February 24, 2009
I love casinos and particularly love playing roulette but I’m afraid the online versions are usually very boring apart from the live roulette games online. I think one of the main worries I have with roulette online is that of whether the game is truly random ? Don’t get me wrong I’m fairly certain that there aren’t a huge list of crooked casinos on the internet although there are definitely one or two.
The problem is that online roulette can never be truly random, simply because all aspects of the game are controlled by a computer program, every spin, all the events and results are the generated by the software that runs the casino. Computers have always has problems with producing random numbers purely because they have to be told what to do.
For instance let’s take a real roulette game, how is the random element generated here?
- It comes from the speed at which the croupier spins the wheel
- The speed the ball is spun
- Where the wheel starts off
- The angle at which the ball is spun into play
So only Live Roulette Online is Random?
I’m certainly not saying online roulette games are fixed because they are not, the pseudo random number generators are extremely sophisticated and any legitimate casino would be out of business very quickly if they modified this. It’s just that online casinos that are purely software will never be as random as a real roulette wheel spun by a real croupier. The real game seems fairer, if you lose to a generated spin then part of you will be suspicious and it just doesn’t feel right.
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January 07, 2009
While trying to figure whether online casinos are better option in comparison to land based ones, the answer solely reflects on your convenience factor.
There are different reasons why online casino can be considered the best option:
Affordable Option
For one thing, these forms of casinos are quite affordable. You do not have to worry about the expenses of your transport and accommodation. What you need to worry about is paying your internet bills, which in comparison is insignificant.
Enjoying Casino Environment from the Comfort of your Home
Secondly, you are enjoying the casino environment from the comfort of your home. In land-based casinos, you might get distracted with cigarette smoking, noise and overcrowding. With concentration playing an important role to expert players, online casino’s quiet atmosphere suits them perfectly. In case, you’ve got the luxury of enjoying casino games from your home, then you have the power of controlling all these factors. The lack of such activities will even contribute in a positive manner to your performance.
Better Odds and Payouts
Thirdly, there more odds of winning and better percentages in terms of payout available at online casino. The expenses for online casinos are very low and hence, they can easily do this.
Easy Accessibility
Accessibility of online casinos is always an advantage for the majority of online gamers. They have the option of playing whenever they wish to. What they need is a computer and high-speed internet connection, accurate gaming tools and correct address of online casino where they wish to play at.
Therefore, it is clearly visible that online casinos are a better option for those, who wish to enjoy casino games at affordable rates and from the comfort of their home. What you need to watch out for is getting registered to top online casino. Simultaneously, you should be acquainted with basic computer skills to make full use of the facilities available at these online casinos.
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 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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December 05, 2008
Ever since the creation of the earliest online poker rooms, there have been special images or “avatars” designed to represent each of the players at the table. But what is the history of these avatars, and does the choice of your avatar change the way your opponents perceive your style of play?
Poker avatars at different rooms.
The use of avatars at poker rooms can be split up into 3 separate groups:
- Rooms that do not allow you to choose your own avatar.
- Rooms that allow you to choose an avatar from a selection of avatars.
- Rooms that allow you to create and upload your own avatar.
The first type of room that does not allow you to choose an avatar to represent you at the table is quite a rare breed. There are still a few rooms that actually do not even have characters at the table, which means that you are solely represented by you username and your chips stack.
The most popular room that allows you to choose an avatar from a selection is Full Tilt Poker. This room has a nice set of around 90 cartoon avatars for you to choose from, with each suited to different personalities.
The next step up is a room like PokerStars, which allows you to upload you own images that can be displayed above your name whilst you play. This makes your player account at the room even more individualistic, as it may well be the case that no other player has the same avatar as you.
Does your avatar affect the way your opponents play against you?
In my honest opinion, I highly doubt that your player avatar (at rooms that allow you to choose your own) will have any significant affect on the way your opponents perceive your style of play. Of course a custom avatar may be a slight reflection on your personality, but I highly doubt that any player is going to change their strategy when they are in a pot with you because of an image that is representing you at the table.
If you are letting your opponents’ avatars get in the way of playing a healthy game of poker, you really need to start looking for the options menu to stop avatars from being displayed. You have a lot more important things to think about at the table than the graphics.
