Anime Trooper

What are the options for betting?

2010-03-19T21:55:00.001-07:00

Although there are a number of slot games repeated on some of the sites with shared operations, the reality is an expanding universe of different games. Like the Big Bang which supposedly began our universe, the inventiveness of the different software producers knows no limits. This fuels the competition for players between the sites with the endless rollout of new games. As a result, it would take you years to try them all. Nevertheless, the actual betting choices to be made come down to a few simple steps. The three main variables are the number of paylines to play on each spin, the number of coins to bet on each line, and the value of the coin(s) to bet. The majority of the games allow a free choice on the three variables. But some games restrict the choice on the second or third options (none of the major games eliminate both). So, some fix the value of the coin to be bet or only allow one coin to be bet per payline. This allows us to offer this summary. The amount you decide to bet per payline is the value of the coin multiplied by the number of coins. The total bet on each spin of the reels is the bet per payline multiplied by the number of paylines.

Now we come to an odd truth. The majority of games allow you to choose the number of paylines to play. Where the number of available paylines is great, there can be a real decision to be made. If you are betting one coin of value per payline, one hundred paylines per spin can work out quite expensive. Yet answer this question. What is the point of playing with paylines disabled? With the exception of games permitting scatter wins, you only win on enabled paylines. While this is merely a source of frustration in a conventional game when you see winning combinations on disabled lines, it can be critical on progressive machines. Often the jackpot only pays out when the highest payline has the winning combination. If the total bet looks outside your budget, reduce the value of the coins. If the bet is still too high with the minimum coin size selected, this suggests you should not be playing this game.

When you first approach a game, look carefully at the choices you can make. The critical differences lie in the coin sizes and the gaps between each coin. The best games have a big range of coin sizes with even gaps between them at the lower end and gently scaled gaps at the high end. This allows you the maximum flexibility to fit the line and total bet per spin to your budget. In calculating your budget, factor in the length of time you prefer to play. Slots is a game meant to be fun. If you burn your budget in ten minutes, this is not fun. Always remember to set a loss limit before you start playing. Decide the point at which you will stop. Slots is only fun so long as you are not digging yourself out of debt for the next six months. If you win, as everyone does from time to time, you should also stop. These winnings can buy you a drink and a meal. They can pay for your next session of play.

Why play for free?

2010-03-17T05:27:00.000-07:00

Walk through the doors into any real world casino and you hit the slot machines. There's a slight difference of opinion between the casino operators. Some believe the machines are the most popular form of gambling and make everyone walk into the floor area where the machines are sited before they get to the table games. Others have a floor plan called the premium strategy that pitches their operations at the non-slot players who spend more per head on the table games. The machines are still featured as you walk into the casino, but the view of the tables is more obvious. Interestingly, there seems to be very little difference in the spend-per-machine in both layouts. The people who favor slot machines will play them no matter where they are sited in the casino. It's also a fact that, except for the contributions made by individual whales, casinos make more money from slot machines than from the table games, the balance shifting depending on whether the premium strategy is in operation. Online, there are sites that are exclusively based on slot machines. Other sites operate the full spread of casino games. This leaves the operators to compete on the bonuses (welcome and otherwise), comps and the quality of the service. In real world casinos, the operators can comp you on the machines but it's technically difficult to enable free play. Online, all that changes.

Every site allows all users the opportunity to play some of their games for free. Why should anyone want to play for free and give up the chance of winning some real money? The answers are both simple and complicated. The spinning reels are essentially the same in both real world and online casinos with the games easy to understand and so quick to learn. Once the reels are set in motion, all you can do is wait for them to stop moving. This means no particular skill is required to play. As a bald description, this misses out two key factors. The spinning reels are quite hypnotic. You almost feel you can reach out and stop each reel in just the right position to score a big win. Secondly, it's fun to play. This fun element is what sells free play. Yes, you lack the extra excitement by giving up the chance of winning. But it really is still fun to play. More importantly, with more and more new games coming online every month, it's very useful to be able to study them without risking your money. Although the basic concepts are the same, the individual variations still have to be learned. In the real world, you can stand and watch others play, learning from their mistakes. Online, you are denied this opportunity. That makes free play a fair offer from the casino operators.

There is one final reason and this may be a little complicated depending on your view of luck. Many people who play slots believe in flows of good and bad luck. If your luck is out, it's good to be able to keep on playing for free. No-one wants to keep feeding money into a machine when you know you are not going to win. Slots and Lady Luck do go together so mix and match free and paying play as you come into and fall out of her favor.

What makes games popular?

2010-03-17T05:08:00.000-07:00

Given the history of some games starting in China around 2000 B.C., the question naturally arises as to what makes any game popular. The first games to achieve success were based on dice. It probably all started around the fire in the cave when, having stuffed themselves with dinosaur rib at the bar-b-q, they moved on to a little action with a few carved bones. But, as time progressed and money was developed, the idea of money changing hands based on a throw of the dice caught on. In this, you see all the key elements making any game popular. The concept of gambling is seductive. You place a small wager on the outcome of an event outside your ability to control. If you win, there's a big profit and this is a compelling reason to carry on playing because you believe you will win again. The second feature is the sociable nature of the playing environment. There's a crowd watching. Sometimes it's only other players but, more often, gambling is a spectator sport. This creates a community and it supports and encourages the players. Rich backers appear and bankroll the best players for a share of the expected profits. Add in good customer service from whoever provides the playing environment, and the honey pot nature of the exercise is complete. As to the game itself, it must be fun to play. It must be easy to understand the rules. Everyone must be able to see the skill or luck of the winners. And, the organizers must make realistic attempts to prevent or control cheating.

So where does this leave us? In the modern casino, both online and real world, the most popular games are probably blackjack and poker on the card tables, craps and roulette on the other tables. All four are simple to understand. The cards must add up to 21 or a limited number of card combinations makes you the winner. Or you bet on the throw of dice or the spin of wheel. It takes only a few minutes to explain. You watch for a while and then you feel confident enough to play. It's almost immediately exciting. You handle the dice and throw. You finger the chips and play the cards. All with money riding on the outcome. If your luck is in, you end up a winner and most are hooked. The problem with more complicated games is people do not want to put in the effort to learn. They must see it, see others win and feel confident they can start winning immediately. Any game where it looks easy to win big money is popular.

Now when you transfer the experience on to the small screen of a computer and strip away everything about the experience of being in a casino, the true popularity of casino games is revealed. Slots are slots. You click on "play", the animated reels spin, and you win or lose. It has a hypnotic quality. Click, spin, win. It's the same with blackjack, craps and roulette where you are betting on the results produced by the random number generator. Poker remains interactive where you bet on the cards and your skill in playing them. In all, it's the belief you will win big that makes casino games popular.

Money transfers and online casinos

2010-03-17T05:07:00.001-07:00

More or less any place you go on the internet, you can see goods or services you want and pay for them. Most sites accept credit cards. Those that do not, deal with the other players in the banking world to make sure the funds get where they are supposed to go. This works whether you are buying clothes for your newborn baby or hard core pornography. E-commerce is the new life blood of trade. Yet, when it comes to online gambling, something dramatic happened in the US. If you are resident anywhere else in the world, all the standard methods for transferring money work with online casinos. You can open an account using a credit card and your winnings can be transferred to any bank account you nominate. But, if you are resident in the US, the world was turned on its head by the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA). The history of this is revealing.

