Gambling

What a combination: playing poker and being on a cruise ship.

Card Player Magazine, one of the premier poker magazines out of Las Vegas, enlists Linda Johnson (“The First Lady of Poker”) as the honcho on Card Player Cruises. She has run more than 40 of them and knows her business.

More than that, she also knows Card Player Magazine, having been the owner for eight years prior to 2001. She sold out, but kept the rights to the cruises. Good idea!

This former postal worker from southern California entered the ladies event of the World Series of Poker in the early 80’s, placed fifth, quit her job, and moved to Vegas to play poker full-time.

Her poker cruises go where most cruises go: Transatlantic, the Mexican Riviera, the Caribbean, Alaska, Russia, and South America. On a recent Mexican cruise, most of the players were beginners, booking to see what the poker phenomenon was all about and to pick up some tequila, high quality silver jewelry, and perhaps a sombrero.

About 25-40% of the passengers have booked for the poker element. So, the poker player in your family can play while at sea while the Significant Other catches some rays in a lounge chair by the pool. Something for everybody as long as you are 18 years or older.

Lou Krieger, author of “Poker for Dummies,” offers onboard seminars. A beginner can take some lessons and immediately start playing in a low limit game. There are tournaments with great cash prizes. The non-smoking poker room is prepared to offer any game, at any limit, that players want.

Linda Johnson also steps ashore from time to time. She holds the annual Linda Johnson Celebrity Challenge Poker Tournament at the Casino Europa in San Jose, Costa Rica each summer. A number of poker games, including the popular No Limit Texas Hold ‘em game, is offered. Such poker stars as Daniel Negreanu (“Kid Poker”) and World Series of Poker winner Scotty Nguyen hop planes and head south to help Linda out.

You might also recognize Linda as the onstage announcer (Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten sit offstage) at televised World Series of Poker events. She is the one who says, “Shuffle Up and Deal,” and calls the action at the tables.

There is another kind of poker played on another kind of cruise event that Linda also runs. In conjunction with the World Poker Tour (WPT), an annual No Limit Texas Hold ‘em tournament has been held on chartered – just for the poker gang - Holland America ships.

In 2004, Erick Lindgren beat his best buddy, Daniel Negreanu, to snag a million dollar prize on a WPT Mexican cruise. Negreanu didn’t hold his defeat against Lindgren: soon after, Erick was Daniel’s best man at his wedding to Lori.

Back to the cruise and Erick’s victory: to celebrate, he ordered drinks for the house in The Crow’s Nest Bar on the ship, the beautiful MS Ryndam. It seemed like a good idea at the time, maybe until Erick woke up the next morning (or was it afternoon?), to discover a receipt for a $22,000 bar tab by his bed.

Now that was a great poker cruise!

© 2005 Murphy James

Texas Hold‘em has become the most popular and well known variant of poker in the world. It’s certainly not a new game by any means but at the moment it is receiving a great deal of media attention leading to increased interest from the general public.

It’s now easier than ever to get started playing Texas Hold’em due to the explosion in availability of online casinos and poker rooms. All you need is an internet connection and a PC.

If you are a newcomer to the wonderful world of online poker then Texas Hold’em is the probably the best variety of poker to learn first. Once you’ve cut your teeth here, you can move onto to more complicated games if you so wish.

Many people feel that Texas Hold’em has the simplest rules and least complicated odds of all the poker games. A complete “newbie” can often pick up the rules of Texas Hold’em in just a few minutes and become reasonably proficient within a few hours.

To really master the game though, you will have to practise hard and that means playing against others. Expert poker players are often heard quoting the phrase “it takes a minute to learn and a lifetime to master” when referring to Texas Hold’em, so don’t expect to be winning big money quickly on the poker sites.

What you must be aware of, though, is that there are thousands of seasoned Hold’em players out there and many of them thrive on the rewards they can get from playing against inexperienced players. Don’t feed their accounts by risking your money unnecessarily.

Before you jump in feet first and credit your online account with hundreds of dollars, take time to learn the rules.

First, do some background reading on the subject of poker and commit the basics to memory. Then, consider signing up for a dummy account which allows you to play against other people online but without risking any real money.

Of course, this won’t be the same as playing for real stakes, people simply don’t play the same when there is not money at risk. Playing with virtual funds can be rather annoying with players leaving games early and betting unrealistic hands, this is all to be expected when there is no real risk.

However, it will at least help you to get used to the basic rules and strategies for playing Texas Hold’em.

