How to maximize your winnings in a live casino
It’s important to remember that your success at any live casino online game is largely dictated by your luck on the day. Some days, you’ll come out on top, and others, you won’t.
Having fun is the key, but there are actually ways that you can increase your chances of being successful at the casino even if, ultimately, you’ll never be able to get rid of the house’s edge completely.
We can’t teach you how to win at a live casino, but we can show you in-game strategies and bankroll management tips that will enable you to make the most of your time playing your favorite games.
All of this will mean that if your luck is in, you can really make it count.
Tip #1 – Know the game inside and out
Even the average Joe or Jane has a rough idea of how to play blackjack, roulette or poker, but that knowledge alone isn’t going to be enough to be successful at the live casino. So, you really need to get a handle on the best strategies and bet types to place in order to win more or, at least, limit your losses.
If you’re playing live blackjack, for example, and your cards equal 17, what should you do, hit or stand? If you don’t know the answer to this question, then it could be difficult for you to be successful at the game.
Search online for ‘basic blackjack strategy’ or ‘perfect blackjack strategy’. You’ll find a handy chart that shows you the percentage play in any scenario in live blackjack. This may sound like a robotic way to play, but it reduces the house’s edge from around 2% to approximately 0.5%. This might sound like a small decrease, but when you are playing dozens if not hundreds of blackjack hands over the course of a year, it could soon make a huge difference to your results.
There’s absolutely zero skill required when playing roulette, but there is still plenty to be gained from learning the payouts of each possible bet you can place – rather than simply betting blindly on your lucky number and hoping for the best.
Splits, streets, corners – are you familiar with these live roulette bet types? If you’re not, you could be leaving money on the table in your next game.
Hopefully, this explains why knowing the full rules and possibilities of your chosen live casino games is so important!
Tip #2 – Make a budget and stick to It
One of the mistakes that casino players make is that they don’t stick to their budget or, worse still, they chase their losses.
If you can’t limit your losses, how can you expect to win when your luck turns?
It sounds somewhat counter-intuitive, but you need to learn to lose before you can maximize your wins. So, the next time you sit down to play at the live casino, set yourself a budget for that session and resolve not to spend more than that – a losing day does not have to be a disaster.
When you start chasing losses, you can wipe out your bankroll quickly, leaving you with feelings of frustration and regret. Remember, live casino gaming is supposed to be fun, not a negative experience.
Once you get into the rhythm of walking away once your budget has been used up, you will become better at managing your bankroll accordingly – a key factor for successful live casino players.
Tip #3 – Set a ‘Take Profit’ amount
Some traders who invest in stocks, bonds and other assets use software that enables them to set an automated ‘take profit’ amount.
This determines an amount that the trader is happy to walk away with, and ensures that they lock in a profit before a reversal occurs and they lose part or all of it.
It’s a clever concept that live casino gamers would also be wise to consider. The nature of blackjack, roulette and the like dictates that you may embark on a winning streak, which may fill you with feelings of overconfidence.
However, it’s important to remember the house edge and the variance of many live casino games, which dictates that ‘streaks’ can be ended at any time, while multiple chains of losses are also possible.
So, set a ‘take profit’ amount in your head and stick to it – there are many occasions on which you’ll be glad you did.
Tip #4 – Consider the RTP
A sort of counterpoint to the house edge is the Return to Player (RTP) rate of each live casino online games.
The RTP gives you an indication of how you can expect to fare in any given gaming session. The higher the number, the more you can expect to return from the average session. This isn’t an exact science, of course, so sometimes you might win more than the prescribed RTP and sometimes less.
The point is that if you want to maximize your live casino winnings, playing games with a higher RTP is obviously a smarter investment than playing those with a lower RTP rate.
Tip #5 – Don’t get carried away by streaks
It’s easy to be consumed by a winning streak, which makes you feel as though you’re invincible at the live casino.
However, you have to remember the incredible levels of variance and unpredictability of live casino games, which dictates that if you string together a series of winning hands or spins, it is, for the most part, down to chance alone.
We’ve mentioned following basic blackjack strategy – this can provably enhance your chances of winning – but remember the house’s edge. Your streak – whether it’s a winning or losing one – is likely to come to an end due to the laws of large numbers – i.e., if you play an infinite amount of blackjack hands, your win rate when deploying basic strategy will be around one in two hands.
So, if you do get on a ‘heater’, don’t be convinced that ‘today is your day’ and start increasing your stakes excessively. When your streak comes to an end, you will give your profit back to the house and more. Remember that maximizing your winnings at the live casino is as much about protecting your bankroll as it is wagering big bucks.
Tip #6 – Stake sustainably
We’ve already mentioned the importance of setting a budget and sticking to it, and your staking plan will ultimately feed into that.
Live casino gaming should be fun, and you should look to make the most of your time playing your favorite games. Who wants to bust their bankroll after just five blackjack hands, for example?
So, if you set a budget of, say, $100, why not play $1 stakes rather than $10? That way, you can increase your enjoyment by playing for longer and lessening your risk.
We should also caution against using staking plans such as the Martingale or Fibonacci systems. On paper, these can sound appealing, but the truth is that if you embark on a losing run, you will find yourself chasing your tail and staking uncomfortable sums just to recapture previous losses.
Stick to level staking. That way, you know exactly how much you will be spending per hand, and even if you do lose a few hands/spins in a row, you won’t end up busting your bankroll, as can be the case with some staking techniques.
Tip #7 – Never take insurance
In some blackjack variants, you can place an ‘insurance’ bet when the dealer’s upturned card is an ace. That way, if their unseen card has a value of 10, you can win even if they have a natural blackjack.
This sounds like a good idea in theory, but note that most blackjack insurance payouts are at a rate of 2:1. Now, think about how many cards in the deck would create blackjack for the dealer (i.e., 10s or picture cards) and how many wouldn’t (i.e., any other number).
For this to be a value play, you would need to be getting a much better payout than 2:1. Therefore, you should avoid the insurance option in blackjack at all costs!
Tip #8 – Try each game in demo mode
Did you know that there’s a demo play feature on many of our table games?
You can try many different variants of blackjack, roulette, baccarat and poker without risking your own bankroll, which is a great way to learn the ropes, practice deploying your strategies, and give yourself something of an edge before you embark on real-money play.
It should be noted that you can’t play our live dealer games in demo mode, but the rules in the ‘standard’ versions are the same as those in the live casino. There are advantages of playing live casino games over traditional online games. You can read our article if you are interested!
Hopefully, by following some, if not all, of these tips, you will be able to maximize your live casino winnings!