Four Card Keno To Win Bigger, More Often And Play Longer
How It Changed My Gambling Life

It never was my intention to become a Four Card Keno enthusiast. Let alone developing a strategy for the game.

My game of choice was Video Poker and I sort of looked down on Keno players for playing a game with terrible odds. Plus, Keno doesn’t give you much to say about the outcome. But here I am, telling the true story of how I came to develop a simple method of winning more often, playing for a longer period of time, and experiencing bigger jackpots playing Four Card Keno.

Just about everything I had read about gambling told me that
Over a period of time and after some deep research and experimenting I created a system of what I call Keno Smart Charts. Little did I realize that thousands of Keno players, all over the world, would be using my strategy to get more bang out of their Keno bucks. My email inbox is literally filled with hundreds of letters from Keno players thanking me for sharing the system with them.

Mine is not a sappy rags to riches story. I want to be clear about that. The truth is that I was a successful video poker player when I made this discovery. I would be considered to be a semi-professional; traveling to Las Vegas regularly as a comped player. You probably know the drill – free suites, free dinning and shows. I wasn’t a ‘whale’ by any means but my wife would jokingly refer to us being marked as ‘tuna fish’.

From what I knew, only the games of Blackjack and Video Poker would give you a fighting chance in the casino. Not only that, but most of us are taught to stay away from Keno because it’s one of the worst games in the casino. As a student of gambling I understood that so I rarely played Keno. And I thought I was so smart for doing so.

Eventually the casinos got wise to advantage Video Poker players and many of them tightened up the pay tables on the machines and took away a lot of the benefits that they were giving us. And as I got older it was increasingly more difficult to travel. For those reasons and others my wife and I made the difficult decision limit our video poker to local Indian casinos where the pay tables were just short of being criminal. But we limited our play and considered any losses as the cost of entertainment.

It was on one of our nights out that some guy sitting across from me yelled out, at the top of his lungs, “I got it.” He had been playing Four Card Keno and he had just won a big $7,000 jackpot.

That’s when I decided to dig deeper into video keno. I discovered that a 7 spot in Four Card Keno had roughly the same odds as getting a Royal Flush as in video poker. And the kicker was that a 7 spot paid $7,000 for my dollar bet while the Royal only paid a thousand (for 1 $1.25 bet). Since the video poker tables were so bad in the Indian casino, I could totally rationalize playing the ‘worst game in the house’, Keno – and specifically, Four Card Keno.

Seeking Four Card Keno Success

Being a former video poker player I naturally thought in terms of playing Keno with some sort of strategy. Even though I knew that it was strictly a game of chance, my instinct was to find a way to put that chance as much on my side of the ledger as possible. To my way of thinking, life is like that. There’s always a way of doing something that’s better than the other way. So, for the the longest time I found testing different things. I tried different patterns, certain rows, straight lines, squares, filling up an entire block. Every now and then I would hit a nice jackpot but in the end it seemed like everything I read about Keno was true. But still, I kept on trying to find a better way. A system for a game of pure luck.

One day I was playing Four Card Keno and I hit a 7 spot but it was on two of the four cards. Holy cow was I excited. That was serious money. What made it happen was hitting a the 7 spot on the two cards of course. And wanting to do that again took me on a journey to unlock the absolute best way of playing Four Card Keno. It was immediately obvious that having some numbers in common between the 4 cards was part of the key. But there was more. What was I missing?

In my mind there was something different about the numbers that I played when I hit those two 7 spots. So I took a closer look at the numbers on the other other two cards. What was interesting was that the other two cards were also winners. Just smaller amounts. But winners nevertheless. Seeing the relationship between those lesser wins to the big hits led me to develop my system of Keno Charts.

The idea would be to expand the available numbers and and at the same time having a perfectly balanced amount of numbers overlapping between cards. So I fired up the computer and went to work. What I found blew my mind. Don’t get me wrong, I was skeptical at first. But I just knew that I was onto something big. After many hours of test games, calculations and experimenting with different spots, I proved that it was possible to play Four Card Keno many times more efficiently and, best of all, win bigger jackpots do it much more often.