A bill dealing with security in our ports was working its way through the legislative process and, at the last moment, the internet restrictions were added. They had nothing to do with the security of ports. It was a device to slip the law through without real debate. As a result, it suddenly became illegal for any financial institution to transfer funds to an internet gambling operation except for horse racing, online lotteries and fantasy sports. So states protected their revenue streams with lotteries and the racing industry gained an edge over all their competitors. This law is probably unconstitutional but, so far, the courts have been reluctant to give clear rulings. This leave US players with real problems. No matter where the online casino is based, it's still difficult to open an account and recover winnings. So how do you get round the law?

The first option is to use eChecks. This produces an immediate electronic funds transfer between your bank account and the payee casino. They work in exactly the same way as paper checks. But a word of caution - one company providing this service was recently shut down by the Attorney General of New York. Although other companies continue to offer eChecks, this method is risky with winnings being seized in the New York court action. The alternatives are the following. A limited number of casinos including Rushmore accept American Express, bank drafts, wire transfers and checks for opening an account and making deposits. But these methods cannot be used for withdrawals. This brings us down to Central Coin, Citadel, Click2Pay, CLICKANDBUY, NETeller and others. Online casinos pick and choose which methods they accept. Alternatively, you have to set up a third party account outside the US and transfer the funds into and out of that account instead of directly to the casino.

It should not be this difficult to play your favorite casino games and there are various moves in the pipeline to encourage the lawmakers to repeal this oppressive law. While there's no constitutional right to gamble as such, this law chills the banks and achieves prohibition by the backdoor. While we wait for either a definitive court ruling or Washington to act, find the online casino with the payment methods you can access and set to enjoying your favorite online casino games.

New rules to play blackjack

2010-03-01T02:11:00.000-08:00

Blackjack is one of the most widely played table game in casinos all over the world. Despite that fact it has the lowest house edge that can be taken down even lower if employing card counting techniques. But if blackjack was a new game trying to make it to the casino tables in our days it would be very unlikely to get there. Blackjack players that use the basic strategy usually reduce the house advantage to 1,5 percents, which is two times less that is usually accepted in the casinos these days.

Back in sixties Edward O Thorp, the author of bestseller Beat The Dealer, highlighted the fact that blackjack in essence could be easily beaten when using card counting and made even if the player used the basic strategy. Such revelations made a stir in the gambling world as many players jumped behind the tables with the hope to beat the game. The response of casino officials was very simple - they added more decks to the game, making car counting harder to use and apply. However, the basic strategy still gives the player a house edge of less than 1 percent even with more decks in the game.

But the reality is far less optimistic than most players think, as a little number of those who play blackjack devote much time to learning card counting to the extent that would allow them using the technique in a real life setting. And the number of those who actually manage to master the basic technique is even smaller. Of course, the calculated house advantage can be less than 1 percent but the vast majority of those who play blackjack have to deal with 2 percents.

Seeing how much people choose blackjack to play at both brick-and-mortar and online casinos, you may believe that the casino owners are happy with their incomes. However, the owners themselves have a different opinion. The last couple of years seem some changes introduced with the scope of maximizing the profits casinos gain from blackjack players. Some houses installed automatic shuffling machines for making the game even faster paced. Others changed the rules, increasing the house edge in general. However, some casinos on the Las Vegas Strip have introduced a change to the rules that delivered a very strong impact on the game in general.

Now, instead of 3 to 2 paid for natural blackjacks these houses require 6 to 5. This means that if with previous rules you would get $15 dollars when betting $10 a hand, now you will only get $12 for a natural blackjack. And this leads to the house edge raised by 1.4 percent, leaving the player who's using the basic strategy with a 2 percents disadvantage.

To make things even worse, these casinos are advertising these new rules as an advantage to the player. And inexperienced players fall for such ads, not realizing that they get ripped off in comparison with typical blackjack. The best way to win at such games is to avoid them at all, as it's not the blackjack most people can win these days. Find a casino with a 3 to 3 blackjack payout and feel the difference.

Coming to you live

2010-02-24T04:56:00.002-08:00

Ever since the dawn of civilization, people have come together to play games for money. Gambling has a history spanning centuries. While no-one can doubt the lure of being able to win large amounts of money from relatively small stakes, a key element in the growth of gaming houses has been the sociable nature of the activity. People meet each other. Many just come to be seen. Others come to project an image, proving their wealth by appearing not to care if they lose big. Today, gambling is a major industry. Go to Vegas or Macao, and you find integrated resorts where every part of the social experience is structured to support the gamers and their families. Every detail from the food on offer in the restaurants to the shops trading in the resorts is managed to maximize the chance of attracting the right people to play. Even more important is the need to encourage repeat business. The top spenders must not only generate good word-of-mouth among their circle of friends. They must also return to play as often as possible. The key to this process is making friends with you, the gamblers. Everyone from the bellhop to the croupiers to the hospitality management team must get to know you, make you feel good and build loyalty with comps and other inducements. The more you feel at home, you more you are likely to spend on the tables and machines.

Strip all this away and the glamour disappears. The magic spell is cast by the place and the people who work there. When you sit down in front of a PC in the comfort of your own home, the magic dies on the screen. No matter how well designed the graphics, no matter how smooth the animation, no matter how convincing the background noise may be, you cannot forget you are still in your own home. Yes, there is the convenience factor. Gone is the need to make the sometimes expensive journey to a distant casino. The next can of beer is only a few paces away in your kitchen. But the atmosphere and social benefits of meeting people is reduced to a live chat facility. On the positive side, technology never stands still and online casinos are evolving to meet more of your expectations. That way, you will spend more time playing and everyone wins.

To produce greater realism, the best online casinos now offer live dealers. This depends on the latest video streaming technology and whether you have enough bandwidth. Assuming you can accept the stream, you get a real person dealing live on a virtual table. Needless to say, the dealers are usually attractive young ladies and they deal blackjack and baccarat. Some casinos also provide live roulette. Up to now, this feature has been provided by casinos based outside the US. But November 2009 sees the launch of this service in the first online casino based in the US. JustBet Casino is offering live dealers for several hours every day. Now, every online player has the chance to sit down with live feed from a US studio and enjoy their blackjack with a US dealer. This is not going to match the real world experience, but it's getting better.

Counting cards in blackjack

2010-02-24T04:56:00.001-08:00

Travel back in time a few decades and you will find the source of many modern myths. The most interesting swirl around the group of professional gamblers who devised the so-called basic strategy and those people, blessed with a good memory, that can beat the House by counting cards. Today's wisdom says that putting the two together gives you the best chance of beating the house edge. There is some truth to this for those of you who go to real-world casinos. Indeed, many casinos actually sell small cards with the basic strategy printed in neat tables and charts. The original math wonks who crunched the numbers used to guard their knowledge and sell it only at high price. Today, the casinos effectively give it away. Why are the casinos so confident you will not break the bank?

For those of you who are serious about learning the game, sitting in front of a live dealer with the strategy cards as your reference point is a daunting prospect. You are surrounded by one-hundred-and-one distractions. You have an audience who immediately see you as a newbie and will enjoy watching you make the wrong decisions. Worse, you will play with the speed of a constipated snail. On tables with several players, there is an expected rhythm to the play. No-one wants to sit idly around while you run your finger up and down the rows and columns to decide which strategy to play given the combination of cards on display. The only place where you can "safely" learn the basic strategy is online. The animated dealer will sit patiently for minutes while you think.

