The Gambling Weblog

Below are still some more tips that you can heed before starting to gamble in online gambling sites. One good tip is to determine and thoroughly read the payout information before playing in the online gaming site. There is no mistake about it – the reason why you are gambling is to make more money. It would then make perfect sense to know how you will be getting paid and if they will pay at all. Remember that different online gambling sites offer different payout options. They also offer different ways for their clients to collect their money. I cannot overemphasize how important it is to find out how you will get paid. It will be a big shame if you win big while gambling online only to find out that either it will be hard to collect your payment or that you will not get paid at all. Another gambling tip that is quite important is that you should not forget to learn about gambling strategies or game strategies before you start playing. For example, you want to start playing poker online. Since it will be your first time it would be a good idea to find out the nuances, rules and strategies of the game. You should also know that playing poker online will entail a different strategy from actually physically playing it at a table. By trying to learn what you can first before actually delving into a game would mean that you are more prepared to handle what will happen during a game and it also makes you more equipped mentally to play the game.

Previously I discussed the different odds given to different games found in casinos and online gaming sites. Knowing the odds is a great way of determining your chances of winning in a particular game.Below are some more discussions of the different odds in some casino games:

Roulette – Do not think that by putting one bet on red and the other on black at the same time would mean that you will break even. The green “0” and “00” are there to give casinos a 5.25 per cent edge in roulette. In order to get better odds and slightly higher chance of winning, try to find a game that only offers one “0”.

Video poker – To get better odds try to find a Jacks machine or something even better that pays 9 coins for every full house and 6 coins for a flush. By doing this you lower the house edge to between 0 per cent and 5 per cent. Video poker is actually considered as a better game compared to slot machines. If you factor in the perfect play and comps you can actually make a run that would eventually see you getting ahead of the casino at the end of the day.

Craps – One way to get better odds is by avoiding the high odds bets on the craps table. You should only try to play the line bets, among these are the pass, don’t pass, come and don’t come bets. Do this and you lower the odds of the casino to just 1.4 per cent. There are some casinos that offer a type of game called crapless craps. Some people think that this is a better game in terms of odds, but the truth is that it actually increases the casino’s odds.

Excerpted with permission from “Internet Gambling: How to Win Big Online Playing Bingo, Poker, Lotto, Slots, Sportsbetting and Much More.”  Copyright Blackdog & Leventhal, 2006.

Just as there are key facets indicative of a great online casino, quality online poker rooms have specific features that can help you to determine if the room is worthy of your attention or simply a “Johnny-come-lately” looking to take a share of the $200 million poker bonanza.  Here’s what to look for when selecting an online poker room.

Games, Games and More Games
Although the game of choice for right now is Texas Hold ‘em, you might want to try and find a site that has pushed past that singular craze to offer a selection of other not-so-trendy poker classics such as Five Card Stud, Seven Card Stud, Omaha, Omaha 8/B,
Triple Draw, Crazy Pineapple, and Five Card Draw.
Also, wherever possible you’ll want the choice of selecting from limit, pot limit, and no limit games, as well as ring, single table,  heads-up (limited to two opponents) and multi-table tournaments both with and without re-buy (purchasing more chips during play) options.

Player Volume
In addition to wanting a solid selection of games and game formats (i.e., single table, multi-table, limit, no limit, etc.,) the ideal site must also have an ample stable of players accessing the site around the clock.  Why do you want to have so many players constantly streaming in?  Because there’s nothing worse than having the itch to sit down at a table and start playing only find a room full of empty chairs.
The curse of many new poker sites is that they often lack a large enough membership to allow for continuous play.  You may have to sit and wait for quite some time—possibly even hours—just to have enough players to begin certain single table tournaments, while in established rooms with 20,000-50,000+ members the seats fill up quickly.

