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Recent articles:Online Poker in The UK – For Once We’re Not Following the Americans!Thursday, April 3. 2008
Despite recent legislation aimed at preventing online poker advertising and participation by US citizens (look up UIGEA), the popularity of the game continues to grow at exceptional pace in the UK. The rise in popularity of online poker has been brought on by a number of factors, but it is largely down to the improved accessibility of sites offering online betting services coupled with continuously increasing internet penetration rates here in the UK.
The increasing take up of online poker is also largely down to the freedom which playing at internet poker sites offers the end user. In the days before internet access was readily available; one would have to locate a casino housing a poker table, and then attend only during specific time slots set by the casino’s operator. Such inconveniences simply do not exist within the virtual gambling world. Today, poker players can join a game from any location supporting internet access, at any time - day or night, and compete with players of various skill levels located right across the globe! Many internet poker sites present users with opportunites to compete in a variety of game types – Some sites set players against each other in “high stakes” tournaments where the winnings are potentially huge - whereas others will allow players to play free poker online. Sites permitting players to compete with “virtual money” are also contributing to the escalating popularity of the game in the UK - because they allow less experienced and “newbie” poker players to gain experience in a no risk environment. The hope is that once they have played a few successful hands, they will feel comfortable enough to place real money on the outcome of future rounds – thus the ability to play free poker online is arguably contributing to its increased take-up, simply by offering a taster to UK punters. UK poker players have never had it so good when it comes to poker. There has never been more poker streamed on our television sets, and today’s UK gambling laws have now been relaxed; allowing money to be bet on poker in public houses – something which previously, was illegal. When the pub is closed, all your mates have gone home, and no poker is on the T.V; there is guaranteed to be an internet poker site out there to satisfy your needs! Find an internet poker site which will let you play free poker online; allowing you to hone your skills before you potentially empty out your bank account! 
Pros vs. Amateurs at the 2008 WSOP – Who Will Win?Thursday, March 6. 2008
One of the reasons people watch the World Series of Poker is to see how their favorite pros perform. Others want to see if an unknown amateur can achieve instant poker fame. More than a few try to imagine being the unknown amateur. Here’s what you can expect from the pros and amateurs at the 2008 WSOP:
An Amateur Will Win the 2008 WSOP Main Event The odds are against the pros. Even if they are better players than the amateurs, of whom many will have qualified through poker sites, the sheer numbers suggest that it is statistically unlikely that a pro will clasp on the championship bracelet. Amateurs tend to clash early, building up big chip stacks that are tough to overcome. Even a pro making the final table will probably be facing a group of amateurs all looking to put a bad beat on a pro. The last time a known pro won the main event was seven years ago when Carlos Mortensen took home the 2001 title. Of his successors, Varkonyi, Moneymaker, Raymer, Hachem, Gold and Yang, only Raymer and Hachem have become part of the ranks of professionals. A Pro Will Win the $50,000 WSOP H.O.R.S.E. Championship The odds shift much more in the pros favor during the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship. The high buy-in means fewer amateurs in the competition. Furthermore, the games, including Texas Holdem, are played fixed limit, which means a bad player isn’t going to be able to bludgeon all the pros with an enormous chip stack earned through repeated all-ins. It’s also unlikely that an amateur is going to be skilled enough at every game to make it through to the end. Pros and Amateurs Will Share the Other Bracelets Expect amateurs to grab many Hold’em titles, while events like Deuce to Seven lowball and the professionals will probably take down pot limit Omaha.
Dark Chess draw rulesSunday, February 17. 2008
I've been thinking when should a Dark Chess game be declared a draw.
Obviously, games might occur where none of the opponents has a reasonable chance of winning, but one of them stubbornly refuses to agree to a draw and insists on playing on. The problem is well known in Standard Chess, and therefore there is a number of rules to determine under which conditions a player can demand that a game be declared a draw. There are three occasions when a Standard Chess game can be declared a draw against the will of one or both of the players: 1. Stalemate; 2. Upon request of the player who is on the move, if the same position is repeated for the 3rd time, it’s been the same player’s move each time and the rights of castling and en passant capture have not been lost; 3. Upon request of the player who is on the move, if each player has made 50 moves without a capture or a pawn move. In certain cases (e.g. King + 2 Knights vs. King + Pawn), the number of moves required is 75. As you can see, in the first case, the game is always a draw, regardless whether or not the players want it, whereas in the last two cases, the game can only be declared a draw if one of the players requires it. (In chess software, rules 2 and 3 are often enforced automatically, but never in chess tournaments.) I should also mention that some national chess rules include a fourth draw rule, according to which a game is declared a draw when a checkmate is theoretically impossible, e.g. King vs. King, King + Bishop vs. King etc. However, FIDE rules at the time of writing state that if one of the players objects, the game must be continued until the 3rd repetition rule or the 50 move rule becomes applicable. Now, let’s look if and how those draw rules can be used for Dark Chess games. After that, let’s discuss the possibility of other means for defining draws. Continue reading "Dark Chess draw rules"
Take the Rake BackWednesday, January 30. 2008
If no one had an edge in Internet poker, the only one who would ever win would be the casino. This is because no matter who drags the pot in any Internet poker hand, the online casino always wins. They always win by taking a percentage, called the rake, out of each pot. While most of the players can do nothing as the casino reaches in and grabs a piece of their winnings (or adds to their losses), you can. If you know how, you can take the rake back.