Keno Math Made Easy

There was one problem that really bothered me. It just took too long to calculate the proper numbers to play on the four cards for all the different spots. Especially on the larger ones like 6, 7 and eight spots. It simply took too much time away from actually playing the game. I had to come up with an easier way.

Again I went to work. I started working with spreadsheets thinking that they could make the process easier. Yes, it could be done but it was still a hassle. Then one day I was testing a spreadsheet for various five spot numbers and I saw a pattern develop. It was a pattern, not numbers, that was common between different winning spots. If I could duplicate the pattern, regardless of the numbers that I was using, it would be phenomenal.

Was it possible that there was a way to setup winning patterns for every Four Card Keno spot? Could I increase my chances of winning no matter what spot I played? The answer was a resounding YES! Indeed, I had stumbled upon a simple way to strategically balance any numbers across all Four Card Keno cards. That meant more hits, bigger jackpots and longer playing time – for sure! Best of all, with the charts that I created, anybody could do this!

How To Download The Four Card Keno Smart Charts

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Video Poker machines that have full pay schedules (99% and more payback) are becoming harder to locate these days. It would appear that recreational players are either unacquainted with the difference between full pay and short pay games or they simply don’t care. In any event, many casinos are cashing in on ignorant gamblers that place their bets centered on emotion or myths as opposed to the math.

Losing is something which knowledgeable Video Poker players avoid. The main reason they took the time to study the game initially was to learn how to win. When they stumbled upon a casino with only short pay schedules for video poker, they feel like they’re being ripped off. Sometimes the payouts could be so low that it’s not worth playing certain games. But better paying video poker games are still available. You may not necessarily find the best full pay games just like the past but some games are still a lot better than others.

Why Video Poker Is King For Comps
Generally, comps like rooms, food and gifts given by casinos are on the basis of the sum of money that’s wagered by the player. Comps are just incentives to entice individuals to gamble more. Casinos know that the additional money that people gamble with the much more likely they are to lose. That’s because the long-term odds are in favor of the casino. That’s not true as it pertains to video poker. The casino still possesses an edge but it could be pretty slim.

Proficient video poker players have discovered how to get back the majority of the money that they placed into playing the game. They accomplish that by utilizing proven strategies that give them the very best statistical advantage. They recycle their winnings in and out of the machines, using the same money over and over again. Those wagers are tracked by the casino through the players club card. Comps and benefits are then calculated by the casino, on the basis of the sum of money that’s put into the machine. Now consider that a well trained video poker player can play 300 to 1,000 hands each hour with minimum loss. At that rate it indicates betting hundreds as well as thousands of dollars each hour, much of it with recycled money – yet every penny counts toward comps and other benefits. And remember that there’s the excitement of winning with a royal flush.

That’s the short story. As it is in just about any hobby, you can find different degrees of understanding and nuances to playing video poker. You will find a large number of different variations of the games and strategies to opt for each one. Some worth your time and others not. There are many books that explain the math behind the strategies, statistical variances, analysis of probabilities, and the endless subtleties of the games. The good news is that armed with only a basic understanding of the games and a little practice, you can certainly do quite nicely in the casino. And it can alter your gambling life.

You can learn the basics and expert strategies at the VideoPoker page. Whether you’re an experienced player or just attempting to find out more about the games, you can practice and play for free there. So consider yourself invited. There’s lots of information regarding playing the game correctly and you can play the most used games and new ones which can be just hitting the casinos. There’s no real gambling – although games are identical as to what you’ll find in a casino. It’s really plenty of fun and you’ll receive a bunch of free information to help you win more at video poker. There’s alternatives for inexpensive, ad-free upgrades and even Professional Video Poker Training available. You’re welcome to play at your leisure, anytime – 24 hours a day.