Once you find that you are comfortable with the speed of play, the rules and the stakes at risk, it may be time to consider playing for real rewards - cold, hard cash.

Realise though, that real money Texas Hold’em games are very competitive. No one cares who you are or where you are from, the object of the game is to win the pot. That is your only goal - to win the pot and eventually come out of the game with more money than you went in with.

Don’t fall prey to more experienced Texas Hold’em players. Get an education and some risk-free practise and then move up to real money games once you are 100% happy with the rules.

Most of all, you must enjoy playing poker online or it is pointless doing it. Texas Hold’em isn’t a fun experience if you are always losing and the only way to start winning is to do your research and to put in lots of practise.

Always remember that you should only play with money that you can afford to lose. Never bet the rent money when playing online poker because if you lose it you cannot get it back.

For want of a nail the shoe was lost

For want of a shoe the horse was lost

For want of a horse the rider was lost

For want of a rider the battle was lost

For want of a battle the Kingdom was lost

And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

Attributed to Benjamin Franklin

Poor Richards Almanac of 1757

It was thrilling, it was action packed and it was on pace to be a great upset win for the Oilers and give me another win. Then Disaster.. Carolina’s Andrew Ladd brought the puck into the Edmonton zone, cut in the front of the net and was hit by Bergeron and that drove Ladd into Roloson and knocked the net off its moorings. Dwayne Roloson went down with a series-ending knee injury. We won’t even talk about the play by Ty Conklin.

I have had a great season in the NHL and so have the Oilers. I will win a couple more games before they present the Stanley Cup but it looks grim for the Oilers. One of the KEY players and the one I put the most weight on when handicapping a game is the Goaltender. Roloson has been excellent and with him in net I really liked the Oilers chances to win this thing. Now…

The Oilers will come out hitting hard in game two but the Hurricanes with Cam Ward in net may be just too much. A Goaltender makes or breaks a team. They can hit they can fore-check hey can score goals but unless they outscore the other team they will lose so the Oilers with a great defensive trap strong specialty teams will have to shift gears and change up their game plan if they wish to stay in this series and have any hope of taking home the cup.

This may or may not work to their advantage. They did after all score 4 goals last night. Carolina and Edmonton did not play each other during the regular season and now Carolina will face a different team in their style of play anyway in game two. I think we will see more attacks and beefed up zone defense as the goaltending will not be a position anyone on the team will take for granted as they did with Roloson. I say take for granted in that they rely on their goalie to do his job and do it at Stanley Cup caliber of play. With this gone I expect the defensemen to step it up block a few more shots ouch and try to bring it to the Hurricanes. I also think there will be even more hits and checks to try to keep the puck out of their zone.

Am I happy with this? NO Is this hockey or for that matter any sport? YES so those are the breaks and we will have to see. Do I still like Edmontons Chances to win this? Well it can still happen but I am not as optimistic as I was yesterday afternoon. Tough break for the Oilers now lets see of that other adage holds true.

When the going gets tough… the tough get going!

The first time I was asked to play poker, I had to confess I didn’t have a clue about it. Then after my poker-savvy friend who extended the invitation explained the rules to me, I thought, “Ah-ha! I now know that I will never, ever learn to play poker, and all of my friends just want me to lose my money.” However, I eventually discovered that poker is not impossible to learn, and furthermore, online poker and Internet casinos are fun!

Wondering what the rules are? Fortunately, Internet casinos have the same rules for online poker as you would play around your kitchen table. The two most popular poker games are Seven-Card Stud and Texas Hold ‘Em. In both varieties you choose the five cards that represent your hand, and the highest ranking hand wins. Sounds simple, right? Well, before you head off to those Internet casinos, let’s discuss the ranks.

Basically, there are ten possible hands. Here they are from highest to lowest:

1. Royal Flush: Five cards of the same suit in order from ten to ace (10, J, Q, K, A). If you have a royal flush, bet the House!

2. Straight Flush: Five cards of the same suit in order, but not necessarily the highest. A straight flush can be 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6; as long as it’s five in a row.

3. Four of a Kind: Four of the same value cards in any suit (four sevens, four queens, etc).

4. Full House: Three of one value card and two of another, any suit.

5. Flush: Five cards of the same suit, order doesn’t matter.

6. Straight: Five cards in ranking order, regardless of suit.

7. Three of a Kind: Three matching value cards, any suit (three fives, three aces).

8. Two Pair: Just like it sounds: two of one card, two of another, any suit.

9. Pair: Two matching cards.

10. High Card: If no one else in the game has any of the above combinations, the person with the highest card in their hand (Ace being the best) wins.

