October 31, 2008

Short History of Poker


Poker has become a world wide phenomenon over the recent years—everyone seems to play the game. Most people give internet poker all credit for the explosion in popularity, but we must not forget that Poker, in one form or another has been traced through over more than ten centuries back to around 900 A.D.

A game alike to poker was first invented by the Chinese sometime before 969 A.D, and Egyptians in the 12th & 13th centuries are known to have used a form of playing cards. In 16th century Persia "Ganjifa" or "Treasure Cards" were believed to have been used for a variety of betting games. A Ganjifa deck consisted of 96 elaborate cards, made of paper thin slices of ivory or precious wood. "As Nas" was played by The Persians which utilized 25 cards, rounds of betting and hierarchical hand rankings.

"Primero" dates back to 1526 and is often referred to as "poker's mother" as it is the first confirmed version of a game directly related to modern day poker. "Primero" was a 16th century Spanish game which involved three cards being dealt to each player. Bluffing, or betting high stakes whilst holding poor cards to deceive opponents, was an integral part of the game. In the 17th and 18th centuries a French game named "Poque" and a German game named "Pochen" became very popular, believed to have been developed from "Primero".

When French colonials arrived in Canada they imported the game to the new world. From the beginning of the 18th century "Poque" was the national card game of France and when a hardy group of French-Canadian settlers founded New Orleans, its popularity spread from the state of Louisiana throughout the whole country. One of the earliest references of poker was written in 1834 by Jonathan H. In his writing he mentions rules to the "cheating game."

During the Wild West period of United States history, a saloon with a poker table could be found in just about every town from coast to coast. It was extremely popular during the Civil War when the soldiers of both armies played. European influence of poker ended when the joker was introduced as a wild card in 1875.

In just over two centuries, poker has never looked back. Since its humble beginning on the banks of the Mississippi, the popularity of this widely played game has grown in leaps and bounds to evolve numerous variations and sub-variations.

There have been three games that have, in turn, dominated the modern poker scene:

• 5 Card Draw rose from relative obscurity during the American Civil War to the most popular game for almost a century.
• 7 Card Stud then took over the throne shortly before WWII and maintained its position for about 40 years with the help of the new and thriving Las Vegas casino industry.
• Texas Hold 'em, christened the "Cadillac of poker" rose to prominence in the 1970's when it was featured as the title game in the World Series of Poker. Today, Texas Hold 'em is indisputably the most frequently played and most popular poker game in the world.

October 30, 2008

Top Ads


One-sentence line:

Ma maman m'a dit je peux. (My mom said that I could)

October 28, 2008

Search for the Unexpected


A group of unicorns is called a blessing.

A group of kangaroos is called a mob.

A group of owls is called a parliament.

A group of ravens is called a murder.

Mozambique has an AK-47 assault rifle on its flag.

Camels have a straight spine despite their hump.

One in 10 Europeans is allegedly conceived in an Ikea bed.

A surfer once sued another surfer for "stealing his wave." The case was thrown out because the court was unable to put a price on "pain and suffering" endured by the surfer watching someone else ride "his" wave.

The = sign was invented by 16th Century Welsh mathematician Robert Recorde, who was fed up with writing "is equal to" in his equations. He chose the two lines because "noe 2 thynges can be moare equalle".

NASA boss Michael Griffin has seven university degrees: a bachelor's degree, a PhD, and five masters degrees.

27% of female lottery winners hid their winning ticket in their bras.

In eighteenth century English gambling dens, there was an employee whose only job was to swallow the dice if there was a police raid.

In ancient Egypt, killing a cat was a crime punishable by death.

In ancient Greece, where the mouse was sacred to Apollo, mice were sometimes devoured by temple priests.

In a deck of poker cards, the King of Hearts appears to be sticking his sword through his head.

In Calama, a town in the Atacama Desert of Chile, it has never rained.

88 is used as a symbol. The 8th letter of the alphabet being H, Neo-Nazis take 88 as salute code (HH as "Heil Hitler").

In China, due to sound resemblance, 88 is used as a shorthand for "goodbye" in IM chats.

If you sneeze too hard, you can fracture a rib. If you try to suppress a sneeze, you can rupture a blood vessel in your head or neck and die.

On the door to Tutankhamen's tomb, so goes the legend, was inscribed a curse: "Death shall come on swift wings to him who disturbs the peace of the king..."