Taking the Rake Back How can you take the rake back? You can do this by taking advantage of a promotion offered by independent websites known as rakeback affiliates. These sites sign you up with a participating online poker site. As a reward for signing up through them, you automatically receive a percentage of your rake returned to you at regular intervals, usually once a month. The average rakeback a player receives is around 30 percent, but in some cases, players can receive even more. The more you play on that site, the more rake you get back. Why Do Sites Give Rakeback? Not all online poker sites are eligible for rakeback . There are many online poker sites out there, all interested in a piece of the Internet poker player pie. To drive new traffic to their site they are willing to give some money back. This is where rakeback comes in. These sites know that if you never play on their site, they will receive no money in rake. As a result, they are much happier to get a reduced amount of rake from you than no rake at all. Examples of popular poker sites allowing this are Cake Poker rakeback and Full Tilt Poker, both open to US players. Taking Advantage of Rakeback To get your rakeback, all you have to do is sign up for an Internet poker site by clicking the link on the rakeback site – Pacific rakeback, Paradise Poker rakeback or any other site. If you sign up any other way, you will not be able to receive rakeback. If you have already signed up with a site, because you were offered a sign-up bonus or a friend referred you to the site, for example, you may not sign up again and receive rakeback. Using a different account to sign up will not be permitted and you will be booted off the site and may be subject to other penalties if you are discovered. Rakeback is a great and simple way to increase your win rate if you are a winning player or cut your losses if you are not. There are a number of different online poker sites that are linked to rakeback programs so find your favorite and get started taking your rake back today.
No Deposit Poker Rooms and CasinosMonday, January 7. 2008
Online poker rooms and casinos are gaining worldwide popularity every year. They offer convenience and a great variety of game play at any time of the day. If you are looking to try out online gambling without any of the risk, a no deposit bonus is your best option.
No deposit poker rooms are a great way to try out some new sites before making a purchase. You get to play real money poker without having to risk your own money. These no deposit needed promotions are typically offered by new poker rooms to attract a player base. The no deposit poker bonus offered by these poker rooms is usually not very large, but that doesn't mean you can't win big! If you enjoy the poker room, these sites also offer a generous bonus on your initial deposit. No deposit casinos also offer free money for you to try out their site. Online casinos often have bigger bonuses than poker rooms so that players can truly have the experience of gambling. However, there is usually a limited time period for you to gamble the free money, after which you get to keep any winnings as your own money. Some no deposit casinos also offer free time promotions where you get to gamble as much as you can during a fixed time period, after which you keep any winnings. If you get lucky, you can really win some fast and easy money! The IPM site currently has $50 in free bonus money at 3 no deposit poker rooms and $1260 in free bonus money at 5 no deposit casinos. Defined tags for this entry: bonus, casino, no deposit, no deposit casinos, no deposit poker rooms, poker, poker bonus
The Lifelong Game of PokerSunday, January 6. 2008
Those who play poker often get caught up in the results of individual hands or how they performed in a particular session. It is very easy for a poker player to conclude from a single winning session that they are masters of the game. Deciding that you are doing something wrong because you have a bad session or a run of a few bad sessions is also a mistake. It will be helpful for you to think of poker as one lifelong session that you play for your entire life. Your individual “sessions” simply represent breaks that you take over the course of that lifelong session. How will this help you as a poker player? Corrects Results Oriented ThinkingYou may have made a certain play and because of the way the cards came out, you won a big pot. It is easy to conclude from this that you have made a correct play. However, this is not always the case where you play in online poker room. It may simply be a matter of luck that it worked out this time. If you keep in mind that you are playing one lifelong session, you are more likely simply to file this result for the next time the situation occurs and revise your judgment about the play based on repeated trials. Corrects Snap Judgments Based on Individual SessionsPoker games such as Texas Holdem is a game of long-term skill and short-term luck. As someone once said, “The short term can be a very long time.” Your luck may run such that even the best players would not have won with the cards you were dealt. However, the better players will lose less in these situations than weaker ones. Remembering that your results as a whole are what matters will stop you from using your last session as evidence for whether you are a winning or losing player and disregarding all the sessions that came before it. Make sure that you have some understanding of basic bankroll management if you want to become a long term winner. Makes it Easier to Get Up From the TableMany players have difficulty knowing when to quit. When they have a big stack they don’t want to stop even after their luck turns, and when they are down they don’t want to leave until they get even. If poker is one lifelong session, the only way to know whether you end up or down is your total when you die. Therefore, there is no leaving “even” or “ahead” during a particular session. You are where you are and you’ll continue at that spot when you resume playing.
