12/6/2008 - BULL

A seven-card game with seven betting intervals. Each player receives three down cards. First bet. Up card; second bet. Up card; third bet. Up card; fourth bet. Up card; fifth bet. Then each active player rolls one of his down cards; sixth bet. Another roll; seventh bet. Showdown.
Bull is often played high-low. The winning hands are the same as for Seven-Card Stud High-Law-but the staying requirements should be a little more stringent because of the additional betting intervals.

5/2/2008 - THE JACKPOT SYSTEM

       Poker is the game full of fun along with ups and downs at one moment you might think that you are going to take a lot with you but after a moment you found yourself empty handed. If you have a desire for winning a jack pot you got to have your luck on peak.

     In order to determine whether a particular machine has positive expectation, there are a number of factors to consider. They are:

 (1) The size of the jackpots. (This can be seen by looking at the meters at the top of the machine.)

 (2) The number of reels on the machine. (You can count these. Usually from three to five)

 (3) The number of symbols on each reel. (This is not a simple procedure. There are a few ways to find out but only one is accurate and can be relied on. That is “clocking” the machine yourself. We’ll cover this later in the system. The other methods sometimes used to determine the number of symbols on the reels are:

 (A) Ask someone in the Slot department. Don’t count on getting an answer, though. And even if you do get an answer, I would hesitate to believe its validity.

 (B) Wait for a machine to be opened for repair. When the serviceman has it open, count the symbols. This method is not very practical as you can see.

 (C) Take a slow motion film of the machine in action. You can count the symbols when playing the film back. Don’t expect any courteous treatment if you are caught, however, as casinos do not allow cameras in the casino area.

 (D) Bribe a casino boss to find out the number of symbols for you. Here again, you are up against criminal prosecution if caught so be sure that’s what you want to do.

 (E) The best way --- “clock” the machine.

 (4) The number and denomination of coins needed to qualify for a jackpot win. You can determine this by reading the instructions on the machine. Most progressives take either three or five nickels, dimes, quarters, halves, or dollars.

 (5) If a double progressive jackpot machine, you must know the sequence of alternating between one jackpot to the other. This is usually every second coin, but you can easily determine this by inserting coins and seeing how the arrows are lighted after each insertion.

 (6) The speed at which the jackpot or jackpots increase in size. Usually, 10% for single progressives and 5% each for double progressives.

 (7) The hold percentage of the machine. This is what the house retains as their hold. To determine this you must first “clock” the machine.

     The most important factor in determining the desirability of a particular machine is knowing the probability of hitting a jackpot on that machine. To calculate this, you must first know how many reels and how many symbols on each reel. The probability of hitting a jackpot is the number of symbols on each reel multiplied by itself by as many reels on the machine. For example, if there are three reels with 25 symbols on each reel, the chances of your hitting a jackpot are calculated by multiplying 25 by 25 by 25. (25 x 25 x 25 = 15,625) One out of 15,625! The chances of hitting a jackpot on a four reel machine with only 22 symbols on each reel are 22 x 22 x 22 x 22 = 234,256. (One out of 234,256!) The chances of hitting a jackpot on a five reel machine with only 20 symbols per reel is 20 x 20 x 20 x 20 x 20 = 3,200,000 (One out of 3,200,000!).

     Notice how much harder it is to hit a jackpot on four and five reel machines than on three reel Ones. Also notice how the odds increase against you as the number of symbols per reel increase. Most slot machines in Nevada and Atlantic City have between 20 and 30 symbols or blank spaces per reel. The majority of machines carry between 22 to 26 stops or symbols per reel.

21/1/2008 - "Medium hands"

     I’ve been playing poker for past fifteen years and I am really enjoying playing it. If you have a desire for playing poker or you have any problem related to it always remember me. Now I am sharing some crucial tips in relation to middle hand.

     With medium hands you normally check. One obvious strategy is to see the last card as cheaply as possible to find out whether your medium hand has become a good hand or a bad hand. But if, after the fourth street card, you are sitting in a later seat, and the betting gets checked around to you, should you attempt a bluff and try to win the pot right now?

    There is one major consideration worth noting here. If you have a hand that must see the last card (that is, a good come hand such as a four flush or two-way straight) you should only attempt the bluff if you feel that the odds of a bluff winning the pot are considerably higher than the two negative aspects of betting — one, the odds of running into a raise (which you would have to call), and two, the likelihood of losing action if you hit the last card (some of your hit cards might improve opponents enough to call). Although bluffmg on good draw hands seems to be fashionable; it might be less than profitable against very aggressive opponents.