In Seven-Card Stud online poker, each player is dealt seven cards and chooses the best five to make their betting hand. With Texas Hold ‘Em, the Internet casino holds two cards in the “center” of the game, which each player can use in conjunction with their five dealt cards to make the best possible five-card combination. It can be a lot of fun to construct your poker hand once you learn the ranking order—and like me, you will find out that poker isn’t as hard as you think! Here’s a hint: keep a printed list of the rank of hands beside you while you visit the Internet casino. Nobody else can see you using it!

In 1956, Roger Baldwin published the first formal attempt at a mathematically based strategy to reduce the house edge in blackjack. His paper, which was entitled “The Optimum Strategy in Blackjack,” and was published in the Journal of the American Statistical Association, was a ten-page, mathematically dense discussion that still required a computer to improve the system. Since this time, many have published more user-friendly, practical, and effective guides to winning at blackjack. Despite the fact that the game favors the dealer, there are still some proven ways to improve your results.

1. Let’s start with some basic statistics. Just because you have won a few hands does not meant that your chances of winning overall have improved. Despite the fact that you may feel invincible at the time, you’re just as likely to lose the next hand regardless of if you’re behind or ahead. Don’t bet more just because you’re winning!

2. Many people like to play more than one hand simultaneously. Although this may seem exciting, and you may feel like more of a high roller, playing two hands against the dealer will result in the same combined results as two separate players betting one hand each but using identical strategies. Playing two hands at once is entertaining but will not give you any edge over the house.

3. In winning blackjack, picking a good table is always important. Don’t pick one whose minimum is more than five percent of your total purse, and keep your eyes open for individual rule variations that may help the gambler, such as requiring the dealer to stand on soft 17 or allowing doubling down on any two cards. These types of rule variations may improve your ability to win more money.

4. Now let’s get a bit more technical. Always remember to double down when appropriate. Doubling down consists of doubling your bet and getting one extra card when you believe that the extra card will still allow you to beat the dealer. This option offers the player his or her main advantage, so always keep this in your hip pocket. Most people double down with ten against a nine or lower and with any hand of 11.

5. Remember that if you are dealt two cards of the same value, you may “split” them. This allows you to double your bet and play two hands simultaneously. You shouldn’t split tens or fives, and most players recommend splitting eights or sevens if the dealer’s card is equal or lower value. Other commonly recommended splits are twos or threes against a four, five or six, and you should always split aces. Most experienced players recommend never splitting face cards, tens or fives.

Sport betting has come a long way since the days when people had to place their bets with bookies that were just interested in taking as much money from customers as possible. Now there you can find a betting sportsbook that makes it easy to place bets in a secure environment. A top betting sportsbook protects the client’s privacy and makes sure that all winnings are promptly paid. It also keeps the clients up on the latest inside information.

There is more to a great betting sportsbook than just looking at the betting odds and lines. It will make solid recommendations to bettors that are based on the latest information about teams and individual players. This allows the client who uses a good betting sportsbook to make informed decisions that can lead to winning bets. After all, sport betting is all about winning consistently and you can’t usually do that by betting on your favorite team to win every game. You need to know all of the important facts about every team that you’re thinking of betting on.

With the best betting sportsbook you can decide if you want to bet on the favorite team or take a chance on winning more money by betting on a long shot. You’re betting won’t be done in the dark and if you win you won’t have to go looking for the person that owes you money. The sportsbook has everything you need to make your betting more enjoyable and potentially more lucrative. So why wait any longer? Check out a top rated sportsbook now.

Entertaining industry conquerors more and more space of our lives. Any inventions in any technical sphere of life attract those who are involved in entertainment business. Internet was not the exception.

Lots of offers concerning gambling and getting real money can be found in the virtual world. Casinos, lotteries, bingoes, sportsbooks: thats a small part of the sphere where one can get a lot pleasure and test the fate.

This article throws some light at one of the most wide-spread area of entertaining industry which is on-line casinos. The point is to show if that`s real.

More than 3000 international on-line casinos are located in the web. There are also some thousands of national on-line casinos. The main difference between them is the language of communication, which is more applicable for people of a definite country. Another important feature is the system of payment with the currency most suitable for the country.

Gamblers from some countries (Albania, Belarus, Hungary, Latvia, Russia, etc) are not welcome in some casinos. Why not all the international casinos accept the gamblers from this countries? In fact, casinos doesn`t make a difference in nationality of the gambler. All the gamblers are indentified by IP of the provider, which is a transfer for gambler in Internet. What is the problem of such countries for casinos managers? That`s a topic for another article and we will not dig this problem deep here. Besides, more than 2000 of international casinos provides one with the choice which can satisfy anyone.