Thanks to the success of the movie "21", the exploits of the MIT team are well-known. They won millions during the 1990's by counting the cards. Before you all rush off and start training your own team, you have to recognize the difficulty of the task. Every person has to be able to count and keep it up for hours at a time. You have to develop a system of signalling to other members of the team without the security staff noticing. Although card counting is not illegal, casinos ask counters to leave and blacklist them by sending photographs to all the other casinos. Being barred from one casino is being barred from all major casinos. This is not something you can put together in a few days. It will require months of training and planning. Even then, you are only shading the odds in your favor. You will need a bankroll. Unfortunately, this is one time the online casinos will not help you. The online backjack program uses a random number generator to determine the next card. Unlike the real-world stack of six decks where the order of the cards is fixed until the stack is emptied or changed, you cannot use counting to predict the probability of high/low cards when you play blackjack online. So all your practice will have to be in real time. Do you have that much dedication? Most do not and the majority of card counters play blackjack on their own. More importantly, they keep a very low profile to avoid detection by casino staff. That way, they can maintain a gentle accumulation of profit on their bankroll. It can be done. It just takes time, patience and skill.

Can the math help you win in online casinos

2010-02-17T19:00:00.001-08:00

For the majority going through school, the math classes are a form of slow torture. All these tiresome problems to solve and never any obvious relevance to real-world situations. Except, of course, that the theory of probabilities gives you everything you need to know about how to bet effectively. Once you can work out the odds on any given event occurring, you are ahead of the game when it comes to winning. In a sense, gambling is the application of science. But this slightly breaks down because knowing the odds does not guarantee you will win. The actual result of the event is still determined by events outside your ability to control. Whether you win is a matter of luck. So we might conclude that gambling in general is a mixture of science and intangibles like intuition.

Why should this matter? Well, there's been an interesting case rumbling through the courts in Indiana. Back in 2006, the Grand Victoria Casino and Resort banned a player for counting cards. The gambler made no secret of his good memory and skill in converting the count into accurate predictions about how to bet. In the real world, casinos run card games from a shoe, i.e. they shuffle together multiple packs of cards and stack them into a container. The dealer then pulls the cards from the stack as they are required. This is the favored system because, once the cards have been placed in the shoe, the dealer cannot cheat by sharping cards from the pack or elsewhere. The order in which the cards will be played has been physically fixed. Thus, if someone with a good memory counts the cards as they come out, he or she can work out the probability of when cards of a given value will next come out of the shoe. This technique gives the people who play blackjack the chance to beat the House edge. The combination of the optimal strategy and counting gives the player the edge. For this reason, casinos routinely throw counters out and ban them from ever playing again. Casinos prefer the House edge to remain in place. Well, that's all going to change now because a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals said the casino had no legal right to exclude the gambler.

This victory for the scientific gambler is a real milestone. It changes the way in which casinos in Indiana operate. Whether it will apply to other US states will depend on the way their gambling is regulated but, reading through the ruling, it looks as though it should apply in quite a few other states. It would be great if this could also apply to online backjack but the sad truth is the software does not mimic the real world. Unlike the shoe and its shuffled cards, the software uses a random number generator to decide which card comes out next. That means there's no way to use the past cards dealt as a way of predicting future cards. The act of dealing one card is a uniquely random event, not influenced in any way by what has gone before. So scientifically-minded players will be heading to Indiana over the next few months and looking to make a killing. Those of us playing online blackjack will be relying on the optimum strategy and luck to build our winnings.

Cashew nuts

2009-12-26T04:45:00.001-08:00

The cashew is the seed of a tropical evergreen plant related to the mango, pistachio, and poison ivy. Originating in Brazil, the cashew plant made its way to India in the sixteenth century via Portuguese sailors.

Unlike most fruits where the seed is found inside the flesh, the cashew seed hangs from the bottom of the cashew apple. Cashew apples begin to ferment as soon as they are picked and will barely last 24 hours. Cashew apples are highly prized in their growing locale, where they are sometimes found canned, in jams, or used to make liqueurs.

Health Benefits
Cashew nuts, a richly sweet product of the cashew tree, have gained popularity in North America and Europe not only for their succulent flavor but for health benefits, too. Whether roasted, salted, sugared or covered in chocolate, the cashew nut, often used as a flavorful complement to appetizers, main dishes and deserts, packs a mix of nutrients and minerals not found in many common foods.
Cashew nuts has a high content of monounsaturated fats, copper and magnesium, has no cholesterol, helps maintain healthy gums and teeth, contains healthy monounsaturated fat that promotes good cardiovascular health, rich in antioxidants.

Cashew Cooking Tips
Make cashew butter by processing cashews in the food processor until the mixture reaches the consistency of peanut butter. Use as you would peanut butter on bread, crackers, or as a soup thickener.

Cashews shine in curries, vegetables, salad, pasta, rice, stir-fries, stew, and desserts.

Unless intended as a thickener, do not add cashews to hot dishes until near the end of the cooking process as they will quickly become soft and begin to disintegrate. Cashews will become soft in baked goods and do not retain their crunch like other nuts.

Storage
Cashews are highly perishable and can turn rancid quickly due to their high oil content. Choose vacuum-packed jars or cans over cellophane packaging. Store cashews in a cool, dry place in an airtight container to avoid absorption of other food odors. At room temperature, they will not last long, but if you refrigerate them, they can last up to 6 months. Cashews may also be frozen up to 1 year.

Gourmet truffles recipe

2009-11-29T16:36:00.001-08:00

Equipment

You can use a microwave to melt the chocolate, but I don't like to. I find that this complicates the process because you need to keep on stopping the microwave to stir it. Besides, there is something soothing about melting chocolate over a low heat. It releases the scent in the air and reminds me of those chocolate shops.

For the slow-melt method, you will need a double burner. I use a saucepan and a metal mixing bowl. The bowl needs to be big enough so that it completely seals the pan. Put the burner on low, so that the water just gently heats. Eventually, the hot steam will warm the pan and melt the chocolate.

Other utensils you will need are a rubber spatula, for scraping the bowl, and a small spoon. I use a metal tablespoon, but I have to remember to take it out of the bowl or else it will be too hot to touch. You can also use a small wooden spoon.

Ingredients

I use heavy cream, unsalted butter (European style if you can find it), and good quality semi-sweet baker's chocolate. I've on occasion used semi-sweet chocolate chips. I like baker's chocolate better because I find that it melts smoother. I feel that this results in a higher quality chocolate.

Basic Recipe

This recipe makes one batch. The amount of truffles will vary depending on the size.
- Begin by melting 6 ounces semi-sweet baking chocolate over the double burner.
- In a separate saucepan, add 2 T unsalted butter and ¼ cup heavy cream.
- Heat on low until the butter is melted.
- Once chocolate has melted, add butter and cream mixture. Stir rapidly until well blended.
- Chill in the refrigerator, uncovered until it is cool and firm. This will take about 30 minutes but it may be longer depending on your refrigerator settings.
- Remove from fridge when firm. Let melt slightly until you can comfortably work the mixture with a spoon.
- Take a small, sturdy teaspoon and scoop some of the truffle cream out. Form with your fingers into small, round shapes.

To make truffles in advance, skip step five. Pour mixture into a freezable plastic container. When ready to continue the process, defrost the truffles until workable. Continue with seven.

Rolling the Truffles

Your next step will depend on what you want to use to coat the truffles. You can dip them in chocolate or roll them into cocoa powder, spices, coconut, chopped dates or ground nuts. Use your imagination!

- Fill a small bowl with the ingredients you will use to coat them.
- After forming the truffles into balls, dip them into the bowl and then place the chocolates on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Refrigerate until firm.

Dipping the Truffles

Dunking your truffles in chocolate is time consuming but worth the effort. I love the contrast of the firm chocolate and the soft center.

