Picking the Right Casino Skill Game for You
How to choose the best casino games of skill to suit you.
Casino games come in all shapes, sizes and budget brackets. Some games are easy to play, and some are not. Similarly, some are easier to win than others. Choosing the right game that suits your playing preferences is the key to having a good time and, hopefully, coming away with more than you started.
Anyone can play games that are based entirely on luck. This covers at least half the games in the casino. Slot machines, bingo, keno, craps, roulette, big money wheel… Some of these will offer bets that are smarter than others, meaning they have a lower house edge, but winning any of them is based entirely on luck, or chance. Casino skill games, on the other hand, allow the player to invoke some form of genuine strategy to slide the house edge further along the scale.
Importance of Selecting a Suitable Casino Skill Game
Simply selecting a game that revolves around strategy isn’t going to make you a happy gambler, nor a winning one. Strategies can vary greatly from one game to the next. Some are complex and take great memorization skills. Others can be learned and applied in a day. The way each strategy impacts the house edge varies just as widely.
The question you need to ask yourself is how much time are you willing to put into developing your skills, and what level of strategic involvement would you consider so much that it sucks the fun out of the game? These are very important questions, so make sure to answer them honestly.
If the strategy is difficult to learn or employ, or if it involves a level of mathematical skill that is beyond your natural talent, you may find the game too stressful. If that’s the case, odds are you’re going to make mistakes while playing. And if the strategic engagement is too burdensome, you won’t enjoy playing at all. Casino gambling was never meant to be a career choice. The odds are never in your favor, with or without a perfect strategy. If you’re not getting entertainment value out of the experience, don’t bother. Barring an inordinate amount of help from Lady Luck, you will lose more than you win.
Choosing the Best Casino Games of Skill
For those of you who would rather spend more time playing the game than thinking about how to play it, I would suggest live or online blackjack. You can learn a basic strategy for this game in a relatively short period of time. Doing so drops the house edge to under 1%. You can even carry a blackjack strategy chart with you. Most casinos actually supply them, free of charge; not because they don’t work, but because they know they still have the advantage, albeit slight. Follow the decisions on the chart to a T, and you can enjoy one of the easiest casino skill games ever invented.
Perhaps you’d rather not put too much effort into your strategy, or let everyone else know that you’re using minimum effort (i.e. using a cheat-sheet chart)? In that case, I’d suggest video poker. Scour the gaming floor for a 9/6 Full Pay Jacks or Better game. Plant yourself in the seat and prepare for a great solo game where you can take all the time in the world. Again, you can use a strategy chart if you wish, but no one will see you doing it.
If you can’t find 9/6 Full Pay games, or if you happen to be a fan online casino games anyway, visit a Microgaming-powered online casino. Their All Aces Poker will grant the lowest possible house edge of just 0.08%. That’s a 99.92% RTP! So long as you know how to quit when you’re ahead, just a smidgen of luck can put you in the profit margin.
Or, for Maximum Difficulty Level…
Are you the type who loves a challenge, enjoys math and has no problem calculating numbers in your head? Are you okay with spending weeks, months, even years mastering strategies? If so, the best casino games of skill aren’t in the casino at all, but the oft-adjacent poker room? Poker is the only form of gambling in which skill plays such a large roll in one’s success, it’s considered a viable profession for top-tier players. Who knows? You just might be the next WSOP Champion…
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