    Note also that many of the bluffs which would have worked on fourth Street, will still work after fifth street. Those bluffs that would have worked after fourth street and are no longer available, will be somewhat offset by the money you save on bluffs that would not have worked and by some ne bluffs that will work after the last card but would not have worked after fourth street (an opponent gets “stuck in”). An opponent who called a fourth street bet is more likely (resigned) to call after the last card than an opponent who had a free fourth street card.

 Dropped ball

    One opportunity that often occurs after the fourth street card is “picking up a dropped ball.” When the flop driver (the player that bets the flop), who may or may not have risen before the flop, “drops the ball” and checks after the fourth street card, this creates an interesting opportunistic situation. Note that the previous driver is either confessing to the world that he has run out of steam (he did not really like the flop and now he will probably go quietly) or that he is trapping (less frequent) and may check raise. Note also that if the player who follows the old driver bets, it puts much pressure on the other in-between players, since the old driver might raise, and there might even be further raises if two players indeed have good hands.

    If the old driver merely calls this bet, the pressure remains, especially if a brick comes up on Fifth Street (a card unlikely to help anyone). The new driver probably makes the automatic bet. The in-between players are reluctant to make short calls (hands that might call in last position) because of the presence of the old driver, who often calls or might even rise. But, the old driver might have over cards only and not even have a pair. If the new driver is good enough to know all this, he might well be bluffing.

20/12/2007 - The Biggest Loss of poker

Gambling is just like a risk with your hard earned cash. It’s a real fun with real money. So poker is a like a gambling game in which you can earn millions and can loose millions by a small mistake. So its not the matter to earn or to loose a lot , it’s a matter of having fun with your hard earned cash. The biggest loss in the poker games history can be known:
                 
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 16, 1973...He wagered roughly three-quarters of his bankroll, divided among five games. He bet both New York teams. With the Giants, he got two touchdowns, while he had to give two points with the Jets. He selected Atlanta and gave 13 points. And he liked Chicago and six. Finally, he figured Denver could never beat a seven-and-a-half point spread against Oakland.

Nervously, he awaited his fate. The scores began to

Stack like doom upon doom. In the end it was Minnesota

31 New York Giants 7...Buffalo 34 New York Jets

14...Atlanta 14 New Orleans 1O...Green Bay 21 Chicago

O...Oakland 21 Denver 17. He had lost them all.

He was so shaken that he couldn’t talk to anyone right away, not even to Shirley. But just being beside her was a comfort. Her presence partially soothed the agony in his soul. He had lived through a fantasy win in Las Vegas, lost it all, rebuilt, lost it all, rebuilt, lost it all. And each time he’d resolved to hang on to the next bankroll. But again, it was gone. The pain this time, following weeks of battering by the football bookmakers, was scarcely tolerable. At least there was Shirley.

Confrontation

They entered an after hours club, seated themselves at a booth and ordered drinks.

 “Richard’s here.” Bobby tried to sound nonplused, but the presence of Shirley’s former lover rattled him. He

Wanted her to feel comfortable. Especially tonight.

“I know.” But she obviously didn’t feel as casual as her pretense. No, there were strong signs that she still cared about Richard, that, perhaps, she remained deeply in love with him.

Then it happened. Richard waved Shirley over to his table. She smiled nervously, first at Richard, then at

Bobby and said, almost inaudibly, “I better go talk to

She left her drink. They stood, Richard and Shirley, far across the room and talked. Together, they seemed so much like a pair that, after a few minutes, Bobby couldn’t watch. He just stared at his drink, sipped it and waited. It is apparent to Bobby that Richard was asking her to come back. And she seemed to be standing closer to him than when they’d begun talking. Obviously she was I, but Bobby’s mind for some reason kept Spilling out football scores. Bad beat after bad beat these past weeks . . . Los Angeles 26 Chicago 0... San Francisco 38

Philadelphia 28...Baltimore 16 Miami 3...and he felt that it was just fate that had grabbed him and pinned him in the mud and refused to let go.

The hurt was too much, thinking about Shirley. Fifteen minutes passed. Twenty minutes. He tried to be Philosophical. He’d stuck to his game plan. He’d played the hand the best way he knew how, and all that remained was for the players to turn their cards over and see who took the pot.

That’s how he tried to look at it. But an overwhelming sense of destiny numbed him. St. Louis 32 Atlanta

10...Detroit 40 Chicago 7...he just couldn’t win a game.

7/12/2007 - The Future of Poker and Hold’em and Omaha

Now, as we enter the first years of the new millennium, gambling and poker are undergoing a great resurgence in popularity, perhaps tracking current economic conditions that have induced many state governments to capitalize on gaming, thus liberalizing and sanctioning the gambling environment.