- Place truffles on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper after working them into rounded shapes.
- Refrigerate for about one hour until firm.
- To prepare the dipping chocolate- Melt about 3 ounces of semi-sweet baking chocolate and 1-2 tablespoons grated beeswax in a double burner. (The beeswax prevents the outer layer of chocolate from melting too quickly). Keep the heat on low. Once the chocolate is melted, do not remove from the double burner.
- Remove the truffles from the fridge. Pierce the chilled chocolate/cream mixture with a bamboo skewer. Using the skewer, carefully dip it into the chocolate/beeswax mixture. Place back on the parchment and remove the skewer. Refrigerate again until firm, about 1-2 hours.

The basic strategy and doubling down

2009-11-28T18:47:00.001-08:00

There's a sad fact about playing in a casino, whether real or virtual. The operators have worked out how to play the games on offer and set the odds to favor themselves. After all, if the majority did not lose, there would be no money to pay out all the money you win. Needless to say, the casinos have invested time and money into working out every possible variation on the rules and the ways to play under them. So, if you are going to take on the House edge, you have to become as big an expert on the rules as the operators. So let's start with one of the more interesting rules which decides when you are allowed to double down. This applies when you have received your two cards. If you decide you are going to draw only one more card, the casino rules can allow you to double your initial bet. The different possibilities are to double:

on any card combination;
only when the two cards total 9, 10 or 11; or
after splitting.

Why should you double your bet? The answer is deceptively simple. You double the bet when you think you are going to beat the Dealer. That really does make sense. But because you are suddenly investing more money in playing the game and have more to lose, you need to get on board with the math. You need to know the frequency with which the Dealer is likely to go bust based on the card you can see. If the Dealer's card suggests a bust is probable, i.e. the Dealer's hand is weak, you double the bet when you have a strong hand. You are maximizing the chance of making a good profit on the hand. If you build the doubling rule into your basic strategy, you reduce the House edge. If you refuse to play the doubling rule, the House edge actually increases. This is not to claim you will win every hand when you double down. If you are on a losing streak, you could lose every doubled bet for the session. But, in the long term, you will win more than you lose if you double. If you hesitate to double the bet, it suggests you are outside your comfort zone and already playing for higher stakes than you can afford.

At the blackjack table, the Dealer is weakest when showing a card in the range 2 through 6. With a 2, the bust percentage is 35%. It rises to a 42% chance of busting with a 5 or 6. Your hand is strongest if the two card total is less than 11. Do not be thrown off the basic strategy by the casinos that allow you to add less than the original bet. Blackjack is a game for winners. Never give up the chance to double and take the maximum win against the Dealer. Adding a few dollars to the original bet but not doubling is half-hearted and cowardly.

The first steps to a basic strategy

2009-11-27T17:06:00.000-08:00

The game is one of the simplest ever invented. The rules are few and there's no physical effort involved in playing it. You just sit, look at a few cards and make your bets. That's probably why it's become one of the most popular casino games of all time. Of course everyone knows the House has an edge. That's how it pays all the expenses for running the casino. Remember it makes no difference whether this is a casino in the real world or online. You still need people and a base. So common sense tells you that no-one beats the House unless they invest some effort. Put another way: if everyone could beat the House without breaking sweat, the casino would go out of business in a day. This produces the headline: no pain, no gain. You have to put in some study time to master the basic strategy.

So what is this strategy? Over the years, some serious math types did all the work for you. They calculated the best way to play all the card combinations and wrote them down in simple charts. If you were going to play in a real casino, you would have to learn all these rules. That saves you having to pause before every decision to check the charts. Not only would the other players around the table be less than impressed, the casino would probably suggest you leave. But playing online changes all that. You can consult the charts as often as you like before deciding which card to play. It may be slow but, if you get the strategy right for every hand, you just shifted the odds in your favor.

So what are these charts? The first gives you the rules on when to split a pair. The strategy changes depending on the value of the cards dealt to you and the value of the card you can see the Dealer holding. So it starts with the rule that you split a pair of aces no matter what the Dealer holds, and goes down to the choices when you hold a pair of 2s. The other two charts deal with hard hands and soft hands. A hard hand is when neither card is an ace and the strategy changes significantly depending on the card held by the Dealer and the table rules on when the Dealer must stand or draw. A soft hand contains an ace and is easier to play because you can always draw one more card without busting - this takes some of the pressure off the play. I started off by saying blackjack is an easy game but, like all games, you can play for fun or you can take it seriously and play to win. In this case, you are more likely to win if you learn the charts and can play the strategy without thinking. To really take on the House edge, you also have to become a card counter but that's a whole new story because it does not work in a virtual casino. For now, focus on the basic strategy and start your winning blackjack career.

Shedding off pounds can be cheap

2009-11-07T22:46:00.000-08:00

England has never seen this many cases of obesity. In June 2006 over a thousand people were diagnosed with overweight, making it the record. Don't get us wrong, it is not new that overweight is a part of today but England has not known a time when this many people checked in with the same diagnose at the same time. All the patients confessed they are keen on fast-food and they eat up late at night. Some English also noted that cases of obesity are not new to their families.

Anti-obesity treatment propaganda began in July 2006. After all the newspapers and internet blogs brought this topic up very few people became indifferent. England ended up being concerned that month. Many doctors were taken into live studious on BBC where they discussed the problems and possible medical interventions.

When the "sufferers" were asked about their food dependency they say this "we can't help the hunger". That is what happens to people that have obesity diagnosis. They can't control their food consumptions and of course, they never count calories. They also admitted they tried to get on a healthy diet but it would not work and the desire for a yummy cake slice overweighed rationality. But if you think about it, you can't really blame these people. Obesity is a malady and it needs treatment. It is not something you can decide to get over today and lose weight tomorrow. It takes much strengths and dedication, the latter is very hard to find.

You food can turn out to become your biggest enemy. "Junk food brings people pleasure; it gives them the taste of paradise and the body from hell." This is how Doctor Rick Paterson described fast-food addictions. He also explained that some people do not understand how harmful weight gain is for them. Everything has a limit. There are people that get to a certain level because of their inability to cope with their appetite and there are people that take themselves to this level and don't bother to care.

When we asked Doctor Paterson about the treatment he said this: "You should want to treat yourself from obesity and it should be your own decision. Nobody can help you if you are not willing to help yourself." When we asked him about the drug he usually prescribes from obesity is - he named Acomplia. He said this is a good medication that has active ingredients that suppress appetite and doesn't give people discomfort.

He also added this: "There are certain side-effects and special restrictions people should be aware about. If you are over 75, Acomplia is not good for you. If you have kidney or liver problems, if you ever suffered from a heart attack or a stroke, if you ever tried to commit a suicide, if you are allergic to drugs, take other medication or are about to get pregnant - please stay away from Acomplia."

It should be mentioned that those English people, back from June 2006, that were diagnosed with obesity were prescribed this drug. And it did help them. We will not lie and say that they saw a 100% result but some of them could boast with impressive scale numbers. We hope you know how to keep yourself away from the food that may do you wrong. That is what Doctor Paterson would advice you to do.

Stanford Wong

2009-10-31T10:39:00.000-07:00

Stanford Wong self-published his first book, Professional Blackjack, in 1975. It was later published by the Gambler's Book Club in Las Vegas, then revised and expanded numerous times and published by Wong's own company, Pi Yee Press.

Wong is widely regarded as one of the sharpest analysts of systems and methods for beating the casinos. In Professional Blackjack, he described a never-before-revealed table-hopping style of playing shoe games, a method of play now known as wonging. Professional Blackjack had a profound impact on serious players because it provided card counters with an easy yet powerful method for attacking the abundant four-deck shoe games that had taken over Las Vegas. Many pros still think of card-counting opportunities as "pre-Wong" and "post-Wong."