A Wide Range of Limits
Poker rooms differ in the betting limits, and it’s important to be able to play in a room that offers the widest possible range—something like $0.02/$0.04 to $100/$200.
The reason you want a large gap in limit structure—especially for you new players—is to be able to accurately adjust your game according to your bankroll and skill level.
Although there is some debate as to the appropriate bankroll for an online poker player, as a rule of thumb solid players want something on the order of 200 to 300 times the value of the big blind.  That means that if you want to play comfortable at a $2/$4 table you’ll need a bankroll somewhere between $800 and $1,200.  As you go along, you make adjustments to your table limit based on your bankroll and success at a particular level.
So if you’re playing—and losing—at a $1/$2 table, you might want to drop a level or two to recoup some loses and enter a game that’ll suit you better.  That’s why it’s always good to be in a room that offers the widest range of table limits.

Player Incentives
Of course, free cash is always a very nice feature that can make a big difference in your bankroll and ultimately your sustainability at the tables.  Ideally, whichever poker site you select should offer a combination of incentives to help keep your bankroll healthy throughout your play.  Standard comps include a new player bonus (initial deposit bonus), VIP points (also called “Frequent Player Points” in some sites), and monthly deposit bonuses (these are sometimes announced sporadically on sites).
As you examine each site, make a note of what comps are given out, how often you’re entitled to them, and the rules regarding their usage and availability.  Also, create a checklist and compare the comp options from site to site, to see which ones are currently offering the most lucrative rewards.  Don’t forget to take into consideration your probable play frequency as this can drastically affect the value of your comps over time.
For example, let’s suppose that site X offers a 100% deposit bonus, but no additional comps, or re-load cash for returning players.  Site Y, on the other hand, offers a 40% deposit bonus followed by an additional 20% re-load bonus every month.
Assuming you were to deposit an additional $200 each month, which site do you think offers the more lucrative program in the long run?  Take a look.

Site    Initial Deposit    New Player Bonus    Total Starting Bankroll    Monthly Bonus (for six months)    Total Comps Earned
X    $200.00    100%    $400.00    $0.00    $200.00
Y    $200.00    40%    $280.00    $40/month    $320.00

As you can see, in the end players who chose site Y are earning substantially more comps than players who went for a much larger new player bonus.  However, if you do not plan to stick around for too long and are only looking to get your feet wet online, site X with its 100% bonus would be the better option.

Multiple Banking Options
As with online casinos, a quality poker room provides ample banking options designed to suit a wide range of player preferences.  If you hate to wait for your money to reach your poker account, make sure that the site offers at least one option that provides immediate funding.

A Dedicated Support Team
Because problems can happen at any time—the server might be down during a crucial stage in a tournament, or your bankroll shows less than what you deposited—you’re going to want to be able to secure help in a moment’s notice.  The best sites offer numerous contact options that include live chat with a room host, 24/7 toll-free telephone numbers and multiple e-mail addresses.

Pleasing Graphics
Despite the technical advances, online poker rooms are not completely accurate representations of traditional poker rooms.  You don’t see live images of your opponents, can’t read their faces or watch them intently for any sign of physical tells.  You’re staring at a screen full of avatars (simulated player images) placed to represent who’s sitting at the table.  These images vary from site to site, some appearing as nothing more than bland placeholders, while in others they border on the cartoonish.
To make your play as enjoyable as possible, opt for the sites that support the best games with as realistic software are you can find.  This will help to better recreate the poker setting, adding an increased level of entertainment and comfort to the experience.

Special Features
When making your decision about which room to frequent, be sure to take into account any unique features a site offers. For example, if you’re new to the game you might like access to a strategy library where you can learn all of the subtle nuances of the game.
If your dream is to become a poker legend, you might want to factor in the availability of satellites to major terrestrial poker events such as with the World Poker Tour or the granddaddy of ‘em all, the World Series of Poker.
Online poker rooms all offer their own mix of each of these features, so be sure to note which elements are most important to you when selecting a site.

Internet Gambling: How to Win Big Online Playing Bingo, Poker, Lotto, Slots, Sportsbetting and Much More by J. Phillip Vogel is now available at www.amazon.com.

