Best Games Vegas Has to Offer
Everyone knows that Vegas has enough going on to keep you entertained every night for months without having to go to the same place twice. The shows, attractions and dining experiences in the city are second to none. This is fantastic, but when it comes down to it, the main reason most people come to Vegas is the games.
Whether you are a whizz at the roulette, you want to channel your inner James Bond at the poker table, or you love to try your hand at the slots, the chance to win big is the greatest draw of Vegas.
Let’s take a closer look at some of the games and see where you stand the best chance of beating the odds.
Skill or luck?
One thing to remember about gaming is that there is always a blend of skill and luck involved. Let’s take a look at poker and roulette as an example. Roulette is almost entirely down to luck. There are complex mathematical formulae you can try to use, and on one memorable occasion, a group took a London casino for £1.3 million ($1.7 million) when they used laser scanners to measure the speed of the roulette table and calculate when it would stop. However, outside these extreme examples, win or lose, black or red – it is almost the flip of a coin.
Now let’s take a look at poker. If you are up against the best player in the world, he is likely to take you for every penny you have, even though there is some degree of luck involved in terms of the cards you are dealt. Of course, if you are a highly skilled poker player, it is another matter entirely.
The question of whether you stand a better chance of winning at roulette or poker depends very much on your own personal skill levels. If you are new to poker, you are probably safer sticking to roulette or slots.
Improving your skill levels
One major change that the modern era has brought about is that casino games overall are vastly more accessible that they were just a few years ago. In the past, if you wanted to play roulette or poker, you had to nervously enter a casino, perhaps watch the action for a while and then dive in headlong – usually losing all your money in the process.
Today, the internet provides the perfect training ground via the enormous range of live casino sites you can visit 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Not only can the newcomer enter an online site with far less trepidation than a physical casino, but you also have the benefit of the various welcome offers that sites provide to new members. These typically include a free opening balance to spend as you choose, which means you can make all those first-time mistakes and learn the basics without spending any money of your own.
Which games have the best odds?
Understanding the fundamentals of the game and honing your skills will clearly give you a better chance of winning. With all things being equal, however, which games offer the best odds of success?
To answer this question, we need to understand the concept of the house edge. Let’s be clear: casinos have to make money or they wouldn’t exist. This applies to online varieties as well as the traditional brick-and-mortar versions. They all have financial overheads and need to show a net profit at the end of each day or they might as well close up and go home.
The house edge covers this. For example, suppose you wager $10 on tails in a simple coin toss game. Given that the chance of winning is 50/50, you should be offered even money on tails. With a house edge of five percent, however, the casino would instead pay $9.50.
How does the house edge affect your roulette game? Of course, if you put your money on red, it is not actually even odds because of that zero slot. A single zero wheel automatically grants the house an edge of 2.7 percent. A double zero increases it to 5.26 percent.
In cards, the question is a more complex one. For example, in a single-deck game of blackjack, the house edge is lower than it is in a six-deck game.
Understanding the house edge is vital to coming out a winner in your next game, whether it is online or in Vegas itself. Good luck!