The Winning Room
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Texas Hold’em has become a very popular game. If you don’t know how to play, you are missing out on an enjoyable pastime as well as some great entertainment on television. Whether you want to play Texas Hold’em with your friends for money, or you want to understand what’s going on in a celebrity Texas Hold’em tournament, here’s how to play:

The ante: Each player antes money into the middle. This is the money you pay in order to tell the dealer you’d like to play this round.

The cards to each player: The dealer deals out two cards face down to each person. When you receive yours, check them out but don’t show them to anybody. If you are wondering what is a good hand to play, a good rule of thumb is this: if you got a hand that you’d be happy about in blackjack, then you’ve probably got a decent hand in Texas Hold’em. That’s not a perfect rule, but it’s a good place to start. Another way people decide if it’s a good hand is if they get a pair or if they get a face card with a second card. Either of these hands, too, will make for a hand with some potential. After everyone has received their first two cards, there is a round of betting.

The cards in the center: The dealer deals out five cards in the center: two cards face down and three cards face up. This is called the flop. Players look at the combination of cards in their hand and cards in the flop to decide if they can assemble a poker hand from it. There is a round of betting.

The turn: The dealer turns up the fourth card. This is called the turn. Again, players look at all the cards available to decide if there is the potential for a good hand. There is a round of betting.

The river: Finally, the dealer turns out the fifth card and now the players who are still in can choose from any of the seven cards in front of them (the 5 face-up and 2 face-down) to make the best hand of five. There is a final round of betting.

The call: Players reveal their cards and the winner takes the pot!

These rules are far from complete. However, you did learn enough to play a decent game with your friends or to give you a little more understanding of what goes on at the Texas Hold’em tournament on television.

Jeff Lakie is the founder of Poker Information a website providing information on Poker

Gambling has changed. With the increased popularity and accessibility of the internet, more and more people are gambling various forms. From sports betting to underground poker rooms, the general public is playing and it can be attributed largely to the internet.

Today’s gambler is always looking for a way to gamble more easily and to do so within the legal bounds of his country. The internet provides him or her with just that. The gambling is accessible just by logging on, and since many online gambling sites are set up outside the US territory, they are actually quite legal.

The internet makes it easy to gamble in all ways. Offshore sports betting centers will allow you to see lines and odds almost as soon as they are posted at the actual sports book. In addition, a bet can be placed in any number of books while you simply sit in your chair looking at your computer screen.

The same goes for poker and other games. Casino games are available in video form online any time of day. The sites are, by and large, legal. This makes gambling in general more accessible for everyone. Long gone are the days where you met at a speakeasy to play poker and roulette.

Today, the craze is going beyond simply gambling on the internet. Now, most software is downloable to your phone so that you can see them, but also you can play the games on your phone. You can win and lose money right there on your cell phone without even leaving your car during rush hour.

Gambling is officially a mainstream sport or activity. People play at their homes, in school, at the Catholic Church, and even on cell phones. This type of exposure has made it so that gambling is the next great social activity out there.

Scott Hargrave is a writer for Catholic Bets – an informational website that collects the best places for Catholics and Christians to enjoy their online gambling, dating and entertainment experience.

With more than a trillion dollars changing hands around the world on online casinos alone, sooner rather than later legislation will step in to exercise some form of control in the casino industry. Those measures to control casinos and gambling during the early years worked as the casino had a physical location. Today however casinos have moved online with no real physical location. The question arises how legal are these online casinos?

Gambling legislation has not changed much since Congress passed the Wire Act in 1961. The Wire Act states that “Whoever being engaged in the business of betting or wagering knowingly uses a wire communication facility for the transmission in interstate or foreign commerce of bets or wagers or information assisting in the placing of bets or wagers on any sporting event or contest, or for the transmission of a wire communication which entitles the recipient to receive money or credit as a result of bets or wagers, or for information assisting in the placing of bets or wagers, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.” This however only covered sports betting and not casinos. There was also no Internet or Internet casinos during that time.

During 1998 both MasterCard and Visa sued Cynthia Haines for money she lost while gambling on an online casino. She had lost more than US$70,000 to an online casino and could not settle her account with the plaintiffs. She filed a counterclaim well within the state laws of California which prohibited credit card loans for gambling be it online casinos or bricks and mortar casinos. That case was settled out of court. Many states have now enacted their own legislation however casinos have moved their gambling operations off shore to casino friendly countries.

