Dear Mark: Per your advice, I’m learning blackjack on a video machine at 25 cents a hand versus live play at $5 a hand. I was wondering if I am allowed to use a blackjack strategy card in the casino while I play? Does it matter how many coins I put in? Any other advice would be appreciated. Paul G.

One of the primary reasons for blackjack’s immense popularity is that when played with skill, it offers the best odds of all casino games. Blackjack also offers two sweet little bonuses. You are paid an extra half of your bet on natural blackjacks—no skill or monetary risk involved—and you get to put more money down on favorable doubles and splits. As long as you select the correct video blackjack machine, these rules still apply even against a cybernetic one-armed bandit.

As for using a blackjack strategy card, yep, it’s absolutely allowed, and a must for newbies learning the game. As in the table game, the idea behind using basic strategy is to reduce the casino's advantage, and by using a blackjack strategy card you can whittle the house edge down to less than 1%.

So long as you play an even money amount (see below why that’s important), it doesn’t matter how many coins you insert. Like the video poker machines, video blackjack machines use a random number generator (RNG) software algorithm to determine the game’s outcome. The number of coins played cannot influence the end result.

Never play a machine that offers even money for a blackjack. Also remember: machines that do pay 3 to 2 typically do so only when an even amount of money has been wagered. Don’t short-change yourself on the correct payoff by betting an odd amount.

Just as you would in a live blackjack game, make sure that you get rated for your play. Always use your Player’s Card when playing video blackjack.

It is the splits, double downs, and blackjacks that jiggle your blackjack play from the red into the black. Do not shortchange yourself in these situations. When your strategy card says to double or split, do it.

Make sure to read the posted rules, so that you can quickly determine the house edge on your selected machine. For example, I used to play on a machine that allowed early surrender with liberal doubling down rules. Surprisingly, with the use of perfect basic strategy, the house had no advantage on my play on this particular machine. Toss in the cash-back when I used my Player’s Card, and the owners were actually paying me to sit in front of their machines.

Have you ever heard of a blackjack game where you are allowed to switch cards between two of your own hands? My friend says he’s played it, but I can’t believe a casino would allow you to do it. Tim A.

Yes, Tim, there is such a game where casino allows the players to do what would normally put them in the slammer, swap cards between two hands.

Called Blackjack Switch, it is a mutant form of blackjack where a player is dealt two hands and is allowed to trade cards between hands.

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Three-card Poker -- for any reader who may have forgotten -- is a poker-based game that uses just three cards per hand and is played on a blackjack table using a 52-card deck. The differences from standard poker are: no further cards are drawn, and players do not compete against each other, but against either the dealer, or against a posted payout schedule.

It’s not only the easiest poker game, but by using a very simple strategy, the house edge drops as low as 2.01%.

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by Mark Pilarski

Let It Ride is a variation of five-card stud poker where the player wagers on a poker hand consisting of three cards in the player's hand and two community cards in the dealer’s hand.

Play begins with each player making three bets of equal denomination in spaces labeled (1), (2) and ($). The dealer then gives each player three cards, and two community cards are dealt face down. After seeing his or her first three cards, each player has the option of pulling back their first bet, or, as the game is eponymously named, saying “Let it ride.”

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Dear Mark: Encouraged by the stickperson on a crap game, a couple of the players kept betting a Horn or a Horn High. Although they hardly broke the bank, actually I believe they ended up losers, I was still wondering if it’s a good bet or not. Sammy R.

A sucker bet if ever there was one, a “craps-eleven,” or “horn” bet as it’s typically called, is a one-roll wager that on the next roll of the dice their sum will be, 2, 3, 11, or 12. If they sum up to anything else (4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, or 10), you lose. If the three or 11 rolls, you’re paid 15:1, and if the two or 12 appears, 30:1. Horn bets are accepted in even dollar units, divisible by four, with equal amounts bet on each of the four outcomes. Horn bets are settled as though the four possible winners had been bet individually.

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Dear Mark: Is any bet in roulette a good bet, or should I just throw that money in the fountain on the way into the casino? Dick D.

First off, Dick, let the wishful thinkers throw their hard-earned money in the fountain for luck. You, on the other hand, are going to learn here and now the secret of roulette; it’s about which game, not which bet.

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Dear Mark: Recently, I was playing Blackjack on a cruise boat. The table had a constant shuffle machine with either 6 or 8 decks, although I can’t be certain. What effect, if any, does this have on the house advantage on a basic strategy player? Charlie L.

With a typical shoe game, any time the number of decks in play is increased, the casino’s edge goes up slightly. For example, compared to a single deck, a two-deck game handicaps your play by 0.35%, four decks, 0.48%, six decks, 0.54% and eight decks 0.58%.  It is always to your advantage to play on a game that offers the fewest decks.

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Dear Mark: What do you think is the most important decision recreational Texas Hold’em players have to make to be successful at the game? Is it what limit to play on, playing tight versus loose, something else? Andy I.

Poker is a unique game in that it allows you to use the laws of probability to maximize the value of your decisions. All Hold’em players begin each hand with this choice: With these two hole cards, should I stay, or should I fold?

You choose at this moment whether to invest money in your hand or not.

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Video Poker machines are much more liberal than slots, with paybacks ranging from 96% to over 100%, while slots range from 85% to 97% in comparable coin denominations.

With Video Poker, when you add comps and other slot club benefits, it’s not hard to break even or better, thus, your chances of winning at video poker are far greater. Best of all, Janice, you can easily determine the most liberal video poker machines just by eyeballing their paytables.

With slots, the paybacks are based on the generosity of the casino; and, as a breed, they are not necessarily known for their philanthropy.

-By Mark Pilarski 

First off, Gary, you get a Gold Star for correctly identifying perfect basic strategy as an important factor for leveling the playing field against the house. The second essential key is money management.

In passing, most players try to take on the casino with too small a bankroll. Your bankroll is the amount of money that you are willing to put at risk, knowing that there is a reasonable possibility that you could lose that entire amount. Accordingly, you should never gamble with money you can’t afford to lose. So, Gary, if you’re front-and-center at a ten-dollar table, you’ll need a war chest of at least five hundred dollars. Count ‘em $ $ $ $ $.

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