Gambling

Through Week #3 in the AFC it looks like the Colts and Bengals are the front runners with Baltimore, Denver and San Diego close behind.

In the AFC South

Indy has to start running the ball more effectively with Dominic Rhodes. 114 yards and Joseph Addai - 123 yards - as well, as better blocking between the two. Payton Manning has been sacked 5 times so far.

In the AFC - North

Baltimore’s defense is solid, #1 vs. the rush led by MLB - Ray Lewis, D.E. Trevor Price, and CB Samari Rolle. Defensive Coordinator Rex Ryan’s team has registered 16 sacks. The offense has to open it up more with Steve Mc Nair to wide outs Mason, Clayton and T.E. Todd Heap.

The Cincinnati Bengals have to keep playing aggressive defense - 8 fumble recoveries and 6 interceptions. Carlson Palmer needs to stay healthy, and the Bengals need to stop getting arrested.

In the AFC West

The Denver Broncos have to get the offense going starting with Q.B. Jake Plummer - 51% completions, 2 touchdowns and 4 interceptions. Jake needs to avoid mistakes.

The San Diego Chargers could be a Super Bowl contender if H.C. Marty Schottenheimer takes the leash off QB Phillip Rivers and lets him swim or sink. They need to open it up more to Pro Bowl T.E. Antonio Gates, wide outs - Keenan Mc Cardell and Eric Parker. They have to be more aggressive.

In 2005 World Series of Poker main event was captured by none other than Joseph Hachem. The 39-year-old Lebanon-born Hachem knocked out over 5,618 players making him the greatest poker player on earth, at least until this year’s World Series of Poker.

Joseph Hachem, a spokesperson for the PokerStars website paid his $10,000 entry fee and became just the fourth non-American player to win the event.

Hachem’s winning starting hand was a 7-clubs and 3-spades, one of the weakest hands in Texas Hold’em. However, after calling a pre-flop raise from $300,000 to $750,000, the flop came 6-hearts, 5-diamonds and 4-diamonds, giving Hachem a straight.

When the turn brought the A-spades, his opponent Steve Dannemann made a top pair with his starting hand of A-diamonds and 3-clubs. Hachem bet, Dannenmann, believeing he had the better hand, raised and Hachem moved all-in. Dannemann called but in the end he could only tie if the river gave him a seven for the same straight. The river was a four-clubs, ensuring the win for Hachem.

In the event the top nine players won cash prizes of over one million dollars and Hachem’s prize for being the best at the event was a cool $7.5 million. How’s that for pocket change? Hachem’s $7.5 million win earns him another title too - the largest prize winner ever for this event.

Hachem, a father of four children will be traveling for the World Series of Poker in 2006 as previous winners have done in the past and is the new spokesperson for the event. This is one man who is perfectly capable of handling the job.

While Hachem hasn’t been a complete stranger to the game or to those that follow the World Series of Poker and many of the events which lead up to it, he hasn’t been someone we normally watch with much anticipation for a win of this stature.

One of the greatest challenges for sports betting enthusiasts is final four betting during NCAA March Madness. The teams that make it to the final four have usually not played each other in the regular season, so it takes careful analysis of the teams and players to decide how to bet on the individual games or how to pick the ultimate champion. It’s also important in final four betting to look at how a team has done against the point spread, It doesn’t so much good to pick the winning team, but lose the bet because the team doesn’t beat the spread.

A great deal of information needs to be examined before doing final four betting. The individual match ups of opposing players are extremely important as well as information about any injuries, even minor ones that might affect a player’s performance. Another thing often overlooked in final four betting is the possibility of a home court advantage. Even though the games are played at a “neutral” site there may still be a home court advantage. For example, if the final four games are being played in Indianapolis and one of the teams is Notre Dame, there would be a definite advantage to the Fighting Irish.

If you do your final four betting at a good internet sportsbook you’ll find that all of the information you need to help you place your bets is available instantly. This is because a good sportsbook has experts to analyze the data on the teams and players and make solid recommendations on which teams to bet on. It never hurts to rely on the experts.

It’s another tournament day at Party Poker and I have been in about 6 of them today. The entry fees range from $11 to $162. I hadn’t placed in a whole week and felt with some solid play, I was due to make the money.

