Current Events > Going to a Casino for the first time: Any tips/things i should be ware about?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Im planning on playing some BlackJack and throwing in around 80-100$ just for the ocassion/experience. Should i expect the Croupier to scam or destroy me completely?
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blow at least $20 on slots just for the fun sounds :) they're real easy to make at least slight profit on too
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I do black jack too but its not worth it IMO
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The dealers will try and help you. Listen to their advice in blackjack. Everyone else at the table will help you as well.

If you win 4+ hands in a row, tip the dealer $2-10 (depending how much per hand youre playing).
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The money you put down is to have fun, losing it isn't a big deal.

The dealers have a strict way they have to play thier hands (hit on 16/17 with ace, stay with 17+) so feel free to ask for advice.
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Beware is one word
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Slots are the only thing I play because I like the bonuses on them
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Don't hit if the dealer is showing 2-6.
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Personally, I would brush up on basic Blackjack strategy if you want to maximize your time at the table. It's a little bit of a time investment though, so skip it if it doesn't interest you.

People will offer help, but don't take too long deciding what to do with your hand or you'll annoy the other players. It's not meant to be a slow, thinker's game.
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Wedge Antilles posted...

Don't hit if the dealer is showing 2-6.

not true

always double on 11
always split Aces and 8s
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ArtVandelay posted...

blow at least $20 on slots just for the fun sounds :) they're real easy to make at least slight profit on too

If you do play slots, aim for ones near the entrances or bar/food areas or bathrooms. The places where people might be near in the Casino. These slots are tilted slightly more in favor of payouts, intentionally, in order to get people walking by to hear them paying out and get them to come in and play.

Based on the above, go for 25 cent slots, and ones that have said they've paid out a little already (5 or 10 bucks etc) that day. Those are due for a big payout because it means people have been playing them and theres money in them. If it says on the machine it's already given a big payout or no payout your SOL. So hop around to different machines.

Nothing guaranteed, and sit long enough you will still lose money, but the odds on these slots are slightly better.

I'd advise you to just browse around and sit wherever seems fun to you. Get a few drinks while you're there. Play a little bit of everything and just have a good time. If losing money upsets you don't go because you'll likely lose.

In terms of odds blackjack is the best if played "perfectly", the roulette has really shitty odds (specially the american one with two zeros) and slots are the absolute worst.
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Don't gamble. Huge waste of money. Just sit awkwardly at the bar all alone until it's time to go.
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also,

drinks are free as long as you're gambling. just remember to tip your server a single $1 chip
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Sign up for the player card if you get free play for signing up. Its free money. Then go to the highest denomination slot you can do a max bet and hit it once and hope.

You're going in with a good attitude if you see the money as entertainment funds. Don't gamble with money you can't afford to lose and just ask questions. Its normal for people to ask for help, just let the dealer know its your first time and they will help you. There is a lot of little things that you can and can't do that you wouldn't think about.
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Bring a set amount of money you are willing to lose into the casino, DO NOT TAKE OUT MORE MONEY.

clearaflagrantj posted...

Bring a set amount of money you are willing to lose into the casino, DO NOT TAKE OUT MORE MONEY.

this is key too.

note, the dealers will always give advice on what to do. yeah, they obviously work for the casino, but they want you to win so you keep playing
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clearaflagrantj posted...

Bring a set amount of money you are willing to lose into the casino, DO NOT TAKE OUT MORE MONEY.

this, don't try to "win back" your losses or you can quickly end up in a hole.
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Link HT posted...

I'd advise you to just browse around and sit wherever seems fun to you. Get a few drinks while you're there. Play a little bit of everything and just have a good time. If losing money upsets you don't go because you'll likely lose.

In terms of odds blackjack is the best if played "perfectly", the roulette has really shitty odds (specially the american one with two zeros) and slots are the absolute worst.