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November 29, 2008
Online gambling rules are given for many reasons, for instance to prevent the problem of cheating among players. However as a novice player we can be given a list of online gambling rules and not be able to understand and follow them properly. This in itself would therefore put you at a disadvantage among the rest of players. Therefore this article is aimed at assisting you in following the online gambling rules properly which would teach you how to deal with the psychological aspects of gambling and thus increase your success.
The following are nine tips which should be able to assist you when following online gambling rules. The first tip; don’t gamble while consuming alcohol, by drinking alcohol and gambling online you would be putting yourself at a disadvantage as you need to have a clear head when gambling, therefore you should leave alcohol alone when gambling online. Tip two; never bet more than you can afford. This point may seem very straight forward however majority of individuals don’t take heed. Now some individuals see gambling as a short term investment to their financial freedom, however, this is not a good idea, when betting you should set aside a sum of money that even if you lose you would not be in serious trouble. Tip three; be patient, when gambling patience is essential.
Tip four; be disciplined, this point goes hand in hand with point three. Being disciplined simply means knowing your limits and not letting yourself cross them. Tip five; don’t bet blindly! The majority of individuals are so excited to start betting online that they forget this one of the most important online gambling rules; therefore, it is wise to have a bad system but never enter an online casino without having a system. Also these are easy to access as there are websites which provide these online gambling methods and strategies. Tip six; do not get attached to the results. This simply means that if you win on a particular day then great and if you lose well then there is always tomorrow. Also even though you may have favorites when betting try to rotate, in short you should treat your visits to an online casino as if it’s business. Read the rest of this entry »
November 10, 2008
Just when we thought there could not be a more infernal addiction, gambling burst on to the scene. At lower levels, it provided great pleasure. Bets were placed in a controlled, calculated and well-formatted way. It resulted in wins and losses; but losses of a large magnitude were not heartbreaking, to start with. Unfortunately, we slowly moved into the era of no-holds-barred gambling, and people started putting in everything they had. The lure of big bucks compounded with the evolutionary patterns of the country resulted in big betting houses. Most of them were regulated and properly policed, but still did not do enough to put an upper ceiling on how much one wanted to gamble.
Let’s take the case of poker to form an idea about how gambling in its various forms have simply taken the sheet from under our consciences and trapped us viciously in its lure. Poker is addictive. It leads to euphoria and trauma, and honestly it is trauma that largely surfaces at the poker table. Statistically (though nothing ever is conclusive in the poker circles) 80 to 85 percent of poker players lose money; this is enough to support the average living structure of the remaining 15 to 20 percent of players. The best players are not the ones always involved in big games, and the poor players are not the ones you would invariably find in small games. The competition at hand is largely the somewhere-in-the-middle- type.
The small, mid, and large games all have their players, and this has resulted in the lavish spread of all kinds of games. Most people enter poker having read just few books on the subject. They assume it would support their stay around the table. What they tend to forget largely is that it is about money, and hence there can’t ever be a quick path to success.
Also, we have professionals, who keep playing at lower stakes almost invariably. Very seldom they do move out to the bigger arena of higher stakes and lose money to the who’s who of the game. Sometimes, with the tide of fortune their way, they also make some money and prefer to move back to their acquainted smaller yards. The problem occurs when they successfully do it a few times, because it is then that they begin to play with the big shots more often and consequently end up losing largesse, in the due course of time.
People tend to lose on higher limits because they are constantly beset with the notion that they are making money - or at least breaking even. With higher stakes, such a notion can be a death-bell.
Another mindset, which causes huge downfalls, is ego of a gambler. Big poker losers would vouch how they wanted to be known as ‘people of the big league’, and hence jumped unarmed, without preparation, into the field of high stakes. This results in an expected abysmal show, and hence loss of a huge amount money. The big players know how to work this out most of the time, and hence lure the rookies by encouraging them with soft statements like “you were good, you deserve more, and perhaps a little more luck would have done it”. With such deceit coming in from the big players in a subtle way, the novices lose their ground and get further trapped in the mire.