In his second book, Blackjack in Asia-a book priced at $2,000 and one of the rarest gambling books sought by collectors today - Wong discusses the unique blackjack games he had discovered in Asian casinos as a professional player, along with the optimum strategies he had devised for beating them. The book also included underground advice for exchanging currencies in these countries on the black market, as well as an account of his own hassles with customs officials when he attempted to leave the Philippines with his winnings. Of all of Wong's books, this is my personal favorite, as it reveals more of his anti-establishment personality than any of his later books.

In 1980, Wong published Winning Without Counting, priced at $200, and again, on a personal note, this is my second favorite book by Wong (and another collector's item if you can find one). He not only discusses many hole card techniques that had never before been mentioned in print-s-front-loading, spooking, and warp play-but he also delved into many clearly illegal methods of getting an edge over the house, including various techniques of bet-capping, card switching, card mucking, etc. He was widely criticized by those in the casino industry for the amusing way in which he discussed and analyzed such techniques, but anyone with half a brain could see that he was merely informing players with a tongue-in-cheek sense of humor.

Wong subsequently published Tournament Blackjack (1987), Basic Blackjack (1992), Casino Tournament Strategy (1992), Blackjack Secrets (1993), and since 1979 has published various newsletters including Current Blackjack News, aimed at serious and professional players.

Mr. Stanford Wong is a life legend of blackjack and we highly recommend his website http://www.bj21.com/ to anyone seriously interested in blackjack game.

Edward Oakley Thorp from Blackjack Hall of Fame

2009-10-19T01:59:00.000-07:00

Edward Oakley Thorp is widely regarded, by professional players as well as the general public, as the Father of Card Counting. It was in his book, Beat the Dealer, first published in 1962, that he presented his Ten-Count system, the first powerful winning blackjack system ever made available to the public. There isn't any card-counting system that is in use today and is not variation of Thorp's Ten-Count.

When Thorp's book became US best seller, its popularity was so big that the Las Vegas casinos attempted to change the standard rules of blackjack, but their customers would not accept the changes and refused to play the new version of the game. So, the Vegas casinos went back to the old rules, but switched from dealing hand-held one-deck games to four-deck shoe games, a change that the players would accept. But this was useless: in 1966 Thorp's revised second edition of Beat the Dealer was published. This edition presented the High-Low Count, as developed by Julian Braun, a more powerful and practical counting system for attacking these new shoe games.

In 1961, Thorp and C. Shannon jointly invented the first wearable computer, a device that successfully predicted results in roulette. Thorp has an M.A. in Physics and a Ph.D. in mathematics, and has taught mathematics at UCLA, MIT, NMSU, and U.C. Irvine, where he also taught quantitative finance. For many years Ed Thorp wrote a column for the now-defunct Gambling Times magazine. Many of these columns were collected in a book titled The Mathematics of Gambling, published in 1984 by Lyle Stuart.

Keith Taft

2009-10-19T01:58:00.001-07:00

Keith Taft is not well known to the general public, but professional blackjack players know him as an electronics genius who has spent more than thirty years devising high-tech equipment-computers, video cameras, and communication devices - to beat the casinos. Blackjack was his initial and prime target. His first blackjack computer, which he completed in 1972, weighed fifteen pounds. Over the years, as computer chip technology developed, his computers became smaller, faster, lighter and much more effective. By the mid-1970s, he had a device that weighed only a few ounces that could play perfect strategy based on the exact cards remaining to be dealt.

His son Marty's name would be right along his in the Blackjack Hall of Fame, as the two have worked as a good partners since Marty was a teenager. For thirty years they have jointly created ever-more-clever hidden devices to beat the casinos, trained teams of players in their use, and have personally gone into the casinos to get the money. Keith and Marty may, in fact, have literally invented the concept of computer "networking," as they were wiring computer-equipped players together at casino blackjack tables thirty years ago in their efforts to beat the games.

When Nevada had forbidden devices in 1985, it was result of a Taft device found on Keith's brother, Ted - a miniature video camera built into Ted's belt buckle that could relay an image of the dealer's hole card as it was being dealt to a satellite receiving dish mounted in a pickup truck in the parking lot, where an accomplice read the video image, then transferred Ted at the table the information he needed. An in-depth interview with Keith and Marty Taft was published in the Winter 2003-04 Blackjack Forum, and is available online.

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2009-09-29T20:08:00.000-07:00

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Max Rubin - Blackjack Hall Of Fame

2009-09-27T20:33:00.000-07:00

Max is the author of Comp City, first published in 1994, with an expanded second edition published in 2002. In this groundbreaking book, Max exposed techniques even non-counting players could use to get an advantage over the casinos by exploiting weaknesses in the casinos' comp systems. Max's inside information came from his years of experience in the industry as a dealer, pit boss, and casino manager. Max still does consulting work for the Barona Casino in California.

The initial manuscript for Comp City included advanced comp-hustling techniques that could be used by professional card counters, but the editors at Huntington Press decided to delete this section from the book in order to appeal to the wider market of recreational players. These excluded portions were published in Blackjack Forum in June 1994, and can be found now in the BlackjackForumOnline.com Library.

In the mid-1990s, he started hosting the Blackjack Ball, a secret annual event for professional players, where he serves as Game Master as many of the top pros compete for the Blackjack Cup and the title of World's Best Blackjack Player.

Now, as a host of the Game Show Network's World Series of Blackjack, Max Rubin has become one of the most visible public advocates of professional players.

Lawrence Revere - Blackjack Hall of Fame

2009-09-27T20:32:00.001-07:00

Lawrence Revere was both a serious player and talented author. He died in 1977. His only book, Playing Blackjack as a Business, initially published in 1969, is still in print. If you look at the "true count" methods that was employed pre-Revere, you will see why Revere's name was placed into the hall of fame. The earlier methods were cumbersome and mentally fatiguing to use. In the second edition of Beat the Dealer, in which Thorp first proposed the Hi-Lo Count, he mentioned a simple method of using the count, though he failed to develop it as a full system. Revere had a leap of brilliance that led him to come to the conclusion that the simplified method of obtaining a "true count" that Thorp had mentioned could be fully developed and employed with the most powerful of point count systems. Revere's method was so simple compared to the alternatives, it has been employed by virtually every serious balanced point count system developer since, including Stanford Wong, Ken Uston, Lance Humble, Bryce Carlson, Arnold Snyder, and others. As a serious player, Revere's knowledge of blackjack included such esoteric techniques as shuffle tracking and hole card play.

Which is better, playing in a casino or playing online?

2009-09-27T20:28:00.000-07:00

There's one game that will forever be associated with casinos - it's not called the "king of casino games" for nothing. The reason? Perhaps it's the simplicity. Someone spins the wheel, releases the ball, "Where will it fall? No-one knows!" There's the noise as the ball is thrown against the direction of spin. It rolls around the wood framing the the wheel, slowly losing momentum, edging down toward the whirling blades of the slots. Then, with a clatter, the ball is caught by the wheel. It bounces, suddenly caught up and thrown in the opposite direction. There's a hypnotic quality about how the ball moves. Everyone watching feels they can reach out with their minds and will it to land in their numbered slot.

As the wheel slows, the ball bounces up and down a few times, then finally gives in to a combination of friction and gravity, and is caught in one of the slots. It is a wonderful moment of theater, followed by the "instant" gratification of the win for those with the luck. For some, this is the perfect game of chance to play. In the real world atmosphere of a casino, the crowd always gathers round the wheels first among all the games. It has a compelling fascination. Strip away the real world and play online, the experience on your computer can never really be the same. There are good graphics and the sound effects are reasonable. All you are left with is the game itself.

