Do you play your games on hard mode?

One of the most beautiful things about joining the international gambling community is that it’s welcome to players of all levels. From beginners just stepping into the casino (or logging into a site) for the first time to professional players, there’s a place for everyone.

However, not all games are created equal.

While it’s true that you can always build a strategy to win a game, some casino activities require significantly more effort to master. It’s not only a matter of time you spend practicing, but also time you spend in study and preparation.

Remember: every minute you spend preparing and learning as much as you can is an investment in your future success.

With that in mind, let’s look at the top three most complex games on the market—and how to beat them.

A Hollywood Classic: Poker

It would be absolutely ridiculous to start this list with any game other than Poker. Poker has the unique distinction of being the only game that still pits players against each other instead of against the house--though, of course, the house still profits by deducting from each pot.

However, even with the house advantage, an excellent player can still have correspondingly excellent returns.

Poker’s complexity comes from the sheer range of tactics and strategy you can develop to beat other players. It’s not only a game of mathematical skill or card counting, it’s a game of psychology: you have to understand your enemy to beat them.

An additional advantage (or disadvantage, depending on how difficult you find it to gauge people and their potential) is that in poker, you’re often able to choose your opponents. Several casino platforms already have the infrastructure to support this and more are added every day.

One of the most difficult qualities of the game is that there’s no “optimal approach—” each participant will play the game differently. You really have to study to figure out what’s going to work best for you.

Poker also requires a fair amount of memorization at the start: you need to know what cards qualify as a “good hand” in order to know if you should bet high confidently or bluff your way through. While this doesn’t necessarily take long, it still requires a time investment to start and thus, many beginners find it a daunting prospect.

Have You Tried Your Hand at Blackjack?

Ahh, Blackjack. Of course we had to touch on Blackjack! Also known as twenty-one, Blackjack’s a card game that can be deceptively complex despite its simple rules. This is due to the various factors that you’ll need to consider in order to make strategic decisions during the game.

First and foremost, blackjack involves a combination of skill and chance. While the goal of the game is to have a hand total closer to 21 than the dealer's hand (without exceeding 21), players must carefully consider their options at each step.

You’ll need to decide whether to hit (take another card), stand (keep your current hand), double down (double your initial bet and receive one additional card), or split (if you have a pair, separate them into two hands). You’ll base your extra blackjack bets on current hand value, the dealer's upcard, and the overall composition of the remaining cards in the deck.

It’s even more complex depending on who you’re playing with and how good they are at counting cards.

Card counting’s a strategy used by skilled players to keep track of the ratio of high-value cards (for example., tens and aces) to low-value cards (such as twos to sixes) remaining in the deck. This information can give a player an edge.

If they’re a card counter, they’ll figure out what cards are most likely to come up and adjust their bets and playing decisions accordingly. This is something you can learn—it’s not based on natural talent alone. However, card counting requires significant mental calculations, concentration, and practice to be effective, making it a tough skill to master.

It’s also worth taking the rule variations into account. There are a ton of different ways to play Blackjack and each game has slightly different rules. Rules such as the number of decks used, whether the dealer hits or stands on a soft 17 (an ace and a six), and the availability of options like surrender or insurance can highly impact your optimal playing strategy.

If you’re going to make it big at the Blackjack table, you’re going to need to take all of these factors into account.

Deceptively Simple: Roulette

The last game we’ll touch on in our top three most complex list has to be Roulette.

The first layer of complexity comes in the fact that different casinos offer different versions of the game. The three main variants are American, French, and European. The one you’ll most often encounter is European Roulette.

The advantage to European Roulette is that its house edge is relatively low: a measley 2.63%. It’s also familiar to anyone who’s walked into a casino before and seen the famous table: European Roulette adheres to the primary goal of choosing a color, spinning the wheel, and hoping against hope that the ball lands on your choice.

It’s complex because there’s no real way to beat it, very few strategies that are practically useful. The best you can do is to observe: does the dealer throw the ball a certain way? Is the table minutely tilted?

This is a case where a spreadsheet will help: When trying to beat the wheel, you can note all of the winning numbers over a given period and try to adjust your betting strategy accordingly.

In the end, if working hard to win a complex game just doesn’t work for you, don’t worry— your user experience should be based on much more than finding a challenge. There are always new games on the market specifically for beginners and those looking to relax. Find your way to a slots game, pull the lever, and exhale.