You will find only two games in the casino that give gamblers a long-term fighting chance. One is blackjack and the other is video poker. With opportunities as high as 100% returns, plus comps, it’s easy to see why so many people opt to play video poker. Invest some time to understand this exciting game and you’ll come to know just why video poker is definitely, still the king of comps and cash jackpots.

Please visit  the VideoPoker page to learn, practice and play your favorite Video Poker and Keno games for free. And for expert Video Poker Training online, look at the Video Poker Pro page.

Formerly The Mystic Gambler

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If you’re playing slots within a Native American Casino there exists a good chance that you’re actually playing on a Class II slot bingo machine. It seems like a typical slot machine and you play it much as as you would a real slot machine but it’s really a sophisticated electronic bingo device. Somewhere on the screen you’ll even see your bingo card and in many cases you are able to change the card once you feel like it.

Let’s take a closer look at Class II slot machines and observe how they’re different from the slot machines you’d play in a Las Vegas casino.

A Little Back Story
In the year 1988 the United States enacted the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA), establishing the basic structure that was made to govern Native American gaming laws. The act established 3 classes of gaming:

Class I: traditional and social games for minimal prizes
Class II: games of chance based off the game of bingo
Class III: a catch-all sounding games that can’t be considered Class I or II, like slots, roulette, blackjack, etc.
Knowing the hurdles Native American casinos faced allowing Class III slots, gaming companies began developing Class II gaming machines: games that play like regular slots but are technically fancy versions of bingo.

Differences between Class II Games and Regular Slots

Standard (class III) slots incorporate random number generators (RNG) that produce many tens and thousands of random numbers every second. Whenever you spin the reels, the RNG immediately locks in the winning or losing values at that very moment. Then your slot assigns reel positions to elements of the random number and evaluates your win (if there is one). There’s a little more to the method but this is the basic idea.

To be legally considered a type II slot machine, the end result must be on the basis of the game of bingo. Software developers had to be creative to come up with class II games that would technically and legally adhere to the law. Different approaches were often taken. On some, like WMS and Multimedia Games, your machine’s “bingo card” remains constant and the drawn numbers change each time. On others (like VGT), you remain in exactly the same game while your card randomly changes with each spin.

How the game in implemented doesn’t particularly matter. What matters is that the game has the required elements necessary to be bingo: over 1 player (class II slots must certainty be networked together) and a couple of numbers drawn that must match a routine to result in a win that ends the game (a game-ending pattern).

The truth is Class II slots still count on RNG to generate the cards and drawn numbers. It doesn’t matter if the RNG is creating simulated bingo cards/numbers on a type II game or virtual reel positions on a type III slot – the answers are still random. Payouts are determined on regular slots by adjusting the reels and likelihood of landing on any position. Payouts on class II slots are defined by specifying the bingo patterns that must precisly be matched to the amount of numbers drawn.

Why Native American Casinos Prefer Class II
While many modern Native American casinos have a mixture of class II and III games, they often have a choice toward class II games. And if you see the mix of slots, the numbers typically skew heavily towards class II games. Why?

The IGRA granted tribes the power to self-regulate Class II gaming. Whereas tribes have to enter state compacts to supply class III games.

Another reason Native American casinos prefer class II games is that tribes don’t owe taxes on class II revenue like they do on class III games.

Licensed slots and all the fancy new, popular games aren’t obtainable in class II form, so Native American casinos keep a mix. Although most of the newer popular slots are being adapted to class II by IGT and others.

The Bottom Line on Class II Slots
Modern class II games will look, act, sound, and feel like typical class III, Vegas-style slots.

Class II games are often criticized due to their mysterious nature, leading some to believe they could be rigged. They’re networked together as a central server is actually determining the wins.

Class III slots go through rigorous third-party and government testing to ensure their randomness and resistance to rigging. Class II slots go through a few of the same tests, but the self-regulating nature and not enough transparency of Native American casinos have historically raised questions about their fairness.

