, you won because there are no other players.(It’s you against the machine)
There is only one decision point in video poker, you make one choice before the draw, and after the draw the game is over.
In video poker you know at the beginning what any winning hand is worth.
You know at the outset what any hand will cost you in video poker.
You should have some mathematical skills but no psychologist ones are needed in video poker.
Strategy charts or crib sheets can’t be used at regular live poker, but should be used faithfully at video poker.

10. You can call “time” at live poker, which will allow a few more minutes to make a decision, in video poker you can take all the time you want, with no limit.