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Can You Explain Why Playing a Hunch is Not Good Gaming Startegy?

People like to go on their hunches.  When a man is driving, he will often go on a hunch and go one way without knowing for sure if that’s the right way.  Going on a hunch.  By the way, if you don’t yet have WAZE in your country, you should know that WAZE has eliminated hunch-backed driving in many countries.

Businesses Rely on Research Not Hunches

In business, going on a hunch is often the worst way to proceed.  That’s why many businesses do what they call market research to find out what customers want and like.  Online casinos also are constantly looking for new ways to keep gamers happy.  We think through all of our Everygame Casino promotions.  We instituted a policy we call our “online casino no deposit bonus keep what you win” policy.

These are aspects of gaming that gamers like and want.  We now would like to help gamers play our many games without using mere hunches.  The less you bet on hunches, the more you’ll enjoy the games for their own sake.

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Garlic and Hunches

There is a pizza restaurant in Chicago that is by now famous all around the world.  Giordano’s was started by two immigrant brothers who came to Chicago from Italy in the early 1970’s.  They knew how to make pizza so they decided to open a pizza restaurant. 

The restaurant did not do well and the brothers were stumped as to why.  Finally, a friend told them that they were using too much garlic.  They put a lot of garlic in the pizza dough and, to their surprise, the American-Italian palate enjoyed a lot less garlic than the average pizza palate back home.

They had made their pizza dough by playing a hunch, as it were, that the pizza eating public in Chicago would love the same kind of pizza that Italian people in Italy enjoy.  They took garlic out of the dough and their pizza became a huge hit in Chicago and throughout the pizza-loving world!

Playing a hunch may be a mistake in many areas!

The Random Number Generator is the Nemesis of All Hunches

All online casino games and all terminals in land-based casinos are run by a random number generator or RNG.  This is software that determines every outcome.  It does not know what the previous outcome was.  It does not know what any future outcome will be.  That is the essence of its “randomness”! 

Playing a hunch cannot help you “defeat” the RNG.  The only way to win games is to either get lucky at the games of chance or to use all of your accumulated skill (plus a substantial amount of residual luck) in the games of skill such as blackjack and video poker.

The RNG, if it has any specific message for gamers, is that you don’t have a lucky number in the games controlled by the RNG!  Betting on your lucky number in roulette won’t help you win any more than betting on a number you pull out of a hat.

Best Strategy in Blackjack

Blackjack and video poker are two of the most popular games at Everygame Casino.  They are both games of skill.  The problem that some gamers have with what statistically is the best strategy on any given hand is that the best strategy is often counter-intuitive.

Following one’s heart instead of the raw data generated by the statistical analysis of millions of blackjack hands is the gaming equivalent of playing a hunch.  Blackjack experts say that it takes about one hour to memorize the standard strategy card for blackjack.  We found that it took longer.  It is also easy to forget the details in the chart if you play blackjack infrequently. 

Study is the Best Strategy against Playing Hunches

So it is important to study the blackjack strategy chart.  It is important to review it if you haven’t played in a while.  Just as a concert pianist will practice her or his scales every day, or great vocalists do the same every day, a serious blackjack player will at the very least, review the strategy card every day!

Some Decisions are Obvious and Some Are Not

It is obvious that you double down with 11 points!  It is not obvious that you split a pair of deuces.  It is also true that sometimes you split that pair of deuces and sometimes you don’t. 

Truly understanding the strategy card for blackjack involves being able to get into the nuances of blackjack strategy intellectually.  That’s one reason why we say that it takes more than an hour to memorize the chart.  A player also has to delve deeper into the analysis to fully understand why a given move is the best strategy to follow.

If a player is still wed to his or her hunches, they will probably not be able to get their head around the best strategy.  They might think that they can make the move they “feel” they should make.  This is the epitome of playing one’s hunches.  In some hands, the difference between playing a hunch and following the best strategy may be a half percent of the return to player rate for best strategy. 

Another aspect of blackjack strategy that may be counter-intuitive to some players is the idea of surrender.  Some blackjack players are constantly channeling their inner Winston Churchill and “never surrender”.   This is the best strategy move in just a few situations where the chances of winning the hand are overwhelmingly low. 

Thus, the better you know the strategy card, the less likely you will be to play a hunch.

Video Poker

The best strategy in video poker is, obviously, a lot different than in blackjack.  One big difference is that even in standard video poker there are actually two “best” strategies. 

One best strategy is for players who have bet the maximum and therefore will play for a Royal Flush on some hands even to the extent of giving up a winning pair in favor of going for the Royal Flush.  The other best strategy is when a gamer eschews betting the maximum, usually as a means of conserving bankroll, and therefore does not try for a Royal Flush in the rare instances that such a move is possible.

Video Poker Strategy is Often Counter-intuitive

We just mentioned giving up a winning hand to go for a Royal Flush.   This occurs in many hands where you give up a winning pair in order to try for a hand that will pay off much better.  It is strategy that works when you retain at least two high cards that you might pair up and still win even if you don’t get the straight or flush you were trying to get.

Still, many players don’t like to give away a winning hand.  This is a classic example of video poker players playing a hunch instead of following the best strategy.

Following a Betting Strategy is Like Playing a Hunch

There are many betting strategies out there that tell gamers that by following that strategy, they will certainly win at casino games.  Following these strategies is in some ways the equivalent of playing a hunch.  They simply don’t work in the long run!

Enjoy the Games for Their Own Sake

We say this as often as we can: we hope that all of the gamers who play at Everygame Casino Red do so for the fun of playing the games and adding a small bet on the outcome.  The bet should reflect realistic a financial budget for gaming. 

Playing a hunch once in a while might not make so much of a difference but playing hunches regularly, especially in the games of skill where gamers do have to make strategy decisions, will cause more losses in the long run.

Our advice is to avoid your hunches.  If you do so, you will have more fun gaming!

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