Category: Gambling and Casinos

Roulette and fun go together like chocolate and ice cream. Most movies that show a gaming scene almost always show a roulette table as it looks like fun, the players are elegantly dressed and the money won is in large stacks. This is not just true for the movies, it is true at many roulette games around the world in live casinos, it has always been a popular casino game. The visual part of roulette is sadly missed online as you cannot see any of the other players and feel the excitement of a winning spin. The elegance of the game is the dress and the large payoffs when a spin drops into the right number. The excitement of a winning table is contagious and can be literally felt in your body and listening to the ball fall in to place on your pocket can be exhilarating.

Playing roulette can be fun for many reasons; one of those is that the game is very easy to pick up and another is that has that so many different bets you can choose from there really is a bet for every player. If you’re not feeling so lucky or your new to the game you can choose between some of the low risk bets which offer even money payouts. Alternatively, if you are feeling brave or lucky you can take on one of the bigger bets with odds of up to 35 to one pay offs for betting on a single number.

The fun of playing roulette is getting a lucky run and walking away with some of the houses money to make a profit. A table with a friendly group of players, who are rooting for all to win, is a “happening”. Playing roulette at such a table is very enjoyable when the table is cooperating by giving the players winning bets and payouts. If you hit a couple of those 35 to 1 bets, you get a real rush. Knowing about the different bets and how to arrange the bets will allow more enjoyment as you can cut down the house edge a little. Playing smart and lucky will be more fun than stupid and unlucky it is also fun to try out any of the systems you may have read about. The ambience of a well-dressed group of players at a roulette table is often seen in the movies. There is a romance to the game in the publics mind. Whether it is warranted is another question, but perception is reality in the casino world. Roulette loses some of its edge online as you cannot see the other people and enjoy the casinos atmostphere. The betting action is the same, but the real live excitement of the table is not.

The excited player yelling at a winning table gets every one up and running to watch the action. Roulette can draw a crowd if a player is winning a lot. Hot games in a casino are like a magnet to the players near by. They will be attracted to the excited cheers and the oohing and awing crowd. The next time you’r in a casino try the game and see how much fun it is. If you are lucky you will have some fun.

Men Nguyen
The first name at my top five poker players list is Men Nguyen, also known as “the master”. Men got his nickname for a very good reason. He is, in this writer’s opinion, the most dedicated poker player there is. For spectators who watch his at a tournament for the first time, it may seem as if he is not entirely focused on the game – this can not be more further from the truth. Men is always more prepared then anyone else and he is constantly eager to learn more strategies and more gaming moves. He is the best in reading his opponent’s hand and also one of the most pleasant people to ever sit at a poker table. And so, he is number one in this list.

T.J.Cloutier
Thomas J.Cloutier is the only person in the history of the World Series of Poker to have won events in Pot Limit High, Limit High, and Limit 8-or-Better High-low split.
He has won more tournaments then any other poker player and is considered, by fellow poker players, as one of the best poker players in the world.
Cloutier has won more money in tournaments then titles, and he is the first player to ever win at a tournament an amount of over one million dollars without winning the main event. He has won over the year’s sum of over seven million dollars and he is number two in this list.

Phil Hellmuth
Phil Hellmuth is probably the one poker player who achieved the most in the shortest period of time. He is the youngest person to ever achieve his first World Series of Poker title at the age of 24. Hellmuth won at more than 50 tournaments, and received nine World Series of Poker bracelets in many other tournaments all around the world. He released several poker books which one of them entered The New York Times Bestseller list and there is soon to be a reality show staring him.
His goal is to be known as the best poker player of all times. In 1996 the poker industry voted him the “best all around tournament poker player in the world”. In this list, he is number three.

Johnny Chan
Johnny Chan won twice at the World Series of Poker, and shares this achievement with only one other person (Doyle Brunson).he won two years in a row and almost accomplished three years, but came in second after Phil Hellmuth (number three in this list).He released two poker books and played himself, in the movie “Rounders”, as the best poker player in the world.
In 2002 he entered the Poker Hall of Fame, but in this list, he entered the fourth place.

