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Most casino games are designed to be intuitive and easy to learn. If games are too complicated, players will ignore them in favor of something easier. However, while the basic rules of blackjack are easy to pick up, learning a tight blackjack strategy, which helps minimize losses, is a lot more challenging.
Similarly, many of us have a basic understanding of poker, but learning hand ranking order can be tricky, never mind counting outs and calculating your odds of winning hands. In contrast, games like slot machines and roulette are easy to learn even while out of the house.
Slots
Slot machines are among the simplest casino games to learn, which is why they are the most popular games in physical and online casinos. Although modern machines have bonus games and multiple win lines, they also provide instructions to follow as you play.
Sites like Samba Slots include traditional style games, with three reels and only a handful of win lines, as well as more advanced machines and those with progressive jackpots and bonus games. Deposit money, choose your stake level, and let the reels spin. That’s about it.
There isn’t a lot to learn, and because every slot machine is a little different, the best way to pick up the games is to play them. Some online casino sites let you have a go at slots with play money. This means you don’t have to risk a dime of your own money, but you can learn all of the rules, master the interface, and become a slot master.
Modern slots are more advanced than traditional machines, however, and there are various types of slots on offer at most sites.
- Progressive Jackpot Slots – With progressive jackpot slots, whenever somebody plays the game, a small amount is added to the main prize. When a player lands the required logos on the necessary reels, they win the whole jackpot. It is very difficult to hit the progressive jackpot, but it can total millions of dollars, and the inclusion of a progressive jackpot doesn’t necessarily make the game any more complicated.
- Bonus Game Slots – Bonus games can complicate slot machines a little. A basic bonus game might see the player gain access to a prize wheel after spinning and landing a bonus game symbol. The player then gets a number of spins at the wheel and can potentially walk away with instant win prizes. Other bonus games can also be found on some machines.
- Video Slots – In retail casinos, traditional slots are mechanically operated. Those with bonus games and more advanced features tend to be video slots. While the layout is the same, the video slot machine uses video displays and computer graphics rather than physical reels. This enables the inclusion of additional features. Online, all slots are video slots.
- Cluster Slots – If you’ve played games like Candy Crush, you will have a decent understanding of how cluster slots work because rather than having horizontal and diagonal win lines, these machines pay out for clusters of the same symbols. If you get a cluster of five or seven, or more, of the same symbol, this leads to a prize and bigger clusters consisting of more symbols will yield better prizes.
Roulette
In roulette, a wheel with numbered slots is spun and a ball is released so that it settles in one of those slots. The slots are numbered from 0 to 36. Some tables have a single 0 while some also have an additional 00.
Players are effectively betting on the outcome of the spin and where the ball will land. While there are a lot of potential bets, which can make the betting surface look complicated, it really is as simple as deciding where you think the ball will land.
There are various types of roulette bets:
- Inside Bets – Inside bets are those that are placed inside the number grid on the betting table. You can bet on a specific number, although the odds of getting it right are very slim. Alternatively, you can place your chips between two numbers or even in the corner of four numbers. If any covered number comes up, you win. Inside bets are higher risk but they do carry higher rewards.
- Outside Bets – Outside bets are placed outside the number grid. These bets are lower risk but carry lower rewards. Common examples include betting on black or red or betting that the number will be even or odd.
- Named Bets – Named bets are more complicated bets and typically include a combination of factors. The player must name the bet before placing the chips down. An example is voisins de zero, which means neighbors of zero and it includes seven numbers to the right of zero and nine numbers to the left, as well as the zero itself, for a total of 17 numbers.
Baccarat
Baccarat might be one of the easiest games to bet on, in terms of learning the bets, and was also a favorite of James Bond, so it must have something. In the game, two hands of two cards. One is designated the banker’s hand and the other as the player’s hand, and whichever of the two hands has the highest card value is the winner. Whoever bets on that hand wins the payout. There can also be a tie, which gives a total of three possible bets – banker, player, and tie.
The banker bet has a slightly lower house edge, which makes it the most popular bet at the baccarat table, but the simplicity of the game makes it very popular, and it is common to see large groups gathering around to bet on this game.
In baccarat, face cards and the number ten cards have a value of 0 while Aces are worth one point. In some cases, a third card may be played, but, otherwise, the value of the two cards in each hand is added up and the highest total value is the winner.
The tie bet is sometimes referred to as the sucker bet, because it has a house edge of 15%, which means if you consistently place money on this bet, and you wager the same amount every time, you will statistically receive 85% of your stake back.
Side bets are sometimes available. These can include betting on a pair of cards being dealt or betting on a Dragon Bonus. A Dragon Bonus means betting that the winning hand will win by a large bonus. It pays out at a high rate, but this high reward is offered because it is a high risk bet that rarely comes off.
Video Poker
Video poker is a combination of poker and slot machines. It is typically based on the five-card draw variant of poker.
The player is dealt a hand consisting of five cards. Next, they can select which of the five cards they wish to hold by pressing the hold buttons under the relevant cards. Once they’ve decided, the player then hits the deal button again.
The cards that were not held are replaced with new cards and the player is left with their final five card hand.
Depending on how good that final hand is, the player receives winnings according to the pay table. Typically, prizes are awarded for jacks or better at the lower end of the table, all the way up to royal flush. A royal flush can pay out several thousand times the player’s original bet, but the odds of getting a royal flush in this format are around 650,000 to 1. The rarity of hitting a royal flush at video poker has even seen some casinos offering progressive jackpots on these games.
Although five card draw is the most common variant of poker at video poker machines, you can find casinos offering Caribbean Stud.
Other variants include Deuces Wild, in which the two cards are considered wild and can improve your chances of hitting better hands. Aces and Faces video poker games pay out bigger prizes on hands that incorporate aces or face cards.
Playing Casino Games On The Go
Players no longer need to visit physical casinos to try their hands at table games, card games, or slot machines. It is possible to play online and even via online casino apps on mobile devices.
There are also fun games that do not require the depositing of real money and don’t pay out real cash. These are especially useful for picking up the rules and mastering casino games.
And social casinos are available in countries and areas where real-money online casinos are prohibited. These use virtual currencies and let players cash out their virtual coins for real prizes.
Conclusion
Casinos are exciting and fun, and they can also offer sociable experiences. However, they can also be quite intimidating, especially if you don’t understand the rules of the different games. While some games, like live poker, can seem especially complicated, slot machines, video poker, and table games like roulette and baccarat are all simple enough to learn.
Whether you’re away for work or are traveling on holiday, you can learn the rules and the different bets of these games by playing online or on mobile apps.