Archive for the 'Internet Fun' Category

FBI Releases Comments on Online Poker

Tuesday, December 29th, 2009

Spencer Bachus (R-AL) of the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee read a letter in the last month of November 2009 that stated online poker games could be compromised.

The letter was dated November 13th was from the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Cybercrime division and put forth six questions that the FBI thought should be addressed when dealing with online poker.

The first assault on the casinos was one of technology. The letter states that technology exists that would allow a team of 3 or 4 to exploit the other players and consistently win the game. For those in the poker playing community, this is known as collusion. And all of the major sites have mechanisms in place to prevent collusion. But that’s beside the point.

The letter goes on.

Bachus reiterated other points in the letter such as age verification requirements, money laundering possibilities, and poker “bots” that would play the game for other players.

The PPA took a look at these arguments and took a novel route of argument of its own. Instead of arguing point by point for against the various allegations in the letter, the PPA instead insisted that such allegations are the reasons that online poker needs to be regulated in the first place, not outlawed.

Their reasoning is that even with prohibition, dedicated players will find a way to play. Why repeat the same problems that existed with alcohol prohibition when we can learn from the past and avoid the problems altogether?

How You Pay Affects How You Play

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

As a new player in the world of online poker gambling, you may be wondering some of the key things to investigate before you commit to an online poker casino. One of the most important things for you to explore before deciding on your new regular haunt is the payment methods that they accept. Do they take your credit card? Transfers from your bank? Or even accounts in your home currency? These are the kinds of questions that you need to ask your casino before you even think about creating a poker online player’s account. A wrong answer here and you can strike that casino off your list of potentials. How you can pay your favorite casino can really affect how you play. Let’s go over an example to see how this works. Imagine you have a $100 bankroll. If you can’t submit this to the site using your credit card or a bank transfer, you will need to use an online money transferring service. These take a commission. Even if you find a friendly one with only a 5% commission, you still end up losing 5% of your bankroll. You now only have $95 to spend at the tables. Your playing style needs to be altered to affect your reduced bankroll.

Daily Poker Fees at Land Based Casinos

Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009

We are all so used to playing poker online, that it may come as a surprise to realize that land based casinos may charge fees for playing poker. Online poker is free for the players because the casinos take a portion of the pot called a rake. The rake, although a small percentage, is enough t pay for the maintained of the online casino and continual support to the players. This free poker pleasure land, however, is the exception to the rule. Most land based casinos either charge a flat entry fee to get in, or take an hourly fee. Finding an hourly fee casino is rare these days, as most casinos prefer to collect flat entry fees so that their players stay longer.

So many people get a nasty shock the first time they voyage into a land based casino because they are not prepared to pay before they play. I sincerely hope that this will not put you off from the world of land based poker. You need to just accept entry fees as part of the poker casino world. They need that money to maintain the physical spectacle that is a brick and mortar casino. That small fee goes towards making a brick and mortar casino the rare treat that it is these days.

Floating

Wednesday, October 7th, 2009

Floating is a term used in poker that refers to betting out of position on a big draw or maybe on a low set trying to get to the full house that you make when you’re up against a online poker player who makes the standard continuation bet in position nearly 100% of the time. This player is expecting you to check to his bet, so what you’re doing by floating him is making him decided if he wants to reraise you (and show you his true strength) or if he wants to fold to your bet and save money.

Now a lot of people don’t like the float play with these casino games simply they say you’re putting good money in after bad, but if you want to look at it as an out of position value bet. You’re exploiting a tendency of a lot of players by beating them to the bet. You take their strategy away of keeping up the betting, so they have to sit and actually think about what to do next instead of playing on auto pilot. And one of the best things about the float move is that you can double barrel with it just like you can a Cbet. Only instead of betting preflop and post flop, you’re floating on the turn and double barreling on the river.

