poker
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Friday, January 12, 2007
internet poker rooms
Internet Poker Games There is a vast difference between playing casino Poker and Internet Poker. For some one who has played Poker in a casino or a card-room, it’s a world of difference and it requires a hell lot of adjustment in both style and strategy. It's a proven fact that people usually conduct themselves differently on the internet than they do in real life. This holds true for most of the activities that can be performed both online and in real life. Well this is true more so in gambling games such as Poker. Internet Poker Game: Being successful at live Poker requires specific strategies that are quite different from those of casino Poker. If you want to ace up online Poker, go through the carefully drafted strategies that have been drafted from knowledge that comes from years of observation. The observations and strategies mentioned below apply to most online Poker sites. Card Poker Opponents In online Poker players call you more often, as it's much easier to click on the 'Call' button – whereas in casino poker a player needs to reach into the stack, count the chips and put them on the table. So it’s a lot easier and convenient to call in the online version of the game. If you look from the psychological angle, most people feel much more confident when they are online as compared to their real life confidence level. One possible reason of such high calling rate could be that players feel that they are not being watched and observed upon by others like in a casino or real life. In a typical Internet casino environment, someone calling often would be met with strong glares and comments. The fear of being embarrassed is simply not present in online Poker. Draw Poker - Punish players for constant draws If you think you can control the persistent calling in online Poker, then you are mistaken. To state is clearly - you can't. In due course of the game, you are bound to be drawn on more than you would in a casino poker table. As a result your variance would be much higher in online poker as compared with a card-room session. This holds particularly true for low-limit online poker. As a defence strategy, there is hardly anything. However, to punish players for constant draws keep playing prudently. Although, it is wise to check-call the river if you have many callers on the river with you. As at this juncture there is high chance that someone has a two-pair or a better hand. Internet Poker Strategy - Play InternetPoker Don’t let nicknames or aliases get to you In the online version of the game, players usually play through nicknames and aliases. This helps them to create a false identity, which acts like a psychological tool. It is common for both good as well as bad players to have nicknames such as "All-River" or "All-bluff". So it’s important that you don’t get sucked into the trap set up by players with misleading nicknames. Players can never be sure if your online poker opponent is a river rat or a strong player just trying to fool you. Internet Poker Rankings A close look at any of the rankings in any of the internet poker sites would reveal all sorts of strange and 'deceptive' names at the top. This purely an internet only strategy – don’t let it get you. Internet Poker Betting Strategies Observing tells through betting patters- Observing your online opponents to fish out tells such as response time is a great strategy to implement. Many online Poker players opine that it’s useless to pay attention to the time it takes for your opponent to perform an action, because it might be misleading – with different internet speeds or pre-occupation and stuff like that. Although this might be valid in some cases, duration is a major tell and should ideally be part of your live poker strategy. However, a point to note is that expert players who usually play higher limit probably will not be so easy with their Tells – unless it's a strategy to derail you). Well to be realistic most low limit players unwittingly do pass on such tells. Poker games strategy - Keep you game tight Poker is not only about identifying other people’s Tells, but also about playing your Poker right. That is not to give away Tells of your own. It’s easy to forget that even we might unwittingly passing on revealing Tells that could cost us dearly. So, always be aware of your expressions and exercise control over them to retain your edge over your opponents at the table. One way is to take the exact amount of time before executing an action. This would negative any duration Tells that you might be leaking out. Make mental counts and then reveal your actions. Suppose you want to fold, then it's quite ok to simply auto-fold if it's pre-flop. Take advantage of betting tells - Poker Betting A popular format of online Poker is no-limit poker. This is so because in most casino poker rooms no-limit Poker is not usually played, except during a Poker tournament going on. Because of this, usually new and weak players are unfamiliar with the amounts to bet in a no limit poker game. You can use this to your advantage, if and only if you are closely observing their betting tells. So the key message for you is to closely monitor the betting tells in a no-limit internet Poker. Keep at tab on Poker chat - Advantage of Internet Poker Room - Chatting Poker Be it a card-room poker or online poker, there will always be those players who will be prolific at chatting. It’s a commonly accepted thumb rule that usually it’s the weak players who resort to tactics such as these. Usually those with strong hands seldom waste their time talking a lot. However, you might find some of the leading poker players doing the talking bit. Well that could be because they are quite comfortable at a poker table or may be the intention behind their heavy chatting is to extract valuable insight about your position. So beware!