 It is unlikely that this momentum will suddenly be reversed. But history has taught us that such things usually go in cycles. It is quite possible that a reactionary or backlash movement against gambling will occur sometime in the next century. But, like prohibition, such a movement, even if temporarily successful, will eventually wane because of the human desires for interest and for freedom and because the people will have more leisure time.

Sometime during the past thirty years, hold‘em replaced seven card as the most popular and significant form of poker. Hold‘em is still growing and should continue to be the most important form of casino poker until well into the next century. Omaha and high-low Omaha will probably continue to grow in popularity and importance. It is difficult to predict if Omaha will eventually catch up to hold‘em and perhaps pass it, or whether some new game or variation (or computer product) will come along.

Are there any other prognostications (not Nostradamus) of what the future holds? An English friend who did years of research regarding the history of backgammon tells us that backgammon has made a cyclical resurgence in popularity about every thirty years since the I 600s and perhaps before that!

Like hair length, fashion, liberalism versus conservatism, realism versus the abstract, and many other human subjectivities, there appears to be a mass appreciation cycle for backgammon which peaks about every thirty years, approximately once each generation of intelligent people.

One possible explanation for backgammon’s cyclical popularity is that it takes the whole of fish Dom in any given generation, some number of years before either they or their resources become extinct. Perhaps they simply become aware of the trap and swim away until the next generation. Since there are many parallels between poker and backgammon, it is quite possible that poker like backgammon and other “fashionable” human interests will sustain cycles of being “in” or “out” although poker cycles will probably be longer judging by poker’s current popularity and growth rate. It certainly seems that poker and poker tournaments are still growing in popularity! What will be the next “stage” of the poker cycle?

A Lesson from Bridge

Perhaps there is a lesson to be learned from the world of contract bridge. Contract bridge was invented in 1924 (or perhaps was “evolved” from auction bridge, which was itself a modification of whist) by millionaire Harold Vanderbilt Contract bridge became instantly fashionable and popular with the leisure set shortly before the great depression and surged in popularity shortly before World War II, perhaps due to the worldwide publicity and press coverage of the escapades of Eli Culbertson and his wife, Josephine.

But it was not until the proliferation of bridge tournaments that bridge became a multi-level competitive sport. Duplicate bridge tournaments increased in popularity, peaking in attendance in the mid-sixties and again in the early eighties but declined somewhat in the early nineties.

Unlike most sports, but like poker, players at all levels compete together in bridge tournaments. The best players from countries all over the world compete annually in international championships.

An interesting “mass learning curve” phenomenon was observed in contract bridge, which may well be paralleled in poker. Many of the older bridge experts recall that it was a lot easier for an expert to win at a bridge tournament in the sixties than in the eighties. In the sixties, a competent bridge partnership could win simply by waiting for the opponents to self- destruct! Twenty years later the medium level of bridge competence has increased so much that many medium level players are capable of achieving reasonable or normal results on most hands. It is difficult to win if most of your opponents play competently against you.

 An Immortal Game

Perhaps within the next twenty years or so, the medium competence level of poker players will increase to the extent that there will be few free lunches. Good players will no longer be able to earn a living wage simply by playing a simple formula, because most sensible players will be playing the same formula.

Accordingly, our official prediction is that poker will peak sometime in the next century and then decline somewhat, probably coincident with social reforms or gambling purges. But, unless poker is completely replaced or absorbed by a more advanced game (perhaps a product of the age of computers), it is quite possible that the popularity of poker may not decrease significantly below half of its peak level.

It is also quite possible that poker might turn out to be an immortal game, like backgammon, and will undergo resurgence from time to time for as long as humans are human and games are played.

13/10/2007 - HOW TO PLAY POKER?

THE STRATEGY AND TACTICS OF POKER GAME

Here's a few miscellaneous thoughts about calling on the end:

 Be Aware of the Pot Odds

Couple this information with who it is that is doing the betting. If you are getting terrible odds, i.e., you have to call an $8 bet into a $24 pot, and the bettor is a very good player, then you can usually fold the hand without much worry. On the other hand, if it's a $140 pot and it's just you and the loosest player in the game, I'd call his bet just about every time. Don't forget to consider the bettor's position and your estimation of what you think his hand is.

Nuts on the River

Realize that if you make the nuts on the river and you have to call a bet in early position, you just might make more money in the long run if you call rather than raise. Better to have five players call behind you than to raise and get only one or no callers. Also, if you just call, there is a chance for someone behind you to raise, and then you can reraise.

