Author: horse-racing-free-tips

“Barbaro was so overpowering in his Kentucky Derby romp that winning next Saturday’s Preakness seems to be a foregone conclusion.”
– Associated Press

“Unbeaten Barbaro looks invincible.”
– Asbury Park Press

“I’d say he’s the best horse I’ve seen in the past 25 years … on the dirt, turf, any age group.”
– Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens

The 131st Preakness Stakes will be run Saturday at Pimlico and most horsemen are fairly certain that Barbaro will show the rest of his challengers his backside in the second jewel of the Triple Crown.

Considering that I called this horse to be the winner of the Derby if Bob & John faltered and he did, you would think I would be touting this Michael Martz pupil. Well I am firm believer that adversity brings out the best in us and both trainer Dan Hendricks and his talented three year old Brother Derek, have had their fair share.

If you have been following Triple Crown or have been a reader of my articles recently, you will know that Hendricks was left paralyzed from a motocross accident two years ago. He bounced back with the help of his wife, three sons and some loyal owners and is a topnotch trainer.
Brother Derek wowed the horsemen on the West Coast in the early part of the season and arrived at Churchill Downs as the odds on favorite, to win the “Run for the Roses”. But when the draw was made for the big race, Hendricks talented horse was saddled with the 18 post position in the overcrowded race.

Brother Derek had a bad trip in the Derby, racing wide on the first turn and very wide on the second, while Barbaro had a perfect trip. He probably wouldn’t have beaten Barbaro that day anyway, but, with better racing luck, he would have been much closer. His trainer Dan Hendricks believes the effort was as good as any his colt has had in his career.

“I guess you could say it’s his best race,” he said of the Derby performance. “He made it back. He took dirt. He took adversity. He went wide and he circled the field and he lost a shoe and still finished a very creditable fourth. I could easily say he could have been second. So that’s got to be one of his best races.”

The Preakness will be a leisurely stroll on the beach compared to the traffic jam in the Derby and Brother Derek can scoot with Barbaro. I think he turns the tables here!

Bob Acton

Online Sports Betting

Home poker tournaments are becoming more and more popular. By knowing how to deal with certain circumstances your tournaments will run more smoothly, and be more fun for everyone. This article deals with removing low value chips from the tables by means of a chip race.

When a poker tournament begins, each player usually starts with a healthy stack of chips that are the lowest denomination. After all, you’ll need them to pay the blinds, and probably for all of the betting during the first few blind levels.

But, as time passes and the blinds increase, these smaller chips eventually are more bothersome than helpful. With blinds at $75 and $150, putting up fifteen $10 chips to pay a big blind is not convenient.

So, once a chip value is no longer needed to pay any of the remaining blinds on the schedule, those chips are removed from play. When possible, they are cashed in at face value for a higher denomination chip. But, someone is bound to have the odd chip or two, and that brings us to the question of how to remove those odd chips from play as well.

The first way to deal with this situation is to ignore it. It won’t go away, but those leftover $10 chips will only be put into play when a player is going all-in. At that time you can sort out any situations as they occur. Eventually one player will gather enough of the small chips to cash them in.

Or, you can race off the smallest chips of the smallest value. A chip race begins with the player in the dealer’s position. For each odd chip they have, they receive one card, face up. So, if the dealer has three odd chips, he will receive three cards face up.

This continues around the table until all the players have given their odd chips in exchange for cards.

At that point, the collected chips are totalled and a pile of the same value is made using the next higher chip denomination. So, if $100 worth of $10 was collected, $100 of the next highest chip value (perhaps $25’s) would be set aside to award in the race.

If the numbers do not match, they are rounded up. So, if $120 worth of $10 chips were collected, $125 worth of $25 chips would be awarded in the race.

Now, the awarding of the chips. The player with the highest card receives one chip. Then the player with the second highest card. And so on. Each player may only receive one chip, so once a player is awarded a chip in the race, all of his cards are taken from him.

It is important to note that a chip race cannot eliminate anyone from a tournament. If a player has only one small chip left when the race begins, that chip is traded in for a card as usual. Should he lose in the chip race, and additional chip of the new value is given to him so that he may keep his place in the tournament.

Chip races can be fun and interesting, or bothersome, depending upon the situation. In our local tournaments we simply leave the odd chips on the tables until the final table is formed.
At that point we race off all the unused colors.

Handle things in a way that works for you when hosting a tournament. Still, should someone ask about chp races, now you know the ins and outs of the process.

It’s obvious to everyone that Texas Holdem is the most popular form of poker in the world today. It’s unthinkable to have a brick and mortar or online poker room that doesn’t spread Holdem in one form or another. It’s also the chosen game for the biggest poker cash tournaments in history, including the main event of the World Series Of Poker which decides the world champion each year.

The reasons for Holdem’s success as a game are numerous, including it’s easy to learn rules, complex advanced strategies, quickness of play and well proportioned balance between luck and skill. It’s inherent properties seem to offer something for all types of poker players. Action junkies will love the quickness play and sophisticated bettors can enjoy learning the endlessly debated advanced strategies possible. Another big part of the games growth comes from the actuality that the cards and odds often allow for rookie players to win a session or tournament against practiced players. Achieving results, even just occasionally, always encourages new hobbyists to continue playing without intimidation.

Will Holdem always be the poker game of choice, or is it possible another game will become the new favorite? Older poker games like Stud and Draw could possibly regain some momentum however this is an unlikely scenario as these games are currently being shunned by many new action players for their naturally slow pace of play. Other known games like Guts (3 card poker) seem a little too wild and precarious for most players and Pan (a form of chinese poker) is immediately seen as being just too complicated.

It is more likely that a newer game like Crazy Pineapple or Badugi would take over as the number one. Pineapple is essentially a spin-off from Holdem and Badugi is a fun new form of 4-card poker that is played triple-draw for low. These new games can be exciting poker alternatives when a bit of variety is needed in our playing sessions.

Keeping Holdem as a foundation to their poker activities, most players seem to learn the rules and dabble in the other poker games after a year or two of play. Regardless of these tendencies, it’s certain that the Holdem craze is not going to end anytime soon since it has been the introductory game for the biggest wave of new players in history.