Though their back-end operates differently, both class II and class III games still ultimately count on RNG. Casinos don’t need certainly to rig the machines because the games’math is in their favor. That’s not to imply their games’programmed payout percentage is going to be to your liking, but the idea of some casino worker selectively selecting who’s likely to win and lose on class II games isn’t likely.

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I don’t know the couple that did this but the video was produced very nicely and I do hope they attract a lot of people to watch it. I’m hoping that is the case not just because they mention our Four Card Keno Smart Charts and this site but because they deserve it. What they did by making a keno strategy comparison video is to give their viewers a quick overview of the most popular and proven keno playing techniques. Still, I’m glad to see that the Keno Smart Charts came out on top.

We all have to remember that keno is primarily a game of chance and it is ruled by the laws of probability. The odds, like all the odds in casino games, favor the house. The systems that they compare only give the player more playing time, or in the case of the Keno Smart Charts, bigger jackpots.

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Sometimes you get lucky and win a big jackpot. And this lady really had a lucky day that she’ll remeber for a long time to come.

Not long ago a Lansing woman won three big Michigan Lottery keno jackpots on the same day and one of them was worth $250,000. Winning three big jackpots on the same day is highly unusual as you might imagine.

There is no word about her using the Four Card Keno Smart Charts when she played.

The 42-year-old woman, who decided to keep her name and address anonymous, won the three Keno prizes on three different tickets that she played on the same drawing.

On one ticket, she matched 10 of the 22 numbers drawn Feb. 5 to win a $250,000 prize. Her winning numbers were:07-11-40-66-71-74-76-78-79-80.

The numbers she was counting on were a combination of birthdays and plain old random numbers, she told the Michigan Lottery during an interview.

“I play my KENO! numbers every other day and I was getting ready to give up, but decided to buy a few more tickets,” she told the Michigan Lottery. “My cousin called me the next day to tell me someone in Lansing won on KENO!, so I decided to check the winning numbers on the Lottery app. When I saw the winning numbers, I recognized them instantly and knew I was a winner.”

To top off her good luck, she also won two $2,500 prizes in that same drawing after matching nine numbers on two other tickets.

“I missed a $750,000 payday by just two number

s!” she told the Michigan Lottery.

She plans to use the money to treat herself a little, but save most of it, according to the Michigan Lottery.

The post Three Big Keno Jackpots Won On Same Day – Played 10 Spot! appeared first on The Magic Gambler.

Sometimes I tune in to the financial programs on the radio. It’s fascinating to hear different assumptions and predictions concerning the stock market and other investments.

Some shows claim they’ve methods for timing the marketplace and others claim that timing the marketplace is impossible. Some say buy and hold is the only way to invest and others claim that you’ve got to track your investments and know when to get out. Some claim that real-estate is one of the worst investments and others say it’s one of the best.

Advice about casino gambling and luck is very similar to
the advice that’s available in regards to the stock market.

Casino gambling experts basically breakdown into two major types: Those who rely on the numbers and those that rely on luck and intuition. I’d argue that both views are correct – at times.

If you go strictly by the math, there are certainly some games that are better to play than others. Probably the best example of gambling using math versus gambling by luck alone is video poker compared to play on a slot machines. The story is that you can’t tell what your chances are whenever you play a slot machine plus you’ve no say in the outcome. However, in video poker you’ve the option of holding certain cards and the odds can be precisely calculated. While that may be true, from what I’ve seen, there’s lots of unlucky video poker players.

On the other hand, some of the biggest jackpots I’ve seen winners are won by slot machine players. And let’s not forget keno players and the Four Card Keno Chart Strategy many are using. Those are supposedly some of the worst games in the casino. So what’s going on?

As I said, there’s a certain amount of truth in both views regarding what’s going on in the casino. Over time, the numbers will always work out in favor of the casino.  But in the short run, you are able to win at at any game at any time. The battle between playing by luck and the numbers will turn out to be about even in the short run.