Thursday, January 11, 2007
online poker
Online poker Online poker is the game of poker played over the Internet. It has been partly responsible for a dramatic increase in the number of poker players worldwide. For the year of 2005 revenues from online poker were estimated at US$ 200 million per month. Overview Traditional (or "brick and mortar", B&M) venues for playing poker, such as casinos and poker rooms, may be intimidating for novice players and are located in geographically disparate locations. Brick and mortar casinos are also reluctant to promote poker because it is difficult for them to profit from it. Though the rake, or time charge, of traditional casinos is often high, the opportunity costs of running a poker room are even higher. Brick and mortar casinos often make much more money by removing poker rooms and adding more slot machines. Online venues, by contrast, are dramatically cheaper because they have much smaller overhead costs. For example, adding another table does not take up valuable space like it would for a brick and mortar casino. Online poker rooms tend to be viewed as more player-friendly. For example, the software may prompt the player when it is his or her turn to act. Online poker rooms also allow the players to play for low stakes (as low as 1¢) and often offer poker freerolls (where there is no entry fee), attracting beginners. Online venues may be more vulnerable to certain types of fraud, especially collusion between players. However, they also have collusion detection abilities that do not exist in brick and mortar casinos. For example, online poker room security employees can look at the "hand history" of the cards previously played by any player on the site, making patterns of behavior easier to detect than in a casino where colluding players can simply fold their hands without anyone ever knowing the strength of their holding. Online poker rooms also check players' IP addresses in order to prevent players at the same household or at known open proxy servers from playing on the same tables. The major online poker sites offer varying features to entice new players. One common feature is to offer tournaments called satellites by which the winners gain entry to real-life poker tournaments. It was through one such tournament on PokerStars that Chris Moneymaker won his entry to the 2003 World Series of Poker. He went on to win the main event causing shock in the poker world. The 2004 World Series featured triple the number of players over the 2003 turnout. At least four players in the WSOP final table won their entry through an online cardroom. Like Moneymaker, 2004 winner Greg "Fossilman" Raymer also won his entry at the PokerStars online cardroom. In October 2004, Sportingbet Plc, at the time the world's largest publicly traded online gaming company (SBT.L), announced the acquisition of ParadisePoker.com, one of the online poker industry's first and largest cardrooms. The $340 million dollar acquisition marked the first time an online cardroom was owned by a public company. Since then, several other cardroom parent companies have gone public. In June 2005, PartyGaming, the parent company of the largest online cardroom, PartyPoker, went public on the London Stock Exchange, achieving an initial public offering market value in excess of $8 billion dollars. At the time of the IPO, ninety-two percent of Party Gaming's income came from poker operations. The market appears to be currently in a consolidation phase, in early 2006 PartyGaming moved to acquire EmpirePoker.com from Empire Online. Later in the year, bwin, an Austrian based online gambling company, acquired PokerRoom.com. Other poker rooms such as PokerStars & Poker.com that were rumored to be exploring initial public offerings
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
poker
pokerOne night in 1832, four men played poker aboard a Mississippi steamboat. Three of the men were professionals and the other was a helpless sucker from Natchez. The game was rigged so that the young man from Natchez would lose all of his money and he in fact did.
Distraught, the young man attempted to escape his miseries by jumping into the river. An observer prevented this suicide attempt and led the young man back to a cabin. The mysterious observer then returned to the game with the three sharks. In the midst of a high stakes pot, the observer caught one of the professionals cheating. He wrestled the cheat and pulled a knife on him.
The observer yelled, 'Show your hand! If it contains more than five cards I shall kill you!' As he twisted the cheater's wrist, six cards fell to the table. The observer then took the $70,000 pot,. He returned $50,000 of it to the man of Natchez and kept $20,000 for his trouble.
'Who the devil are you, anyway?' cried the cheat.
'I am James Bowie.' 1
In less than two centuries time, poker has changed drastically. Once a game mainly played by cheats, outlaws, and knife-makers aboard riverboats, it has developed into a celebrated 'sport' played worldwide. The cheat and hustler has been replaced by the professional poker player, whose celebrity status is much more akin to a professional athlete or movie star than an infamous outlaw. Poker hands are no longer dealt by professional cheats who manipulate the deck; instead, they are often dealt by software programs connecting players from around the globe.
