Category: Gambling and Casinos

Some of the new slot machines have so many side games that they are confusing. It almost becomes a game of inserting your money, hitting a button, and seeing what happens. If you want to have fun, and know what you’re doing, Bank on It may be just the ticket.

No, Bank on It doesn’t have 293 reels and 216 bonus games. It’s a solid 3-reel game and the pay table is easy to understand. As with any great slot machine, you can play multiple denominations and there’s a bonus. Bank on It has five denominations-nickel, quarter, fifty cents, dollar and five dollar.

Do you hate seeing all blanks on the pay line? Not any more! In Bank on It, when you get three blanks on the pay-line, the coins you played are put into a bank. It’s called the “Piggy Bank.” The game puts 150 coins into the piggy bank to start out and the bank keeps increasing every time you get three blanks on the pay-line.

To break the piggy bank you need to get three little piggies. Bank on It has a wild symbol too and that can count as a piggy. The bank is a nice addition and a welcomed side game.

As with any slot machine, you’ll need to play max coins to hit the jackpot. Bank on It takes three coins to max it out. Once you’re maxed, start praying for the three red 7’s, because that’s the magical combination that will unlock the big payday.

Game Play

Playing Bank on It is incredibly easy. It’s not filled with tons of frills. After picking your denomination, you pick the number of coins to play. I never advocate playing anything less than the maximum. If you’re not going to max the machine out, why play? The goal is to hit the jackpot and you can’t do that on any slot machine without going all out.

I like Bank on It, because it’s your typical 3-coin max. You won’t need to put in 15-20 coins or more like other slot machines.

After putting in your coins, just hit the button to spin those wheels. The pay table is easy to understand and it’s right on the machine. You won’t need sub-screens to figure out how to win. There’s one pay-line, just like the good ole’ days.

Once the wheels come to a stop, you’ve won or lost. There aren’t any side games to Bank on It other than the piggy bank feature.

Bottom Line

If you want a simple slot machine, this is it. The machine has three reels, three coins max, one pay-line and one side game. It’s very simple, but it’s fun to play.

I’ve yet to pick up a good book on gambling that didn’t talk about bankroll creation and management. It’s that important. Even the lightest of books has a page or two devoted to it-regardless of the book’s game topic.

Unfortunately, the topic of creating and managing a bankroll can quickly become a complicated one. I’ve broken this article about money management down to two main segments-session money management and seasonal money management. I’ll go over some light information on each to give you a real head’s up. Let’s get into money management.

Managing your money by the session

This is the most popular method and best for those not betting on sports-Blackjack, Craps, Roulette, Poker, etc. Session management can get so detailed; you’ll need a PhD to follow it all. But, we’re not going that deep.

Basically, it’s like this. Before you go to play in the casino, you set limits. How much are you willing to lose? And you have to stick to it. So, let’s say Charlie is about to walk into the Win Here casino to play some Craps. He might set a loss limit of $100. His bankroll is now $100.

Ah, but wait. Charlie also needs to see a win cap. Yep, you’ve got to cap your wins and leave before it all goes bye-bye. Keep this realistic. For instance, if you set the win cap at $200, you’d leave when your bankroll equals $200, which would be a $100 gain-or a 100% increase. Anything more than 200% is highly unrealistic.

Most people fail at both ends of session management, but the win cap kills almost everyone. They are winning, so why love? Yes, why leave? Why not stay until you’ve lost it all back?

Managing your money by the season

No, I’m not referring to spring, summer, fall and winter. I’m talking about sports seasons-or anything else that lasts more than one session. Actually, a gambling marathon would apply too.

It works the same as session management, except that you’re setting a loss and win cap for the entire season-and thus, the amount is larger. In fact, you might not even have the money in your possession.

Let’s try an example. Charlie is a hard-working guy. He lives paycheck to paycheck, but loves betting football. He decides that he can afford to lose about $100 a week for the entire season. Figuring in playoffs and the Super Bowl, he sets a seasonal bankroll of $2,300.

He doesn’t have $2,300 right now, but he has the initial $100 to get going. So each week he now knows that he has $100 to spend. Additionally, he set a win cap at $3,500. If his bankroll ever hits $3,500, he’s out. Be smart with your money. You’ll have more fun and you could take more home in the process.

For a game where most players rarely consider luck, there are lots of superstitions in poker. When you mention that someone was lucky in that poker tournament they won, be careful of how you say it. For instance, if you mention that you were unlucky, your luck may never change.

