Author: horse-racing-free-tips

There is still speculation as to where the roulette game originates from. Some declare that it is derived from China and was brought by traders and Dominican monks from the Far East to the Americas. Others claim that the roulette game comes from France, the word being French word for “small wheel”, and was created by an unruly French mathematician, Blaise Pascal in the 17th century.

Monaco still remains a strong convert to the roulette game because in the 18th century Prince Charles thought that it would be a convenient way to keep the economy of the small principality afloat. When the game came to the Americas in the middle of the 19th Century the invention of the single “O” was introduced by Frenchmen, Louis and Francois Blanc. However the American game now plays the double “O” game while the European game still constitutes the single “0” game. The double O game enables the house to make a higher profit. The roulette game proved to have something of a milestone in the California Gold Rush obviously attracted to the large amounts of money to be made.

There are two different ways of playing roulette, there are two different wheels that are played and these are the American wheel and the European wheel. The difference is minimal in that the American wheel has 38 numbers including 0, 00 and 1 to 36. The European wheel contains 37 numbers including 0 and the numbers 1 to 36. Other differences between the two varying forms of roulette are that in American casinos, the dealers will use their hands to draw in the bets while the European croupiers use a long stick called the Rake to collect the chips. Also in America the roulette players are given different color chips and in Europe they are given the same color chips. Roulette continues to be a very popular game especially in Europe.

The game of Blackjack was introduced to the United States in the 19th century but the origin of the game is still much in dispute. Blackjack can be traced back to several European card games including the French ‘Vingt-Un’ (21), ‘Trente et Quarente’, and ‘Chemin de Fer’ (Railroad), as well as the Spanish ‘One and Thirty’, Italian ‘Baccara’ and ‘Seven and a half’ which all have similarities to modern Blackjack.

When gambling was legalized in Nevada in 1934, Blackjack screamed into popularity and was most commonly played with one or two decks of cards. Roger Baldwin published a paper in 1956 which explained hot to reduce the house advantage based on probability and statistics which was quite confusing for those who were not mathematicians.

In 1962, Dr. Edward O. Thorp used an IBM 704 computer to refine the mathematical strategy in Baldwin’s paper and also developed the first card counting techniques. Dr. Thorp wrote a book called “Beat the Dealer” which outlined card counting techniques and the strategies for reducing the house advantage.

This spawned a huge increase in Blackjack players at the US casinos who were trying to implement Dr. Thorp’s strategies, much to the consternation of the casinos. The system was difficult to understand and hard to implement and thusly increased the profits for the casinos as more and more people took to playing Blackjack.

Blackjack is the most popular table card game in the United States today which was transformed from the one table game that used to be stuck in the corner of most casinos. The term Blackjack comes from the ‘natural hand winner’ of the earlier versions of the game when a player was dealt the Jack and Ace of Spades in his initial two card hand. The player was declared an automatic winner and was paid a bonus. In today’s version of Blackjack, any ace combined with any ten point value card-10, jack, queen and king, counts as a natural Blackjack, except after a split.

Blackjack is a widely popular game around the world and has only seen an increase in players as the years progress. What once was a game that was not popular and seemingly too difficult to play with ‘strategies’ and ‘counting cards’ it is now the most popular card game to play at a casino in most of the world.

We have the fact that the MVP Award is announced and decided before the NBA playoffs are over. It is decided on before the first round is even over! What’s the result? It was announced Wednesday that Steve Nash will win his second straight MVP Award.

Now I am not arguing that Nash is not worthy of his second MVP. Actually Nash supporters are going to say that he had a better statistical year this season than last season, when he was the clear choice for MVP. Sure, Nash upped his points from 15.5 per game last year to 18.8 per this year, but last year was last year. More importantly, Kobe Bryant and Lebron James were not in the playoffs last year and did not come even close to the caliber of seasons they each had this year. What I am arguing is that other players are just more deserving of the award.

On Wednesday night, Nash got posterized like no one has ever seen before. Who was the player that abused Nash so horribly, you ask? Oh it was Kobe Bryant, another top candidate for MVP and someone more worthy of the honor than Nash. More than just making Nash look like a fool on national television, Bryant’s dunk in the fourth quarter sealed the victory for the Lakers over the Suns. This now leads us back to our issue at hand.

The Suns might not make it out of the first round of the playoffs. After the Lakers’ 93-90 victory Wednesday night, the series is even at one game a piece. Now, the Lakers are heading back to Los Angeles with home-court advantage and control of the series. By the way the Lakers are 27-14 at home this year and we all know Kobe is going to turn it up a notch for the home crowd. If this round is the last stop for the Suns, where does that leave Nash? At home with his MVP trophy, even after he couldn’t beat the seventh-seeded Lakers in the opening round. Remember way back when Charles Barkley was actually one of the first MVPs not to win the NBA Championship? That was in 1993 and seems like ages ago now. Back then the MVP committee got things right, and even more ironic is that Barkley won the award while playing for the Suns, Nash’s current team.

More over, if the Suns do in fact lose to the Lakers in the first round, the case grows even stronger that Kobe is the MVP. Do I have to read the laundry list of accomplishments to you? The man scored 35 points per game during the regular season, not to mention getting an overachieving Lakers team back into the playoffs with a record of 45-37. And now he might get them into the second round as a seventh seed. Without Kobe, this team would already be planning for the Draft Lottery.

And what about Lebron James? The Cleveland Cavs are the fourth seed in the East. Let me repeat, the Cleveland Cavs are the fourth seed in the East. Don’t forget that the Cavs also won 50 games this year. This is an achievement in itself. Let’s not forget Lebron’s playoff debut; he only scored a triple double against the Wizards. This is exactly why the playoffs have to count toward the MVP voting, because the playoffs are where legends are made.

Don’t get me wrong, Nash is a nice player who had a nice season. But aren’t MVPs supposed to be spectacular players who have spectacular seasons. Before you answer that question, answer this one. If you take Kobe away from the Lakers and Nash away from the Suns, which team suffers more? The answer to that is your 2006 MVP. I’ll give you a little hint. It’s not Steve Nash.

Bet the NBA Playoffs @ WagerWeb.com Sportsbook