Author: horse-racing-free-tips

Let’s start with differences of online poker from off line poker game and the pros and cons of the online poker version. The main principal difference is obvious – poker players, the opponents cannot see each other. Hence, on one hand online poker player does not have to maintain his “poker image” and on the other hand the poker player cannot “read” the opponent hand by focusing on the Body Language. So, in online poker room the psychological moment of the game is rather weak, for somebody it is good and for someone it is not so good. In other respects online poker presents only advantages and it will take a long time to name all of them. Here are the main ones.

Any online poker room the same as any online casinos work 24 hours a day 365 days a year and any poker player may play all around the clock hole year.

Online poker room player does not have to tog up and go somewhere. Playing poker online at the computer is more comfortable that at the casino table.

Online poker room player can choose from a wide variety of games including the rarest ones. Online poker room player may play during a fifteen minute break; or leave the table any time. Poker player may participate in a number of tournaments and cash-games. Online poker room player can play short handed tables or face-to-face. Online poker room player may play at several online poker room tables at a time, play many games in an hour with simultaneous shuffling and dealing. Time limit for decision taking makes the game more dynamic. Online poker room player does not have to control and count the jackpot and his own chips.

Playing poker in online poker room is a good practice for the beginners playing micro limits which cannot be found in off line casino.

Before playing the game.
If you are ready to play poker in an online poker room, you should install online poker room client programs. Basically the poker software comprises two parts – server part – here the cards are generated and information about all the players is collected. Client’s part – here the player sees the cards, opponents and makes poker decisions. Both parts of the software are connected via the Internet and constantly exchange information.

Client programs.
Online poker room client programs can be of two types: downloaded (executable programs ) and non-downloaded ( flash or java, played in the browser ). Non-downloaded programs are less convenient though their number is increasing. To play non-downloaded poker room version a poker player should, as a rule, press some button like “Instant Play”, then a small browser window will be opened and the poker room software will be downloaded there. If this is java poker room program, the player should have java scripts enabled in his browser, flash plug-in should be installed to view flash. The poker players are likely to have Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher with 128-byte encryption.

If you prefer downloaded version ( and it is more convenient and functional), please find the section “Download” at the poker room site and download the program (usually 4-8 Mb, though sometimes occur small ones less than 1MB; they download the software after the launch and then will install the client). When the download is complete, start the program and it will install the poker client. As a rule the client will automatically add the icon of poker room at your desktop or to folder “Programs”.

Rules for the registration at online poker rooms, money depositing and withdrawal of the winning money are the same as in online casinos. When registering, fill out the application, indicate your full name, address, phone number, email, select login and password, and also your screen name that will be used during the poker room playing sessions. Almost all online poker rooms accept cards. There are a few e-wallets such as Moneybookes, Neteller, Firepay and so on to ease online poker room players funding options.

Recently the pace of quantitative growth of online casinos is slowing down, which is due to the satiety of the market and new anti-gaming laws. At the moment casinos try to attract clients by improving service and increasing the amount and quality of games. For instance, online casinos software company “Microgaming” has been adding four games every month for the last two years. The company “CryptoLogic”develops service packs with about ten games every several months. New games appear in PlayTech and RTG casinos. Certainly, the leadership among new games belongs to various slots, mainly video-slots with a great number of lines, bonuses or simply with new graphics. However, ordinary table games (card games against the dealer) are being developed as well. Let’s look closer at the latest innovations in the online casinos.

Let’s start with the solitaire. Yeah, it is old good “Klondike” that firmly occupies its place in the standard set of Windows games. Now the CryptoLogic casino also has this game, but it is called “Solitaire”. I will not retell the rules of the game – if you do not know them, launch the game and see by yourself. If you want to train in the very casino version, install parameters “deal cards one by one” and “account for money” and you will receive a clear idea of what you will encounter in the casino. In the beginning of the game, you stake from 1,04 to 52 USD (52 USD are embedded also in Windows Solitaire) and you will receive from 10 cents to 5 USD for each card, put in its proper place. So if Solitaire is completed, you win five times more than the initial stake. But even if Solitaire is not being completed, you receive some money back. As you see, if you place 11 cards, you will be in pocket. Unfortunately, the analysis of the game is too complicated and information about expectation is not available yet.