Did the Draw Get There

One good method of helping you figure out what the bettor might have when he bets on the river is to compare the river card to the flop and see if it helps make a straight or flush or even Aces-up. This is especially helpful when two to a suit came on the flop and the bettor checked and called until the other of that suit came on the river.

Another good example would be if the flop were Qd Ts. 6c and he checked and called on the flop and again when the turn card was 5h. If the river is a King or an 8 and he bets it right out into you, then you can be pretty sure he's holding Js. 9d and he made the straight.

If You Make a Flush with Big Cards ...

Then you would like to make it on the turn so that weaker hands will pay you off in an effort to draw out on you. Anyone with a set has a 21.7% chance of making a full house with one card to come and anyone holding two split pair has only an 8.7% chance of making the full house to beat you. Make them pay since you're going to win the hand most of the time.

If you make a flush using small cards, like 5h. 4h., then you would like to make the flush on the river. This gives you the best chance of winning the hand because a player holding a higher h• in the pocket does not get any more cards to draw out on you. If you make your 5-high flush on the turn, you will lose to a higher flush 19.6% of the time. Do not slow play either of these types of flushes since you either lose money when you have the best hand in one instance or you give a free card that could hurt you in another.

 Don't Check, Bet

If you're going to check and call on the end anyway, you should consider going ahead and being the bettor yourself. If you check, you might induce a bluff from a player who wouldn't call if you bet. This is especially true when you're head-up with just one player and the river was not a straight or a flush card. This also gains you a bet when you have a mediocre hand but your opponent calls with just a slightly worse hand. The added possibility that you could be bluffing will also get some calls on the end.

Flash One of Your Cards

Often you will have the nuts when it's just you and one other player on the end. If you bet and that player is genu¬inely undecided about calling your bet, you can show him just one of your cards to make him think about your hand. Usually, showing him one of your cards will pique his interest and he'll often go ahead and call just to see your other card.

If he decides to fold without calling your bet, it's important that you do not show your other card to him, or to anyone else, for that matter. Why should he call your bet if he knows you're going to show the card after the hand anyway? And if you show it to another player or a spectator, he has the right to ask to see it also.

3/10/2007 - POKER GAME

 After this round of betting the blind bettor is still the first to bet or act on every betting round, but he is released on other rounds from making a mandatory bet. From the second betting round on he may check, still staying in the game, provided he calls a bet when it is his turn to go again.

Second Betting Round-The Flop. After the first round of betting is complete, the dealer puts three cards on board, face up. This is known as the Hop.

Every player may use these three cards in conjunction with his own two cards to form a hand, and now another round of  betting ensues. Each bet must be $10 or multiples of $10, and check-and-raise is permitted.

Check-and-raise permits each player, once he has checked, to come back when it is his turn and raise rather than merely call. For instance, a bettor may check, and after the other bets are in, he may raise the previous bet by $10.

Third Round of Betting-Fourth Street. A fourth card is dealt on board, face up. This is now Fourth Street, and from now on bets and raises are in multiples of $20. Again, the first player to bet on this round is the live blind. Should he have folded earlier, then the player to his left is first to bet, and if he folded, then the player closest to the button's left is first to bet or act.

After this betting round for poker game ends, we come to the final round of betting.

Fourth and Final Round of Betting-Fifth Street. A fifth card is dealt face up on the board, and this is known as Fifth Street.

After this card has been dealt, the betting is in increments of $20, both for calling and raising. After all the bets and raises have been made, there is the showdown. The player called shows his hand, and if he is high, the others don't have to show their cards. He takes the pot.

H another player has better cards, he shows his hand and collects the pot. A new deal now starts.

Strategy. The most important fact to remember in hold 'em is that everyone has the same five cards on board to form their own hands. These five cards are open to all the players, and the same cards you're using to complete your hand are being used by all the other players to complete theirs.

With this in mind, it is very important to stay in with good cards on the first betting round before the Hop, so that when the Hop comes up, your superior cards will enable you to win the showdown and possibly to control the game.

Control can be gotten in two ways in a limit game, by superior cards and by position at the table. Like draw poker, position in betting and calling is of vital importance in hold 'em.

The Best Cards to Stay With

What cards does one stay in with in hold 'em? It's not so easy to answer that question without also taking into consideration the position of the player at the table. Obviously, if you're under the gun, you need better cards than a player who is betting last.

However, the experts rate these hands, held by an individual

player before the Hop, as the ten best to hold:

1.A pair of aces

2.A pair of kings

3.Ace and king of the same suit

4.Ace and king of different suits

5.A pair of queens

6.Ace and queen of the same suit

7.Ace and queen of different suits

8.Ace and jack of the same suit

9.A pair of jacks

10.King and queen of the same suit