I disagree about slots being the worst. I always do really well on slots, the only Thing I do well on. I can either play for hours on just $20 or win money to take home with me
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Poker. Best game by far. But don't play if you don't have experience. Also Casinos are NOT a place to make money, they are a place to have fun.
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Before you enter the casino: Decide exactly how many money you are willing to throw away in there.

I took money out of an ATM at a casino once and the withdrawal options went up to like $3000. It was crazy
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thronedfire2 posted...

I took money out of an ATM at a casino once and the withdrawal options went up to like $3000. It was crazy

I worked in Vegas for about 8 months earlier in my life and I believe this.

We also had these Slot Tournaments where you would pay $5 to sit in a back room full of slots with other people and see how can accumulate the most cash (points) and whoever won got a big prize pot. I won that at least twice a week. It's only like $50, but that was an extra hundred a week or so

City Center! That's what it was called. That's where I worked, on the construction of CityCenter. Ellis Island is where I would go hang out after work and play the normal slots and go join the daily slot tournament
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Bad_Mojo posted...

Link HT posted...

I'd advise you to just browse around and sit wherever seems fun to you. Get a few drinks while you're there. Play a little bit of everything and just have a good time. If losing money upsets you don't go because you'll likely lose.

In terms of odds blackjack is the best if played "perfectly", the roulette has really shitty odds (specially the american one with two zeros) and slots are the absolute worst.

I disagree about slots being the worst. I always do really well on slots, the only Thing I do well on. I can either play for hours on just $20 or win money to take home with me

Not really an opinion thing, they objectively have the worst odds regardless of your personal experience.
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Be sure to count your cards out loud. It's courteous.
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Link HT posted...

Not really an opinion thing, they objectively have the worst odds regardless of your personal experience.

That's the only experience I care about when it comes to winning money, lol
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Bad_Mojo posted...

Link HT posted...

Not really an opinion thing, they objectively have the worst odds regardless of your personal experience.

That's the only experience I care about when it comes to winning money, lol

And you're entitled to play however you want. I'm sure lottery winners also swear by them even though the odds are so terrible you might as well throw money in the garbage.

They still have pretty bad odds.
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Max bets on slot machines, anything less is a waste.

Also most people swear by the triple diamond machines.
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Link HT posted...

And you're entitled to play however you want. I'm sure lottery winners also swear by them even though the odds are so terrible you might as well throw money in the garbage.

I have never lost more than $50 on slots, and have never had any of them suck my money up. I can play a whole night on $50 and have a blast, but almost every single time I play slots, at least in Vegas, I walked away well ahead of what I brought in.

But I almost never played either. Yes, I would play the Slot Tournament every day because it was just quick and easy fun witch I won on a regular bases (it's mostly about hitting the button as fast as you can in this one, lol), but the other slots I would just throw in $5 while I ate lunch and cashed out when I hit $20 or so. I just had good luck at that point in my life.

I haven't touched a slot machine in probably 7 years now because I'm back in Portland. We have slots of course, but I don't go out drinking and when I do there is only like 5 machines and someone is playing on all of them.
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Bad_Mojo posted...

Link HT posted...

And you're entitled to play however you want. I'm sure lottery winners also swear by them even though the odds are so terrible you might as well throw money in the garbage.

I have never lost more than $50 on slots, and have never had any of them suck my money up. I can play a whole night on $50 and have a blast, but almost every single time I play slots, at least in Vegas, I walked away well ahead of what I brought in.

But I almost never played either. Yes, I would play the Slot Tournament every day because it was just quick and easy fun witch I won on a regular bases (it's mostly about hitting the button as fast as you can in this one, lol), but the other slots I would just throw in $5 while I ate lunch and cashed out when I hit $20 or so. I just had good luck at that point in my life.

I haven't touched a slot machine in probably 7 years now because I'm back in Portland. We have slots of course, but I don't go out drinking and when I do there is only like 5 machines and someone is playing on all of them.

What's your point? I'm glad you enjoy them and that you're lucky enough to win, all I was saying is that they have the worst odds in the casino, and they do. There's literally nothing you can say that will change this simple fact.
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Definitely learn blackjack basic strategy. You will absolutely lose if you don't follow it, except if you happen to get really lucky.