There is no one perfect strategy for video poker. When we check our online gaming options and finds a game with a higher than usual payoff on flushes, we must adjust our strategy to maximize flush opportunities.
In a game that pays a big bonus on four Aces, we’ll sometimes ignore other potential winners to make a run at the jackpot.

How much do we gain by making such strategy adjustments? Surprisingly little. If we start out by learning expert strategy for 9-6 Jacks or Better, we gain only a few tenths of a percent by memorizing all the special cases that go into more complex games.
A prime example is Double Bonus Poker. On the negative side, Double Bonus pays only 1-for-1 on two pair, instead of the 2-for-1 return on Jacks or Better. To balance that off, there are many pay table enhancements, starting with big bonuses on four of a kinds.

In Jacks or Better, all four-of-a-kind hands pay 25-for-1 or 125 coins for a five-coin wager. In Double Bonus Poker, four of a kinds from 5s through Kings double that, to 50-for-1, four 2s, 3s or 4s pay 80-for-1 and four Aces pay 160-for-1, an 800-coin bonanza with a maximum bet.
There are other differences. In the full-pay version of Double Bonus, full houses pay 10-for-1 instead of the 9-for-1 you get in full-pay Jacks or Better; flushes pay 7-for-1 instead of 6-for-1 and straights pay 5-for-1 instead of 4-for-1.
To someone who wants to play at expert level, all those changes mean a full card of special cases and strategy switches. But let’s say you don’t want to make learning the game a full-time job. Applying Jacks or Better strategy to full-pay Double Bonus brings an expected long-run return of 99.8 percent, just four-tenths of a percent shy of the 100.2 percent expected with experts’ strategy adjustments.
If you want to close the gap between the 99.8-percent return using Jacks or Better strategy and the 100.2-percent return at expert level, there are some important areas to watch:

Partial flushes:
In Jacks or Better, four-card flushes are good hands to build on. In full-pay Double Bonus Poker, where flushes pay 7-for-1, we extend that to three-card flushes. Let’s say we’re dealt a hand with a 10, 8 and 5 of spades, along with a 9 of hearts and a 2 of clubs. In Jacks or Better, we’d just discard the entire hand and pray for something better on the draw.
In full-pay Double Bonus, we keep the three spades. We even keep three cards to a flush in 10-7-5 Double Bonus if the hand includes two parts of a straight flush. Dealt King-Queen-8 of hearts, we keep all three, instead of keeping just King-Queen, as we would in Jacks or Better.
One tricky decision comes with four parts of a flush and a high pair, such as Ace-King-Jack-8 of hearts with a Jack of clubs. In Jacks or Better, we’d keep the pair of Jacks for the sure payoff on the high pair and potential for more. But in 10-7-5 Double Bonus, we keep all four hearts.
In the lower-paying 9-7-5 Double Bonus, a 99.1 percent game in which the full house return drops to 9-for-1, we still make these flush pays. We revert to something more like Jacks or Better strategy if the flush return is dropped to 6-for-1.

Partial straights:
Upping the straight payoff to 5-for-1 makes inside draws worth our while. In Double Bonus, we draw to hands such as 9-8-7-5 or Jack-9-8-7. In Jacks or Better, we draw to inside straights only if the hand includes at least three high cards.

Aces: Adjusting to the possibility of an 800-coin jackpot for four Aces, we make a play that would be regarded as very strange in Jacks or Better. In Double Bonus, if we’re dealt a full house that includes three Aces, we discard the other pair and hope for the fourth Ace. It’s a 2-in-47 shot that we’ll fill out the quads, but when it happens, that jackpot makes all the discarded full houses worthwhile.

John Grochowski’s website is: www.casinoanswerman.com

Many players agree that game selection is one of the most important concepts in playing winning Poker.

It is also the one that is most often overlooked by most players. There is an adage that says, “You don’t have to be the best poker player in the world. You just have to be better than the other players at your table.”

When you have a choice, you should pick a game that you think will be profitable for you.

A game filled with rocks who only bet when they have the nuts will not be as profitable as a game with one or two calling stations. You should evaluate the skill level of the players in a game and determine where you fit in. If you feel that you are outmatched by the players at one table, you should look for a different game.

Game selection will be a big factor in whether you win or lose.

As you can probably figure out, the type of game that you are in will be dependant upon the types of players sitting at the table. Most of the time you will have a mixture of players but more than likely you will find yourself with the majority of players having the same style.

No Fold’em Hold’em

This is the term given to games that contain a large number of calling stations. The game is usually very loose with a lot of players seeing the flop and many of them calling all the way to the river. This type of game is also called “Showdown Poker” because you will have to show down the best hand at the end.

There is absolutely no time in this game when it will be correct to try a bluff. It just won’t work.

Wild Games

In wild games, you will have a large majority of loose aggressive players. They will want to cap the betting before the flop and continue betting after the flop. This type of game can produce big fluctuations on your bankroll if you play your normal style. You will have to tighten up your game even more than normal and wait for the big solid hands to play. You may not be playing many hands, but the ones you do win will be huge.

It has been my experience that most of the wild games I have been in consisted of mostly younger males who are out having a good time and showing off a little macho bravado at the tables. If this type of game makes you feel uncomfortable then you should find another game.

Tight Games

If you are in a game with many tight players, you will see much smaller pots, as there will be fewer players involved in each hand. They will be very selective about the hands they play and will do a lot of checking, looking for a free card if they are on a draw. Usually a bet will drive them out in this situation. If the game is passive as well as tight, you may be able to loosen up a little since you will be seeing the flop fairly cheaply.

If there is ever a correct time to bluff in low-limit Hold’em, it will happen when you are in an extremely tight passive game.

In some brick and mortar card rooms there will be several games being played at the same limit but in others your choices will be limited. Most of the time you will have to be seated before you can determine the type of game you are in. If it is not to your liking, you will have to ask for a table change.

This is not the case when you play poker online.

When you play online, you will usually have many different choices. In fact, one of the advantages to playing online is that fact that you can tell before hand how many players are seeing the flop.

Most online poker sites also show you the average size of the hand. This can help you choose a game easily.

It is also easy to jump from table to table when you play online.

Know Your Limit

Some players want to move up to play for higher limits. This is fine if you have the bankroll and the skill to move up to the higher limit games. When you do move up don’t let your ego get in the way.

If you find you are outmatched at the table, there is no shame in moving back down to a lower limit game that you know you can beat.

With the growth of online poker, there is an abundance of the very low limit games that are extremely loose with many players staying in to the river. This has produced a lot more bad beats and I often hear player lament that they want to move up to higher limit games to play with a “better quality” players.

This is not necessarily the remedy. If you can’t beat these loose players at the lower level, you most likely will not beat the more skilled players at the higher limits.

Your goal in poker is to win money. You can start by evaluating the games you play in. Pick one that suits your style and bankroll and always play your best game.

In poker, check-raising is considered as one way of playing a strong hand weakly in order to trap your opponents and eventually win more money from them. What is check-raising? It is when you check your hand with the intention of raising on the same round right after an opponent bets. There are amateur poker players who think that there is something unethical with check-raising. They find that this practice is deceitful and devious and that people who use this tactic are not honorable. There is no denying that check-raising is a deceitful and devious tactic, but then, isn’t these traits what make up the logic and objective of poker? Check-raising is just like the opposite of bluffing and yet both are devious tactics that make poker such an interesting game. So when do you check-raise? Two conditions must be met first in order to check-raise for value, that is, when you expect that you might be called by a worse hand. First, you must consider if you have the best hand, but not such a good one that a slowplay would be a proper one. Secondly, you must be very sure that someone behind you is going to bet when you check. When you do plan to check-raise and there are several players still involved in the pot, then you must always consider the position of the player you expect is going to bet because that position will determine the kind of hand you check-raise with.

In my last blog post I discussed some of the reasons and situations where you can effectively use a raise in poker. These reasons are universal and can be applied whether you are playing poker online or playing poker in a casino. In my previous blog post I discussed three reasons. Below are three more reasons: To gain information. Raising in order to gain information is another tricky play and should not be done too often. You should consider any form of information that you have gained as an extra benefit of a raise that you are making for various other reasons. Some of the things that you learn when you are raising is that when your opponent calls a raise he more than likely has a good hand. If, on the other hand, he folds, then that means that he has a weak hand. An added benefit of raising in order to get information is that there are times when your opponent will fold marginal hands that he would not have folded otherwise. To drive out worse hands when your own hand may be second best. Depending on the pot size as well as how you assess your hand and the hands of your opponents. You can opt to raise with what you think is the second best hand if you can get the third, fourth, and fifth best hands out. To drive out better hands when a come hand bets. You could enjoy a position where you can raise if you think the better hands will fold rather than issue a double bet. When this happens, you become the favorite against the come hand. If the player misses, your raise has won you the pot.

One of the basic moves in playing a game of poker is making a raise. Most new poker players think that you only make a raise if you want to win a bigger pot with a hand that you think is the best. But in actuality you can use a raise for a variety of tactical reasons that may not be so apparent or obvious. To drive out opponents when you have the best hand. When you raise to drive your opponents out of that hand, what you are in fact doing is to cut down their odds. Actually, there are even times when you may sometimes cut their odds so drastically that your hope is that they will call instead of fold after you raise. To bluff or semi-bluff. Raising as a pure bluff with a hand that does not have a chance of winning is a very tricky play and should not be attempted very often. You should only perform a raise to bluff or semi-bluff when there are no more cards to come (for the pure bluff), you failed to make the hand you wanted but want your opponent to think that you did, or you want to win the pot that is on the table (for the semi-bluff). To get a free card. If you are the last to act in the round, you can raise in order to get a free card (a free look at the card). You should also realize though that a free card is not free. The card’s cost is your raise, so before you do this determine if the amount of the raise would warrant the move.

Bluffing is one of the more useful tactics a poker player can use in a game. With a good bluff, you can encourage the raising of the pot and make a mediocre to bad hand seem like a great hand. But it is a high risk tactic and should not be used often. There is also another type of tactic called a semi-bluff. A semi-bluff is a bet, raise or check-raise with a hand that you believe is not the best at present. But this hand could win not only when your opponent folds but also in a showdown when the subsequent cards improve your hand to the best hand. It can also win when the opponent folds on a later round after you catch a scare card that makes your hand look like the best hand. A semi-bluff can be used in any game but in order to make it effective you have to use it at a time when there are more cards to come. If you bluff with no more cards to be given then you will not be able to get the chance to improve your hand. An effective use of semi-bluffs allow you to become a bettor instead of a caller. Any poker player can tell you that the bettor position is the most advantageous position because you get to dictate the betting aspect of the game. Remember, that a semi-bluff is a good way to give a varied mix to your game, whether it is in an online gambling site or in a casino. The added advantage here is that you can still have a possibility to win if your bluff is called.

Reading one of the many poker-related books I have recently acquired. I stumbled on a chapter that talked about poker logic. The chapter really opened my eyes about what really makes a poker player a GOOD poker player – whether he plays in a casino or in online gambling sites. In the said chapter, the author explains that poker is not about tricks and ploys. These low-handed tactics – like acting that you will fold your hand only to raise after the third man in the pot has called — may sometimes work. But against tough competition it will not do any good. There are so-called poker experts who insist that these tricks and ploys are the true essence of poker. But this is not true. There is no substitution to sound play and sound game concepts. Players who only resort to these kinds of acts will never be able to rise to the level of competition needed to become a really successful poker player. Poker is also not purely about mathematics. Yes, knowing the mathematics of poker can definitely help you play a better game. But it is still not all about mathematics. The most important thing that you should do is to understand that poker is intricate and that it is a much more difficult game than you realize. By understanding the depth of the game, you will eventually become a better player and your playing strategies will also improve. So whether you are playing poker online or in a casino, you will be confident that you can face any level of opponents.