With some forms dating back hundreds of years, there’s no shortage of table and card games to draw from. Users have more choices than ever, but it can also be intimidating to jump from one entry to another. Learning some key skills can aid performance and flatten the learning curve. Taking a look at a few standouts in this article, we’ll explore some central skills that can help in many titles, applicable to both casual newcomers and veteran casino players.
Math at a Glance
Gaming is about chance, and chance is about probability. Some people might be fortunate enough to possess a natural affinity for mathematics, but for most of us, these skills are hard-earned. Even if you once fell into the groove easily, decades of post-school life can lead the calculating parts of our minds to atrophy. Probabilities and mathematics are so central to the games we cover and love and we have to work on sharpening our minds to automate as much of the process as possible.
“Blackjack table” (CC BY 2.0) by Best Free Bets
Blackjack involves getting as close to 21 as possible, and to keep the game running smoothly, the players need to be able to maintain addition without thinking about it. Once we’re a few rounds in, and we started splitting, the simple can become complicated.
A great solution here is to simply practice games like blackjack in free incarnations for a few hours until the process becomes automated in your mind. After this, you can start memorizing features like a blackjack best moves chart to get ahead. This process frees up mental resources and lubes up your thinking motors which are then more open to a huge range of other titles.
Probability then comes in when looking at games that play with more fixed numbers of cards in the deck. Solitaire, for example, is a single-player game where learning how to play means understanding which cards are left in the deck, and how you can best prepare for them. Get used to thinking ahead in a game like this, and you’ll be able to apply the concepts to multiplayer games like rummy and poker. Know the odds and the chances of your being bluffed are much lower, and the chances of your bluffing others are much greater.
Managing Other Players
If games involve other players, then the challenge isn’t just going to come from the hand you hold. Going head-to-head can be great for testing your mettle, but it also introduces a range of complications that a great player needs to face directly. Whether you’re playing poker, rummy, or many modern board games like Settlers for Catan, achieving your full potential means being able to understand the moods of others. Work with them, and you can predict their moods. Ignore them, and you might be targeted.
“Playing Poker” (CC BY 2.0) by jaimezarate1
The idea of sharks in games isn’t just confined to gambling, where savvy players need to adjust their style against an opponent’s skill. You wouldn’t apply the same technique against your friends as you would against poker G.O.A.T Phil Helmuth, for example, and the same applies in many different games. Learn the tells of a player making mistakes, and you’ll be in a better position to get the upper hand.
Find the Best Opportunities
Skills in betting don’t apply to just the games, they can extend to the environment in which the games are played. From the perspective of saving money, online casinos can illustrate this with bonuses like free spins and deposit matches. Find websites that offer no deposit bonus codes like SpinYoo and 21 Casino and you can take your experience further. Whether on mobile or static systems, more play with less money means more practice, and there are plenty of choices to play around with to keep the practice ball spinning.
It’s also possible to leverage individual games and websites to exploit the advantages of certain times. Different tables can attract different players at different times, and keeping a note of the types of players who appear and when they’re active can give you a heads-up. In a game like poker, this can match you against players of your own skill level (or of lower skill). Other times, shared games like bingo might have minimum wins while only attracting smaller audiences at certain times. Know these times, and you’ll enter a game with better odds of taking home a prize.
“Online casino website” (CC BY 2.0) by passtheballtotucker
The best games don’t have guaranteed ways to win, that’s part of what makes them challenging. What they do offer is a range of opportunities to better your chances and increase the play you get from your effort. Rather than go in guns blazing, take a more measured approach, and you’ll be set for a better time in the short and long term. The more you practice in one game, the better you’ll get in many more, so keep up the hard work, and you might be surprised to see just how much of a natural you become.