Is it strong enough on its own? Almost certainly. Little changes about the game. The rules are the same, the odds and betting are identical. So should you play it? Well, so long as you know the rules and the odds, it remains a good game. The only difference is the loss of atmosphere when you play online. So you are sacrificing all the travel, inconvenience and expense by staying home and switching on your PC. You can play when you want, for as long as you want from the comfort of your own home. Think how much you might spend on a real world trip in gas, drinks at bar prices (assuming no comps), and so on. That's why you stay home. You will find bonuses and spot prizes to replace the comps. You have more money to play through as a result.

One gentle reminder - there's a myth to dispel. Many try to sell the idea of a strategy to win. In reality, the house has an edge no matter how you play roulette. Never be deceived if you have a hot streak. You might get ahead in the short term but the house will always win in the end. There are no professional players who make a living out of playing this game. You can do many things to keep your losses small, but roulette should really be for fun and excitement. If your luck is in, you can have the satisfaction of beating the house. But always be disciplined. If you have a good win, quit while you are ahead. Make your fun go a long way by coming back another time.

Tommy Hyland - Blackjack Hall of Fame

2009-09-24T22:08:00.001-07:00

Tommy began playing blackjack in 1978 while still in college. That was also the year he formed his first informal "team." He's never looked back. For more than twenty-five years, he has been running the longest-lasting and most successful blackjack team in the history of the game. He and his friends have played in casinos all over the U.S., Canada, and the world. He has used big player techniques, concealed computers, and had one of the most successful "ace location" teams ever. He has personally been barred, back-roomed, hand-cuffed, arrested, and even threatened with murder at gun-point by a casino owner he had beaten at the tables. Every year, the Hyland team players take millions of dollars out of the casinos. And even though Tommy has had his name and photo published in the notorious Griffin books more times than any other player in history, he continues to play and beat the games wherever legal blackjack games are offered. He has also fought for players' rights by battling the casinos in the courts.

Despite his frightening reputation, Tommy is very polite, and always is a gentleman. He is as loved by players as he is hated by the casinos. In an interview conducted by Richard Munchkin in 2001, Tommy said, "If someone casino told me I could make $10 million a year working for it, I wouldn't even consider it. It wouldn't take me five minutes to turn it down ... I don't like casinos at all. I don't like how they ruin people's lives. I don't suppose the employment they provide is a worthwhile thing for those people. They're taking people that could be contributing to society and making them do a job that has no redeeming social value."

Tips for playing online

2009-09-24T22:07:00.001-07:00

When you look at the welcome bonus and all the other benefits from joining an online casino, playing online has real advantages over the real world alternatives. Because the virtual operation does not need a major building and significant number of people to run the games, all that saving can go into financial benefits for members. If you play regularly enough and qualify for VIP membership, you can find the casino more financially generous than through the real world comps. Nevertheless, you still need to play smart to give yourself the best chance of winning more than you lose.

How can you improve your chances of winning? Well, the bad news is you have to study. Even though every spin of the wheel is an independent event and what has happened has no bearing on what will happen, you still have to know all the rules and what the odds are on each bet. This is a game of chance, but which game you decide to play and how you bet can affect the outcome.

As you know from the information contained on other parts of this site, there are two versions of the game. The difference between the two lies in the number of zeros, i.e. if the ball lands on a zero, the house takes some or all of the bets depending on the local rules. In the European version, there is only one zero. This makes the house edge 2.63%. In the American version, there are two zeros. The house edge doubles to 5.26%. Thus, if you have the choice, always play the European version because this gives the house the lowest advantage. Always check the local rules. If the house plays the en prison rule, all even money bets stay on the table for the next spin of the wheel if a zero comes up. This has the effect of further reducing the European house edge to 1.35%, i.e. this version of the game gives you the best chance of winning. Now learn how to calculate the odds and always play the bets giving you the best chance of winning and avoid the bets with the worst odds. The following is a simple guide:

single number bets including zero and double zero 35:1
two neighboring numbers 17:1
any three numbers in a row 11:1
any of the four touching numbers in a corner 8:1
five numbers, e.g. 1,2,3,0,00 6:1
any six numbers in two rows 5:1
any twelve numbers in a column 2:1
dozens 2:1
red/black, odd/even 1:1

Now the choice is yours. If you are playing roulette for "profit", set yourself a limit on the amount your are prepared to lose. Then play the bets with the bigger returns. If your luck is in and you hit one or two times, take your winnings. You can enjoy the rest of the evening at the casino's expense. The worst mistake anyone can make is to be seduced by the idea of a hot streak. The reality is clear. If you keep on playing roulette, you will lose all your winnings.

Gambling in the US

2009-09-24T22:05:00.002-07:00

The legislature in Delaware has just approved a new law expanding the gambling opportunities in that state. It was almost immediately signed into law by the Democratic Governor who is looking at a major hole in the state budgets and needs additional revenue to help fill it. The new law is intended to allow table games, i.e. blackjack, craps and the "King of Casino Games", to be played at the casinos sited on the state's three horse racetracks.

As soon as the revenue splits are agreed with the casino operators - the legislature has allowed 75 days for the consultation - the final approval will be given by the legislature. The games should be in play at the racetracks early 2010. The law also helps prop up the horse racing industry which has been feeling the pinch in the current recession. The move is controversial in Maryland because their attempts to collect revenue through exploiting betting on slots will be marginalized. But tax payers in Delaware are giving their full approval. They accept this source of state revenue even though it is, in effect, a tax on gambling which, research shows, tends to have a prejudicial effect on lower income families.

As a state, this is elevating Delaware to one of the leaders in the gaming industry. As it stands, the state is one of the four, i.e. Delaware, Montana, Nevada and Oregon, exempted from federal laws prohibiting sports betting. At a federal level, Barney Frank recently introduced a new Bill which would keep sports betting illegal online in all but the four exempted states. This means Americans can only legally bet on professional sport in one of the four states or by getting on a cruise ship that sails out into international waters off the US coast. Quite why something should be lawful in four states and a few miles offshore, but not at home when someone switches on their computer, is a mystery no-one has been willing to explain. The law is as the law is. Interestingly, New Jersey is challenging the state exemptions on the ground it is unconstitutional to allow sportsbooks in some states and not all states. If this challenge is successful, federal law will change to open the US to betting or force all gamblers out to sea or back into underground betting which, more often than not, is run by organized crime. By comparison, Australia permits all betting where there is an element of skill, and more strictly regulates games which are purely based on luck. The Australians think it takes skill to handicap football games.

So, as it stand, Delaware is set to create gambling honeypots where people can come to the racetrack to bet on the horses, use the sportsbooks and play roulette, craps or blackjack. There are no residence requirements. As with Las Vegas, people can come from anywhere in the US. This despite the mounting evidence that gambling is highly addictive and can seriously damage the health (and wealth) of the families it touches. But, as it stands, Delaware is pushing ahead enthusiastically to enhance its facilities with online roulette and draw all gamblers.

Is rakeback poker for me?

2009-09-24T22:05:00.001-07:00

The general answer is probably yes. Every player pays some rake no matter which version of poker is played and no matter how the game is played. But the choice is individual. The majority of people in the online poker rooms only play the game for fun. They are just looking to get the maximum enjoyment out of their gambling dollars. Most will not know about the rake and have no immediate interest in claiming some of it back. These players tend to be steady losers. Be grateful to them for supplying your winnings. If you only play for a few hours a week to clear the bonus, there is a short-term argument for saying the rake is irrelevant to you. But circumstances can change. What would you do if the bonuses were to dry up? Equally, if you find you are winning more often and start thinking about playing with a more professional approach, not having an agreement about the rake could leave you with a problem.