Plus, it’s such a cheap way to take down pots. You put in a minimal investment to get information about your opponent. You may take down the pot, you may get reraised, or you may just get called. If you get reraised, you can get out on the cheap. If you just get called, you just got a sign of weakness. If you take down the pot, you just won money. Definitely learn the float play, and learn the finesse behind it to be able to float down two streets both turn and river.

Custom Avatars at Full Tilt

Tuesday, July 28th, 2009

Full Tilt poker has taken the avatar concept one step farther by allowing their most popular online poker players to use avatars that are personalized to reflect how the players look in real life. These personalized avatars are only available to the pros. The idea is to use the professional pokerplayers as bait to lure more players to the table. After all, who wouldn’t want to play against Phil Ivey or Chris Ferguson? By implementing custom avatars form their more notable players, Full Tilt offers an additional level to their players that they are really playing against a pro.

The problem with custom avatars is that they separate the pros from the amateurs. From the pro perspective, it would be much easier to be incognito on the site so that they could collect from unsuspecting players. Having their name, and picture, thrown about makes it hard to school the fish.

From the amateur perspective, it can be a serious blow to your ego to think that you are not good enough to merit a custom avatar. Even if you are a solid player, Full Tilt only offers custom avatars to their extremely popular poker players. It can hurt your self esteem if you are not a world famous poker player to see special treatment for someone with more notoriety. It makes the table unequal.

Chip and aChair… Plus a Poker Prayer

Wednesday, March 18th, 2009

Texas Hold ‘Em poker tournaments are games of elimination, where the last player standing wins the big prize. Because the blinds are timed and continually increase with each new round, players cannot sit back passively and wait for the best hand possible. The blinds eventually will erode a player’s chip stack nearly as quickly as badly timed bets.

Players with a short stack, or sometimes just one chip left often joke about “a chip and a chair” meaning they are still in the game even if just one bet away from elimination at the casino. A player in this position really only has one move left and that is to go all-in on the first playable hand dealt. If you are on the button or it is close to your left, you will have several free hands dealt to you, and can risk waiting out one or two in hopes of getting good pocket cards.

When you are only just a few seats ahead of the blind, a player with the proverbial “chip and chair” has no choice but to go all-in on the first medium strength hand because once the blind arrives, it’s too late. Any hand with an Ace, a face or suited cards should be played instead of waiting for the blind hand. It’s possible you’ll get lucky, win a pot and survive to play another poker hand.

Thieves’ Honor

Tuesday, February 10th, 2009

Poker has many associated myths, one of which is that poker players are all liars and thieves. This is because deceit is an essential element of winning at poker. Certainly one must know the odds, and get lucky too; but any successful poker player sometimes runs a bluff to make opponents lay down their cards. Poker players also engage in deceptive tactics to mislead opponents into thinking a winning hand is actually weak in order to get them to bet into and build up the pot.

It’s no wonder some people think of poker as a disreputable activity. The irony, of course, is that poker players have high regard for their game and its rules, both written and unspoken. Most poker players are very polite to each other as they sit down together with the intention to swindle the other players out of their money. And there are tacit, understood rules that players observe to preserve the integrity of the game.

For instance, if a player leaves the table to take a break, no other player will touch the missing player’s chips. Just playing the game requires implied group agreement to conform to an intricate set of rules and protocols. Any suspected instances of blatant lying or cheating will immediately set off objections around the table because players are expected to honor the game.

The image of a poker player as a gun slinging, rough cowboy is totally outdated. Today’s poker players come from all walks of life – from doctors and lawyers, to tradesmen, business owners and college students; young, old and in-between; men and women; and many nationalities.

Cards: the Basis of Every Poker Game

Monday, December 1st, 2008

It should go without saying that cards are the most basic part of any home poker game. Despite the fact that this seems obvious to any habitual poker player, many beginners and online poker players neglect the cards themselves and get caught up in details like tournament clocks and chips. You always need to start with the basics in order to do anything properly, and in poker that means you need to start with a high quality deck of cards.

