Welcome to the third part in our Blackjack terms series. Last time we left off talking about the house’s edge. Today, we’ll start out with “Even Money,” which happens to be a sad moment for me. The last thing you want to see when you’re dealt a Blackjack is the dealer having an Ace.

Even Money - When the dealer has a potential Blackjack-and you were dealt a Blackjack-you can ask for even money. If you take even money, your Blackjack is paid 1:1 instead of 1.5:1. So, a $15 wager is paid $15. If you don’t take even money and the dealer has Blackjack, you just push.

Expectation - I won’t get too technical with this one. Basically, it means the amount of money you can expect to win or lose over a period of time.

Face Cards - Real simple here. Face cards are the Jack, Queen and King. They are all worth 10 point in Blackjack. There’s no real difference in these cards unless you’re playing a side game like Royal Match.

First Base - This is the seat that gets the cards first. The dealer deals clockwise, so first base is the first seat on the dealer’s left.

Flat Betting - When you flat bet, you’re just betting the same amount on every hand. This really isn’t idea. Unless you’re just playing for a little fun and free drinks, you want to alter your bets some now and then.

Heads Up - This happens usually in online play. It’s when you’re the only one at the table. You’re playing with the dealer only. In real casinos, some players like this and they’ll move around looking for empty tables. When someone else sits down, they get up and find another empty table. You’ll see some big-time players request an empty table. If they are playing enough, the casino will rope off a table for them.

High Roller - We just talked about one in our Heads Up description. A high roller is someone who bets a lot. The real high rollers will walk into a casino with millions to wager if they so choose. They are also called whales.

Hit - Take a hit to get another card for your hand. It’s also called a draw.

Hole Card - This is the magical card that the dealer gets that you can’t see-unless you’re playing a double face up game of Blackjack.

Hot Deck - It’s just the opposite of a cold deck. A hot deck is in your favor and hopefully you’re betting big.

House Edge - We talked about this in our Edge description. All casino games have a house edge. The casino always has the advantage over you. Some games are better than others. For instance, Blackjack has a much lower house edge than Roulette.

Insurance - Many call insurance a sucker’s bet. When the dealer shows an Ace, you can take insurance. It costs half your wager and if you take it, you want the dealer to have a Blackjack. If not, you lose your insurance bet and now if you win, you only win a profit of 50%, which isn’t fun.

See you next time when we go into the fourth part of our Blackjack terms series.

One of my favorite variations of traditional video poker is deuces wild. In this great alteration of the original, the deuces are like “jokers” and can become any card you want. Speaking of jokers, Jokers Wild is another version of video poker. It’s my second favorite. The payouts are pretty much the same, but there are some differences.

Since there are four deuces in the deck, the minimum payout is on three of a kind hands. Jacks or better don’t apply here. The strategy for playing deuces wild are different than traditional video poker as you can see. One major difference is that there are two royal flushes. The first one is the traditional one and it pays the best. The second one uses one or more deuces to complete it and that pays not too much. Why? Well, since there are four deuces, getting a royal flush with one of them is a snap. You’ll get 100 or more easy before getting a “real” royal flush.

The payback on deuces wild machines tend to be very good. 98%+ with optimal play is a reality. As always, check the payback percent of any deuces wild machine before playing. The payback percent varies from machine to machine even in the same casino. It’s not uncommon for a 100% payback machine to be positioned right next to a 94% payback machine. And it varies in the online casino world as well.

Deuces wild machines function the same way as all video poker machines. You can play one or more coins per hand. And as always, you want to max out your coins. If you don’t, you’ll lose a fortune when you hit the big hand. Once the cards are dealt, hold what you want by hitting the hold button and then hit the deal button for your new cards. After this, the hand is complete and you’re paid if warranted. Pretty simple stuff and you already know this if you’ve played any video poker before.

Deuces wild, just like any “wild” video poker game, has more payout points than traditional video poker. The three extra payout points are: royal flush with a deuce, five of a kind, and four deuces. Payout on the five of a kind is usually about 75 coins for a 5-coin bet. It varies, so check your machine.

The four deuces is the big hand, just under a real royal flush. The payout varies by machine, but you’re usually looking at 200 coins per coin bet on this hand, which is just under the 250 coins paid for a real royal. Some machines offer progressive payouts too. I’ve even seen machines paying 500 coins per coin bet too.