Calling the Clock in Texas Hold’emFriday, December 21. 2007
Online Texas hold’em tournament players have a built-in clock spurring them to action. If you wait too long before acting, most poker sites will activate a time bank of a minute or two. Once that bank is expired, your hand is declared dead. In a live Texas hold’em poker tournament situation, there are no built-in timers at each seat, thus, the clock comes into play.
Chess - improving your playFriday, December 14. 2007
Back in the days, if someone set his/her mind on becoming a reasonable chess player (or turning their offspring into one), there wasn’t a whole lot they could do about it, other then sign up to a chess club, where they could only hope they’d stumble upon a master who would not spare the effort to aid their development properly.
Nowadays, thanks to technological advancements, learning tools have become much more accessible for those truly willing to improve. The computer, being the wonderful good-for-everything tool that it is, can be a superb aid for beginners. There are many chess programs out there (some of which come as cheap as 40-50 bucks) which will pit players against the pre-programmed skills of a virtual brain. Like it or not, these programs are likely to give players an exceptionally sturdy challenge in the beginning. Unlike playing online poker, learning to play chess against human opponents can often be intimidating. Playing against a computer eliminates that aspect and makes sure the rookie stays fully focused on the game. The computer won’t taunt junior, and won’t go into a rage when it finally loses a game. The downsides of learning to play chess on a computer program are diverse too, though. Therefore, it is seldom recommended as an advanced learning tool. It’s more like a fast and accessible way to get started in the sport. The social aspect lacking, the chess program will not teach players any people skills, and believe it or not, playing chess has a lot to do with knowing how to handle people. Even though the “professional” chess engines feature a plethora of individual settings which can be used to fine-tune their play, a computer program will never be able to even approximate the behavior of a human opponent, and thus it is not going to prepare someone for the battle against natural intelligence. Bottom line is, an offline chess program, beyond the advantages it provides, has some pretty obvious limitations. One can basically use it for putting strategies to the test, training, analyzing games and solving chess problems. Make no mistake, all of these factors are useful, but in order to take his/her play to the next level, a player needs to measure up against human opposition. Fortunately, the computer still doesn’t fall out of the equation here. Online training and learning can be much more valuable than what any good chess program can provide. Nowadays, playing chess online doesn’t involve more fuss than preparing yourself a cup of coffee. As one specialist puts it: it has never been easier to find a human opponent, no matter what time of the day you feel the urge to give the grey matter in your skull a little bit of workout. There are chess servers online 24/7, some of which are free, while others are paid. Depending on the level of expertise you’re looking for, and the conditions in which you like to play, you can choose any of those. Player traffic is certainly very important when playing chess (or some other board game) online, because you definitely do not want to spend half an hour waiting for some potential opponent to drop in. In this respect, large and popular servers provide much better services, whether they’re free or paid. The power of the internet will impact one’s chess education on several levels though. Chess websites do much more than just provide a safe and stable platform where opponents can hack away at each-other. They bring the social aspect of the game back into the fold via specialized forums, where public wisdom comes for free, and socialization is right at home, too. Before the internet, many of the people who joined chess clubs did so for the social benefits involved. Those same social benefits are conveyed through community message boards and forums these days. It is kind of scary if one stops to think about the fact that one doesn’t even have to leave the house to become an excellent chess player anymore. The articles and in-depth analysis on certain aspects of the game come in extremely handy as well, whether the discussion is about the King’s Indian Attack or the Marshall Attack. Online chess sites, portals and servers play host to a wealth of information about this game, adding to it the benefit of the “wisdom of the crowd”. As soon as it appeared, the internet looked like something that could potentially revolutionize all boards games as well as card-games, and in the case of chess, we can safely state that the transformation has come full circle indeed. Online poker rakeback can single handedly turn you into a winner. Do not neglect this edge.