There are a few different materials used to make playing cards, but most people prefer plastic cards. Plastic cards are a little more expensive than fabric backed paper cards, but they will hold up much better to play. Not only are poker cards durable, they are also washable. That means if a slightly tipsy player spills their beer across their hand, all you have to do is wipe of the cards with a damp cloth. If you were playing with a lower quality deck, the entire deck would have to be thrown out because the liquid would warp the cards. In this case, quality is worth the investment.

If you care more about novelty than function, you can purchase cards that were used in actual casino play. The casinos round off the edges of the cards before selling them to the public in order to make sure that they don’t find their way back onto the floor. While these cards add a fun element of casino life to games at home, most players feel that the rounded corners make the cards more difficult to pick up off the table than traditional shaped cards.

The Myth of Card Counting

Thursday, September 25th, 2008

Popular culture teaches us that with a little bit of practice we can easily learn to count cards at Blackjack . In order to propagate this myth, we are told that card counting is simple, easy, and mathematically sound. But before you try to teach yourself how to count cards, you need to realize that card counting is actually a highly advanced mathematical skill. Not only do you have to be able to keep track of all the different cards that are in play, you need to be able to do the math quickly and inconspicuously. You also need to remember that blackjack tables are often in busy casinos where there are a lot of different sights and sounds that can be distracting. If you feel that your math skills are up to the task, you are lucky. Card counting is one of the few systems that can actually take away the house edge. If the world was run by pure mathematics, a perfect card counter would walk away from every blackjack table a winner. For those of us in the world who are not ready to master card counting, there are a variety of other sound blackjack strategies that can also prove successful. While they are not as effective as card counting, standardized systems of when to hit and stay have been proven to work well at the tables. Sometimes it is just better to admit that myths do not become realities for everyone.

Terrific micro waves to be won at Dutch windeprijsvraag

Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008

That will be absolutely fantastic or great to win 7610 euro. Really anyone can win marvelous cars every 11 months. The reason why contests are treated differently is that the winners are not chosen by chance but by an element of skill. 2 days ago a European dutch company begun with a dutch online sweepstakes. Consumer promotions advertised as contests, however, can require an entry fee or proof of purchase. Many state lotteries also run a second chance sweepstakes in conjunction with the retail sale of state lottery scratch cards. Sweepstakes are frequently used by fast-food restaurants to boost business. Many more sweepers are choosing to enter online sweepstakes. Before home computers were popular a common method of entry was a mailed one. Really everybody can win really great Hummers every 20 weeks. It will be super or fantastic to win 2605 dollar. Realy terrific cash prizes to win at contest websites. You can win realy terrific SUVs every 18 hours. Sweepstakes are also legally different from contests in the United States. Thats great or super to win 6766 dollars. Although some sweepstakes ask for a proof of purchase or UPC code, the sponsors must provide an alternate method of entry if they do so. There are also other online services, which automatically enter members into sweepstakes. 3 days ago a Europe based dutch online company started a dutch online contests. Members sign up once and are entered to various sweepstakes each month. Marvelous swimming pools to win at sweepstakes websites. Sweepstakes are generally easier and quicker to enter than contests. 5 hours ago a Belgium webcompany has started with a online sweepstakes.

Translated it means: Woon jij in Aalsmeer of Gouda en wil jij vaker prijzen winnen’ Winnen met Win de prijsvraag.nl is nog nooit zo gemakkelijk geweest. Een prijs winnen met abonnementen van windeprijsvraag.nl‘ Over het algemeen minstens 205 prijzen om de week. Van Noordwijkerhout tot Vianen, winnen met Windeprijsvraag gaat hier altijd. Een man van 76 heeft een dag geleden nog een vakantie in de wacht gesleept.

Sweepstakes promotions are prohibited from requiring a purchase to enter. In an effort to increase consumer demand for scratch cards and to help control the litter small problems associated with the disposal of non-winning lottery tickets. 7 weeks ago a Dutch online company took of a contest websites. Fantastic wakeboards to be won at dutch online contests. Entering sweepstakes by mail is declining in popularity. 7 months ago a European company started a online sweepstakes.