A Newbies Dilemma: Online Poker Is Rigged

• Author: Hulk Hawking
• Filed under: Poker
• Date: Jan 5,2011

A lot of players who couldn’t play poker due to time constraints or due to them not being able to go to the casino as often as they want can now have the luxury of playing the game in their own homes. While this is ultimately good for poker, it also has an effect that may cause some players, especially beginners, leave the game in disgust.

Variance

If you played poker for long enough, chances are you have seen some weird stuff going on around the table. Players play unthinkable hands for no reason, dummies make unbelievably stupid moves, odd flops happen three times in a row, a single card seems to be haunting you, your AA loses to a 47o when you both go all-in pre-flop. To an experienced player, this is all normal. But to a newbie, when he sees runner-runner two times in a row online, when he was the favorite, he finds that very suspicious, shocking.

In various forums and message boards, I often encounter people encouraging others to stop playing online poker. They site various reasons like in online poker, a small stack can never beat a big stack. Or maybe they say that once you withdraw your money, you will have bad variance for about two months. Whatever reasons it is they site, it is obvious that these players have experienced something normal and immediately concluded that online poker is rigged.

Online poker is an industry that is making a lot of money by hosting the games as is. They provide a site that allows the players to play and in return, they get a small portion of the pot known as the rake. These online poker sites have absolutely no motive in rigging these games as they get nothing in return if they do. On the contrary, rigging their own poker games just runs the risk of the information leaking out and them losing a lot of customers.

Psychology

People are hardwired to hate losing a lot more than they like winning. This is the main reason why we seem to remember bad beats as something that happens more often to us than it actually does. The truth is, bad beats do happen, and about half of the time, we are on the winning end. We just don’t remember it as much.

The players in an online poker game play a lot looser than the ones who play in a casino. This is the reason why a lot more bad beats happen online than live. This is also the reason why variance is very wide in online poker compared to live poker.

You have to have the right poker psychology to improve and be a winning poker player today!

A Guide To Playing Casino Poker Tables

• Author: Thomas Kearns
• Filed under: Poker
• Date: Nov 17,2010

Walking up to a table in a small or major casino today requires an understanding of the game play, house rules, opponents and overall strategy. As you slowly approach the poker room in a casino, you’ll walk past a variety of games including Pai Gow Poker, Caribbean Stud, Hold’em Tournaments as well as tables dedicated to Omaha and Hold’em. Being a highly observant player requires analyzing your competitors in advance of putting down your chips at a table – if you carefully select your position, learn your opponents and play with discipline then you can turn the advantage in your direction.

Traditionally table poker games favor the house. However, there are steps you can take to help increase your chances of winning, and you may even come out ahead when comps and other casino perks are taken into account. Successful poker players use their skill and intuition to play at traditional table games where they are going up against other players rather than the house.

Pai Gow and Caribbean Stud – House Poker Games

Casino dealer games have you competing directly against the house, and require a dominant strategy if you are going to minimize your potential for losses. Be aware that usually house games place the dealer at an advantage even when you practice your best plan of attack.

Pai gow, or double hand, poker played with a normal 52 card deck including a joker is one of the more popular games. There are six player positions, plus the dealer at the pai gow table. The game objective is to get a better hand than the banker. Players build two hands based on seven cards. One is a five card poker hand, the other a two card hand. When arranging the cards, the five card hand must be greater than the two card hand. Counts for the hands are based on normal poker rules, with jokers counting as aces or as a wild card to make a flush or straight. In order to win the players both hands must beat those of the dealer, and the dealer will win any tie hands. These rules provide a slight advantage to the house, and in some cases tables may require antes or commissions in order the give an even greater advantage to the house.

Also popular is Caribbean stud poker. In this table game, similar to stud poker, the players are dealt five cards and the dealer shows one of his cards. Players are not permitted to share hand information. After studying their hands player can place their bet (double their ante) or give up their initial bet (fold).Dealer hands at Ace-King or better are entered into play (or else the ante bets are returned) and the higest hand wins. This hand choice delivers a slight house advantage, but most players will choose to play all hands greater than Ace-King (at least a pair). Raising against a dealer’s week hand when your are holding strong cards can also result in the best possible play.

The author is a successful limit cash game player. He plays poker online and receives Ultimate Bet Rakeback as well as Players Only Rakeback.

Basic Lighter Care

• Author: Ryder Sabot
• Filed under: Poker
• Date: Oct 3,2010

Good lighters can cost quite a bit of money and, like any high-quality product, they’re designed to pay for themselves by offering a long service life to their owner. In the past, refillable lighters were almost all liquid-fueled types. Today’s refillables are just as often filled with butane. Cigar and pipe smokers, in particular, tend to gravitate toward these models as they lend no fuel taste to their tobacco products.

Any of these lighters will require a bit of basic maintenance and care in order to provide their full potential lifetime of service.

A lighter, whether it be butane or liquid-fueled, is an enormously simple device. There is a fuel reservoir, an ignition mechanism and either a wick or a fuel jet. All of these elements have to be kept clean if the lighter is expected to function properly. The reservoir on a butane lighter requires no cleaning at all. It is a sealed environment designed to hold pressurized gas. A liquid-fueled lighter’s reservoir is usually simple cotton balls help in place by a piece of felt. When these become dirty, they can simply be taken out and replaced.

Butane lighters produce almost no fouling elements when they are lit. This fuel burns with incredible efficiency. Add to that the fact that most high-end lighters are of the torch variety which burn very hot and there is little residue left behind from the flame. Liquid-fueled lighters will leave carbon and, sometimes, an oily residue behind on the windscreen, around the wick and, sometimes near the flint wheel. This may be wiped away with a cotton swab soaked in a little lighter fluid. Most often, it wipes away very easily and the lighter fluid evaporates away quickly.

Cleaning the exterior of the lighter should be done with great care. Generally, a bit of warm water and a rag is the safest way to clean off the case and it should serve to remove most smudges and stains. If something stubborn is found on the surface, one should consult with the manufacturer to see what solvent is the best for removing the material. In many cases, lighter fluid will serve as an excellent solvent on metal lighters.

Ryder is the owner of an online specialty lighters store and has expert knowledge of smoking accessories, including outdoor utility lighters.