Gambling has increased drastically with the advent of the Internet and online casinos. With huge profits and vested interest in casinos there are also very strong lobbyists in government to keep gambling unimpeded. The Internet Gambling Prohibition Act which was defeated in 2000 shows how much vested interest there is in the casino and gaming industry. Cyberspace is the last frontier when it comes to laws governing casinos. Only time will tell how legislation will catch-up with online casinos and gambling websites.

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The Object Of The Game

The goal for the player in the game of online casino blackjack or 21 (twenty one), as it is sometimes called, is to beat the dealer. There are 2 ways to achieve this. The first is when the player has a higher total than the dealer without going over 21. The second is when the dealer’s total exceeds 21 while the player is still alive or has not exceeded 21. When playing online casino blackjack, if both the player and the dealer have 21 or the same total less than 21, the hand is called a ‘push’ and nobody wins.

Cards And Their Values

In the game of online casino blackjack, cards are counted at face value. In other words the 2 or deuce is worth 2 points, the 3 is worth 3 points and so on. The face cards, Jack, Queen, King are all counted as 10 points while the Ace can be counted as 1 or eleven, which ever benefits the players point total the most. Its the players choice as to how he wants to count the Ace. When the Ace is counted as 11 points the hand is called ’soft’. For example, Ace, 7 is called a soft 18. All other totals, including hands where the Ace is counted as 1, are considered ‘hard’, as in 10,6,Ace equals a hard 17. The dealer must count his Ace as 11 if his hand total falls between 17 and 21. Otherwise he must count the Ace as 1 point. In some casinos, the rules specify that the dealer must draw on soft 17. In these casinos the dealer’s Ace will count as 1 point when combined with cards totalling 6 points, and the dealer will have to draw until he has a hand total of at least hard 17.

Busting or Breaking

Initially, 2 cards are dealt to each player. If drawing additional cards by a particular player, results in a point total exceeding 21, then the hand is busted. Busted hands are turned up immediately as a breaking hand is considered ‘lost’. Even if the dealer busts, all remaining players would beat the dealer and automatically win their bets.

Getting Blackjack

When a player is dealt their original 2 cards and the hand includes an Ace and any 10 or face card such as a queen, jack or king, the hand is called ‘blackjack’ and is an automatic winner for that player and they are paid their bet at a 3 to 2 ratio. If the dealer gets blackjack, all players lose their bets. The dealer wins only the players bet, not the 3 to 2 payoff the player receives for the blackjack. If the dealer and the player both have blackjack, the hand becomes a ‘push’. Blackjacks should be turned up immediatley.

Payoffs – Getting Paid

When a player wins the hand they are paid off at even money. In other words if you were to bet $10 and you win the hand, the dealer or house would pay you $10. However, if the player has blackjack, which is a 3 to 2 payoff, you would then be paid $15. If a player chooses to double their bet the payoff would be equal to the new doubled bet. In this case, if the bet was doubled from $10 to $20, the win would be $20. Winning is just the beginning of the excitement in online casino blackjack.

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The Internet is not simply a place for big businesses to get bigger or for new ideas to be rewarded with huge bonuses. There are numerous ways in which the everyday person can get in on the act and make their own small business. One of the most tried and tested ideas on the net, in terms of creating your own business is that of affiliate marketing. Thousands around the world have or still are taking advantage of this hugely lucrative market. But do not be put off by the number of opposing sites, the market is not built like so many on creating a market share and then capitalising on it. Personal website owners can earn some extra revenue just by simply hosting affiliate-advertising banners. The more business orientated and larger affiliate sites can go much further creating an entire business from the industry. It may sound a little far fetched, but when you consider that thousands of people are earning substantial amounts of cash from this simple program, it is actually a hugely effective a profitable business model.

New affiliates can choose almost any online industry to represent, most offer bonuses and free start-ups for their new partners. However few of these industries can rival the financial muscle and the astonishing growth of the sports betting business. With an industry that generates such a huge turnover each and every year, you know you are essentially representing one of the market giants. Similarly the sports betting industry is constantly growing with hundreds of people looking to join each day, which in turn means more potential custom for them and the affiliates. The sports betting affiliate program gives new affiliates the chance to experience some of the earning power of the online bookmakers. Without having to risk a penny, affiliate marketers can earn up to 35% of a player’s money generated for their entire lifetime on the site, just by recommending them.