So what can we learn from this? For many players it’ll boil down to the old saying, When you’re hot you’re hot, when you’re not you’re not. Yeah, yeah, not too profound, but it’s true.

May the good thing be yours.

The post Luck Isn’t Relied On By The Casino – But She Can Be Your Friend appeared first on The Magic Gambler.

Generally, Las Vegas attracts two sets of visitors. Some enter the world famous adult playground to have at the attractions and maybe perform a little gambling. Others come mostly for the gambling and to obtain the greatest bang for their gambling dollar. A number of the latter are savvy to the means of the casino.

Players which have studied, those who have at least an idea of what to anticipate of the games and the way the casinos operate, will gamble utilizing their players club card. They ensure it is a point out use their players card for the games they play. Players cards may be used when playing slots, video poker, keno and even card games. Once players come to comprehend the numerous advantages of utilizing the players club card they won’t gamble without needing it.

Only the uninformed or inexperienced is likely to be found gambling at a casino without signing up at the players club before placing their first bet.

The card that’s issued at the players club should be inserted into any slot, video poker or keno machine that you play. It may be used at live games by handing it the attendant or manager of the overall game – such as live keno or card games.

Each card features a unique identification number that’s assigned to the player. It allows the casino to keep track of the total amount of money that the casino player wagers. Benefits, usually utilizing a point system, are then calculated predicated on that amount and other factors.

It doesn’t matter if a person wins or losses, free stuff is likely to be made open to any player that uses the card predicated on the points they accrue. Those freebies might take the form of comped rooms, discounts on meals, gifts and special promotions that the casino may offer. Every casino differs in how they apply casino points but underneath line is that utilizing the card you’ll earn something back for the play. If that you do not use the card you’ll get nothing.

So even if you lose the casino provides you with something in-turn for enough time that’s spent gambling on their property.

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Video Poker and Video Keno players have some new and exciting games to play based on which IGT unveiled at the Global Gaming Expo last week in Las Vegas. IGT simply continues to put on its leadership position by offering a large number of innovative slot games with the most popular multiplier awards.  And now Keno and Video Poker players can join the fun.

A fresh version of IGT’s ever-popular Game King video poker title has been introduced. The possible content bundle now includes roulette and other concepts centered on such successful slot titles likeDa Vinci Diamonds Keno, for example.

Bound to be always a winner is the Asian-themed Lucky 8’s Wheel Poker. IGT has continued to develop new variations of  The Wheel Poker video poker format.

Ultimate X and Super Times Pay poker are exciting multi-hand games offering a random multiplier that can result in big payoffs.The games add significantly to the excitement and anticipation factors when playing.

And the exact same multiplier feature has been added for video keno players to enjoy. So there’s a whole new level of excitement with such games as Ultimate X Keno and Super Times Pay Keno that you will have to checkout. IGT is without a doubt adding a brand new dimension of heart pounding experiences with the addition of such games.

Followers of TheMagicGambler.com will undoubtedly be especially pleased to observe that Ultimate X Keno will be incorporated with Four Card Keno, among the most used video keno games of all time. The programming has been developed to randomly allow multipliers to appear about 50 % the full time for each of the four hands. The multipliers can be anything from doubling your win entirely around paying twelve times the normal payback.

The multipliers appear per card and are based on the previous card’s results, similarly to how a multipliers in video poker are awarded on the last hands.

Another game that’s in the exact same format can be found with Super Times Pay Keno, which is designed to give players more action at a lower price point. The multipliers in Super Times Pay occur randomly and roughly every seven draws. The special awards range between two times to five times the payout.

You can tryout these and other new games at the IGT/Action Gaming site. All play on the internet site is free however, you will look up where you can play for sure at a casino near you.

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Video poker players are a unique breed compared to other gamblers in the casino. It might look like just another slot machine, but playing video poker is really very different than simply pressing a button or pulling the handle of a slot machine.