Phil Laak
Number five in this list is Phil Laak, also known as “the Unabomber”. Laak got his nick name for always wearing a hooded sweatshirt and sunglasses at the poker table.
One can not say he is one of the greatest achievers in the poker industry, but his attitude to the game is a unique one, and that is why he is on this list. During the game, Laak focuses on his gaming moves, rather then his situation inside the game. Sometimes he allows himself to “go for the win” but usually it is not his goal. The goal for Laak is the game and the quality of his moves. And for that he is in my top five poker players list.

All the material of “five of the best” has been supplied by Jack Reider, editor of gambling-portal.com.

Never underestimate the power of the pink pound; no not the spending power of our gay community but the women whose ever increasing disposable income is now becoming a seriously lucrative courtship with many online gambling sites.

With greater autonomy in their personal lives and fewer women being tied down with the responsibility of marriage and children, their spending power has escalated at a rate that not only keeps those shop ’tills’ ringing but has also given women the freedom to spend as they wish. With online gambling now a mainstream activity, the trend has also seen more women taking the lead in online poker playing. We only need to see the rising number of gambling sites catering exclusively to women to know that this is the market to be in.

Until very recently, the online poker boom was thought to be a male dominated arena with less than 10% of players at a typical casino poker game being women. But online gambling industry experts have recently set out to investigate internet poker trends that have led to the widespread increase of online poker websites. Two studies conducted in the US brought out interesting and unexpected revelations in terms of demographics and the overall popularity and appeal of online poker.

Surprisingly, the studies, one conducted by PC Data “Spotlight on Games”, show that over one third of online poker players are female with women being the fastest growing segment of the online poker playing public. The studies also revealed that an overwhelming majority of female poker players prefer to play at online poker sites. In fact, only 1 of every 6 women preferred online poker to regular poker!

As betting matures online, a large part of it will take place around casual games which just happen to be popular with women players. In fact, despite the assumed male dominance of online gambling, women do make up a significant share. Current figures show that this is approaching around 47% of all internet users being female.

Online gambling providers therefore need to take serious note of women players if they are to maximise the overall package and in turn increase the value and loyalty of these players. It would seem that although men are currently ahead of their female counterparts in online gambling, women gamers are rapidly creeping up the stakes to become one of the most powerful demographics to woo and within a few years, they will become the smartest group to bet on.

There are many times of poker tournaments, but the most popular and typical tournament type is the freezeout, meaning that once someone lost all chips he is eliminated. This tournament’s structure is quite simple: you place the buy-in, you start with the same amount as others, then the blinds begin to increase slowly and players get eliminated as they lose all their chips. The prices are given to the top winners, that means to less than 10% of the players in happy cases (sometimes it doesn’t even mean 1%).

But aside this type of tournaments you can also find tournaments that allow further re-buys or add-ons. In these tournaments if you lose all your chips then you can re-buy, paying the same amount you paid initially and receiving the same amount of chips as you did first. Usually the re-buy can be made for a certain period of time after the tournament began. After this period has passed, you cannot re-buy, so if you lose all your chips you will be eliminated. But you can pay to add a certain amount of chips to your stack whenever you feel it is necessary.

There also are the turbo tournaments that basically increase the blinds every five or even two minutes. If you are entering a turbo tournament you have to take into consideration the fact that luck is the most crucial factor here. These tournaments happen fast because all the action is located on the pre flop, player going all-in most of the times.

The satellite tournaments mean that they are not offering cash prices but a “ticket” of entrance to a bigger tournament, like the WSOP. The prices offered are usually relative to the number of people that get into the tournament. But the percent is low, so these tournaments require an aggressive approach.

The steps tournaments mean that you are taking part in more than one tournament. There are a series of satellite tournaments that allow player to gradually qualify for the following step and into the final step the cash prices, collected from all the buy-ins are offered to the best few. The first prize will get the biggest share of the money amount gathered, and then place from 2 to 5 usually receive the rest, a decent prize.

The shootouts are tournaments in which you have to play may single table tournaments one after the other. They are similar to steps tournaments. Players either advance after a table has been finish or are eliminated. The prize will be divided within almost every player at the final table, so the prizes are more but lower than in steps tournaments.

And finally there are the winner takes all tournaments. This are single table usually, and they require an aggressive strategy, as you have to be the first or you lose all anyway. The best example are home games that are usually played this way, mostly to avoid problems. People put an amount in first, and then, after one remains, he will take home all the buy-ins.