Monthly Archives: September 2013

Bankroll vs. Money Management

When you’ve been around the block a few times in the online casino industry you will read and hear words like “Money Management” and “Bankroll Management” being used quite a lot and often interchangeably, with the former being hailed as the save all, Holy Grail that will magically turn losses into wins. This unfortunately is not the case, and we’ve decided to give a brief explanation on the exact differences between these two terms and what it means for you as a player.

Money management is typically used to refer to the practice whereby a player attempts to earn money from any form of gambling whether they use a betting system or strategy to lower the house edge and ultimately beat the house. This is generally done by increasing your betting stakes when you’re winning and reducing them when you’re losing, but this is easier said than done because you there is no real way of predicting whether you will win or lose the next bet you make. It can definitely be a fun way to play, but it’s not going to be kind to your bankroll.

We all know that strategic game play can help a player to lower the house odds on certain games, but it never completely eliminates them and so you may get lucky and win but over the long term you will still ultimately lose, even if it is lesser amounts through strategic game play than if you were making poor bets.

On the other hand, Bankroll Management refers to how you allocate your money to certain games and bets, as well as throughout the duration of your casino visit. Bankroll management usually adopts the pattern of petting level stakes (or the same amount for every bet) whether you win or lose.

So in essence, Money Management systems or betting stakes will not change the odds of any game (no matter how much you may want to believe that they do) but good bankroll management will assist you in determining and controlling the amount of money that you are willing to risk and tailor your game play accordingly so that you get the most out of it with every casino visit.

Incredible and Bizarre Bets

Most of us are acquainted with the world of casinos, online casinos, sportsbooks and poker room, and perhaps even the odd private bet, but what would you bet on and how far would you go to win if it really came down to it?

A quick search of the internet reveals some rather incredible and often bizarre stories of people who have bet on some pretty crazy things. Here we take a look at some of the weirdest wagers we’ve heard of:

Wagering a spouse

Back in 2007 Russian native Andrei Karpov was down on his luck while playing poker against Sergey Brodov. After running out of cash, he decided that using his wife, Tatiana, as a wager would be a great idea. He lost the bet and Tatiana when she found out about it and divorced him. Ironically, she ended up marrying Sergey, the man who won her and is reportedly to be blissfully happy.

Breast Implants

Generally if someone offered a man $100,000 to get breast implants, it would inspire incredulous laughter and most would dismiss it as pure insanity…But there is always the exception to the rule! Canadian, Brian Zembic is that exception. This crazy character won R100k when he bet that he get and keep breast implants for a full year in 1997. Fast forward and over decade later he still has them!

The reason for keeping the implants? According to Zembic, they have made him a great deal of money over the years due to media appearances and simply flashing them in public. He has also won other bizarre bets like one for $15,000 for living in a men’s restroom for an entire month.

Standing in the sea for 18 hours

Phil Hellmuth reportedly bet his friend, former World Series Champion, Huck Seed a whopping $50,000 that he couldn’t stand shoulder deep in the sea for 18 hours. Huck took the bet assuming that it wouldn’t be all that difficult…he was horribly wrong and lost the bet when he lasted only 3 hours.

Weight-loss

Poker legend Doyle Brunson has lost pots of money betting on his own weight-loss, which never happened. Then in 2003 a group of gamblers offered 10:1 odds on a $100,000 stake that he would not be able to lose enough weight to weigh below 300lb. After years of failure they all figured it was a safe bet, but it wasn’t! Brunson finally found his willpower, lost the extra weight and won $1 million.

Everything you own

You’ve probably heard the famous story of Ashley Revell who sold literally everything he owned and travelled to Las Vegas, betting every cent which amounted to over $136,000 at the roulette tables on the 50/50 red or black bet. Luckily for him he won, doubling his money. He did not however try it again!

These are just a few of the many bizarre gambling tales from the past few years, we have no doubt there will be more to come in future because if we’ve learned anything from gambling throughout the ages, it’s that many people just can’t resist a good bet.

Batman: The Dark Knight Rises Slot Review

The highly anticipated Batman: The Dark Knight Rises video slot has finally arrived at Microgaming powered online casinos across the net. Of course this sequel was one that just couldn’t be missed and so we took it for a test run as soon as it made its debut at the end of August.

As expected the graphics are nothing short of outstanding, with actual movie clips embedded into the reels for certain symbols as well as some stunningly animated features that are enthralling from the very first glance. Game play is smooth and the pace is fast enough to be exciting and keep you on the edge of your seat.

From the initial impression The Dark Knight Rises video slot seems to be nothing short of epic, a worthy sequel to its predecessor, Batman The Dark Knight video slot, and yet another win from Microgaming who is famous for a number of awesome slots games that are loved by players the world over.

With that said though, there is something that you need to be aware of when playing this slot and that is the fact that at the start of the game all features including the heat-seeking-wilds and extra-joker are locked in the initial stages of the game. For experienced players this may not seem like a big deal because many existing slots like Thunderstruck 2 and Immortal Romance have “locked” features wherein you’ll start off with Feature 1 when it is activated which offers the same odds of earning the same level of payouts as the subsequent 3 features which are “unlocked” as you progress through the game.

The initial stages of The Dark Knight Rises slot differ in that the locked features are not accessible until you’ve played for a very long time which means that no matter what the value of bets you are playing, you will not be in line for big wins in the initial stages of the game.

So effectively it would seem that the start of the game has a much lower Return to Player (RTP) than the later stages when you have unlocked the features.

In order to compensate for this, the best slots play strategy for this game would be to start the game off with low coin limits of a few cents (and be prepared to spend some time on it) and once you have unlocked the features you can then increase your coin size to larger denominations where your money has the potential to earn you bigger wins.

So while this is a game that we definitely enjoyed and would recommend based on the sheer brilliance of the graphics and game play, after all, it is a Batman slot, we do advise that you go into this game aware of the fact that it does differ in earnings potential from other games based on whether or not the features are unlocked and you should adjust your slots strategy accordingly in order to reap the maximum returns possible.