The fantastic popularity of the online poker club preconditioned the appearance of following games in the casino. First, the game Casino Holdem was developed, which is now available in casinos RTG, PlayTech and CryptoLogic; a little later there appeared Tequila Poker (PlayTech).

So, the Casino Holdem is the game that really resembles the holdem-poker. At first players must stake the ante, then the player and the dealer take two hole cards and at once the flop is dealt. The flop means three open board cards (one pack with 52 cards is used). Looking at five cards (hole and flop), players must make the decision whether they will continue the game or not. If the game continues, the player stakes the blind in amount of two ante, otherwise he discards and loses the ante. If the game continues, the dealer deals two cards more – turn and river – and showdowns. The combinations of the player and dealer are compared according to rules of the Texas Holdem – the higher poker combination, formed by five cards, wins (it is possible to use from 0 up to 2 hole cards and from 3 up to 5 board cards). Like in the Oasis-Poker, the dealer can have “no game”. If the dealer has less that pair of fours, the player receives winning in the amount of ante, but not only one ante, but in accordance with the winning table, where winning varies from 1 ante for straight and lower up to 100 ante for royal-flesh (the main blind returns to the player). If the dealer has the game and his combination is higher, all blinds of the player are lost. If combinations are equal, the winner is determined by the seniority of cards remaining. If the dealer has the game and his combination is lower, the player receives payments on ante in accordance with table and on the main stake as 1 to 1.

Depending on table of payments, the advantage of casino in the game makes up near 2%. Taking into account the variety of possible combinations, it is practically impossible to develop the optimal strategy. However, one can roughly say that the player must play about 82% of dealings. The player should discard, if he has two small unpaired cards, does not comply with the flop and he can’t hope on the straight/flash.

In addition to the main blind, the player can make an additional bet on the field marked as “AA”. The player wins the additional stake, if his 5-card combination on the flop is formed by pair of aces or higher. In this case, the player will receive payments in accordance with table from seven up to 100 times of the stake amount. The advantage of casino by the additional stake makes up little more than 6%.

Tequila Poker is far from the club poker, but it has some features that make it closer to Blackjack or even Baccarat. So, the game needs the pack with 52 cards, before dealing the player stakes the ante. After this four hole cards are put on the table. Here the player has to make his choice, he can refuse to continue the game, losing the ante, or he can continue the game Tequila Poker or continue the game Tequila High, making the main stake at the amount of the ante. If the game continues, two hole cards are dealt more and five cards are chosen from them to form the best combination. If the player has chosen the game Tequila Poker, the combination is formed according to the standard poker rule. The hand with pair of aces and higher is considered to be a winner. If the combination is lower, the player loses all stakes, if it is higher, the ante is paid as 1 to 1 and the main stake multiplies in accordance with table of payments that is generally looks like the Video Poker one. If the player has chosen the game Tequila High, points of his five higher cards are summed. Points are accounted as in Blackjack (cards from two up to ten according to nominal value, pictures are valued as 10 points, aces – 11 points). The player is to receive minimum 46 points for winning. If he receives more than 45 points, the ante is paid as 1 to 1 and payments on the main stake are made in accordance with table (maximum 54 points with payments 200 to 1).

As you understand, here the optimal strategy is also very complicated. I will only say that the player is to play Tequila High in 30% of dealings, Tequila Poker in 32% and he is to discard the remained 38% of dealings. You should play Tequila Poker if you have any pair or four cards for straight/flash (including an inside straight). You should play Tequila High if you your three higher cards give 28 or more points. The advantage of casino at the play with the optimal strategy will make up 4,2%.

The example of Blaise Pascal, the famous French mathematician of 17th century, proves that gambling might be not so much a purpose as means. It can be an excellent exercise for mind, as in case with Pascal and another French mathematician – Fermat, who invented calculations, now known to us as theory of probabilities.

“Theory of probabilities was created when Pascal and Fermat started playing gambling games”, stated one of their contemporaries.

These two scientists did sums on theory of probabilities by correspondence and the relevant material was obtained during their visits to the gambling house at leisure. Later this correspondence resulted in Pascal’s treatise, “completely new composition on accidental combinations which govern the gambling games”.