Affiliate programs don’t cost a penny to join so there is no financial risk to be considered. The sports betting sites will provide their new affiliates with all the banners and links that they need to direct people to their site. This means that even the advertising is sewn up, leaving the affiliate the relatively easy task of choosing the content and advertising of their site. The affiliates are essentially self employed and working wholly for themselves, they have no bosses and no one to produce results for except themselves. Therefore they are free to experiment with site content as much as they wish, producing anything that they really want. Similarly the way in which an affiliate markets their own site is completely up to them. The Internet is swarming with excellent marketing tools, but depending on an affiliates budget some may be easier than others. The main problem an affiliate faces, as it is for every site, is the initial challenge of bringing people into their own site. The affiliate faces a secondary problem, which is persuading their visitors to follow links to a secondary site and join up. There is no easy solution for either of these problems, but there are plenty of options available to overcome them.

Discover the secrets of top online poker affiliates and discover how to find the best poker affiliate programs at www.epokeraffiliate.com/

Being a good poker player requires a variety of skills, not the least of which is being a good psychologist. Tells are the habits and quirks that let players know when their opponent is bluffing or holding a strong hand. Tells reveal different things for different players. Some people play with their chips when they are bluffing and others when they have a good hand. As you play more often, you will become a better interpreter of tells.
Try to notice any tells that you might be exposing yourself. It’s harder to pick up on your own behavior, but remember that just as you are watching other players, other players are watching you.

HERE ARE SOME EXAMPLES OF CLASSIC TELLS:

• CHUCKING CHIPS: If a player throws the chips into the pot with an exaggerated motion, he is probably putting on an act to appear confident.

• HIDING THE GOODS: Often when players are cover-
ing or “guarding” their cards, it means they’ve got something good.

• CAN’T TAKE MY EYES OFF YOU: By staring at thei cards, players try to deceive other players into thinking theyve got a great hand.

• SIT UP STRAIGHT: If a player has good posture, it might just mean a good upbringing. But players subconsciously sit up straight or lean forward with strong cards.

• AND THE OSCAR GOES TO. . . : Overacting, particularly among novice players, is a common way to try to fool other players. Someone with a good hand might act unusually quiet, while someone with a bad hand might act overly elated. However, if the person seems genuinely happy, he or she probably has good cards. With a strong hand, players tend to relax and let their true emotions show you just have to know what to look for.

• “ARE YOU LOOKING AT ME?”: Actually, if a player is looking away from the table, he might be feigning indifference and have a good hand. Players with good hands often don’t like to call attention to themselves.

• PUTTING YOUR MONEY WHERE YOUR MOUTH ISN’T:
Occasionally players with good hands will subconsciously cover their mouths when betting.

FEELING STRESSED?: Anxiety can come out in
poker through shaky hands, a high voice, and even
an expanding chest.

• “NEVER COUNT YOUR MONEY WHEN YOU’RE
SITTING AT THE TABLE”: People who start fingering
their chips are often planning their attack. This “ThE main reason people fail could be a sign of anxiousness.

• DON’T PEEK: Players who habitually look at their hole
cards are often still working to improve their hand. the!j couldin poker and in

• CHIP ARCHITECTURE AND THE FRANK LLOYD WRIGHTS OF POKER:
While it is hardly a science, aggressive players tend to have loose stacks of best game always.” disorganized chips while conservative players often Mike Caro, keep their stacks nice and tidy.

More poker tells at Top3poker.com – Major pro poker players site.

Joni B and Nick S.

Content writers for Sweden Poker – sweden-poker-online.se and the
Germany poker site: pokerdeutsch.de – Deutsch poker

Yes, there ARE a few gambling secrets that can help you beat the casino. In the nine years I worked at the Leelanau Sands Casino near Suttons Bay, Michigan, I saw a lot of hopeful schemes and ideas. Some of them even worked. Here are a couple examples.

Card Counting Secrets

Card counting is a technique for beating the house at the blackjack tables. If the deck is “rich” enough in face cards (10,J,Q,K), the odds tilt slightly in favor of the player. This has been proven statistically. The idea then, is to monitor the cards as they come out, and when the deck has many face cards left in it, bet more. If you bet less when the house has the edge, and more when you do, you can make money in the long run.

This is a simple explanation, and you need to study a good counting book (and practice) to make this work. Your play needs to be precise to really have the edge. One gentleman I dealt to for years would sit at the table for hours, almost always betting the $2 minimum. I watched as he shifted chips from one hand to another, his way of tracking the “plus or minus count.” Then, when the shoe (five decks of cards) happened to be rich enough in face cards, he would suddenly be betting two hands at $20 each.