Every casino provide a set of different games, bet limits and coefficients of payings. You can play one-on-one with the croupier or with gamblers from other countries, talking friendly meanwhile. One can choose a game which involves some certain people. One can also play for dealer against the other gamblers. There`s a great list of opportunities which are given by the on-line casinos.

The detailed list of different kinds of casinos, types of the games provided, bonuses for players, types of mone transfer used by casinos, various strategies of games, theory of gambling and more useful information can be found at http://www.icasinoclub.com.

There are some more questions which can arise from players, such as

is my winning payed?

do they play honestly?

and some others. The answers should be got concerning each on-line casino separately.

Different assotiations (such as Online Player Assotiation (OPA) and some others) are created to control the casino functioning. In case of an illegal action some measures are taken, including fines and even withdrawing franchisse.

A serious punishment for a casino is the publication of the fact of its failure in free sourses of information. The great competition among casinos together with such publication may cause the financial trouble for the owner of the business. With millions of dollars are involved in the foundation of the casino (the figure of $1 000 000 is a one usual to start an average business), not every casino can let any cheating in.

The information about various casinos is given at forums, devoted to this topic. Your opinion can be left there as well. There are private forums where professional gamblers exchange their opinions. As an open source http://www.icasinoclub.com/forum can be recommended. There you can get as much useful information as you need.

On-line casinos have their own andvantages in comparison with the real ones. Safety of your own home lets you think through and apply different possible tactical steps in quiet atmosphere with no fuss. There`s additional list of games which is come across in on-line casinos only.

There`re very impessive Jack Pots. The greatest one ($1 500 000) was won in the on-line casino. The usual sum for a winning is some hundred dollars, which are won regularly.

To try the game every casino provides new-comers with additional dibs called “bonus”. To bet on virtual money you are getting pleasure as well as a sum, which will be transferred to your plastic card or a bank account.

Play the Virginia Mega Millions lottery, and you can beat the odds and walk away with the big jackpot. However, it is not uncommon to match one or two Virginia Mega Millions lottery numbers. If you match just the Mega Ball number, you win a cash prize, and with the Megaply option, you might be able to turn that small prize into a little more.

The Mega Millions lottery Megaply option is rather simple. Instead of paying one dollar for your VA Mega Millions ticket, you pay two dollars. This extra dollar buys you the Megaply option. With the VA lottery Mega Millions Megaply, should you win a prize other than the jackpot, the prize will be at least doubled, making your three dollars into six, and making your two hundred thousand dollars into four hundred thousand dollars! But that is not the best part. The Virginia Mega Millions lottery Megaply option gives you the chance to multiply your winnings by two, three, or four times, depending on the number that is drawn. You pay your extra dollar and you have a one in four chance of getting any of these numbers, so your odds are pretty good that you might bring home a whole lot extra on your Virginia Mega Millions lottery ticket if you happen to win a cash prize from your ticket.

Your chances of winning at least one small prize in the Virginia Mega Millions lottery are actually pretty good. You can win a few dollars just for matching the Virginia Mega Millions Mega Ball, and though it will not help you pay off your bills, a small prize can help you buy more VA lottery Mega Millions tickets, and with some luck that could pay off quite a bit in the long run.

Originally all monies generated from the Virginia lottery went to the state’s general fund but in 2000 voters approved a ballot measure by 80% that mandated that all monies generated by the state lottery go towards education. In February of 2006v the last Lotto South drawing was held and this lottery was replaced by the Win For Life game where the player selects 6 numbers from 1 to 42 for a prize of $1,000 a week for life. There are also the pick 5 and pick 4 games with good jackpots. The Virginia lottery site is well designed and very easy to use. Most lottery employees are subject to background checks for player security. Virginia has a good lottery site and great jackpots.

Whether your playing online or in real life there are many different tables and players you’ll encounter. Like most other factors in the game, the nature of the table is something you really need to put some thought to if you want to win.

Online and offline, there are two things you will notice very quickly about the site where you play poker. No matter which way you go, there are lots of players, lots of games, and lots of different levels of expertise and experience.

Poker players who don’t think about the game – particularly new players, but some experienced players who go untrained – make the critical mistake of thinking that options at the poker table are there to accommodate the risks that players are looking for. Of course, since it’s mentioned so early on in this article, because it’s mentioned at all, this thinking is wrong! Say it aloud, the various risks are not offered to accommodate the range of risks players are looking for.