In the end, I recommend trying out all types of video poker to find your love. Deuces wild is a great place to start.

The world of online gambling is growing by leaps and bounds. It’s so darn convenient too. However, if you are not careful you could run into trouble. The Internet is full of great and reputable online casinos. It’s not all good. There are criminals swimming around-just like any industry. The purpose of this article is to give you a couple of tips to help you avoid being ripped off at a rogue casino outfit.

Tip One: Deposit Methods

Any reputable online gambling destination will accept deposits in a wide variety of ways. Stay away from any online gambling site that only wants cash, check or wire. The best casinos will gladly accept deposits from credit cards and third party services (like NETeller and FirePay). I highly recommend that you use a third party service for all your deposits. By doing so, you will limit the places that have your financial information. It’s better that an online casino just has your third party info than your checking account or credit card data.

There are other third party services out there, but these two are very well known and secure. You won’t find one solid online casino that doesn’t accept deposits from at least one of these sources.

Tip Two: Deposit Amounts

A major tip off of a bad casino is the amount of money required for a deposit. Great online casinos will take minimal deposits (some as low as $5). However, criminals can’t afford to take people $5 at a time, because word will get out before they can really score. Therefore, they tend to require larger deposits-perhaps $100 minimums or more. Don’t think that just because a casino takes $5 deposits that they are legitimate. You must do your research.

Tip Three: Reputation

This step can take a little longer, because you are searching for comments about the online casino. Head over to your favorite search engine and type in their name to see what comes up. What you are looking for are comments from people about the casino. Many of these comments will be on message forums. Here’s a quick hint. Try some searches where you add the words scam, rip off, arrested, complaint, illegal, or pay after the casino’s name. For instance, a search in your favorite search engine might be “casino name scam.”

Gambling online is very convenient and fun. Like any other industry on the Internet, gambling has its share of crooks. That should not stop you from enjoying yourself. Do your research and follow these tips. You can greatly eliminate your chances of being ripped off by utilizing the steps in these tips. I have yet to find an instance where the solid practices in these tips has failed to yield positive results. Now get out there and win some money!

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.

When I was 14 years old my parents took me on a 2 day cruise, it was great; my dad spent the whole time looking a bit green whilst my mum introduced me to the wonders of onboard casinos - that was the beginning of my love affair with roulette. Ten years latter, I still love the roulette wheel, it’s appeal and excitement hasn’t waned. In the course of those ten years, however I have noticed a number of strategies that people tend to play with - personally I think they take the fun out of the game, but hey, everyone has a right to know what their options are, right?

The most common strategy used in roulette is known as the Martingale. This strategy is based on the theory that loosing streaks don’t last long, therefore if you continue to bet on the same one of two chance options (e.g. black or red/odds or evens), it won’t be long until you win. Now, the way that you actually make money on this is by doubling your bet each time each time you don’t win. Confused? Don’t be! If I bet $5 on red and it comes up black, then I’ve lost $5, however the next spin I bet $10 on red - oops came up black again, now I’ve lost a total of $15. Never mind, I stick with the Martingale theory, I double my bet on the same choice and so I put down $20 on red. Hallelujah, it’s red! I win $40. Does it work out? Yes, I bet $5 + $10 + $20 = $35; I made a $5 profit. Make sense?

Once you’ve grappled with the Martingale, the next strategy for you to deal with to is the Uber Martingale, actually more commonly known as the Grand Martingale. This strategy works in much the same way as the regular Martingale, except that with the Grand Martingale you double your bet and you add one of your original bet. So, after the first loss of $5 you double it to $10, but you also add one, i.e. another $5, so your second bet is $15. If that one doesn’t come in for you, you double the $15 and add one, i.e. $5 to make your third bet $35, and so on. This increases your profit margin when you do win.

The truth is that I have seen people win big with these strategies; they’re highly logical and do work. However, I’ve also seen people loose big on them because they didn’t plan properly; a table with a low limit can cause problems when playing the Martingale strategies because it increases the chance of reaching the limit before you win. So, if you’re going to play this strategy, play at a high limit table, and always start your bets low.

This isn’t the only roulette strategy used, but it is the most common. Personally, I find all strategies to be a little dull, except for mine that is - favorite numbers, birthdays and following the gut; frankly you can’t beat it.