Casino gaming is exciting, whether you’re in person or watching your screen. You’re hoping that you’re lucky when you push that button on the slot machine. But do you feel helpless? Are you at the mercy of the casino? Or worse, even, you’re at the mercy of a small computer chip—the random number generator that determines the winners or the losers.
Fear not! You can control your destiny, at least to a certain point. There is a series of casino games where skill is included in the equation. The better you are at playing the game, the better your chance of walking out a winner. The level of skill will determine how your gambling session will turn out. Here are the games in the casinos where your skill level will largely determine your success.
Poker
Poker is the most skillful of all casino games. Players who understand numbers, probabilities, and bankroll management can rise to the top quite frequently. But there are dozens of varieties of poker games, so how do you choose the best one to play? For beginners, the best poker game is usually easy to learn, widely available online, and forgiving while you’re learning the strategy.
Start with the granddaddy of all poker games, Texas Hold’em. This is the game you see at the World Series of Poker final table. It has simple rules: two cards per player, followed by five community cards. You can find lots of tutorials, strategy guides, and practice tables online. It’s popular because you can fold weak hands early—usually after the first two cards. At that point, you can watch other players to learn. It has easy-to-understand hand rankings. If you want a good introduction to poker, Texas Hold’em should be your first game.
Five-Card Draw is also a great game for beginners. Again, it has very simple rules. Each player gets five cards and can discard a maximum of three cards and draw new cards. It is good for beginners because there are no community cards, which makes it easy to understand the flow of the game. The downside is that it’s not nearly as popular online, and finding a game might be difficult.
Omaha Hold’em or Pot Limit Hold’em is the second most popular poker game. It is similar to Texas Hold’em, but players get four cards instead of two. To qualify for the pot, you must use at least two of the cards you were dealt. Therefore, it usually creates bigger hands and more action. But it is slightly harder for beginners because there are more combinations.
The best thing about poker is that you are playing against other players, not the house. The casino makes its money from a “rake,” which is a percentage of the pot. It’s usually 2 percent to 5 percent, so avoid anything higher than that. Playing poker online requires a different skill set than it does in person. You can’t see the person you’re playing against, so any “tells” that he has will be invisible, so probabilities play a huge role online.
Blackjack
Blackjack is the casino game with the lowest house edge. By finding a game with the best rules, players can reduce the house edge to less than 0.5 percent by using basic strategy. Before you consider playing blackjack, find a basic strategy guide and instructions on how to use it. Start to learn the game.
Playing blackjack online has the advantage that you can keep a window open on your computer with the basic strategy chart available for all hands. Lots of casinos will not let you use a basic strategy card at a live game, but online, it’s perfectly acceptable. But follow the rules strictly. Any deviation will raise the house edge. Even if you’re losing, do not deviate! Follow pro tips to become a successful blackjack player.
Online blackjack also gives you a choice of playing with a “live” dealer or playing an electronic version of the game. Either one has the same odds, so it’s a personal choice.
The main variations of blackjack start with whether the rules require the dealer to hit or stand on a soft 17 (A-6 or variations of that combination). It’s more favorable to the player if the dealer stands on a soft 17, and online, you can probably find that game. In most real-life casino jurisdictions, all casinos follow one or the other soft 17 rules.
There are other rules, like the number of times you can split a hand or the combinations you are allowed to double down. But those make a small difference in the house edge, so do a little research to find out what’s more favorable to the player.
You might have heard about card counting and how players can actually flip the house edge in their favor. Well, that only happens in land-based casinos, and it requires an amazing mathematical skill along with a knowledge of how to avoid the casinos’ defenses against card counters.
In online casinos, the shuffle is usually endless, meaning that card counting is useless, so stick to basic strategy for your best edge.
Craps
They say the dice don’t have a memory, and they are correct. Skill doesn’t play a huge role in craps, but playing the correct way can definitely influence your wins or losses and how long you are in action.
Craps has some of the lowest house edge bets in the casino. Remember, other casino games have much higher house edges, meaning the return to player is low. Slots have house edges of anywhere from 5 percent to 20 percent. American roulette is over 5 percent. And don’t even talk about the Big Six wheel. If you want some of the best bets in the house, consider the edge on these bets:
- Pass Line ~1.41%
- Don’t Pass ~1.36%
- Come ~1.41%
- Don’t Come ~1.36%
- Place 6 or 8 ~1.52%
Now craps is not a simple game to learn. It can be complicated, but stick to the basics, and it can be lots of fun if you know how and where to bet and manage your bankroll intelligently. Start here to learn the game. Check out our recent post on mastering craps.
Video Poker
If you love your slot games so much and are reluctant to move to the tables, there is a game that gives you a chance if you are skillful enough. That game is video poker and relies on some of the same skills that make the poker table so inviting. Choosing the right game is crucial, however.
Let’s start with the simplest video poker game: Jacks or Better. Find a game that pays 9 coins for a Flush and 6 coins for a Straight, 2 coins for two pair, and 1 coin for a pair of Jacks or better. That game returns 99.54 percent to the player (RTP), meaning it’s almost an even-money game. But you have to play a perfect strategy to get that payback. And you have to have that “full pay” machine. If you have a game that pays back 6 coins for a Flush and 5 coins for a Straight, your RTP drops to 95 percent. Not bad, but far from the best.
But it gets better. There are other games where you actually get an edge over the house. If you play full-pay Deuces Wild with perfect strategy, RTP is 100.76 percent. Double Bonus Poker is 100.17 percent RTP.
There are many variations to video poker that require lots of research for the strategies to pay and for the maximum RTP. There are also games where you can play multiple hands—Triple Play, 10 Play, all the way up to 100 Play. Fun but quick!
You can learn all about video poker—the best games and where to find that along with the best strategies at www.videopoker.com.
Sports Betting
If you really know your sports, inside out and upside down, sports betting can give you an edge over the casino or sports book. To do that, however, you must be much more than a casual sports bettor. You need to do ongoing research, understanding the way the lines are set at the sports books, and finding the best one. It’s very time-consuming and only barely profitable. Remember, you have to win at least 55 percent of your bets to overcome the house edge built into every line.
But then again, sports betting is fun and helps you remain interested in a contest sometimes long after it’s been decided. One thing to avoid is parlay bets—a wager on two or more outcomes that pays a little more than a straight bet, but one that has a much higher house edge.
Finally, if you’re learning how to play the games with skill and intelligence, make sure you play at a LEGAL casino—one that is licensed by a jurisdiction in the United States or mainland Europe. There are lots of ILLEGAL gambling sites out there, and most of them claim to be legal. They tell you they offer the best payouts, RTP, and the best odds, but since they are not regulated by a legitimate jurisdiction, they can and will cheat you.
Avoid casinos or sports books that claim to be licensed in a Caribbean or Central American jurisdiction. Shy away also from licenses from the small islands that surround Europe. All these jurisdictions have regulations that are easily surmounted and not credible, so you run the risk of losing your money and having a horrid time online. Stick to the legal casinos and sports books.
Keep away from the “sweepstakes” sites that lure you in with free play and then convert your “coins” to real cash after you fork over a few dollars. They are outright scams and should be rejected immediately.
Also, avoid the so-called prediction markets. Companies like Kalshi and Polymarket are offering sports betting as investing, claiming that “bets” are really “trades” and somehow immune to state gambling regulations. The strategies for betting with these companies are extremely complicated and should be avoided at all costs. Right now, there are multiple lawsuits in multiple states that challenge the legality of sports betting with prediction markets. With continued scrutiny of these options, one day your account will likely disappear along with any winnings left behind.
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