The reason for that is video poker is truly a game that is skill-based but uniquely combined with a randomly shuffled deck of cards.  Historically, video poker was the first skill based game to appear in a casino.

With the use of mathematical and probability principles various video poker games are developed.

The payback percentages are not hidden like they are on a slot machine. Video poker players play the game with a standard 52-card deck (except in the Joker’s Wild game). Cards are shuffled and dealt the precise randomness of a standard deck of cards. So you’re just as likely to be dealt one card as another – depending on what’s available in the deck.. That being the case, it’s possible to ascertain the precise possibility of any of the 2,598,960 possible initial deals. Much better than that, we are able to also determine the precise possibility of any final hand being dealt once we hold or discard certain cards.

Since we know the possibility of the final hand, we are able to assign an expected value of the hold or discard. In that way we are able to determine best cards to hold or discard to provide us the greatest return over time. Video poker players don’t play hunches or guesses. We know the probabilities and make our decisions based on the underlying mathematical expectations.

As an example, we might hold a couple of Aces instead of  keeping four cards to a flush. But we don’t do this because we just hope to get more Aces. We do it because we know it is the better play. We know that the possibility of being dealt a Flush is precisely 9 in 47 (nine remaining cards of this suit from the 47 cards remaining in the deck). We also know there are two remaining Aces out of this 47 but there’s also far more possibilities of improving the hand by getting Two Pair or even a Full House.

When we multiply the payout of each final winning hand by the possibility of getting that hand and sum these values we get our expected value. The expected value of a Pair of Aces is greater than that of our 4-Card Flush so we play a Pair of Aces. There’s just one’best play ‘, and that’s it.

Similarly, if we had a Pair of 9’s within that Flush, we’d hold the 4-Card Flush instead as the expected value is greater than that of a Low Pair. Continuing this pattern, if that 4-Card Flush were instead a 4-Card Straight, we’d hold the Low Pair within the 4-Card Straight as the Low Pair has the bigger expected value.

Playing video poker can be in comparison to employing a basic strategy when playing Blackjack. In video poker there’s a technique for each of the different variations of the game. That is, there’s a correct hold and discard for just about any hand that we’re dealt. On top of that, you can know the precise payback of a video poker machine by looking at an information of what the winning hands pay (the pay table). In the event that you see two machines with identical pay tables, then you can certainly expect identical returns, when you play with the correct strategy.

You can find out more about video poker and practice playing realistic games online. You can play your favorite video poker and keno games for free. There’s also a tutor mode to teach you the correct hold and discards for what are typically the most popular games. You’re invited to give it a try today.

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A photo of Heidi Huber-Stein is on the left. She lives in Clinton, and she won the big prize when her Club Keno numbers – 03-13-19-23-35-40-44-47-53-60 – matched 10 of the 20 Club Keno numbers drawn in draw 1610054 on Aug. 2. She bought the winning ticket at The Village Tap, located at 237 East Main Street in Manchester.

“I was working at the bar and decided to buy a ticket,” said the 49-year-old Huber-Stein. “I scanned the ticket and got a message saying I needed to bring the ticket to Lansing, but I wasn’t sure why. The next day I had a friend check the ticket and that is when I found out I won $100,000!”

Heidi came into Lottery headquarters Tuesday to claim her big jackpot. With her winnings, she and her husband plan to pay off their house, give to charity, and then invest the rest.

“Winning is surreal. You see people win big all of the time, but you never expect that you’ll be a big winner,” Huber-Stein said.

Club Keno is one of the Lottery’s most popular games, giving players 37 different ways to play and become a winner. Players can select up to ten numbers to match from one to 80, with jackpot amounts determined based on the dollar amount the player wagered. Club Keno is popularly played at Lottery retailers all over the state. Drawings are every three and a half minutes. Results and live drawings may be found online at http://www.michiganlottery.com.

The post Club Keno Winner Matched 10 of 20 Numbers appeared first on The Magic Gambler.