If you want to maximize your casino visit in a way that will allow you to achieve the highest wins, you must plan ahead. Some players head straight to their favorite slot machine, table game, lottery or other preferred gambling activity. Others like to surf around and experiment with different games and game genres. Many players rely on the casino welcome bonus to help them achieve high payouts.
Learn how to optimize your casino visit by playing the right games and learning each game's proper strategy in order to achieve the best wins.
Top Games for Top Wins
To identify the casino games that offer the best long-term payouts, casino consultants advise that you ignore short-term luck and focus on identifying each game's Return to Player (RTP) percentage, also known as the House Edge. That means that you will be looking for games that allow for skill and strategy because those are the games that consistently offer the highest RTPs.
Start by focusing on each game's RTP. This percentage indicates the portion of all money wagered that will, over the long run, be paid out. The closer the RTP is to 100%, the better the payouts. Conversely, you can look for games with the lowest house edge – the percentage of every wager that the casino expects to keep as a profit.
Secondly, prioritize skill-based games – games that involve player decisions. These types of games, as opposed to games where the results are pure chance, offer the highest potential payouts because the player can minimize the house's advantage by using proper strategy.
If you want to play a chance game – slot machine, lottery or specialty game – it's best to stick to the games with the lowest inherent house edge. For instance, if you're playing baccarat, you should focus your bets on the Banker. The house edge for Banker Bets is 1.06%. Player bets are next in line with an edge of 1.24\%. In roulette, always choose European Roulette, where the house edge is 2.70% as opposed to American Roulette, where the house edge is 5.76%.
For slots, where the results are purely random and involve only chance, the only way to compare payouts is to find the advertised RTP which can usually be found in the game's paytable. Remember, volatility, which determines how often and how large the wins are, does not affect the long-term RTP.
Manage Top Playing Games to Your Advantage
The best-paying games are those where the player can minimize the built-in advantage the casino holds. Once you've chosen your game, your challenge is to maximize your performance in order to achieve the highest payouts.
Some of the games that allow you to use strategy and skills to achieve higher payouts include:
Video Poker
When choosing your video poker, choose a machine that offers the best pay tables -- pay tables are displayed on the machine, above where the cards are dealt.
Every poker tutorial will tell you to learn the basic poker strategy. However, even if you've learned the basic strategy for one poker variation, it doesn't necessarily mean that you know the correct basic strategies for other versions. Each variation of poker has its own strategies that can be used to maximize the hand.
For instance, in Omaha poker, the focus should be on creating a hand with connected and suited cards because those are the hands that can lead to strong draws. If you're playing Texas Hold ‘Em poker, it's best to play tight from early positions and gradually loosen up as the game progresses so that you create a strong hand through starting high pairs and high cards.
Mixtures of high and low cards are advantageous in Omaha poker while, for 7 Card Stud, the most important strategy involves paying attention to exposed cards (notably high pairs). The key to success in Draw poker is to discard strategically. Any poker variation is most winnable when you discard the right cards based on the strength of your hand.
Basic poker strategy does not give you an advantage over the house, but it guides you to play as close to the house edge as possible.
Blackjack
Blackjack is another casino game where knowing the basic strategy will guide you towards making the best decision at any time.
It's recommended that you take advantage of the different opportunities offered by the different blackjack variations. In Double Exposure Blackjack, where the dealer's cards are exposed, you can play a looser game since you have more information based on those dealer up cards. If you think quickly on your feet, you can use that advantage in Blackjack Switch where you play two hands simultaneously and switch cards between the two hands to improve both hands.
The “five-card trick” in Pontoon Blackjack can help you boost your results in that game. If you get a five-card hand that totals 21 or less, you'll have the second-highest Pontoon Blackjack hand which also pays out.
In all blackjack variations, if the dealer has a weak upcard, double down on a hand.
If your blackjack variation offers the option to surrender, don’t be afraid to do so. Surrendering doesn’t mean that you aren’t a competent player. It just means that you’ve made a strategic assessment of your hand and decided that you’ll lose more if you stay in the hand. Many of the elements of blackjack are random so you don’t have any control over them. If your hand seems unwinnable, exert control by surrendering before you add more money to an untenable situation.
Under no circumstances, in any blackjack variation, should you take side bets or insurance. Side bets are the house’s advantage and things just go down from there if you take insurance.
Baccarat
Baccarat results are entirely random – there's no strategy that will influence those results. However, for baccarat, the strategy isn’t in the gameplay but in the betting. There are 3 possible baccarat bets, the Banker bet, the Player bet and the Tie bet. The Banker bet has a 1.06% house edge, the lowest. The Player bet has a house edge of 1.24%. The house edge of the Tie bet is between 10% and 14.36%. So, it’s clear – focus on Banker bets and don’t ever place a Tie bet.
Winning high payouts at the casino isn’t always based on luck. Stick to basic common sense and beat the odds!