And if you're only bringing 80 to 100 dollars, try your best to play at a cheap 5 or 10 dollar table.

Blackjack is a game of ups ands downs. So you should be betting proportionally to the amount you bring, because sometimes you will be losing before you are winning. (Risk of ruin ratio)
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Craps has the best odds but you have to know the rules really well.

Poker is the best game, sounds cliche, but the reason it's the best game is because it's the only fucking game in the whole floor where you're playing against the other players instead of the House.

Don't play Blackjack or if you do, play with a very small amount of money. Inexperienced morons will ruin your game. Everyone thinks they're playing against the other players because they play blackjack at home, but in a casino you only have to beat the dealer, not the other players. As a result, other players can and will do stupid shit like hit on 18 because the guy next to them has 19 and they'll pull the 10 that the dealer was about to draw and bust, instead he busts, and then the dealer pulls a 7 and gets 21.

Think of a slot machine like an hourly subscription to alcohol.
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ChromaticAngel posted...

Craps has the best odds but you have to know the rules really well.

Poker is the best game, sounds cliche, but the reason it's the best game is because it's the only fucking game in the whole floor where you're playing against the other players instead of the House.

Don't play Blackjack or if you do, play with a very small amount of money. Inexperienced morons will ruin your game. Everyone thinks they're playing against the other players because they play blackjack at home, but in a casino you only have to beat the dealer, not the other players. As a result, other players can and will do stupid shit like hit on 18 because the guy next to them has 19 and they'll pull the 10 that the dealer was about to draw and bust, instead he busts, and then the dealer pulls a 7 and gets 21.

Think of a slot machine like an hourly subscription to alcohol.

Other people's bad play does not always negatively affect your personal outcome. No one knows what the next card will be. What if he got a 3, so now the stupid player is lucky and has 21? Then the dealer draws the bust card instead of getting the 3 which would have brought the dealer to 18 and your hand was 17.

You can do bad with bad players. You can do good with bad players. Makes no difference
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Capn Circus posted...

Other people's bad play does not always negatively affect your personal outcome. No one knows what the next card will be. What if he got a 3, so now the stupid player is lucky and has 21? Then the dealer draws the bust card instead of getting the 3 which would have brought the dealer to 18 and your hand was 17.

You can do bad with bad players. You can do good with bad players. Makes no difference

Yes but it's a game of probability. If people are too dumb to understand why the odds of hitting on 18 are worse than the odds of hoping the dealer with a 15 busts then you probably don't want to play with them because their stupid mistakes improves odds for the dealer.
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ChromaticAngel posted...

Capn Circus posted...

Other people's bad play does not always negatively affect your personal outcome. No one knows what the next card will be. What if he got a 3, so now the stupid player is lucky and has 21? Then the dealer draws the bust card instead of getting the 3 which would have brought the dealer to 18 and your hand was 17.

You can do bad with bad players. You can do good with bad players. Makes no difference

Yes but it's a game of probability. If people are too dumb to understand why the odds of hitting on 18 are worse than the odds of hoping the dealer with a 15 busts then you probably don't want to play with them because their stupid mistakes improves odds for the dealer.

That's not how it works. It will only increase their chance of losing, not yours. The only thing that matters is you play how you're supposed to. There's circumstances where it wouldn't matter what they did because there's 3 face cards in a row regardless but they still lost because they were dumb and busted, you stood and you won.

Look it up. It's a documented fact. If you don't believe me I'll look it up for you when I'm not on my phone
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Expect to lose money, but have fun with how.

Capn Circus posted...

That's not how it works. It will only increase their chance of losing, not yours. The only thing that matters is you play how you're supposed to. There's circumstances where it wouldn't matter what they did because there's 3 face cards in a row regardless but they still lost because they were dumb and busted, you stood and you won.

