March 13, 2009
For many years, people did not consider poker an honourable game. Far from enjoying celebrity status as they do today, many poker players were embarrassed to tell their friends and family about their chosen profession.
Today people recognize that it is a great game, a popular way to enjoy competition and a fun form of entertainment, and that you need a solid poker strategy to be successful in the long run. It can also be a great teaching tool.
Poker and Math
Poker is an ideal way to teach practical applications of math. Calculating poker odds is all about using mathematical functions such as ratios and percentages, which in turn requires mastery of basic operations like addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.
Poker and History
Poker has a rich tradition, from the game played on riverboats in the American south in the 19th century to the Internet phenomenon that poker has become today. The evolution of poker and how historical events and advances have affected it is a great way to teach history.
Poker and Science
Modern poker would not be as popular as it is today without scientific advances in technology, such as the hole card camera and the Internet. Poker is a great way to show the value of understanding science and creating new technology.
Poker and General Cognition
Poker emphasizes memory, in that players must remember previously exposed cards, betting patterns and observable behaviour of their opponents. It requires psychology in understanding how people can elicit certain responses and how you can elicit certain responses from them.
It requires critical thinking skills, an ability to analyse new data and use it to formulate the best plan. Poker players learn how to work for a goal and how to integrate their experience to improve results.
Using poker as a teaching tool does not have to involve gambling. Poker principles can be taught in the classroom with tokens of no monetary value for the same learning effect.
Furthermore, even though the essence of poker is in the betting of money, thanks to the popularity of tournament poker, kids and adults alike can have a great time playing poker with the purpose of being the last person standing and not worrying about money at all.
January 07, 2009
What really sets apart the winning players in no limit poker tournaments?
Here is a list of 20 key areas that sets apart the winning players from the rest.
You should review each of these areas, evaluate yourself on a scale from 1 to 5 (with 5 being the highest)
and work on improving your game for 2009.
1. Entering an event with the right mental approach-playing to win and not just to cash
2. Entering an event with a plan–when will you play tight, loose, aggressive, solid, etc
3. Embracing the risk in the game and realizing that you can’t beat the luck inherent in poker
4. Identifying betting patterns of your opponents
5. Identifying tells of your opponents
6. Identifying your own betting patterns
7. Identifying the tells in your own game
8. Your skill at how to play pre-flop based on the strength of your hand
9. Knowing the importance of chips stack sizes on your decisions
10. Knowing how to adjust your game based on your position
11. Knowing how to make plays when you are card dead
12. Realizing the importance of and frequency to bluff successfully
13. Knowing the right time to push all-in
14. Knowing the right time to fold and realizing that sometimes it s right to fold when you are ahead.
15. Accumulating enough chips so you can survive at least one bad beat
16. Knowing how to play at the final table
17. Knowing how to play heads-up poker
18. Knowing the 101 winning moves you can use in a no limit tournament
19. Not letting your emotions influence your decisions and not going on tilt.
20. Making the best decision for every situation that comes up in a poker tournament
If you scored each area, what is your total score? Which areas do you feel you are weak and which ones do you feel you are strong? Now take your total score and reduce it by 20%. Why? You are not as good as you think. Almost every player over rates their own abilities.
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December 17, 2008
An online gambling casino was designed to give individuals the opportunity to gamble by simply logging on to the internet and accessing an online casino website. We all have to admit that with the time in which we live in extra cash is a plus. This article is aimed at teaching you how to get an extra income by means of an online gambling casino. An online gambling casino provides basically the same gambling experience as that found in a regular casino but it’s much easier to access, and allows you to concentrate on your game without the distraction of other players, inhaling second hand smoke or being tempted to blow your concentration with all the free alcohol.
There are six easy straightforward steps which would prepare you and get you well on your way to earning an extra income by means of an online gambling casino. Step one; ensure that your internet connection is superb. Make sure you have a fast DSL connection so you would be able to play your desired games without having an interruptions or slowness, lag time in a gambling game can mean losing. Step two; ensure that you set aside specific time for your gambling. This simply means that you can not be disturbed and need to be alone, in addition all cell phones, televisions and beepers should be switched off during this period of time as the key to winning is concentrating. So far these two steps to earning an extra by means of an online gambling casino seems pretty simple, so let’s continue right along.
Step three; you need to do a thorough search of the online casinos, see which ones offer the best bonuses and have the best returns for your investment, participate in the games that they offer – many casinos offer free play to new players so that you can learn how to play (although you won’t make any money during this point in time learning to play the games and developing your skill is of the utmost importance) and only at this point an individual can make a good decision on which games they prefer to play. If you don’t like the features of the games for whatever reasons all you need to do is simply move on to the next online casino. Step four; start off by making small deposits, you should begin slowly and see if you like the game first. Be cautious as there a corrupt casinos which use cheating software to prevent you from winning, therefore you should do some research on the company before actually providing them with your credit card numbers there are many online lists of reliable casinos made by experienced gamblers that you can find by doing a simple internet search.
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December 11, 2008
When entering the world of online sports gambling, a lot of us stop and ask ourselves this question, “Am I doing something illegal?” Well in most of countries, the federal government has laws which indicate if it is legal or not to participate in online sports gambling. These laws are dependent entirely upon the country but most of the countries in the European Union have a clear stance that online gambling is allowed. The United States of American has laws that are more muddled and it can be hard to find a clear answer as to whether gambling is legal. Before actually getting into the laws themselves, let’s first look at who regulates sports betting.
In the US the regulating of online gambling was controlled completely by each state, however at present this is not so anymore. With the introduction of online gambling there has been a misperception of authority. Therefore the question is, “who is in charge of making and enforcing the laws of cyberspace?” Now keep in mind that there was sports’ gambling long before it was made available via the internet so the plan was to simply apply these same laws when online sports gambling was introduced, however this was left open to extensive clarification.
Even though the US government has passed several laws prohibiting online sports gambling, the operators of these online casinos have found a way to work around these laws. What they do is, they go offshore to others countries/states which allow online gambling and provide their services to the US citizens from there. I know what you are probably asking, “is this legal?” well to be honest it probably is not but there are no present laws which prohibit this activity, so it will continue to happen. There have been attempts though to pass bills which consider this type of activity illegal, however they have all failed. Even though there are federal laws on gambling in the US, the government has decided to leave all the authority to the individual states.
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