When Columbus landed on U.S. shores in 1492, his men plucked wide leaves from trees, marked them with images, and played the first round of poker game on New Continent.

In the country of Turkey, in the 16th and 17th centuries, anyone caught drinking coffee was put to death.

October 27, 2008

Cat Got Your Tongue

Count to three; tell me what's on your mind.
Blackberry, you think of business mobile phone.
Blueberry, maybe it's your favorite savor of ice cream.
Strawberry, you would probably think of chewing gum.

Don't get me wrong, I am not into any "rainbow berry". I am talking about instinct and direct association. Next, I would try my experiment deeper and ask a guy, who is totally unaware of my subject. H stands for hint; G stands for guess.

H: Badugi, it's very popular and famous in Korea.
G: Spicy vegetable? Spicy sauce? …
(Click the link to see the right answer yourself, if you choose to skip the following part.)

H: Spade, it's a black spade.
G: Dirty miners underground dig for coal?

H: Heart.
G: Love, a romantic couple in the moonlight.

H: Diamond.
G: Crystal-clear little ring with shining light reflecting in… It hurts eyes.

H: Club.
G: VIP cards, red carpet, massage … Wait a minute. You are talking about the suits of poker cards, aren't you?

Badugi is a kind of poker game which originated from Korea. Poker players draw cards to form their respective hands. It's totally an alien among poker games in respect of poker rules, for the winning laureate goes to the one who has the lowest poker hand.

Korea is also famous for gimchi (spicy cabbages).

About the picture that I copied from a website—I always have a weird thought and uncontrolled fear that the images don't look like they are popping out in 3D but instead sinking into the graphic. In fact, I just can't see through it. Let me know what you see in the comments section.

October 23, 2008

Here Comes the Great White

It has more than 10 layers of teeth;
It has stream line body with cartilage skeleton, enabling it to swim rapidly, plus in an agile manner;
It is a super-aggressive carnivore, merciless to its prey;
It is at the top level of food chain in the sea.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you … the SHARK.

And, there is such a group of people in the poker world that hold the same title with the same charactestics …

They wear the golden bracelet of World Series of Poker;
They top high on player ranking lists;
They eat on poker chips;
They are anything but ordinary.

We usually refer a super-good player as "shark". The poker shark knows what they are doing. From the basics like the ranking of all the poker hands, the mathematical and statistical likelihood that they can play the cards they have been dealt into a winning hand, to the top know-how: tell the opponent by the body language, command the poker strategy as well as little tips.

Things being said, all is not lost if you aren't a good poker player. You lose, you learn, and you grow. Just like a common little game shows, when you reach the final level, you turn into a big monster fish, too.

Begin with !
End with …

October 22, 2008

Crabs Walk Sideways

Everyone is a speck of dust in the universe, and uses his/her whole lifetime to show the shiniest sparkle … We may not strive to be the most perfect man in the world, like Che Guevara. Deep inside, a little voice moans: behave yourself, play by the rule. That makes me in confrontation with Sattre. Back to gaming business. Poker etiquette are not official poker rules that would affect the results of a poker hand necessarily. They are set of "gentlemen rule" set by the house to keep the game friendly, polite, and in general to keep everyone happy.

It is a great practice for those who run house poker games to add some of the following poker etiquette rules to their house poker rules sheet, print it before the game, and make sure all players are aware of them.

Poker Etiquette During Play

Act in turn.
Keep your cards on the poker table at all times.
Act in a timely manner. Don't take too long to make your move.
If you are not in the hand, don't comment: Don't give advice or information to players who are playing. They are supposed to pay attention themselves.
One hand one player: Don't give advice to anyone. Don't pursue them to make any actions. Everyone is grown up enough to make their own decisions.
Keep your large denomination poker chips in front of your stack.
Don't talk on the phone while playing.

Betting

Don't splash the pot.
Don't string raise.

Showdown

Don't expose your cards until the hand is over.
At showdown flip both cards at the same time.
Don't slow roll: Slow rolling is to pretend your hand is not good enough and take a long time to reveal your cards at the end while your hand is really the winner. Do not do it - it is very frustrating.
Don't check down hands: This is a very non-friendly practice, so unless you are in a very large poker tournament stay away from it.

Aware or not, you are helping make a stand for online poker right here, right now. Thanks for the contribution.

