Archive for the 'Have Fun' Category

Poker: Part of a Balanced Breakfast?

We have all seen those poker commercials where the bowl forms “part of a balanced breakfast”. It is inevitably joined by juice, some form of fruit, and other components to fill out the nutritional value that you could not get from just eating cereal alone. poker online is exactly like that bowl of sugary cereal. It should be part, and not the whole, of your balanced gambling experience. Poker is great, don’t get me wrong. But you wouldn’t want to eat that sugary cereal with marshmallows three times a day, so why would you want to limit yourself only to poker? If you are a diehard poker fan, remember that branching out can actually allow you to hone some of the skills you use at the poker table in unexpected ways. It’s just about looking at the other casino games from a different perspective. Need help card counting? Try blackjack to learn to watch a deck. Are you having difficulty recognizing a good hand? Try Pai Gow poker. You can learn skills at these games that will make your poker game even better than it was before. Branching out every so often will allow you to add the necessary nutrients you need to make a completely balanced gambling experience.

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Decent Flops

Once you’ve built the foundation of your poker strategy before the flop, it’s time to sit back and get ready to re-evaluate your strategy. More often than not, the flop will change your game plan. Your hopes for a flush can quickly become top pair with a decent kicker. Once you see what the flop has in store, it’s time to build upon that pre-flop foundation.

Here are a few hands that you’re likely to see on the flop.

Two pair: Two pair is a good hand, but not a great one, particularly if it’s not the top two pair. It’s a hand that usually wins, but isn’t too hard to crack. If your poker online opponents aren’t showing any strength, feel free to bet and raise.

Top pair: Many pots are won with top pair, but many online poker players have lost by putting too much faith in top pair as well. If there aren’t any flush or straight possibilities on the board, you should be good enough to win the hand. The only thing you need to worry about is whether or not your kicker is good enough to beat anyone else with top pair.

Overpair: If you’ve got pocket Jacks and the flop comes out 5-2-10, you’ve got an overpair. More often than not, a hand like this is a winner, so it’s a safe bet to raise with it. >  pnage of her bet was given back to her, but she lost what equaled a call of the previous bet.

In a recent game I was involved in, the dealer mucked a hand of a player who went all in as well. The dealer was about to award the pot to this player and then noticed someone still had cards. Two compounded mistakes happened here. Firstly, the dealer was not paying full attention. Second, the player’s cards were hidden and oftentimes throughout the hand held off the table. The game was for charity and was pretty friendly. They decided to chop the pot.

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Learning to Trap in Texas Holdem

In Texas Holdem, few online poker strategies are as controversial as “trapping”, also known as check raising. The basis of this strategy is to check when you have a solid hand instead of raising. The theory is that by checking instead of raising you draw your poker opponents further into the game. The pot then gets bigger, and they are emotionally tied to see the game to its showdown. After linking your opponents into the game in this manner, you then raise later in the game to get the pot to the standard you want.

The difficult part in trapping is learning when it is appropriate. You need to learn that you should not attempt to trap anytime you have a decent hand. You will become predictable, and we all know that you can never win if the other poker players know your practices. On the other hand of the equation, you need to trap enough where it is not obvious to your fellow players that you have something up your sleeve.

Another important component that you need to learn to trap properly is how to read your hand. After all, if you do not have a good hand to start with, it is not worth your while to trap your opponent.

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New H. O. R. S. E. Champ at the 2009 WSOP

A new champion emerged from the 2009 WSOP the H.O.R.S.E. competition. David Bach, a professional poker online player from Georgia in the U.S. won the event after a grueling battle. The victory seems appropriate to Bach’s nickname, which is “Gunslinger.”

The World Champion H.O.R.S.E. tournament has a buy-in of $50,000 and mixes up five different games, which tests each player’s all-around online poker skills. It is generally considered the most prestigious WSOP title besides the Main Event. Bach took home the Chip Reese Memorial Trophy along with $1,276,802 in prize money. John Hanson from New York finished in second place and won $789,199.

There were 94 contestants who started out in the casino online tournament. The final table proved a tough one that lasted almost 19 hours. Five champion bracelet holders made it to the final table, including Erik Seidel, and Huck Seed. The heads-up action went on for seven hours, until Bach finally won with a 9-high Razz hand.

Bach’s win dethroned the reigning champion, multiple bracelet holder, Scotty Nguyen. His winning of the event last year raised considerable controversy since he appeared to be drunk and laced his game with a lot of obscenities.

Congratulations to Gunslinger David Bach!

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Odd Lines

We’ve talked about TAG play before (Tight-Aggressive), and LAG (Loose aggressive) before, but there’s another style out there that exists solely because of the mad poker genius Mike Caro called WAG (Weird Aggressive). This is one tough style to pull off. It take some poker table image building first. Here are the ingredients: First you min buy in. Play Tight-passive. Then turn your tight passive into Tight Aggressive. As soon as you’re pegged as a TAG by the other players, you add to your stack the maximum. Then you start playing LAG and TAG depending on the orbit and the players (since by now you’ve learned the table.) Finally to get to that WAG state, you begin making absurd bets. Have a favorite number, use that as your standard raise. Raise big on the flop, then minbet the turn. Start minbetting the whole hand. Checkraise on three streets. All of these will start to remold your table image. You’ll soon start getting players calling you just to see what you’ll do. And this is what you want. Because under the WAG you’re still mostly playing TAG poker. You minbet a turn and get reraised all in, you’re bouncing with minimal loss. Occasionally you’ll showdown your 9 high against AA if the price is cheap enough. And what have you created in this witch’s brew, a cauldron of confused online poker players and nearly total table control.