Learning Math Through PokerWednesday, December 12. 2007
Most people who start playing poker don’t start out by thinking too much about the math of the game. They know a flush beats a straight and it’s hard to see how math figures into that. Sure, there are numbers on the cards, but it’s not like you have to add them up or anything, right? The reality is that poker is all about math, and you can learn a lot about math through poker. In fact, if you don’t understand the math behind poker, you may struggle to be a long-term winner. The Mathematics of Gambling: Getting an EdgePoker, like any other game that involves gambling, or a randomized outcome, is about odds. If you can get an edge, you will come out ahead. An edge means a way to tilt the odds in your favor that is not reflected by the conditions of the bet. For example, if you are betting on the flip of a coin with a friend, where every time it comes up heads, you win $5 and every time it comes up tails, he wins $5, there is no edge. This is a 50-50 or 1-to-1 proposition and you are both wagering the same amount. Eventually, you should break even. However, what if you convince your friend that tails comes up more often? If you convince him that tails will come up twice as often as heads, then he should give you 2-to-1 odds, since he’ll win $5 two out of every three times, you should win $10 the one time out of three you win to make it even. Of course, the reality is that this really is a 1-to-1 chance, so you will win $10 for every time he wins $5 over the long run and you will come out ahead. The Mathematics of Poker I: Pot OddsIn poker, this idea is reflected through the concept of pot odds. Pot odds represent how much you can win versus how much you have to put into the pot. If there is $20 in the pot and you have to put in $5 to see the showdown, you are getting 20-to-5, or 4-to-1 odds. Why is this important? If you know that you are 3-to-1 to win the pot, meaning you will win the pot once for every three times you lose it, it is correct to play for 4-to-1 pot odds. You will come out ahead just as you would if you got odds on the coin. The Mathematics of Poker II: Counting OutsTo determine your odds to win the pot, you will have to rely somewhat on your read, but you will also have to learn to count “outs.” An out is a card that you believe will win you the pot. For example, if you have the Kh Qh and the board is 8s 9h Th As, you may consider all the remaining hearts as outs (although you may be wrong as someone could be drawing to the ace high flush). You also may consider the jacks as outs to a straight, although you might discount the Js since this may give an opponent a flush. As you play poker, you will become more skilled at counting outs, calculating pot odds and learning to appreciate percentages and ratios. Not only are these math skills good for poker, you may be surprised that they translate to other walks of life as well.
The Rules of Chess – A Basic Guide to Understanding the GameFriday, November 30. 2007
The Rules of Chess – A Basic Guide to Understanding the Game
The Board Chess is played on a chequered board containing 64 squares. The squares of the board alternate in color and are termed light, and dark squares. These squares are arranged into rows and columns. Rows are called ranks and are numbered from 1 – 8 Columns are called files and are labeled from A – H Pieces are set up in lines which are parallel to the files, and perpendicular to the ranks of the board. The Pieces Pieces are divided into two sets which are generally called white and black, despite what the colors of the pieces actually are. Each player starts with 16 pieces. Those pieces are… 1 King: Arguably the most important piece on the board, the point of the game is to try and capture your opponent’s king. The king can move in any direction one space. 1 Queen: A powerful piece the queen can move in a straight line in any direction, as far as the player wants, as long as another piece doesn’t get in the way. 2 Bishops: The bishop can move diagonally in any direction, as far as the player wants, as long as another piece doesn’t get in the way, 2 Knights: A Knight can move two squares forward and one step to the right or left. This move can be done in any direction, as long as the same amount of distance is covered in the same way. The knight can also make his move over other pieces. 2 Rooks: The Rook can move in a straight line in any direction, as far as the player wants, as long as another piece doesn’t get in the way. 8 Pawns: Pawns are the backbone of a chess army. In general they can only move forward and can only move one space at a time. However, on their first move they can go forward two spaces. Also, the only way for a pawn to capture an enemy, is to move diagonally to take them. The board is positioned so that the closest square to each player on their far right is light colored. The row closest to each player contains the non pawn pieces. If you are the white team, the pieces are set up from left to right as rook, knight, bishop, queen, king, bishops, knight, rook. If you are the black team the pieces are set up from left to right as rook, knight, bishop, king, queen, bishop, knight rook. The two armies should be mirror images of one another. Each queen should stand on a square of its own color. Game Play The player who is designated to be white makes the first move. Pieces are moved either to an unoccupied square or to a square with an opponent’s piece on it. Each player can move one piece on each turn, and turns are alternated. When your piece moves onto an opponents piece, their piece is said to be captured, and is taken out of play. En passant is a move done by two opposing pawns, in which one pawn can capture the other, under special conditions, without moving to his square. Casteling is a move in which both the king and the rook move during the same turn, to a predefined position, under special circumstances. If during play a pawn reaches the other end of the board, they are promoted, and can be exchanged for an extra of any piece the player wants except the king. The object of the game is to capture your opponent’s king. When a player maneuvers their pieces such that on their next move they can capture the opponent’s king, the opponent is said to be in check. When a player is in check, they have to move their pieces in such a way that they get out of check before the next move. If it is not possible to move their pieces in such a way that they get out of check before the opponents next move, the player is said to be in checkmate, and loses. Not all games are ended by putting a player in checkmate. A player can resign, or if it seams impossible to achieve checkmate, a game may end in a draw. If it is a timed game a player can also lose by running out of time. This article provided courtesy of PebbleZ's natural stone chess sets Defined tags for this entry: the rules of chess – a basic guide to understand
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