Look it up. It's a documented fact. If you don't believe me I'll look it up for you when I'm not on my phone

Nah. If they pull a 10, that's 1 less 10 in the deck to draw. That decreases the odds of the dealer busting. Even if it's an extremely small change, tiny changes in odds matter long term.
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SlamVook posted...

Im planning on playing some BlackJack and throwing in around 80-100$ just for the ocassion/experience. Should i expect the Croupier to scam or destroy me completely?

Problem is that this amount of money won't get you anywhere in a casino these days. It's usually $20 min per hand, and that's before bonuses. I really don't know how normal people manage to gamble.

KazumaKiryu posted...

SlamVook posted...

Im planning on playing some BlackJack and throwing in around 80-100$ just for the ocassion/experience. Should i expect the Croupier to scam or destroy me completely?

Problem is that this amount of money won't get you anywhere in a casino these days. It's usually $20 min per hand, and that's before bonuses. I really don't know how normal people manage to gamble.

Have to hunt down the $5 tables
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Look for a machine called "Change" - I always manage to break even on that one.

Link HT posted...

What's your point? I'm glad you enjoy them and that you're lucky enough to win, all I was saying is that they have the worst odds in the casino, and they do. There's literally nothing you can say that will change this simple fact.

I'm just going off of the joke I made about how I only care about my own luck. That's it, just a joke. When I play I play slots because slots have always been good for me. And that's all I care about (again, in jest) when I look at gambling odds, lol
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ChromaticAngel posted...

Capn Circus posted...

That's not how it works. It will only increase their chance of losing, not yours. The only thing that matters is you play how you're supposed to. There's circumstances where it wouldn't matter what they did because there's 3 face cards in a row regardless but they still lost because they were dumb and busted, you stood and you won.

Look it up. It's a documented fact. If you don't believe me I'll look it up for you when I'm not on my phone

Nah. If they pull a 10, that's 1 less 10 in the deck to draw. That decreases the odds of the dealer busting. Even if it's an extremely small change, tiny changes in odds matter long term.

Dealers can bust on much more cards than just a 10. It literally does not matter. If they play right it could decrease the amount of 10s also.

The edge casinos get in blackjack is because if both you and the dealer busts, you still lose.

The objective is not to bust and beat the dealer's hand. If you play how you're supposed to, and get the right cards, you will have the best chance of winning. If a player isn't playing right, it will only cause them to lose. Sure, some circumstances you will happen to lose too. But some you will win. .

https://www.blackjackinfo.com/the-most-common-myth-in-blackjack/

https://www.americancasinoguide.com/blackjack/do-bad-blackjack-players-hurt-the-table.html

http://www.blackjackage.com/blackjack-myths.php
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Play blackjack the way you want. People at the table will want you to play by the book but hit or stay if you want and don't care when they get pissed at you.
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Play slots to have fun on games. Roulette is fun with people too just shitty odds. Blackjack is my favorite but god damn if it doesn't just make you pissed.

*win 5 hands in row*
*make one last huge bet*

My hand is K Q. Okay easy money

Dealer gets 5 7 4 3 2

Fuck off. Story of my life
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Anyone ITT play war?

I always make money on that game.
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fenderbender321 posted...

darkprince45 posted...

Play slots to have fun on games. Roulette is fun with people too just shitty odds. Blackjack is my favorite but god damn if it doesn't just make you pissed.

*win 5 hands in row*
*make one last huge bet*

My hand is K Q. Okay easy money

Dealer gets 5 7 4 3 2

Fuck off. Story of my life

The dealer hit on 19?

Wrecked
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apocalyptic_4 posted...

Anyone ITT play war?

I always make money on that game.

Is this a joke or a real thing? I played War when I was a kid. 6 beats 5, King beats Queen. Ties you lay out 3 cards and flip a fourth. Some shit like that.

But what is the War you're talking about and how do you make money with it?
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Bad_Mojo posted...

But what is the War you're talking about and how do you make money with it?

Invest in a defense contractor.