The Volatility of 100 Play

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The Volatility of 100 Play

           Recently, for my wife's birthday we went to see her favorite musical artist - Celine Dion.  We got to Caesar's a bit early and had about 30 minutes to kill.  We found a bank of 3 100-play video poker machines with 2 available and decided to play.  When you play 100-play machines, playing 1 cent per hand really means playing $1.00 per deal, which makes you almost a max-coin quarter player on a single play machine.  Unfortunately, penny machines don't tend to pay full-pay because there simply isn't enough house advantage for the casino to cover its cost on the machine.  Add to this the fact that we were playing on the strip, and I really didn't want to think how bad the payback was of the game we played.  It wasn't really about winning as much as it was about killing 30 minutes.

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Thrill Ride

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Thrill Ride

           What does the word volatility mean to you?  You might think of a person that is volatile, meaning they might be a bit hot tempered or prone to make rash decisions.  Maybe you'd think of a chemical that is volatile meaning that it might explode at any moment.  Basically, volatile doesn't tend to conjure up something positive.  When it comes to gambling, volatility means something a bit different, although there are some similarities.  In gambling, volatility means about the same as it does with stock investing.  You better expect some big ups and downs.  This isn't necessarily a negative, but you do have to be prepared for it.

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Blackjack Sidebet Primer

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           What is the allure of sidebets?  I'm not sure if there any blackjack tables that exist without at least one sidebet.  It is almost hard to remember the days when you say down to play blackjack and there is was only one circle on the table.  There's the ago old question about which came first the chicken or the egg.  I wonder the same thing about sidebets.  Was it casinos that wanted them to increase their profits or was it Players who wanted them to increase their chances to win big even on relatively low volatility games like blackjack. 

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