As with many other players on Party Poker, I do feel that a lot of foolish plays and draws payoff frequently to those care-free players who either just don’t know any better, or are dead bent on losing money. Luck has a way of keeping these players around with just enough hope that they can run through a whole tournament and win a big prize without the application of common poker sense.

As an example, to end my day I was in a $162 MTT buy-in with around 400 entries, playing patiently, I doubled up early and was waiting for the blinds to escalate before I became more aggressive when I was served up AJ suited in late position folded to me. I raised 3 ½ times the blind and got called by both blinds!! The flop came J,10,3 rainbow, which was great for me. I raised the pot by doubling it, trying to get out any possible straight draws. Both chumps called.

Now I am concerned that they are both drawing and this hand has become a game critical intersect for me. It’s either get hyper-aggressive, or let the hand play out without anymore of my chips in the pot. The turn brings me another Jack! This changes everything, because they have to put me on a strong Jack when I do go all in here, doubling the pot again. The small blind folds after extended deliberation, but the big blind quickly and foolishly calls his tournament and shows KQos, an open ended straight draw. With barely time to enjoy the ludicrous moment, Party Poker rewards this chump with an ace on the river.

You’ve read all the books about betting hard and getting the draws out of the hand, or at least making it too expensive for them. You make the right play, and an horrendous act follows and you are out of the tournament. Yes I am hurt. However, I never want to be that lucky in poker. Your goal as a player is to allow others to get lucky against you. You need to be ahead of your opponents in a hand as often as possible, because the culmination of these situations is going to leave you ahead, way ahead. That’s what wins tournaments in the long run, not luck.

There are several factors involved in choosing an online bingo room. For many bingo players it’s all about the chat room. They’re looking for the same social experience they used to find at their small weekly bingo game. For other people bingo is a form of entertainment, an hour where they can forget about everything and have fun. Still, bingo is a form of gambling. The online gaming industry doesn’t exclude bingo. For the gamblers out there looking for a game of chance where they can win big money Las Vegas bingo is the way to go.

What you’ll find in a Las Vegas bingo room that you won’t find in some of the lower key bingo rooms is higher bingo card prices. Instead of nickels and dimes you’re looking at dollar values to buy one bingo card. The obvious benefit is higher overall jackpot bingos with progressive jackpots going up at an exponential rate.

The other thing gamblers can look forward to in a Las Vegas bingo rooms is side bets. Bingo isn’t your only choice. If chat rooms don’t float your boat while you’re waiting for the numbers to be called then you can take your chances on the small slot machines at the bottom of the screen. Some Las Vegas bingo websites even have electronic poker games, allowing a gambler to keep the money rolling during the lull of a long blackout bingo game.

Like all online bingo rooms there is a chat room, and there is bingo. The only differences are higher stakes and more of a casino form. Instead of the cards having a beach theme they have a Las Vegas theme with neon’s and numbers flashing across the board, side bets waiting at the bottom and usually links to online casino gambling websites when you want

While the Las Vegas bingo sites may offer higher stakes and flash and glitter, most online bingo players prefer a more low key approach. There are many Las Vegas sites to choose from and most of them are run by the big casinos in Vegas. They usually have higher per card prices but this is offset by the size of the jackpots. Side bets are very common, and the chat rooms can be quite active. These sites are very fast paced and offer an endless variety of bingo games. They do not seem to have the community atmosphere that some of the smaller sites have. These sites are for serious gamblers and are not for everybody.If it’s fast paced in your frace action you want then Las Vegas bingo might be for you.

Online Texas holdem poker tournaments are much talked about poker events these days. These tournaments have added to the craze and popularity of online holdem poker. The increasing popularity of the online poker tournaments is on the account of the glamorous TV telecasts of online poker tournaments such as World Series of Poker and World Poker tour. The poker professionals have acquired the celebrity status and enjoy heightened media coverage. Thanks to enormous popularity of online Texas holdem poker tournaments.

Online Poker Tournaments- Have the Fun without Paying for It!

Online Texas holdem tournaments are a sure way to add more thrill and fun to your gaming experience when you play poker online. The biggest advantage of playing in an online holdem poker tournament is that you can win large amounts and have virtually unlimited fun by paying just of fraction of what you would risk otherwise playing regular casino games. Most of the online Texas holdem tournaments act as a satellite of huge prize money tournaments of WSOP (World Series of Poker), WPT (World Poker Tour) and other high profile poker tournaments. This means that you get a chance to enter and play in these tournaments by winning small prize money online holdem poker tournaments.