October 20, 2008

Tilting in Poker

Poker tilt is when we do things we normally wouldn't because we are upset or irritated or disappointed for one reason or another. Although we know so many things, having the discipline to apply them every time we play is another matter. We know we shouldn't tilt while playing at a poker table; we know that we should stay focused at the table, but it is not what we know, it is what we do that separates us from the average poker player.

Emotional control is absolutely necessary to succeed in poker. Tilting is bad. Tilting costs us money. We all know this in our heads, but sometimes it is difficult to control. Learning how to control your emotions is probably the most difficult task in poker to master. The main thing to remember when playing online poker is … it is poker. It is a game of skill, but also a game of luck. Sometimes our opponents are going to go into a hand with the worst of it and come out of it with the best of it. If we understand that it is part of the poker game, then it is less likely to bother us. The thing that occasionally puts me on tilt is when I think I played a poker hand incorrectly. Normally when I do this, I have to get up and walk away from the table to clear my head. If that doesn't work, then I have to get up from the game entirely and call it a day.

October 16, 2008

Under The Hole Card

An Australian poker player has uncovered a $US 10 million cheating scandal at two poker sites and triggered a $US75 million legal claim.

In two separate cases, Michael Josem found that certain player accounts won money at a rate too fast to be legitimate. His findings led to an internal investigation by the parent company that owns both sites. It found rogue employees had defrauded players over three years via a security hole that allowed the cheats to see other player's hole cards.
poker underNow the owners of the sites have filed a $US 75 million claim against the makers of the software that powers them, claiming they were unaware of the security holes when they purchased the sites in 2006.

Suspicions were raised late last year. Josem plotted the cheating accounts played every poker hand as if they knew every card that the other players had and folded hands at just the right time. In fact, the cheats won money at a rate that was 100 times faster than a good poker player could reasonably win. It's totally against poker odds, equal to winning a one-in-a-million lottery on consecutive occasions.

What we know so far is that, as a result of his detective work, Josem has been employed by the leading online poker site, PokerStars, to work on its security team.

October 15, 2008

She is Teresa

Wonderful
1, she loves juicy fruits.

2, she likes to whistle.

3, she has 3 piggy banks, with over 2,000 coins.

4, she is not a big fan of fluffy pets.

5, she keeps a safe distance from dogs.

6, she has ticklish areas all over.

7, she likes watching Korean entertainment TV shows after coming back home from work.

8, she is pretty upset when losing lots of fake poker chips.

9, she panics, usually with screams when heroes in TV are in danger.

10, she holds my arms and squeezes them if I happen to be there at that moment.

11, she screams at sight of cockroaches, too.

12, She would only eat dumplings if there is no option.

13, she jumps and hops a lot when she is happy.

14, she teases and speaks to babies and hopes them would talk back.

15, she brandishes her arms in a robot-like move in front of the computer.

16, she calls it aerobics.

17, she has a mark on the inside skin of both her ears.

18, she needs snacks to be around while I am responsible to eat most of them.

19, she knows little about poker rules so far.

20, she puts her efforts into remembering poker hand rankings.

October 14, 2008

30 Things About Me

100% Me1, I have a birthmark on my left shoulder blade.

2, I have an incontrollable fear for rats.

3, I like big cities, for it makes me invisible.

4, I am sensitive and nostalgic.

5, I am lack of the itching sense.

6, My favorite precious stone is sapphire.

7, I am odorless, but also a fan of garlic.

8, I am not able to shout in a high voice.

9, I have never been abroad.

10, I learn poker terms not to win, but to enlarge my bank of ideas.

11, I would avoid all the fish dishes in general.

12, I admire the elephant not only because it's cute. I have a short memory .

13, I am an optimistic poker player. It kills me wishing the next lucky card.

14, I tend to please the people I like.

15, I want to do bizarre things and think of original ideas.

16, I once drank grapefruit juice with coffee; it's a really powerful combination.

17, I can tell the Mahjong tile by my fingers; 80 per cent of the estimates are correct.

18, I am afraid of losing my job.

19, There is no reason for me to lose my job.

20, I panic when I am in high places.

21, I shudder when smelling liquor; after-effect of an overdrinking in a high-school reunion.

22, I snore like a mini tractor.

23, I am left-handed; since 5 years old, I write with my right hand.

24, I visit online poker rooms frequently.

25, I used to pack up and tried to leave home at 9 years old.