Sometimes these rookies move back to the lesser arena only to show-off their newly acquired skills. Unfortunately, some of the players there are too well-versed with the game, and thus the rookies get a beating even here. This compounds their worry and in a fit, they pile on their losses. This is how small poker losers turn into big ones.
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November 10, 2008
Many of you may be wondering why online gambling is the safest form of gambling, well let’s see if we can give you some really good reasons to start up your online gambling account. First off online gambling casinos, like regular gambling casinos have to register their online gambling casinos and obtain a gambling permit and license before they can legally advertise their online gambling casino. Aside from using the secure “electrical cash” system to make their payments, the online gambling casinos have taken further steps to ensure that your payment transactions are secure by keeping in constant liaison with the major credit card companies, leaving no room for any possible chance of identity theft.
Another good reason why online gambling is the safest form of gambling, is you get to play in the comfort of your own home, no need to get dressed and go to the casino, all you need is a computer and an internet connection and you are all set to enter one of those online gambling casinos. Probably one of the best reasons why online gambling is the safest form of gambling is, you do not need to carry around a wad of money in your pocket or wallet, which will eliminate any possible chance of you getting robbed or mugged and having all that hard cash taken from you. For this reason alone online gambling is by far the safest form of gambling.
Making payments to your online gambling casino account is very simple, you can either pay with your credit card or if you do not have a credit card then all you need do is visit any one of your local banks and purchase one of those “one time credit cards”, then all you do is setup a paypal account and the payment will be debited from your account. Or if you prefer you can use a wireless transfer service to transfer the funds to your online gambling casino account. Note when purchasing a “one time credit card” you decide how much money you want to have on the card, but remember the card is only as good as the amount of money on it. This is a very safe way to transfer money and it’s another good reason why online gambling is the safest form of gambling.
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November 01, 2008
The house edge, which is the commission that a gambling agent such as a casino, a sportsbook (bookmaker), or a lottery administrator charges, is a yardstick that measures how a specific gambling game is fair and reasonable. It is one of the most important factors that every player should consider whenever he/she is engaged in any type of gambling, inasmuch as it indicates how much of the money wagered goes to the gambling agent’s pocket and how much is redistributed to the winners.
Indeed, a house edge cannot be zero since casinos, sportsbooks, and lottery administrators have to make some money in order to cover their expenses, and to make some profit as well. Yet, a high house edge simply means that the players are unecessarily being ripped-off, and as a result, any gambling game with a high house edge should certainly be avoided by a knowledgeable gambler.
In this article, we shall compare, in the simplest way possible, the house edges of a roulette, an evens-odd betting, and a Cash 3 lottery game as representatives of the three major gambling categories.
The Equation
The easiest way to compute a house edge is to compare the actual winnings that are paid by the respective agents to the winnings that would be paid in a fair game or bet. A fair game or a fair bet is one in which no commission is involved; an obvious model is a game between friends. Therefore, in percentage form, the house edge is obtained by subtracting an actual game winning from a fair game winning and dividing the result by the fair game winning, finally multiplying by 100. Thus,
House Edge = [ (fair game winning - actual game winning) / fair game winning ] * 100
Roulette
Because of its simplicity and popularity, we shall consider the roulette as a representative casino game. A European roulette wheel has grooves marked by the numbers 0 to 36; the American wheel (also called Las Vegas wheel) has an additional groove marked as ‘00′. So, the European wheel has a total of 37 numbers, while the American wheel has 38. Internet casinos usually make available the option to select the type of wheel the customer prefers, but the brick and mortar casinos normally offer only one type. The winning number in a roulette game is the number corresponding to the groove where a spinning ball lands.
Now, consider a fair game in which 38 friends are playing the roulette at home, and each one selects a number and places a $1 bet on the number (no two or more players wagering on the same number). When the ball is spun and lands in a groove, the number marking that groove will be the winning number. The person who has selected this winning number collects all the money on the table thus making him win $37. On the other hand, if the game were conducted in a casino, the winner would be paid only $35. The difference between the two winnings applied in the above equation gives us the house edge of a roulette game as
( 37 - 35 ) / 37 * 100 = 2 / 37 * 100 = 5.4%
This means that every time you spend a $100 on an offline or online casino roulette, $5.40 goes to the casino and the rest is redistributed to the winners. Evidently, there are quite a number of casino games and the house edge varies from game to game, many of them having a house edge less than that of the roulette. For obvious reasons, a good gambler always prefers games that have low house edges, while the casino itself loves those games with high house edges. For example, the house edge of craps is 1.4% which makes it one of the most preferred casino games by the players.