Ok, that may sound a bit ubsurd, but poker is a game loaded with superstitions. Did you know that if you are playing a game with two seperate decks and you are asked to pick the deck, you should always pick the deck of cards that is furthest from you? Or, how about If you get a run of bad cards, you must sit on a hankerchief to break your bad luck? It’s actually considered good luck to blow through a deck of cards while they are being shuffled.

Some other fascinating poker superstitions are:

• You can change the run of cards by walking around your chair three times.
• The luckiest seat at the poker table faces the door.
• The unluckiest seat has it’s back to a fireplace.
• When changing seats, you should always do so clockwise.
• The unluckiest poker card is the four of clubs.
• It’s very unlucky to sit with your legs crossed at the poker table.
• Friday is a bad day for playing cards.
• The 13th is also a bad day, regardless of what day of the week it is.

For being such a game full of skill, many people still hold on to the old superstitions.

If you aren’t familiar with bad beat jackpots, let me explain. In most brick and mortar casinos there is a progressive jackpot that builds over time, called the bad beat jackpot. Poker rooms usually take out a dollar or two out of every raked pot and put it into? the bad beat jackpot.

The rules for hitting the jackpot are different in each casino. At some casinos you only need Aces full of Jacks or better beaten, while some casinos offer even harder beats such as a four of a kind beaten. In most card rooms, you must also be playing at a limit table. No limit games generally don’t qualify, as the jackpot would be hit much more frequently with players constantly all in and seeing every card the board has to offer. When a bad beat happens and is verified, everyone gets paid.

The structure for a bad beat jackpot payout also varies from casino to casino. It is common to see the losing hand receive 40% of the jackpot, the winning hand receive 25% of the jackpot, the rest of the table split 15% of the jackpot, and the rest of the poker room split the remaining 20%. As you can see, when someone hits a jackpot, there is plenty of room for everyone to celebrate.

In the last four years I’ve played countless hours of poker in casinos in Missouri, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, and Oklahoma and had never experienced a bad beat jackpot until last night.

I headed up to Cherokee Casino, in West Siloam Springs, Oklahoma, with a buddy of mine, to get a few hours of play in. While waiting for our seats to open, we sat down in fairly loose $4/$8 limit game. In this poker room, $4/$8 limit is the lowest limit game offered, so it feels much like playing $2/$4 and $3/$6, where having 7 callers pre-flop on a raised hand is common and where Aces hardly stand a chance.

We had only been playing for about 30 minutes when it all went down. I was sitting in seat 9, with a loose player sitting to my right, in seat 8. This player was 23 years old and was also a dealer at the casino. (In the larger casinos, usually if you are a dealer you are not allowed to play in games in your own card room, but this isn’t a rule at Cherokee Casino.)

The player in seat 8 was holding JJ and the player in seat 5 was holding QQ. The majority of this hand was heads up and the final board was:

J J Q Q 4

Both players were trying to slow play their hands so the betting didn’t get very high until the river, where the player with JJ 3 betted the pot and was all-in for his last few dollars. Our table was only half paying attention because this pot didn’t seem very exciting.

The player in seat 8, holding the JJ, turned up his jacks to show his quads and said, “Can you beat this!” with a smirk on his face. The table woke up a little because a player was showing four Jacks. The player in seat 5 smiled big and said, “Sure can!” and turned over his quad Queens.

Only about three players at the table really knew what this meant; it was bad beat jackpot time. After about a few seconds of explaining the situation, everyone at the table, except for the two first time players, knew what was happening and the table erupted in cheers.

Players from around the poker room were surrounding our table trying to see what had happened. After all, usually players don’t start cheering and jumping around at a $4/$8 limit table.

The bad beat jackpot was up to a little over $80,000. After about an hour of camera checking, card checking, paper work, and verification, the bad beat was confirmed with 4 Jacks losing to 4 Queens. The player next to me, with the 4 Jacks, won $32,000. The player across from me, with the 4 Queens, won $20,000. The other 7 players, including my friend and me, split $12,000, which ended up being about $1720 apiece. The rest of the poker room players ended up getting around $130 a head.

The two first-time players at our table had no idea what was going on and why they were being handed $1700 in cash. We made sure to tell them poker wasn’t always this easy. After playing for a few more hours and never leaving our $4/$8 seats, it was time to head home. Not a bad night, at the $4/$8 tables.

Internet Black Jack Betting and Casino @ WagerWeb.com