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Serious Bowling Steps: Ditch the Lane’s Bowling Rentals

I regularly hear from a social bowler hoping to take on real bowling more seriously. When bowling is your calling, you’ve stumbled upon a important cross-roads in your development as a real student of the game. My “Next Steps” handbook to bowling shouldn’t be ignored. The guys in a nearby bowling pro shop can help their customers develop bowling potential. A wise bowling wizard once said: the bowling balls do all the work (after you roll them). Just kidding. Fine, bowling is a simple game with not-so simple details. Don’t fret, we’ll make sure you’re throwing your way.

First, invest a little in tailored bowling supplies at a nearby bowling pro shop. Fit is important. It’s no joke, get your personal ball fitted, and your game will benefit. A properly weighted bowling ball can make a substantial improvement in your game. It’s also important you’re having comfortable bowling shoes which provide solid footing on the approach.

If you may have previous acquired good bowling ball and shoes, you’re ready for the second best piece of bowling advice: aiming the ball. When you wait to roll, don’t actually aim for the back of the lane. Aim for the the points about 15 feet down the lane, like a gunsight. The reason? You’ll find it more effective to hit a mark much nearer. To take full advantage, make sure you begin your approach at the precise location on the floor with every roll. With that consistency you can fine-tune your aim using the arrows in the lane.

Do we have any tips for hooks, for their desired pin action? That makes our next best piece of bowling advice. It’s all in the specialized bowling ball. Might be surprising that pros bowl and regularly roll at least two bowling balls to roll ridiculous pin action, depending on the type of game and lane. But intermediates should avoid putting on a show, and avoid a ball that weighs a ton. Some serious bowlers travel with bowling balls made for reactive materials. Steer clear of them, because these special-made balls can make even moderately good pros appear silly. With these tips you’re on the right track. Rest assured you’ll find next month.

Thanks, George Hundley

My friends and I roll strikes for Team “Pindemonium” comprised of the guys and gals at Bowling Pro Shop down in Las Vegas. I provide advice to aspiring bowlers on the web and at the bowling center. Also, I should plug our crew in the shop. Sorry I can’t be there.

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Investing in the Poker Casinos

As the global stock market has evolved, so too have the trading practices. One of the areas international investors have been looking at closely as of late is the online gaming businesses and poker.

Currently, the market value of the online gaming and poker industry is estimated at around 10 billion USD and is expected to grow to closer to 100 Billion in the next 10 years.

And that, according to onlinecasinoreports.com is a fairly conservative estimate. If all goes well, and the poker companies continue to trade at around 15-20% of their earnings, the potential for growth could potentially reach 2 Trillion USD.

While the passage of the UIGEA in 2006 caused stock in the industry, at least in the US, to drop drastically, they have been on a steady climb as a whole despite the recent 2008 downturn.

Some economists call these companies an investment oasis in a time where the rest of the market is struggling. As far as short versus long term investing goes, market indicators show that these investments are most suited for longer term goals, as a dramatic short selling could actually drive the prices down substantially.

This is especially true for US investors looking for long term safe havens for their cash. And in a market where the credit crunch is hitting doubly hard with the falling housing market, it seems that assurance and confidence is just what these investors need.

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Poker Observations: Reconsidering Suited Aces

Besides small pairs, one of the hands most commonly misplaced in poker often seems to be the suited ace. There’s something about seeing those matched suits together with the big dog of all cards that causing dreams of flushing and making the monster flush that takes down a huge pot, but in reality, this kind of thinking is often just another poker pipe dream.

One of the main way poker players get in trouble playing ace x suited for a raise, is that they then get trapped into a bigger pot when they hit the four flush on the flop and go chasing after the fifth suited card, putting money in on a hand that is (a) against the odds to happen and (b) probably not going to get paid off much when it does.

The odds of hitting a flush with four to it on the flop are roughly 1 in 3, a stat that does down further when you miss on the turn and still want to see the river. Playing against any pair makes you the dog, and so it’s better, unless you are in a gambling mood, to avoid this prospect completely except when it is cheap (ie: limping) to see the flop, or if you can otherwise take control of the board by taking the lead, thus negating the need to make your hand in the first place.

The other drawback here is that even when you do make your flush, unless your opponent happens to also be drawing, it’s dead on easy for even novice players to see that the flush is out there. Thus, a lot of the times made flushes don’t get paid a lot unless the money goes in before the flush card comes, which as noted before, means you are putting in money from behind.

Again, the poker advice: don’t draw against the odds, make you opponent be the one to do that, is solid, winning poker advice.

It’s easy to be tempted to call raises with that a/x suited, but in the long run, if you can avoid doing so, it will likely end up saving you more money than it brings in.

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