You have to pay the buy-in towards the prize pot and a small fee to play in an online Texas holdem poker tournament. The buy in if you play a typical online poker tournament is at $6 and fee is$1. The fee is the amount charged by the poker room for organizing the poker tournaments. All the players in an online Texas holdem poker’ tournament receive same amount of poker chips to play. The play goes on until the time one of the players wins all the chips of other players participating in that online holdem poker tournament. The player winning all the chips is the winner of online Texas holdem poker tournament and wins the prize pot. The prize pool money of online poker tournaments is divided among all the players who reach the final table of the online poker tournament. The winner of the tournament gets the lion’s share of the prize pot and all the runners-ups share the remaining amount.

Besides winning the prize pot, the winner is given a free entry in an online poker tournament with larger prize money and series of such wins can ensure you a berth in any of the televised poker tournaments with millions of dollars as prize money.

Since there are so many places to play poker online now you may be wondering how you will ever be able to find the top poker room. There are many poker rooms available but not all of the will offer what you want in a top poker room. There are a few ways that you can find out if the poker room will be a top poker room or just a mediocre place to play.

First of all you can find out about poker rooms by talking to your friends and family. If they enjoy playing poker online they may be able to help you find the top poker room for you to play in. They may have suggestions of what rooms to avoid and they also may be able to point you to the best rooms available. It is always helpful to listen to people who have already been through many poker rooms.

You can also look online and read reviews of rooms that have been written by other people. This will give you a glimpse into the poker room so you can decide if it is one you want to try. You may want to stay away from rooms that have been given bad reviews.

You can also go and check out poker rooms for yourself and see how they are. It may take awhile to find the top poker room this way, but you will at least have first hand knowledge. Once you find the top poker room you can sit back and relax enjoying the great games of poker that you can play from your home.

The first step to learning about sports betting is to understand point spreads. Most people are intrigued by betting lingo but lack the basic understanding of what it all means. Below we will explain point spreads and we will then be on our way to the fun world of sports betting!

What is a Point Spread?

In any basketball or football game there are two teams that are playing against one another. Those teams are rarely exactly matched – meaning that typically one team will have a better chance at winning the game then the other one will. If bettors were permitted to bet on who was simply going to win, the smart bettors would of course bet on the better team which would likely win more than 50% of the time in the process.

If winning were that easy for everyone – Las Vegas sportsbooks would stop taking any bets! This is where the point spread comes in place. The basic function of the point spread is to help balance the likelihood of each team winning by adjusting the final score by the point spread. After this adjustment, you get the Against the Spread result (ATS result for short).

How to Read the Point Spread

New York Giants -7 vs. Philadelphia Eagles

The better team, referred to as the Favorite is expected to win the game and must “give” or “lay” points to the weaker team. The favorite is listed with the minus sign along with the number of points they are favored.

In the above example the New York Giants must not only win the game, but they must win the game by more than 7 points for Eagle bettors to have a winning ATS result. An Eagles bettor will win his bet if: Philly wins the game by any amount of points or Philly loses the game by less than 7 points.

There is also the chance that the final score could land exactly on the spread number (example: the Eagles win 28-21 when -7) which is called a “push” or “no action” and a refund is then issued to the bettors on both teams.

The same game and point spread can be considered from the weaker team’s perspective – the Underdog (the Eagles in our example) is not expected to win the game and therefore receives or “gets” points given to them by the stronger team. When a game is stated from the Underdogs perspective, the team is listed with a plus sign along with the number of points they are underdogs by (example: Eagles +7 vs. New York Giants).

Please keep in mind that Philly has +7 and New York has -7 is the same point spread on the same game but it is simply stated differently.

Mathematical Conclusions

For some a mathematical approach is helpful. You can determine the ATS winner by subtracting the point spread from the favorite’s score (the minus sign before the number) and then compare it to the underdogs score. Or by adding the point spread to the underdogs scores (the plus sign before the number) and then compare to the favorites score.

And now we hope that you understand how to read point spreads, arming you with information and putting you one step closer to joining the fun of sports betting.