Gambling With An Edge

Gambling with an EdgeWelcome, listeners from the Gambling with an Edge radio show and podcast. Thanks for visiting BlackjackInfo.com!

I’m Ken Smith, and I was a guest on the show on January 2nd, 2014.  I spoke with hosts Bob Dancer and Richard Munchkin about blackjack tournaments, my new strategy cards, and online gambling in New Jersey and Delaware.

If you missed it, here is a link to an MP3 file of the show.  Click to listen, or right-click to download it:

Gambling With an Edge, with Guest Ken Smith (MP3 format, 55 minutes)

If you aren’t already familiar with this radio show, I highly recommend that you check it out. You can either browse the past episodes at Richard Munchkin’s blog, or if you are an iTunes user, you can subscribe to the podcast in iTunes.

Details of the items that we discussed are listed below.  In addition, make sure you scroll down to an article I wrote just for show listeners, explaining a simple change you can make in 2014 that could be worth hundreds of dollars.

Blackjack Tournaments

BlackjackTournaments.comThe best resource for table game tournament information is BlackjackTournaments.com.  The site hosts a searchable listing of upcoming events, along with a community of very talented players discussing the game.

My e-Books on blackjack tournament strategy

How To Win More Blackjack TournamentsHow to Win More Blackjack Tournaments

Volume I in my pair of books includes material useful for a wide range of tournament expertise, from beginner to experienced.

The book is in PDF format and will be immediately delivered by email.

Buy the book at my publisher’s website: Buy Volume I here.

How To Win Even More Blackjack Tournaments - Volume IIHow to Win Even More Blackjack Tournaments

Volume II includes more tournament advice, again appropriate for all skill levels.

Of particular value are the discussions of tournaments that use an accumulation format.

It is available in PDF format, immediately delivered by email.

Buy the book at my publisher’s website: Buy Volume II here, or get a bundle of both books at a special price.

Casino Tournament StrategyI also recommend the original in-depth work on tournament play by Stanford Wong. It belongs on the bookshelf of any serious tournament player.

You can get it at Amazon.

Strategy Cards

Blackjack Advanced Strategy CardsMy Advanced Strategy Cards for Blackjack include card counting index numbers for the popular Hi-Lo system in addition to the usual basic strategy.  The twelve card set included all the index numbers from -5 to +5.  See the details page for more information.

Set of Six Blackjack Strategy CardsLooking for regular blackjack basic strategy cards?  I have those too, in a six-card set, or individual cards for various rules.

If you just want an accurate strategy chart for free, see my Blackjack Basic Strategy Engine.

Online Gambling in New Jersey and Delaware

If you live in New Jersey or Delaware, these new sites of mine will be of interest.

And now a bonus article, with a tip to make you extra money in the coming year…

One Easy Change to Improve Your Casino Results

In today’s casino environment, knowing the best strategy for the games is only part of the puzzle.  For both machine players and table game players, coupons and marketing mail can offer a substantial boost to your bottom line.  To maximize your marketing mail, you need to understand how the casino marketing system works.

Even experienced players often assume that the value of your marketing mail is based on the total amount of your play.  That is almost never true.  Most casinos use some form of the “average daily theoretical” or “ADT” to decide how valuable you are as a player.  “Theoretical loss” or “theo” is how much the casino expects to win from you based on which games you play, how much you bet, and how long you play.  This is probably familiar to you.  The critical part that many players don’t understand is how that value is averaged across all the days that you visit.

Imagine a player who visits a casino on just one day in a month, and plays enough to generate a theoretical loss of $1000.  Then consider another player who visits the same casino on 10 different days in that month, and generates a total theoretical of $4000.  You might think that the second player would get better mail offers, because he has the potential to lose four times as much in a month.  But the first player will get more generous free play or match play offers, because his ADT is $1000 compared to the second player’s $400 ADT.

The casino’s marketing mail is based on the idea of “How much might this patron lose on the day we attract him back in with a coupon offer?”  If you spread your play out over several different days, you are going to get smaller offers than someone whose action is concentrated on fewer days.

Misunderstanding this concept leads to a variety of mistakes.  Here is a common one… If you visit a casino on an overnight stay, you may be tempted to get up and put in a little extra play before you checkout of the hotel.  But what that abbreviated play is actually doing is dividing your theoretical by two, since you now have two play days.

The simple advice that can improve your marketing mail is this…  Don’t play on checkout day, unless you plan to put in a full day’s worth of play.  In fact, try not to ever have rated play on any day where you don’t plan to play much.  The free play and match play offers you get should be noticeably higher after a few months of managing your daily average better.

Stay Connected

If you want to stay up to date with my many projects these days, here are two good ways…

Subscribe to the free BlackjackInfo email newsletter, or follow me on Twitter.

Meanwhile, you may want to visit the BlackjackInfo main site, or try our free Blackjack Strategy Trainer.


About the Author

Creator of Blackjackinfo.com, very few can rival Ken's experience and knowledge of blackjack. His blackjack resume includes winning numerous tournament winnings, making several TV appearances and authoring multiple books on blackjack tournament strategy. Discover more about Ken's background and how he got started here

For a list of all contributors to Blackjackinfo.com click here

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