The online casino has brought gaming to the masses, and while this has meant that the playing population of the world has become more diverse than ever before, a common trait amongst all remains, predictably, the desire to win. Unfortunately – for those who follow in the well worn footsteps of those who went before, and tried to get an edge – the simple wish for the big win which unites players from around the globe is one of the few truly predictable things about gaming. One guaranteed certainty is the house edge, the bias built into all casino games that ensures that most operators don’t go bust. With the balance of probability set in favour of the house, has anyone ever succeeded in increasing their chances of winning?
Well, there are a couple of things that you can do when you play at the online casino that will increase your chances of winning, if not absolutely guaranteeing that you’ll come out on top. Taking advantage of introductory offers at the online casino, such as Welcome Bonus, can allow you to extend your playing session, and the more you play the more chances you have to win – but this of course will not alter the house edge.
One way to not so much beat as avoid the house edge is to play card games that involve competing against other players, rather than the house. This can bring some skill into the equation, pitching your abilities against those of the other players at the table, although you will still be heavily influenced by luck when it comes to the cards that you are dealt. Learning about advanced strategy in games like Texas Hold ‘Em poker will increase your chances of winning. For example if you know the probability of receiving certain cards after the flop, you will know when it is worth risking a few extra chips on that hand. It is using this knowledge, of when the odds are in your favour, that allows the top poker players in the world to win consistently, but it is also worth remembering that even top pros lose on a regular basis.
So no guaranteed ‘systems’, then? Well, 99 time out of a hundred, no – the vast majority of ‘systems’ which purport to increase your chances of winning are based on flawed logic or a misunderstanding of probability. One of the oldest and most widely know, the Martingale system, falls in into this category. To begin with, table betting limits will frequently stop this system from working, but more importantly, when the Martingale system actually works it only stops you losing, rather than enabling you to win big – for a more detailed description of the Martingale system, look here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martingale_%28betting_system%29.
The only systems that have been verified as being successful involved calculating the bias of a roulette table, and the card counting system in Blackjack – and neither of these would work at the online casino. It was in 1873 that Jospeh Jaggers and a team of six accomplices were able to make enough observations of a roulette table at Monte Carlo to exploit the bias, and several teams of scientists have used computers in the modern age to achieve similar success. Predictably, the casinos are now on the lookout for people trying to get an advantage this way.
Card counting can reduce the house edge in Blackjack, but requires a real, finite shoe of cards to be in play, rather than a deal determined by a random number generator (this is how Blackjack works at the online casino). Card counting is not illegal, but many casinos will ask you to leave if they think you are employing this system.