Author: horse-racing-free-tips

If you are anything like me then your palms are getting sweaty in anticipation of the College and Pro Football seasons. With less than a month to go it’s time to start building a little nest egg and betting that the Tigers’ games will go under could give you some much needed extra cash.

If you recall back in early May I wrote a little piece about the Tigers’ middle relievers, but just in case, I’ll refresh your memory.

Recently we touched on the success of their starting pitchers that now have a combined 22-11 record, but I think their middle relievers have been the key. The starters are averaging 6 innings a start and that means manager Leyland has not hesitated in placing a call to the bullpen. While closer Todd Jones does have 9 saves his ERA is an unflattering 4.35, but he has kept the ball in the yard by allowing zero homeruns.

Fernando Rodney, Jamie Walker and Bobby Seay are the unsung heroes of the Bengals with 33 innings of relief that has yielded only 17 hits, 7 runs, 11 base-on balls and a sparkling 32 strikeouts!

Yesterday, Detroit began the second half of the season and their starter Jeremy Bonderman was not his usual self and lasted only 5.2 innings. No problem for Detroit as Leyland went to the pen for Grilli, Rodney, Zumava and Jones. They allowed three measly hits the rest of the game and Detroit rolled to a 6-4 victory.

The relief corps have now pitched 214 innings and given up just 174 hits, 82 base-on balls and have recorded 161 strikeouts. As the season enters the long summer days the bats will go cold for the Tigers, but their great pitching will win them some tight low scoring affairs.

Tonight, two veteran lefties go at it and both were at the All-Star Game Tuesday. Kenny Rogers is 19-13 with a 3.74 ERA in 50 appearances against the Royals. He is 1-0 in two starts against the Royals this season giving up six runs over 12 1-3 innings. The southpaw has won his last five decisions against Kansas City since a loss April 28, 2004, spanning six starts.

The Royals (31-57) will hand the ball to Mark Redman (6-4, 5.27), who has won his last six decisions. The left-hander pitched eight strong innings in his last start July 6 against the Toronto Blue Jays allowing two runs and five hits in a 6-2 victory.

Play the under 9!

Bob Acton

Online Sports Betting

Many experienced live poker players rely on “tells”, an action by the opposing players that will help tip their hand. I am sure you have seen players wearing sunglasses at a live poker game, this isn’t due to the bright lights in the casino, it is avoid any chance of another player picking up on a widening of the eyes or any other habitual gesture that will give away a strong or weak hand.

There are a few virtual tells that can help tip the hand of those you are playing against. A beginners tells are always easiest to spot. They will bet with a weak hand and hold with a strong hand, taking note of their behavior early will help you take later hands. Once you have spotted a beginner at the table you can use their behavior to help build the pot on your strong hands, allowing them to try their strategy on your refined play style and maybe helping fish in a few players along with him. An ideal situation would see you at an online table surrounded by novice players all using the same tactics to help build the pot for you!

Speed of play is another factor to help you spot the tells of other players. Quick bets are often a sign of weakness while a delayed bet is a sign of strength, Typically the delayed bet tells you the player is calculating his strategy for his big hand. Always try to make a note of the hand a player hand when he quick bet and what cards he held when he made a series of slow bets.

Auto Plays are another ways to sports virtual tells. Online casinos make use of check boxes such as “fold”, “raise any” or “call any”. You can spot auto plays as the bet comes in seconds after the player before him. What should you be looking for? “Raise Any” bets denote a strong hand, “Check” denotes a weak hand while “Call Any” will usually denote a player waiting for the miracle hand. As with other strategies discussed here you should follow this behavior for a few hands and be aware of betting patterns of certain players. Novice players may be using the “Raise Any” checkbox to scare away other betters and trying to take small pots.

While tells are never an exact science, they will help give you an advantage at the online poker table, where every little advantage makes your game stronger.

Video Poker seems to be one of those games that people are a little dubious about until they give it a whirl, and the concept of it being worth it, of being able to gain an advantage is the biggest cause of this dubiousness.

I was recently assured of a way of gaining the advantage in a progressive jackpot video poker game: Of course strategies vary from game to game, particularly between wild and no-wild games. However, on a machine that pays out 8-1 on a full house and 5-1 on a flush, there is, or so I’m assured, a means of gaining the advantage.

First, locate a progressive jackpot machine whose jackpot is greater that the maximum bet x 1750; the reason that this is important is because it is only once the jackpot gets this high that the game is even with the house, therefore if the game isn’t even there is no way of gaining an advantage. Now, in theory, or at least this is what I’ve been told; with each 350 x max bet addition to the jackpot, the players advantage increases by 1%. Therefore if you come across a progressive jackpot with a jackpot 2100 x the maximum bet, you have a 1% advantage; if you find one with a jackpot 2,450 x the maximum bet you have a 2% advantage.

Unfortunately, getting to this stage of play requires a lot of time and a lot of money; more of both than most people have. Therefore short of building up the advantage as suggested above, it might be best to simply be familiar with the frequency of video poker hands, and from that determine the likelihood of gaining an advantage. The following statistics were given to me a by a guy in the industry, who claims they are the average frequency of video poker hands:

A royal flush, which is of course what we all want appears once ever 32, 680 hands; a straight flush every 10, 163 hands; four of a kind every 425 hands; a full house every 87 hands; a flush every 90 hands; a straight every 89 hands; three of a kind every 14 hands; two pair every 8 hands; and a pair every 5 hands. Now, in terms of timing, based on these statistics the average video poker machine will therefore produce a royal flush ever 60 hours of constant rapid play; a straight will appear every 6 hours or so, as will a flush; whilst a 4 of a kind will pop up on a more or less hourly basis.

Therefore the majority of the time the video poker player is playing at a disadvantage, however this will be somewhat compensated for by the more regular smaller hands. Is it possible to manipulate the outcomes, to create an advantage? In all honesty probably not, but isn’t it fun trying?