One of the reasons that many experienced but untrained players continuously lose is that they choose to play in a given game based on irrational factors. Poker can be a game of luck, but a real poker player makes their own luck by counting as many of the odds in their favor.

The vast majority of people, when they start playing poker nowadays, are playing online, Texas Hold’em. Most people hear about the game from their friends, or they see it on TV; one of the many televised tournaments. They decide to play with a little bit of money, say $100, to see if they can make a bit of extra cash.

You deposit your little stash and start to scan the tables. Online, this process is a lot easier than offline, but either way, you’re probably looking at the same situations. Should you play in a tournament or ring? Should you play with a limit, pot-limit, or no-limit? How many people do you want to play with and what level should you play at?

Particularly if they’re new to the game, they don’t necessarily know what type of players they’re likely to be up against. Worse still, they’re unlikely to do any research to find about the individual games. Without knowing the type of game you’re going to play, without assessing the type of players you’re up against, you have very little chance of coming out on top.

Most people will head to the table with their $100 and their limited understanding of the game, without making any real effort to improve either. With no knowledge of the strategies or players at the table, most people will proceed to lose their little stash of cash in a couple of hours, without much effort at all.

The table type ultimately has a lot to do with who wins and who loses. Bankroll is important. The key to managing your money is to be disciplined about how you play your money. Regardless of the type of table, you shouldn’t take all of your money in one go. You should go to a table with a big bind of X with at least 50X or fifty times the value of the bind.

Once you have a hand over your money, you need to start watching the competition for playing habits and styles. You need to get a strong grasp of the playing styles in to determine what advantage you have. Ask yourself who bets aggressively? Who bluffs? Who plays hands secretly?

Ideally, you should look at the tables, assess playing styles, and make a determination to avoid tables at which crazy players are clearly seated. Players who often upset the balance of the table by betting on everything, are sometimes referred to as maniacs. Check the average pot size for evidence of their presence.

When it comes to picking a table, avoid those invested by maniacs and tight aggressive players. Ideally, you should be the only tight aggressive player at a table. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket and play high stakes games all the time. You should alternate tables every so often and remember that you aren’t committed to a particular table just because you have sat down there, online especially. Dynamics at the table change so you need to stay on top of it.

As a general rule, you should look at the players, the style of play, and the stakes at the table every couple of rounds. This will help you to stay focused and help you stay on top of the game as much as possible.

By choosing your tables consciously instead of just going for what’s open or making uninformed decisions, you will dramatically increase the stability of your play and reduce the volatility of your results.

The hardest part of playing online bingo is finding a place to play. With over 100 websites devoted to playing bingo, some for free and some for money, it’s hard to tell which bingo room best suits you. Finding good people to play is also important to increasing your bingo enjoyment. That’s why a bingo directory is a great place to start.

There are two kinds of bingo directories that can benefit your online bingo experience. The first is a directory of places where you can play. A good bingo directory will list all the possible bingo websites, give a summary of the possible ways to play and rate the websites. You start out trying to choose from 100 possible bingo websites. Through a bingo directory you can drastically lower that number to the bingo websites that fit what you’re looking for in an online bingo game. The goal is to find three or four bingo rooms that you can try out, like Bingo House, Astro Bingo and Bingo Canada. From there you can easily try out each bingo room and see which one you like.

The most important thing is finding the right bingo directory. It sounds like a catch 22, but the number of websites devoted to rating bingo rooms is much lower than the number of bingo rooms. You’re looking for a bingo directory that lists and gives a quick review. If the directory only has five bingo websites than chances are it’s just a fluke to draw you to those five websites. If the bingo directory is covered with popups advertising one particular bingo room than it’s probably just more free advertising.

What you want is a long list of places to play bingo. Not every directory is a scam to get people to one particular website. The right bingo directory can be the key to your online bingo experience.

The second kind of bingo directory is still up and coming. There are over a 100 websites out there, but do you now how many online bingo players there are? Thousands, even more, and if you’re a social bingo player than you want to talk to these people, email them, ask them where they play, that’s the best way to find a great bingo room. Imagine a directory, like an online bingo phone book, where you can contact other online bingo players. Not only can you meet people, but you can organize to join a particular bingo tournament en masse hoping to push the jackpot bingo up.

Online bingo is growing and there needs to be an easy way to keep track of the growth to benefit both the player and the websites already providing bingo games. Bingo directories are the key, as long as they can be controlled to the point of trustworthy.