Even-odds Sports Betting
Again, because of its simplicity, we shall consider an even-odds betting as a representative of this category of gambling. By even-odds we mean that the event (usually a sports game) has equal chances of going either way. An example is a tennis match between two competitive players each of which has an equal chance of winning the match.
A fair bet, in this case, is just a simple bet between two friends who just pick one of the tennis player as winner. If these two friends wager $1 each, the winner will collect $2, thus winning $1. If instead the bets are placed through a sportsbook, the winner will collect only $1.91, since the odds of an evens game at most bookies and online sportsbooks is 1.91. If you are not familiar with the decimal representation of odds, 1.91 is the same as 10/11 in UK notation and -110 in US odds notation. Odds of 10/11 mean that you’ll win $10 when you wager $11; and odds of -110 mean that you have to wager $110 in order to win $100. Anyway, since the winnings paid by a sportsbook is only $0.91, the house edge of an even-odds betting will therefore be
( 1 - 0.91 ) / 1 * 100 = 0.09 * 100 = 9%
So, this is how sportsbooks make a living. Since several internet sportsbooks offer odds higher than 1.91 in order to lure bettors, the house edge could be smaller than 9%, which is one of the things that the bettor should be looking for when searching for a sportsbook. On the other hand, if the bettor is wagering on parlays the house edge would be significantly higher than 9%; for big parlays, it could go as high as 40%.
It should be apparent by now that the gambler is better off with casino games than sports betting. It should also be noted that while the house edge could be a major factor to consider while selecting a gambling game, it is by no means the only one. For instance, one should consider the fact that casino games are mostly games of chance, while sports betting also involves a learned decision in selecting a pick, consequently leading to a higher probability of winning a bet.
Cash 3
Depending on the state you are in, this lottery game may be known by a different name such as Pick 3, Play 3, Daily 3, etc. In this game, the player selects a three-digit number from 000 to 999, and plays the number as a straight or as a box. A straight play is a prediction that the number will come exactly as selected while a box is a prediction for the number to come in any order. For instance, if a player selects the number 672 and plays it straight, he/she will win if the number drawn is exactly 672. Instead, if the player plays 672 as a box, he/she will win as long as the drawn number contains a 6, a 7 and a 2, in any order (276, for example). Obviously, a straight game pays much more than a box game for the same amount wagered.
Now consider 1000 friends (maybe in a club) selecting a number as a straight, each for $1, so that all the 1000 possible numbers are covered. When the winning number is drawn, the person who has selected that lucky number will be deemed a winner and will cash in all the $1000 collected, so making him win $999. This is a fair game. In the case of state lotteries, however, the winner will be paid only $500 in most states. Some states may pay a little bit less, others may pay a little bit more, but $500 is more or less the standard. The winner therefore wins $499. The house edge for a Cash 3 game will therefore be
( 999 - 499 ) / 999 * 100 = 500 / 999 * 100 = 50%
This house edge applies not only to the Cash 3 game but also to all state lottery games such as Play 4, Cash 5, Mega, Fantasy 5, Lotto, Power Ball, etc. So, whenever you are playing the state lottery, remember that you are wagering only half of your money on the actual lottery; the other half, you are just giving it away. Where this other half goes is not the gambler’s concern, since his/her main objective is to win some money in order to pay the ever present bills, or to get out of a miserable life, or to change his/her 20-year-old car. As regards contributing to education and other noble causes, there are other means of collecting money called taxes and charities.
Unfortunately, many states do not allow casino games, and furthermore, sports betting is illegal in the United States. The player is therefore left with no choice but to cross state borders in search of a casino, or more recently, to engage in online sports betting through the several offshore internet sportsbooks. Nowadays, there is a plethora of trustworthy online casinos and sportsbooks operating from Canada, the UK, Antigua, Costa Rica, and so on.
The Conclusion
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