I am fairly certain that he made money, but not much. Depending on how well you do it, and how many decks are used, you may only get a 1.5% edge on the casino overall. If between your minimum bets and the others you average $8 per hand, and the dealer deals 75 hands per hour, you’ll make about $9 per hour. That assumes you can tolerate alternating losing and winning days and hours of concentration. Betting more brings that hourly rate up, of course, along with the risk of bigger losing days.

Roulette Secrets

For years I watched people foolishly writing down the numbers that came up on the roulette wheel. I say foolishly, because their their theories were mostly nonsense. Most casinos will always welcome these players and even hand them the pen and paper.

There was one player, however, who was actually scientific about it. He found a bias in the wheel, after “charting” it for 5,000 spins. This means he simply wrote down every number that came up during that time.

Once he identified the bias, he made thousands betting on just one or two numbers. When a number comes up (the ball lands in that pocket), it pays 35 to 1. In this case, one of the numbers, because of manufacturing imperfections or whatever, was coming up 1 in 27 spins, instead of the average 1 in 38 spins (There are 38 numbers on most American wheels).

This guy bet $10 a spin, and he profited $90 for every 27 spins of the wheel in the long run (a $350 win minus 26 losing bets of $10 each). When I ran the wheel, I often was doing over 50 spins per hour, so if you can do the math you can see he was doing well. The ups and downs are dramatic though, so this isn’t for the faint-hearted. I watched this player lose $700 some nights, but he later confided that he profited over $80,000 before the casino changed the wheel.

Promotional Gambling Secrets

Learn to figure the odds. Casinos often give the edge away for various promotional reasons. If you know when the odds are in your favor, you can take advantage of these promotions. For example, one man made thousands betting the “money wheel,” which is normally the worst bet in the house. However, in this case the casino was selling $20 in tokens for $10, with no limit on purchases. The man played the tokens once each as required, then repeatedly cashed in the real chips he was paid with, and bought another $20 for $10. When the odds are in your favor, it’s investing, not gambling, and that may be the most important of these gambling secrets.

Steve Gillman has been hunting down obscure knowledge and useful secrets for years. Learn more and get a free gift at: The Secret Information Site (http://www.TheSecretInformationSite.com)

Betting exchanges are a recent introduction into the betting world that
have taken the UK gambling community by storm. In the past, bets had
to be placed with bookies, where the punter would back a team or entity
and the bookie would lay the bet. In this system, the bookie would lay
the bet backed by the punter and offer the odds. Betting exchanges cut
out the bookie and allow punters to both back and lay bets and offer
odds. In this sense, they work not unlike stock exchanges. This article
will primarily discuss bet laying on races and how to effective use a
horse racing system to find your horses and lay the right odds to
maximize the opportunity for a payout.

It is probably worthwhile at this point to discuss what is meant by
“laying a bet.” When you lay a bet, you are betting that a particular
horse will lose. This is the position that the bookie typically takes.
Betting exchanges seek to hook up those who back and lay a horse and
allow them the opportunity to agree on odds. At this point, simple math
comes into the equation, and it is time to find a strategy. Any horse
racing system that focuses on lay betters needs to keep several
considerations in mind.

The first thing any horse racing system will tell you is that you
should never stake more than you can afford to lose. Betting is at its core
a game of chance and even the most careful horse racing system will
experience bad luck occasionally.

Another thing to keep in mind when building your horse racing system is
to remember that you don’t have to bet on every single race. Do your
homework, study the horses, study the tracks, and study the conditions
forecasted for race day and when you find that backers are willing to
take odds that you feel are in your favor, then it is time to lay your
bets. If you cannot get odds that you feel are favorable, it is best to
sit that particular race out.

Another thing to remember when consulting or forming your own horse
racing system is that you should not throw good money after bad. After
experiencing a run of bad luck, a punter may feel inclined to place
larger and larger bets in an effort to recover monies lost. While this
strategy may get you out of trouble on the rare occasion, it is almost
always a sure loser. Remember, in the game of gambling, losing money is a
part of life and a run of bad luck should not cause one to change their
strategy. Any horse racing system that changes based on the results of
a few previous races is a weak one at its foundation and it should be
discarded for a more consistent horse racing system.

It is possible to make money laying bets, but it is always necessary to
do your homework and be prepared for losses. Gambling in any form is
not for the faint hearted. Now, go out there, pick those sure losers,
offer odds and have fun! In the end, you may be able to make a little
bit of money as well.

Jay A has created a Horse Racing
Systems which Selects UK horses to Lay on Betting Exchanges ,visit his
website
http://www.horselayingsystem.com for more details.

