Author: horse-racing-free-tips

Together with this rich heritage these decks of cards created for education purposes. In 1662 the German publisher Johann Hoffmann published a book “Reproduced antique art cards with 36 figures created by Johann Pretorio”. The Bavarian National Museum in Munich stores the cards issued by Johann Schtridbeck in 1685 and they can be related to the series “Worthy Men”. These cards present outstanding men of the Ancient Rome and Greece. Other cards have pictures of the Roman emperors starting from Caesar. In 1936 issued a pack of cards called “History” in honor of crowning of the English King Edward VIII. The cards were hand-painted and with English text on them. The cards depict 53 rulers of England. A very beautiful pack is stored in Victoria and Albert Museum: the picture on the sleeve is a scene in front of the Coliseum with the Latin inscription – “Testis Temporum”. Each of the four suits is devoted to one of the monarchies: coins refer to Assyrians, cups correspond to Persians, swords to Greeks, warders to Romans.

Events of the Bible history were also reflected in decks of the playing cards. The Church did not approve cards and the artists who chose Bible scene as subjects of their works, found an interesting interpretation of symbols of card suits. For example, on German cards called “spiritual deck”, the jack of leaves (many eastern and southern Germans prefer decks with hearts, bells, leaves, and acorns (for hearts, diamonds, spades, and clubs) is presented as Jonah under a green tree and the ace of acorns symbolizes the prodigal son who fell as low as that he had to eat acorns together with pigs.

Cards with religious pictures were probably intended to entertain the clergy who as a rule were forbidden to play cards. One pack of this type is known and it was produced in Germany in XVI century. It depicts monks and nuns, cardinals and lower clergy. The queen in these cards is presented as abbess. (probably the influence of Tarot).

The Geographical decks of cards.
The British museum has a pack of cards with counties dated back to 1590. We have already mentioned the pack “Geography” used for teaching Louis XIV. Probably the childhood impressions of Louis XIV were so strong that in 1701 he issued a law on uniform canon of gaming cards for each of nine provinces of France (this way making all the French cards somewhat geographical). In 1678 Nurnberg publishing house published a book called “European geographical card game”. Fifty-two pages of the book demonstrate all exiting kingdoms and countries with the main cities in Europe. Besides the description of the countries, cities and the most interesting sites, it also tells about the most significant events in these places. The Frankfurt Museum of the Applied Art has a deck of another type of cards: each card has a picture of a representative of a particular population group.

In general context any game is educational as in the course of the game the person performs cognitive activity. Virtually every game either commercial or gambling incarnates the basis of many sciences: the theory of probability, mathematical logic, and of course, arithmetic and elementary logic. You cannot play the bridge, poker or chuck-farthing without the latter. Besides the game indirectly teaches you the basics of law and ethics and helps to develop your memory, attention and intelligence.

Traditional thinking always associates deck of cards with sin. Even if there is no official ban on gambling and deck of cards is considered to be a sin. This is the opinion not only of the strict moralists like religious personages. However, regardless the common opinion, deck of cards played an important role in culture and first of all in Education. Let’s look at the facts.

The deck of cards have been used for educational purposes virtually from the moment of their occurrence in Europe. The cards were used at the lessons of history and geography, logic and law, Latin and grammar, astronomy, mathematics and arts, heraldry and military tactics. These are classical examples of the so-called secondary target usage of cards carefully researched by specialists.

In 1507 Franciscan monk, bachelor of theology in Krakow, Thomas Murner published a book “Chartiludium logicae”, consisting of training cards used by the monk to teach Logic. Murner was so successful in Didactics, that he was even accused of witchcraft hardly avoid to be at stake. But his defence presented at the court the evidence of harmlessness of the methods applied by the Franciscan. They also proved that these methods were based on the well-known in the Middle Ages mnemonic techniques – memorizing with the help of the pictures and as the modern educators would call them “reference signals”.

