A. You’re right, I’d tell you to run from either game. All this sounds like a good opportunity to take over a craps table.

Without even considering the house edge on the base game, spotting the house $20 an hour per player is exorbitant, so let’s look at the other game first. It’s an awful game, as we’d expect, from the 6-5 payoffs on blackjack. The house edge against a basic strategy player is about 1.98 percent.

So let’s say you fill a seven-player table with bachelor party revelers, and play about 50 hands an hour at $5 a hand. You each risk $250. In an average session, playing basic strategy, each would lose $4.95. Now, maybe --- or should I say probably --- not all seven players know basic strategy. And given that it’s a bachelor party, there might be some impaired judgment going on. So let’s say you all play a little worse than the average player for the night, and kick the house edge all the way up to 4 percent. Now the average loss per player soars to $10 an hour.

You see where this is going. Even at a table with bad rules filled with judgment-impaired partiers, your average loss doesn’t approach the $20 a hour you’d be paying for the privilege of playing $5 blackjack at the other place.

Aside from the $20 an hour, the other place has a much better game, with a house edge against a basic strategy player of about 0.4 percent. Average losses for a $5 player at a bachelor-party pace of 50 hands an hour come to about a buck an hour. That begs the question of how much you’d have to bet per hand to clear yourselves without paying the reservation fee. Could you get it done for $15 a hand? (Average loss, $3 an hour for a basic strategy player, or $18.75 for a subpar player facing a 2.5 percent edge).

I wouldn’t choose either of these games, but I’ve been to a few bachelor parties in my day, and I know the decision isn’t going to rest on cold, hard percentages. But, if backed into the corner and forced to make a choice between two options I really dislike, I’d hold my nose and pick the one that didn’t cost everyone $20 an hour upfront.

A. For those who don’t know Quick Quads, it’s a video poker game designed to give the player more four-of-a-kind hands. If you have three of a kind, and the other two cards add up to a match those cards, you get the four-of-a-kind payoff. For example, if you have 7-7-7 and the other two cards are a 5 and a 2, then the 5-2 add up to a 7 that rounds out your quads.

Ace-Ace-2-2 is a Quick Quads keeper. If you draw a third deuce, then the Aces add up to a fourth 2, and you get a nice four deuces pay. Even in Double Double Bonus, we hold both pairs when dealt Ace-Ace-2-2. Draw an Ace and you have a full house. Draw a 2, and you have four of a kind. Combined, that gives you a better average return than if you tossed three cards for a long-shot draw at four Aces, and a longer shot at four Aces plus a kicker.

You pay for the extra quads with a sixth-coin bet per hand. It’s not a bad deal. In all games available on the Quick Quads format, the payback percentage is higher if you make the extra bet than if you don’t. Given expert play, 9-6 Double Double Bonus Poker rises from 98.98 percent return to 99.65, and 9-5 Double Double Bonus increases from 97.02 percent with five coins wagered to 97.95 with a six-coin bet.

The extra bet does add volatility to the game. You’re still getting only five-coin paybacks on hands other than Quick Quads. All the return on the sixth coin is concentrated on the extra four-of-a-kinds.

A. Nearly all games remain random when you stop the reels yourself. The random numbers that determine your outcome for that spin have already been set before you stop the reels. Game designers call it "illusion of skill." You feel like you have control of the game. Your timing in stopping the reels doesn't really make any difference.

There are a couple of games that involve actual skill, in IGT's Reel Edge series, including Blood Life and Triple Red White and Blue. In those, you touch each reel to stop it individually, and you can affect the outcome. However, the reels spin very, very fast, and it is very, very, very, very difficult to make a reel stop exactly where you want.