Wizard of Vegas Releases Introductory Advantage Play Guide

Gambling information website Wizard of Vegas has announced the publishing of their latest educational article, Introductory Advantage Play, giving players the information they need to help gain an edge at the casino.

The article is the first in a series of informational articles, which will help spell out exactly what advantage play is, some of the misconceptions behind advantage play, and tackling the various promotions and games that advantage players use to try and make money.

The site is run by site MichaelShackleford, who goes by the moniker “The Wizard of Odds”. Mr. Shackleford is an actuary and gambling analyst that has created a name for himself by publishing numerous articles and books about gambling, particularly the odds of individual games and strategies about how to maximize your chances at success while playing.

In the first article the author 'Mission146' expressed the clear intention of the articles, noting: “…we will be presenting a series of WoV Exclusive articles that have to do with Introductory Advantage Play. It should be mentioned that these articles will contain things that almost all professional players certainly know, but for those who are interested in looking for decent plays (whether on-line or in land casinos) and do not have the foggiest idea how to go about doing that, these articles are for you.”

The introductory article also spells out that playing for comps through a casino does not usually mean that you are making an advantage play. To back up that claim, Mission146 does the math in a hypothetical situation, wherein a player’s cost of getting the comp room from the casino would be higher than the cost of paying for the hotel room himself plus playing at the casino.

The first promotion that the series looks at is Double Royals on video poker, a common promotion that many land and online casinos have been known to offer in the past. Using mathematical analysis, Mission146 tells us how to find the optimal video poker game to play with this promotion, how to determine the Optimal Strategy to play the video poker game selected, the probability of hitting a Royal before busing out while on a bankroll, as well as the probability of hitting a Royal and finishing with a profit.

As Mission146 points out, “Every Video Poker game (other than Class II jurisdictions) is nothing more than a math problem. The overall return of a Video Poker game is determined by the following: 1 Determining every possible combination of starting cards. 2 Determining how frequently each of those combinations will occur. 3 Determining what the mathematical expected return of a hand is based upon what cards are kept and what cards are thrown away. AND 4 Determining how frequently paying hands will occur as a result of these decisions.”

Moving forward, Wizard of Vegas readers can expect to see more articles from Mission146, as he tackles other casino games and promotions, explaining the best plays for particular games and how best to take advantage.

The Wizard of Vegas is part of the Latest Casino Bonuses network of gaming related websites, which includes the Wizard of Odds, Games and Casino, Latest Casino Bonuses, and more. Both Wizard sites became a part of the LCB network in 2014 after Michael Shackleford sold his sites to Josh Chan. The agreement between the two has seen the Wizard of Odds site revamped with a new look, while allowing Mr. Shackleford the opportunity to focus on analyzing casino games and writing articles about his specialty.