Then look at your playing style. If you like to get involved in the action, you will tend to see more pots and this will increase the rake paid. If you are a tight player preferring to pick the hand to play, you will be involved in fewer pots and pay a smaller rake. The number of pots also increases if you play short-handed. In a full ring, it is less necessary to defend blinds and so there are fewer pots. Players pay the maximum rake on low to medium sized pots. No limit players pay less, often because the poker rooms operate a "no flop, no drop" policy, i.e. no rake is charged when a player with a good hand raises pre-flop and the others fold. This limits the number of big pots per hour as against limit games where playing the odds usually results in a draw.

Even though claiming back some of the rake is usually favorable, move with care. Always read the terms and conditions of the rooms where you play before you act. Often, these schemes are not offered directly, but made available through affiliate sites to attract new players to the online casinos. Most poker rooms have rules preventing you from having more than one account. If you are caught with multiple accounts, your winnings may disappear. You could also be banned. Similarly, just as you check out the poker rooms before signing up, you should also check out the reputation of the affiliate before signing up. If the affiliate crashes and you lose your accounts, many dollars may have disappeared. With proper research, you can get good deals when you sign for new casinos and poker rooms. Check out the rules before you try to add this to your existing rooms.

Because rakeback is effectively free money, it's usually a good idea to get signed up. Even if you only make a few dollars out of it every month, you might want to turn professional next month. For now, look for the highest poker rakeback percentages from reputable affiliates and open new accounts within the service terms of the best poker rooms.

What is a Rake Race?

2009-09-23T19:29:00.000-07:00

The rake is that drip, drip of fees deducted from every pot you play (and, sometimes, from the entry fees you pay for tournaments or other "special events"). All the regular players who get into the action in the small to medium sized pots have already signed up for a rebate. To add extra excitement to those players, some sites run races - usually over a calendar month - awarding points for the rake paid and the number of raked hands played. To let everyone see how well (or badly) they are doing, there's a real-time leaderboard with the top one hundred (or more) being paid out at the end of the playing period. How many get paid depends on each competition and you should take time to read all the terms and conditions before you sign up. Some of the top players may be grinding through fifteen or sixteen hours of play per day - i.e. only stopping to sleep (and for other necessary functions). They will tend to sign up for the races where the prize money is high. If you are a more casual player, look for low volume competitions in smaller poker rooms. Obviously, this means the prize money is also significantly lower, but you can usually find the right competition for you when you balance out the potential for some race winnings alongside the additional loyalty and VIP bonuses and privileges you will earn if your volume of play increases. Always look at the bigger picture when choosing the race - the sites through which you signed up for a rake rebate will usually have a newsletter service to keep you up-to-date on the latest races being offered.

If you are serious about trying to win, what should you do? The first step is a warning. Always make sure you keep a limit on any losses. There is no point in continuing to play for the sake of winning a race only to find you are bankrupt at the end of the month. Similarly, always stay healthy. Get enough sleep and eat regular meals. Where the race is to find those who play more hands than anyone else, you have to play on multiple tables. If the winning line is solely the amount raked, you may have to play multiple tables - it depends on the value of the pots you play for and the rake percentages and caps. If the rake you pay only rarely exceeds the cap, you will have to play multiple tables.

To give yourself the best chances of winning a rakeback race, play on multiple tables, always trying to find loose tables where people play more marginal hands. This also gives you the best chance of winning the game because you will see more flops and can play the odds better to take the pots away from the weaker players. However, this makes remembering every player's style more challenging so, when playing multiple tables, using a heads-up display of stats and hand results gives you essential information. So, with these strategies in place, watch the leaderboard and avoid burning out. Even if you do not win the race, you will still get several hundred (or thousand) dollars of rakeback to add to your winnings.

What is the rake?

2009-09-23T19:28:00.001-07:00

There are many things that make poker the best game to play - more skill, more fun - but the key advantage is that you are up against the other players around the table and, over time, the best players will win as the luck evens out and the skill takes over. Unlike blackjack and the other table games, there's no house edge to give the casino operator a guaranteed percentage. You take your winnings out of the pockets of those you beat. From the point of view of the casino, this is bad news. Here it is with its capital tied up in bricks and mortar and its outgoings burdened with a staff of dealers, and it has no edge to help cover its costs. So, it charges the players for the right to sit down and play the game. This fee is called the "rake" because the dealer physically rakes in chips at the end of each hand to cover the fee. The amount varies. Sometimes, in the more exclusive rooms, it can be as high as 10% per hand, but it's usually capped and falls to very small percentages when big bets are made.

The fact that you play online does not change the economics of the casino's operation. There may only be one small building and very few staff, but it costs money to install and maintain the software. Servers have to be paid for to host the games. So the casino must still cover its costs when offering a poker room. The advantage is that the costs of virtual operation are significantly less than the real world costs and so the rake percentage is usually lower and capped. On a $50 pot, the rake might be 5% but on a $500 pot it might be 0.5%. So high stakes or no-limit players might pay only a small rake. Whereas small pot players could pay quite high fees except that most online casinos cap the amount per hand at no more than a sum between $3 and $5. Nevertheless, the amount of the rake paid over a month might be substantial for regular players.

If you play online, the rakeback system has been introduced to allow the casinos to compete against each other for players. The idea is simple. Every month, your account is credited with a percentage of the total rake you have paid. That reduces the casino's margin but encourages regular players to stay loyal and to play for longer periods of time - remember online players go through more hands per hour than real world players. The refund makes a big difference and often represents the chance for the regular players to turn from losing to winning. If you only play for small pots, you are playing against the others around the table and the house fees. With the rakeback offering as much as a 40% refund, this can quickly mount up, e.g. if you played 1,000 pots at a capped fee of $3, you will recover $1,200 at the end of the month. This is "free money" for you to play with at the start of the next month and a very good reason for signing up for this facility.

A few tips for a casino player

2009-09-23T19:27:00.000-07:00

Distractions

When you're walking upon the casino's floor to start your gambling session, holding your perspective is significant. All the miscellaneous things in casino kind of hypnotize a lot of gamblers. Casinos want it. So, you have to stay cool and keep an unclouded mind.

Walk around for five or ten minutes before you sit down to play. Survey in mind your purposes for this session while you perceive the gamblers and the games.

Selecting a table

This is a makeshift decision for gamblers in general. They are choosing the first table they approach, that has a free seat and offers a minimal bet suitable for them. But the decision in selecting the table is an essential element in your chances of becoming a winner in this session.

A good sign is if a players' majority bets more than the minimum bet. Most players enlarge their bet when they continue to win.

This activity of winning might be produced by a non-random shift. It begets cycles of winning for both sides - the dealer and the players.

Tables you should avoid

Same as you are brought to tables where "the lights of Christmas Tree are blazing", you should pay attention to avoid the evident losing table at which players are showing few chips, making single-chip bets, and filter a sullen attitude.

Basic Strategy

So, now you're in the game. Now you've got to make a settlement on each of blackjack hands: split pairs, hit, double down, stand, or take insurance if the dealer demonstrates an ace.

These settlements are making online blackjack one of the most popular and thrilling table games in online casinos. They also give the players a certain control over what comes out of heir hands.

There exists a mathematically accurate way of making each of these settlements. Its name is Basic Strategy.

With this strategy you can become a serious player. It's actually a card counter's strategy. You'll have to pay attention to the cards on the table and their low and high quantity.

So, in general, before starting to play in casino, don't get distracted by such things as lights or beautiful women. Pay attention to everything, especially to your game session.

Raise your income with Basic Strategy Plus

2009-09-23T19:26:00.000-07:00

While you might gain in during one particular day, in the long you will probably grind yourself down if you play long and often enough.

An enhanced basic strategy - also called Basic Strategy Plus - is essential for you to accelerate from being an average player to being a serious recreational player who has better chanced to win over the long periods.