In his work Pascal almost completely casts out phantoms of luck and chance from gambling games, substituting them with cold statistic calculations based on the arithmetic mind. It’s difficult for us to imagine what riot the invention made among the gamblers. We treat theory of probabilities as something trivial, though only specialists are sound on its details, but everyone understands its main principle. But in the times of the French mathematician, the minds of all gamblers were absorbed with such notions as “divine intent”, “lap of Fortune” and other things that only enhance the obsession by the game adding extra mystical tones to the games. Pascal without any hesitation opposes his thesis to such attitude to the game “Fluctuations of happiness and luck subordinate to considerations based on fairness and which aim irrevocably to give every player what actually is owing to him”.

In Pascal’s hands mathematics became fabulous art of foreseeing. It is more than just amazing that unlike Galileo, the French scientist did not make numerous tiring experiments on multiple throwing dice that tool a great deal of time. In Pascal’s opinion, the unique feature of the art of mathematic consideration compared to the common statistics is that it obtains its results not from the experiments but is based on “mind foreseeing”, i.e. on intellectual definitions. As a result” preciseness of mathematics is combined with uncertainty of chance. Our method borrows its awkward name – “mathematics of chance” from this ambiguity”. Another curious name followed Pascal’s invention – “method of mathematical expectation”.

Staked money, wrote Pascal, no more belonged to gamester. However, losing nth sum of money, players also gain something in return, though most of them do not even guess it. In fact, it is something absolutely virtual, you cannot touch it neither put into your pocket and to notice it – the gambler should possess certain intellectual ability. We are talking about the acquired “right to expect regular gain a chance can give according to the initial terms – stakes”.

Somebody will say that it is not so encouraging. However seeming dryness of this formulation ceases when you just pay your attention to word combination “regular gain”. Expectation of gain turns out to be quite justified and fair. It’s another matter that a more hot-tempered person is more likely to pay his attention to the word “chance” and “can give” (and consequently it might also be otherwise).

Using his method of “mathematical expectation”, the French scientist thoroughly calculates particular values of “right for gain” depending on different initial terms. Thus a completely new definition of right appears in mathematics which differs from the similar definitions of law or ethics.

“Pascal’s triangle” or where theory of probabilities fails.
Pascal summed up the results of these experiments in the form of the so-called arithmetic triangle consisting of numerical numbers. If you can apply it, you can precisely foresee probability of different gains.

For common people “Pascal’s triangle” looked more like magic tables of kabbalists or like a mystic Buddhist mandala. Failure to understand the invention by the illiterate public in 17th century touched the rumour that “Pascal’s triangle” helped to forecast world catastrophes and natural disasters of the remote future. Indeed presentations of theory of probabilities in the form of graphic tables or figures and moreover proved by the real game caused almost religious sensations in uneducated gamblers.

Though we should not mix theory of probabilities with what it is not by its definition. “Pascal’s triangle” fails to foresee the future deal in one particular case. Eyeless destiny governs such things – and Pascal never debated it. Theory of probabilities becomes useful and can be applied only in relation to the long series of chances. Only in this case, number probabilities, series and progressions, constant and known in advance can influence the decision of a clever gambler in favor of a particular stake (card, lead, etc.)

Pascal’s invention is even more amazing if to take into account that its famous triangle was known to Muslim mathematician of certain religious orders many centuries ago. It is absolutely true that European Pascal could not obtain this information from anywhere.

All this once again proves that mathematical patterns of any process are the same regardless of time and space and whims of the so called Fortune. Awareness of this fact enraptured by Pythagoreans, philosophers who deeply and emotionally perceived it at that time.

One to thirty-five.
Pascal more and more often faced similar complications connected with the game that caused controversies in gambling houses and aristocratic mansions in France of that time. Among them there was a problem proposed to young Blaise by one of his aristocratic friends.

The problem concerned dice. It was desired to find how many series of throws is theoretically necessary so that the chances to win (two sixs) will dominate the probability of all other outcomes taken together. All this is not so difficult as a beginner may presume. It is easy to notice that in the game with two bones there are only 36 combinations of numbers and only one gives double six. After such explanation it is clear for any sensible person that with one-time throw there is only one chance to thirty-five to win.

The result of these simple calculations can cast down many fans of dice, but on the other hand, the rapture of those lucky ones throwing double six is staggering. Because they know the exact devil number of opposite outcomes that opposed their luck!