The Gambling Weblog

I love reading books. I feel enriched with the information and knowledge that I gain from the books that I read. My love for books also extends to my gambling hobby. I love reading books on gambling. The books that I read on gambling enrich the way I understand the various games that I play as well as gives me a more thorough understanding of the various strategies and systems that each game offers. One of the games that I love to read up on is poker. This game offers various levels of complexity that makes it well worth the effort to read about them and pore over various written materials. I usually go to my favorite bookstore when I want to sate my fix on gambling related reading materials. But, because of my growing love for surfing (brought about by my heavier use of the internet because of my online gambling itch), I discovering the wealth of materials that are available to the diligent surfer. There are so many freely available e-books that you can download on the internet. The e-books you can find on the internet deal with so many different gambling topics that one would be hard-pressed to read all of them. The best thing about it is that it is also absolutely free – and who wouldn’t want that, right? Just make a diligent search on your favorite search engine for online gambling and casino gambling related e-books and you will surely find many sites that offer it for free. Happy reading!!

They’re famous, they’re rich, and they really don’t need the money. But nevertheless, some of Hollywood’s biggest names are participating in the hit show, Celebrity Poker, because 1) they love the game, and 2) it’s for a good cause. All their winnings go straight to the charity of their choice. Not a bad way to spend an hour. Celebrity Poker is part of a growing trend where gambling is used to raise funds for charity. Kind of ironic, really, considering the kind of reputation that gambling has with moralists. “Gambling’s bad,” they say, “it’s the work of the Devil.” (Same thing, by the way, they said about rock and roll.) But then somebody donates about 2 million dollars to cancer research, and they’re forced to see it as a legitimate game, and not some excuse for men to gather in the basement and smoke pot. Note that many professional gamblers donate part of their earnings to charity, albeit silently and secretly, and it shouldn’t take an actress to tell people that it’s not gambling that’s wrong, it’s irresponsible gamblers who cast a bad light on everyone else. Many gamblers are — deep down inside, behind those stoic masks—regular people, with families and dreams and a real desire to make a difference in the world (and not just their individual bank accounts).They’d be glad to give something if they knew how, and Celebrity Poker is that “how.” And if you’re not a celebrity, don’t worry. You can also sign up for websites that allow you to automatically transfer 10% of your earnings. Don’t worry about it. Chalk it up to karma, and head back to the table with a lighter heart.

Yesterday I discussed the concept of Expected Value and how it is an important factor in making poker strategies, especially those that are non-psychological in nature. A friend of mine who read yesterday’s post was quite grateful. He said that he would frequently hear various terms and concepts when he talks with other seasoned casino gamblers but he never really paid attention, thinking that it was not really as important as pure skill. He now realizes that he really should learn these terms.

Today I am going to continue my discussions about poker concepts, terms and basic strategies with a discussion of Pot Odds. Whenever a casino or online gambler bets his main aim is to win all of the money in the pot. But how often must one win in order to make this profitable or even be able to break even. This is what pot odds are all about. Basically you are paying a fraction in order to win a larger amount of money. If the odds are strong that you are more likely to win than you have to pay, then the bet or call that you have made is a winning move in the long term.

Exerting the effort to understand the concept of pot odds is an important knowledge to have because it is quite vital in playing winning poker. The game of poker, most especially limit poker, is all about taking a more or less small edge and then repeating it over and over again without relenting and then earning money. Making these plays that do not pay off in the long run will instead turn that profit into a loss.

I have noticed that even the most experienced gamblers (casino gamblers and online gamblers alike) are sometimes not very aware about certain important aspects of the games that they play. They don’t know certain terms, concepts, systems and classic strategies. A good analogy would be a professional basketball player who just knows how to shoot hoops, defend and rebound but who not only does not know what “rebound” means but is also not aware of the basic defensive and offensive strategies.

Because of this I decided to discuss these basic concepts and terms as a refresher course of sorts for online gamblers and casino gamblers.

The first concept I will discuss involves poker. It is called the Expected Value. The term, which is also known as the Expectation, is used extensively when talking about poker strategies. The term has its origins in probability mathematics and is used to explain the long-term advantage outcome of a particular scenario.

For people who want to calculate the expected value, one has to take all the possible outcomes and then multiply each of this by the probability of that outcome happening. After this you then add all of the numbers together.

The Expected Value is the foundation for a majority of non-psychological poker strategies. Mathematically speaking, the issue that a poker gambler has to face is in making decisions that has the highest expected value. The poker gambler should learn how to compute the Expected Value because this is going to be a big help in making more informed decisions in a variety of poker moves (bluffing, calling, check-raising).