To lower the small edge against you with Basic Strategy moreover, and at times turn it into a precise edge in your liking, you only must be attentive to the cards on the table and evolve some proportion sense of high cards versus low cards residual in the card batch. This is just what a card counter is doing.

Anyway, you aren't obliged spending all the hours it takes to befit an expert card counter. By "counting the table" you might get a main sense of the high against low cards proportion. It simply means that in any given hand, you look at the unprotected cards for each hand on the table, the dealer's hand included. Then quickly count of all the high cards and all the low cards. The number of both is equal.

If the number of low cards is much larger than high cards, for example in blackjack, there are chances that the batch is a little ampler in high cards. That is propitious for the player. On the contrary, if the quantity of low cards is in advantage, which means the deck is now richer in low cards. That is unfortunate for the player.

Armed with the gained information, you are able to adjust your play consequently and thus play a little more like an expert.

There are some shave calls with Basic Strategy that might be perfected later with Basic Strategy Plus, same as other resolutions that may be done now more sagaciously

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Naruto Story and Plot

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Naruto (NARUTO - ナルト -, Naruto? romanized as NARUTO in Japan) is an ongoing Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Masashi Kishimoto with an anime adaptation. The plot tells the story of Naruto Uzumaki, a loud, hyperactive, unpredictable, adolescent ninja who constantly searches for recognition and aspires to become a Hokage, the ninja in his village that is acknowledged as the leader and the strongest of all. The series is based on a one-shot that Kishimoto first authored in the August 1997 issue of Akamaru Jump.

The manga was first published by Shueisha in 1999 in the 43rd issue of Japan's Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine and it is still being released with forty-four volumes. The manga would be later adapted into an anime produced by Studio Pierrot and Aniplex. It premiered across Japan on the terrestrial TV Tokyo network and the anime satellite television network Animax on October 3, 2002. The first series lasted nine seasons, while Naruto: Shippūden, a sequel of the series, began its first on February 15, 2007 and is still airing.

Viz Media has licensed the manga and anime for North American production. The Naruto anime debuted in the United States on Cartoon Network's Toonami programming block on September 10, 2005, and in Canada on YTV's Bionix on September 16, 2005. Naruto began showing in the United Kingdom on Jetix on July 22, 2006. It began showing on Toasted TV on January 12, 2007, in Australia, which features the Manga Entertainment TV version and the German-language dub opening, although it could be watched on Cartoon Network in 2006.

Serialized in Viz's Shonen Jump magazine, Naruto has become the company's best-selling manga series. As of volume 36, the manga has sold over 71 million copies in Japan.

# Naruto Uzumaki (うずまき　ナルト, Uzumaki Naruto?) is the primary protagonist of the series. He was the first character created by Kishimoto during his initial conception of the series, and was designed with many traits from other shōnen characters, including Son Goku of the Dragon Ball franchise. In the series, Naruto is a ninja affiliated with the village of Konohagakure, and has ambitions of becoming Hokage, or the leader of the village. Due to being the host for the nine-tailed demon fox, a malevolent creature that attacked Konohagakure, he is ostracized by the other villagers. He compensates for this with his cheerful and boisterous personality, and over the course of the series, manages to befriend several other Konohagakure ninja, as well as ninja from other villages. He obtains an especially close relationship with Sasuke Uchiha, one of his fellow ninja in Team 7, and treats him as his brother

Twelve years before the events at the focus of the series, the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox attacked the ninja village Konohagakure. Powerful enough to raise tsunamis and flatten mountains with a swish of one of its tails, it raised chaos and slaughtered many people, until the leader of Konohagakure – the Fourth Hokage – sacrificed his own life to seal the demon inside Naruto when he was a newborn. The Fourth Hokage, who was celebrated as a hero for sealing the demon fox away, wanted Naruto to be respected in a similar light by being the containment vessel for the demon fox.

Konohagakure, however, shunned him, regarding Naruto as if he were the demon fox itself and mistreated him throughout most of his childhood. A decree made by the Third Hokage forbade anyone to discuss or mention the attack of the demon fox to anyone, even their own children. However, this did not stop them from treating him like an outcast and as a result he grew up an orphan without friends, family, or acknowledgment. He could not force people to befriend him, so he sought acknowledgment and attention the only way he knew – through pranks and mischief.

However, that soon changed after Naruto graduated from the Ninja Academy by using his Shadow Clone Technique, a technique from a forbidden scroll that he was tricked into stealing, to save his teacher, Iruka Umino, from the renegade ninja Mizuki. That encounter gave Naruto two insights: that he was the container of the demon fox, and that there was someone besides the Third Hokage who actually cared for and acknowledged him. His graduation from the academy opened a gateway to the events and people that would change and define his world, including his way of the ninja for the rest of his life.

The main story follows Naruto and his friends' personal growth and development as ninja, and emphasizes their interactions with each other and the influence of their backgrounds on their personalities. Naruto finds two friends and comrades in Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno, two fellow young ninja who are assigned with him to form a three-person team under an experienced sensei named Kakashi Hatake. Naruto also confides in other characters that he meets throughout the series as well. They learn new abilities, get to know each other and other villagers better, and experience a coming-of-age journey as Naruto dreams of becoming the Hokage of Konohagakure.

Throughout all of the Naruto plot, strong emphasis on character development changes the plot, with very few things happening because of chance. At first, emphasis is placed on Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura, who are the members of Team 7. However, other characters are developed, such as Kakashi, Tsunade, and Jiraiya, as well as Naruto's peers in the other teams and villages. Several major villains come into play as well, the first being Zabuza Momochi, a missing-nin from Kirigakure, and his partner, Haku. Later, Orochimaru, an S-Class missing-nin at the top of Konoha's most wanted list, and his loyal right-hand man, Kabuto Yakushi, are introduced. During this same arc, three ninjas known as the Sand Siblings are introduced. These siblings are from Sunagakure and include Temari, Kankuro, and Gaara. Later still, a mysterious organization called Akatsuki begins to pursue Naruto for the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox that is sealed inside of him.

Anime History

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The history of anime begins at the start of the 20th century, when Japanese filmmakers experimented with the animation techniques that were being explored in the West. During the 1970s, anime developed further, separating itself from its Western roots, and developing unique genres such as mecha. Notable shows in this period include Lupin III and Mazinger Z. During this period several filmmakers became famous, especially Hayao Miyazaki and Mamoru Oshii.

Unlike America, where live-action shows and movies have generous budgets, the live-action industry in Japan is a small market and suffered from budgeting and location restrictions. The varied use of animation allowed artists to create settings that did not look Japanese at all.^[1]

In the 1980s, anime was accepted in the mainstream in Japan, and experienced a boom in production. The rise of the Gundam and Macross franchises and the beginnings of Rumiko Takahashi's career began in this decade. Akira set records in 1988 for the production costs of an anime film and went on to become a cult success worldwide (later in 2004, the same creators produced Steamboy, the most expensive anime film). The Super Dimension Fortress Macross also became a worldwide success after being adapted as part of Robotech, and Megazone 23 also gained recognition in the West after it was adapted as Robotech: The Movie.

In the 1990s and 2000s, anime series such as Dragon Ball Z, Pokémon and Sailor Moon became worldwide successes, while other anime series such as Gundam, Macross, Neon Genesis Evangelion and Cowboy Bebop were popular in Japan and attracted attention from the West. A number of anime-influenced animations have been produced in the West, and the growth of the internet also led to the rise of fansubbed anime. Spirited Away shared the first prize at the 2002 Berlin Film Festival and won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2003, while Innocence: Ghost in the Shell was featured at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival.