Making Careful Sports Betting Decisions

Making Careful Sports Betting Decisions

There are some many online sportsbooks out there that its hard as a recreational bettor to make a decision where you can bet in the knowledge that you won't be come another person ripped off by a rogue sportsbook. The fact is that there are less dodgy operators around than, say, 2 years ago. However, this does not mean you don't have to do your homework when deciding where to bet. Here are some simple things to look out for when selecting an online sports betting operator: 

Licensing - not enough can be said about this. There are some very questionable places in the world that grant "gambling licenses". As far as we are concerned, the only places that offer valid licenses are first world countries, Costa Rica and Antigua. Steer clear from anything else. 

Margin - every sportsbook takes some sort of margin on each bet, although it varies greatly. If either you can not find information about the margin, or it seems excessively high, move on. 

Bonuses and Promotions - If a sportsbook offers a huge sign up bonus, it is often reason for suspicion. Why would anyone increase your odds by giving you tons of free cash. Bonuses have their place, but its a sweetener and no more. 

Payout procedures - Are these clearly published on the website? Even if its is, send them en email to confirm their process and turnaround time. 

Blacklisted? - You'd be amazed what pops up if you search for "Sportsbook name" + blacklisted in Google. 

Customer Service - Phone the toll free number listed on the site before making a deposit. Ask them a simple question like what is their minimum deposit. If you don't get a concise answer, in proper English, it's time to leave. 

Track record - How long have they been in business, or better yet, can you even establish this from their website. 

There are many other things to look out for like ownership and awards won. At the end of the day, you should trust your gut instincts and do enough research to make you comfortable. Sports betting should be a fun activity and free of the stresses of wondering if your money is safe.

The World Series Of Poker

The World Series Of Poker

When you mention casinos the first thought that goes through your mind is poker. Poker is the one of the most popular casino card games. Mention casino poker and the World Series of Poker (WSOP) jumps right out. What are the stakes and who are the players of these high profile casino poker games? 

The world series of poker started in 1971 and today it attracts more than 5,000 players from around the world competing for more than US$ 7,000,000 in prize money. Although it began with only one main event, that being No Limit Texas Holdem, it has evolved to include many more new events over the years. Texas Holdem, Omaha, Omaha High/Low, and Seven Card Stud are the four most popular forms of poker today. Depending on the rules and the game being played at the casino, two players will place money into the “pot” and the casino dealer will shuffle and cut the cards. 

The casino dealer will then deal each player at the casino poker table their cards face down. After each round of dealing, the players at the casino table will place additional bets in the “pot” as the casino dealer hands them additional cards or replace existing cards. Each casino poker game has its own rules. Poker has grown faster than any other casino game with the introduction of online casino poker websites. With such large amounts of money being played for in the WSOP it has drawn more people to online casino games. 

With a hole card camera, poker is now also a popular spectator sport and moving out of casinos and into your home with cable broadcast. Casinos in your corner of Internet will continue to grow as online casino poker evolves in cyberspace. Therefore, over the course of time and as the interest in poker continues to skyrocket and expand to different parts of the world, you should be on the look out for new casino poker games!

Playing Poker Online For The First Time

Playing Poker Online For The First Time

With the exposure that poker has received from television and print media in the last few years, thousands of new players are playing online every day. However, if it weren’t for a few things holding some players back, there would be many more new players. A few of the things that are causing fear and/or apprehension are the safety of your hard-earned money at an online room and exactly how to set up accounts not only at a poker room but also to fund the account. These are what this article is about, so if you want to play poker online but haven’t started, read this short tutorial and you’ll be started in no time. 

The first question I am often asked is about the safety of a player’s money online. Drawing from my personal experience, I have been playing online for about two years and have never had a poker site cheat me or steal the first cent. One of the reasons for this is I have followed these rules, which I recommend to you. When I started, I only played at the larger rooms online. (There are over 250 rooms so even restricting yourself to the top 30 or 40 rooms is safe and gives you plenty of options.) My reasoning was that the rooms with the most players must have players that were receiving cash outs in a timely manner. Also, the larger the room, the more they had to lose by cheating players. The way poker is designed, rooms will make more money by being honest than by stealing from players who will never come back. I also read reviews about the different sites in order to become comfortable with my choice of a site, then downloaded the free software and practiced at the play money tables before depositing. 

The next question is the best way to get money in and out of an online poker site. Here are a few simple and safe steps to get started. 

1. Find a poker room you would like to try on this site and download the free software. 

2. Open a checking or savings account with a local bank. (You probably already have one, but some players open a separate account for poker.) 

3. Go to www.neteller.com or www.firepay.com and open a free account and link it to the bank account from step 2. I have used Neteller and their service is safe, fast and free. You can transfer money from your bank to Neteller and then into any online poker room for free. Then any money you take out of a poker room will go back to Neteller and then back to your bank if you so choose. By using this method, you don’t have to worry about the safety of a credit card online and most rooms don’t use credit cards anyway. 

4. Set up an account at the poker room from step 1. Usually you will click on “register” or “cashier”. You will enter a screen name and password as well as some other information. 

5. Either practice at a play money table or make your first deposit and jump into the live action. Good luck!

Party Poker Review

Party Poker Review

Party Poker is one of the world's largest online poker rooms with over 70,000 players. They cover almost 60% of the online poker market. Now what this means to you as a poker player is that with the large number of players and rooms you will never have to wait for a game, the player quality is relatively poor compared to rooms like Ultimate Bet and Poker Stars. As mentioned earlier start playing with play money and once you get hold of the game you may jump to the real money game. They have around 18,500 - 19,200 ring game players and 26,700 - 28,000 tournaments players live during peak hours.

Party Poker has some great signup bonus offers, $25 extra, 20% extra up to $100 and free entry to the partypoker.com million qualifying tournaments ($34 value) with your first deposit. The requirements to clear the bonus is pretty simple, you have to play 5 times the raked hands of the bonus amount i.e. if the bonus value is $25 you need to play 125 raked hands. The time period to finish the raked hands is 30 days. Party Poker offers standard game variety like Texas holdem, omaha hi and hi/lo and 7 card stud hi and hi/lo but does not offer 5 card draw poker and 1-on-1 tournaments. Limit Texas holdem game is the major traffic puller at party poker. Remember these are only real money player statistics.

They also have beginners live game tables reserved for new real money players only. New real money players can play on these tables for 45 days after they have set up a real money account. Where to go? Just log in to your account, go to the main lobby, click on the real money heading and then select beginners. Then choose a table and start playing. Following games and stakes are offered for beginners.

   1. Game: Texas Hold'em

   2. Limits: $.5/$1, $1/$2, $2/$4 and $3/$6

They also have good round the clock customer service, including both text and voice based. Party Poker also has a fairly good retention program and they recently started the Player's club and we expect them to come up with more programs soon. Good luck and play safe. :-)

Learn Pai Gow Poker Game

Learn Pai Gow Poker Game

Let’s learn some different type of poker other than Texas holdem, 7 card stud, 5 card draw and Omaha. Yes, pai gow poker. Now you must be wondering that pai gow sounds little Chinese; yes you are right this game is a mixture of the Chinese game pai gow and our very own American poker. Definitely this is not one of the most popular forms of poker but still widely played. It can be played by up to seven players.

It is played with one deck of 52 cards, plus a joker. Interestingly, joker can be used only as an ace, or to complete a straight, a flush, a straight flush, or a royal flush. The important thing here to remember is other than the usual ranking of hands we have one more winning hand that is “Five Aces” (five aces including the joker). Surprisingly, five aces beat all other hands including royal flush. 

Each player is dealt seven cards. The cards are arranged to make two hands; a two card hand and a five card hand. The five card hand must rank higher or be equal to the two card hand. Finally both of your hands must rank higher than both of your opponents hands (both five and two card hands). Further the two card hand can only have two combinations; one pair and high card.

After the cards are arranged in to two hands, they are placed on the table face down. Once you put them down, you can no longer touch them. The dealer will turn over his cards and make his hands. Each players hand is compared to the dealer’s hands. If the player wins one hand and loses the other, this is known as “push” and no money is exchanged. If dealer wins both hands then he/she wins the players stake and vice versa. Now what if there is a tie, the only advantage with the dealer here is he/she wins all ties.

After the hand is played, the next person clock-wise becomes the dealer and the next hand is played. The major disadvantage to this game is that there is no skill involved and you rely too much on luck. Also the odds are poor compared to playing with a pot.