After a hand is completed in online poker you’ll never find me showing my cards, win or lose, to the rest of the table. I always muck. In fact my settings are pre-selected to “always muck”. You pay to see my cards, and if I’ve lost a hand online there can be no reason to show my beaten hand. But now I ask myself if this is the best strategy? Because there are times in poker when it pays to show. That’s certainly true in live-game poker, but what about the online variety, which is a very different animal? Let’s look at this in more detail, especially as it pertains to online poker.

There are three very good reasons to show your hand when you have won a pot. The first is to create confusion in the minds of your foes. The second is to provide disingenuous information. The third reason is to get under everyone’s skin, and hopefully push some poor rube over the edge and on tilt. An example is when you win a hand with a stone bluff. You advertise those rags. Players are wondering how you could stay in with such slop, never mind bet, raise, or re-raise. Players might wonder out loud, and even get slightly miffed. All the better.

There are times when you want to show only one of your hole cards, something you cannot do on any of the online poker rooms, at least not to my knowledge (as yet – note to poker software developers: add that functionality, namely “show one hole card only”. It could be to online poker what the double-click was to computers, and if there are any royalties you know where to find me.) So this is a tactic of misinformation that only works in a live-game, and it can work very well.

Showing your cards can also be a forward-thinking strategy at your local card room in that it helps to create a table persona for you. Players now think you play very loose based on that bluff, and next time you come out firing it will be tough for them to put you on any hand. This is advisable if you’re about to spend a long session facing a mostly unchanging table.

Now for the cons of showing your cards online. First of all the value of a table persona is diminished in online poker because of the incredibly high rate of player turnover. You’re advertising for people who won’t be there in five minutes time, let alone five hours time, and who probably are not paying attention in any case. The fact is that in a number of online games the only players who will notice your hand are those still in the pot. The others have run to the kitchen before the cards are in the air for the next hand. Showing your cards online frequently looks like inexperience and nothing more.

I think a good player gains a lot by seeing other player’s cards at the conclusion of a hand, and my advice to rookies or even intermediate online players is to never show unless you are compelled. The good players already have an edge over you – why give them an even bigger advantage? There is no greater sign of weakness then when a beaten player still feels the urge to show the table his second-best hand. Your K9 outkicked by a KA? Don’t show me that in the misguided hope that I’ll feel sympathy for your plight. All I’ll feel is delight that you handed me a glaring weakness in your game, and the next time you play with a weak kicker like that pathetic 9 I’ll be right there to pick up the pieces.

You can read Marc’s general musings about online poker at http://www.online-poker-insider.com. Marc is a poker nut, there’s no other way to put it.

You may have noticed that while using your poker calculator it displays your hand odds while also using terminology like “hand rank”, “group”, or “group rank” all of which in some way or another refer to author David Slansky’s Group Hand ranking for hold’em poker. Originally described in the classic book, “Hold’em Poker for Advanced Players”, Slansky rated all the starting hands and put them in groups according to their similar win rate.

By clustering hands based on win rate and strength, it’s easier to keep track of basic betting strategies associated with each individual hand. For example, in Slansky Group 3 hands you will find 99, AQ, ATs, and JTs among others. The best cluster though is Slansky’s Group One which includes AA, AKs, KK, QQ, and JJ. They are going to show very high percentage win rates on your poker calculator as well as “raise, and re-raise” recommendations.

In adopting the Slansky Group of Hands your poker calculator could in effect make you a “book player”, because many, especially the mathematical poker calculators don’t take other factors into account at the poker table. However, as a guideline, your poker calculator is going to have the exact odds, and correct mathematical indication served up for you, David Slansky style.

Poker calculators have adopted this because, well they are just software designed by programmers, and not necessarily poker enthusiasts, but Slansky is a Poker icon, educator, and author. I have had several poker calculators running at the same time for testing, and have found very similar results and percentage recommendations, because they generally use the same statistical backbone as Slansky Group of Hands.

The difference between them lie in how their other features are factored in, such as how it monitors your position, how many players in the pot, how many tight or aggressive players, stage of a tournament, and if a player’s stake is up or down significantly.

Although published years ago, by using The Slansky Group of Hands, poker software offers credibility to the ranking system, although it sure didn’t need it. Professional players have known these rankings and what to do with them for years. Seasoned opponents will also know how to use them against you, if you are an obvious book player, so mixing it up is always a good idea.

Some other books published by David Slansky include The Theory of Poker, Tournament Poker for Advanced Players, and Hold’em Poker.