The exact origins of poker are unclear. It seems to have originated from a 16th century Persian card game known as As Nas. This game was played with 25 cards with 5 different suits. The game played in a similar fashion to modern 5 card stud and possessed similar poker hands rankings, such as three-of-a-kind. When Europeans began to play the game, they called it 'poque' or 'pochen.' 2 While poker's origins may lie in Europe and Persia, it truly developed in the United States. Poker was first widely played in New Orleans in the early 1800's. Prior to the American Civil War, poker spread quickly from New Orleans to towns throughout the Western frontier. 3 Poker's spread was the result of a general spread of gambling during the era. The West was comprised largely of speculators and travelers, both groups that enjoyed gambling. Gambling suited the speculator's individualistic and risk-taking traits. Unburdened by family needs and the social stigmas of Southern and Northern culture, travelers were allowed to indulge in this vice for their own entertainment. 4
Those responsible for poker's initial boom were professional gamblers, trying to expand their craft. The professional gambler viewed his occupation as quintessentially American. They considered themselves entrepreneurial businessmen who took advantage of America's growing obsession of gambling. However, the public did not have such a rosy view of professional gamblers.
Gambling was viewed to be comprised of two distinct groups. There was the player, who was considered to be a gentlemen who merely enjoyed this form of entertainment in moderation. In contrast, there was the professional, who aimed to simply make money without any regard to moderation or propriety. Professional gamblers were considered to contribute nothing to society. The public viewed their practice as nothing more than one man trying to con another out of his hard-earned money.5 This was especially the case because professional gamblers often cheated in order to win money from their victims.
Another practice of professional gamblers that was particularly troublesome was their disregard for the social status of their victim. "To [professional gamblers], as to prostitutes, it seemed unprofessional to differentiate between paying customers. They consequently played indiscriminately with all potential victims, from the most upright planet to the meanest flatboatsman or, even worse, the black slave 6 ." This practice slowly led to the "democratization" of gambling in America. No long was gambling, poker in particular, thought to be a practice of only the wealthy. Rather, it became a practice to which people of all social ranks were accustomed.
Professional gamblers were involved in both banking and percentage games, such as roulette and faro, as well as card games. Of all games, faro was a particular favorite for both professional and casual gamblers. Faro is a game where players would bet on which cards would be dealt next. Both banking games, like faro, and card games guaranteed the pro a steady income over the long run. Banking and percentage games had a built-in house edge that guaranteed the professional to be a statistical winner. These types of gamblers are similar to the modern casino, which primarily rely on these types of games for revenue. When professionals dealt card games, such as three card monte or poker, they guaranteed themselves a steady income from cheating. 7
Poker initially was played with one round of betting. Players were dealt five cards face down and there was no draw of cards. 8 Professional gamblers later modified the rules in order to enhance the profitability of the game for them. After 1850, wild cards and bluffing became common practices in the game. The draw was also added. The addition of the draw helped professionals because it introduced another round of betting (meaning another opportunity to cheat their opponents) as well as introducing more skill to the game. 9
Poker playing became increasingly popular as American gambling shifted from the frontier towns to the riverboats. While gambling was tolerated on the Southwestern frontier during the early 1800's, it came out of favor by the 1830's. The Western, frontier culture of these towns was steadily replaced by Southern culture, which was more averse to gambling. 10 Western towns passed ordinances against gambling and many towns kicked out known gamblers. Some gamblers were tarred and feathered and there were even instances where vigilante groups lynched gamblers. 11 Since their trade was no longer tolerated on land, professional gamblers took their trade to the many steamboats navigating the Mississippi River. However, carrying heavy equipment like a roulette wheel proved more difficult aboard the steamboats, so card games like poker became an increasingly popular game of choice for gamblers. 12
The California gold rush introduced a new venue for poker playing. The gold rush resulted in a large influx of men traveling to a new area, seeking to strike it rich. Unsurprisingly, gambling houses sprouted in Northern California, offering an array of gambling and entertainment opportunities for young men. Casinos employed musicians and pretty women (not necessarily prostitutes) to entertain gamblers as they played games such as roulette, faro, and blackjack. 13
During the early gold rush period, poker was not popular at all in California. This is because gamblers preferred games with more fast paced action. 14 Poker, especially the traditional five card stud or draw, is fairly slow. Gamblers cannot constantly double or lose all of their money in a single bet like they can in roulette. However, poker would eventually become a California pastime. As people became more settled in California and the gold rush ended, their desire for fast action games like faro diminished, and they had a renewed interest in slower games like poker. 15
Poker's growth during the 1800's was largely the result of the increase in gambling along the American frontier. Nevertheless, it managed to establish itself as a unique gambling game, with characteristics notably different from the other frontier gambling games.
http://www.enterbet.com
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