Much earlier Murner applied the same principle to teaching the Code of Justinian. In 1502 he wrote to Geiler von Kaisersberg that his contribution to the teaching of the code was the most significant. In the other letter to the Strasbourg lawyer, Thomas Wolf, he says: “I confess, that for Kaisersberg constitution, as far as my weak abilities permit, I issued a card game as a commentary and in this way I have managed to facilitate memorizing the text of Code of Justinian using the visual images… In my intention to implant the love of reading I aspired to replace boring and stupid game by the fascinating and exciting one and I would be more than happy if I succeeded in substituting the bad with the good”.

Probably the methodology invented by Murner seemed very efficient to he European teachers if they willingly applied it to educate the monarchs, for example Louis XIV. It is known that the arch bishop of Paris Jardin de Perete, who was teaching the dauphin, used training cards; the engravings for them were done by the greatest engraver ever – Stefano della Bella. When Louis XIV was six years old he had four decks of cards: “kings of France”, “Famous Kingdoms”, “Geography” and “Metamorphoses”. The future The Sun King (in French Le Roi Soleil) in his early childhood learnt who was Karl the Great, the countries of the world and what fairy tales Lucius Apuleius and Publius Ovidius wrote. He learnt it and memorized it only due to the deck of cards.

If to consider thoroughly the educational function of the cards, we cannot do that without Japanese and Chinese cards back in XIth century. By that time there was formed a definite type of cards which is a predecessor of XVIII-XIX century cards. The image on the face side comprises two parts: on the top there is a “cherry picking” from some play; in the bottom there is a picture of the respective scene from the play. Toasts were also written on the cards: “give two glasses to the scholarly guest” or “let people sitting close to each other drink for one another’s health” or “treat the man with a just born son with the biggest glass of wine”.

If you new to No Limit Texas Hold’em poker and have watched the WSOP you are probably amazed at the brilliant play of some of the professionals. Most likely you find yourself saying, “Wow! How did he know to raise in that situation” or “How in the world did he know that he was bluffing?” Well, sometimes it is luck but more often than not it is skill and knowing their opponents tendencies. When you are staking out your next opponent you may want to keep in mind that most players fall into four distinct categories, loose passive, loose aggressive, tight passive and tight aggressive.

The term loose and tight describes a poker player’s frequency of played hands. A loose poker player will play many hands and mix their play up. They don’t necessarily wait on what would be thought of as a good starting hand. A tight player will play hands less frequently usually waiting on a good starting hand or at least to be in good position.

The term passive and aggressive describe a poker player’s betting tendencies. A passive poker player will normally check or call many times even if they have top pair or over cards. An aggressive player, on the other hand, has a tendency to bet or raise and put your ability to read them to the test.

Loose Passive

A loose passive player is generally new to No Limit Texas Hold’em. They will start with almost any hand not fully understanding which hands are strong and which hands are marginal. When the flop and turn are shown and they catch middle or bottom pair they will generally check or call giving the opponent an opportunity to catch cards. This type of opponent may scare easily with a large bet on the river.

Loose Aggressive

An experienced loose aggressive player is a very dangerous player and you always want them on your right. This type of poker player will play various types of hands and also bet very aggressively, as if he/she always has a great hand or is catching a great flop. Watch out for this type of player because it is extremely difficult to put them on a hand.

Tight Passive

A tight passive player is one of the most respected players at a poker table but that can be a good and bad thing. A tight passive player will only play a limited number of hands. They generally wait on good cards and will call or bet only when they have made their hand. Generally a poker table will recognize a tight passive player and when they represent a hand the table will respectfully fold their cards resulting in smaller pot sizes.

Tight Aggressive

A tight aggressive poker player will sit back and wait on a good hand or good position and then bet aggressively. It is thought that this style of play fits extremely well with No Limit Texas Hold’em. This type of player will frequently raise pre flop. If he/she is on a draw or thinks the hand is good, you better believe there will be a strong bet or raise following as well.

If you’re new to the game then you may not have a strategy down yet. Remember, there is no right answer to what type of style you choose or fall under but with practice you will probably be able spot what type or poker style suits you the best.