26, I believe in afterlife.

27, I fall into sleep within 2 minutes after my back touches the bed.

28, I am a sponge to useless information.

29, I think in English though my mother tongue is another one.

30, I have a collection of autographs from a bunch of poker stars.

October 09, 2008

ABC of Poker Odds

There are 3 types of odds in poker strategy: hand odds, pot odds, and implied odds.

Hand odds
Hand odds can be defined, in the simplest poker terms, as the odds of making your hand in the remaining cards to come. A simple way to calculate it is to count the number of outs that you have to make your hand. Outs are the number of cards left in the deck that will make or improve the cards that you already have. To work out the odds just subtract the number of outs from the unseen cards to come and the answer will tell you what the odds are for that particular situation.

poker oddsFor example, in Texas Hold'em, where you hold 2 cards to a flush and the flop brings 2 more, so that you have 4 cards to the flush. There are 9 more cards that can complete your hand and there are 47 unseen cards left. If you subtract 9 from 47 this gives you 38. So your odds are 38 to nine, or roughly 4to 1, against making your hand.

You will be most concerned with the odds when you are drawing to a straight or a flush. The easiest way to remember this is that a straight is a 5 to1 underdog when only 1 card is needed to make it, if it is an open ended straight. A flush is a 4 to 1 underdog when only 1 card is needed to complete it.

Pot Odds
You must also compare the odds of making desired poker hand with the odds the pot is offering (pot odds) for the bet that has to be made. If the odds of making your hand are xx/1, is the pot offering those or better odds? If it is then this is a good bet, if not then it is a bad bet.

Another consideration to think about is the chances that you will be beaten even if you make the hand you are drawing for. If this is a possibility then the pot odds have to be greater than the odds of just making your hand to make up for those times you are beaten.

Implied Odds
An important consideration, that you need to look at, is the implied odds that the poker table is giving you. Implied odds are the additional bets that you will collect on later betting rounds if you make your hand. This is mostly a judgment call based on what you know about your competition and how they have been playing the hand so far.

With practice and experience you will be able to estimate what the odds of winning the most from each of your hands are.

Good Luck on your poker journey!

October 08, 2008

My Big Plan

Poker OracleI am planning writing a book on poker and gambling!

The idea is simple.

First step is to look through some in-depth reviews about best-sellers. Keep the essence, and go the dregs.

I would make up a beautiful name for my works. For example, Zen and the Art of Poker would be a good choice, though it has been registered one step earlier by an anonymous poker player.

Anything you can imagine in the gaming world, you can find it in this to-be encyclopedia. Special sessions will be dedicated to poker strategy and tips. Ever-changing poker rules will take up little space due to their stubbornness?! And an extra chapter is for calculus—poker odds are always the pus-filled heel of we Achilles.

To make it attractive to both professionals and fishes, entertaining elements will score high here. Dumb Q&As will be tolerated. Amateur-type articles such as the list of differences between Baccarat and Blackjack will abound.

As for the catch, I will throw in pros and cons of cheating, the know-how of stacking poker chips (I can only offer links on Youtube due to paper's 2D limit). To be thrilled, my collections of freak poker news/stories will be the trump card.

Finally, I will contact with those slick print-on-demand publishers, like iUniverse or AuthorHouse. Of course I won't publish it, at least not with an ISBN. Current copyright law is lagging way behind in the trend of internationalization. For the time being, I will let it printed in limited edition, circulated first among my pals and relatives. It would be a superb birthday gift.

I won't tag price on it—money would be an insult to the art. To be honest, it won't surprise me it is worshiped as the bible of poker 2,000 years later.

October 07, 2008

Gravity Counts

poker twist
On the 6th floor of an apartment building, John Doe falls off the window. It's no doubt an accident. What surprises is that during the less-than-one-second dive, the man's mind goes through a ton of things with high pressures to the extent of collapse. Besides, due to some unknown reasons, his five senses becomes blurred and hallucination sets in. Holly Molly, it's going on in slow-motion!

John passes through 5th floor: the window is open; a couple of people are playing Texas Hold'em. He sees himself among them. He is sporting his usual-casual move: stacking the poker chips on and off. Entertainment is fun.

The 4th floor: it's a kitchen scene. Seems nobody is not at home while the water tap is kept on. John can't hear the sizzling sound for it's being overlapped by the Beethoven Symphony IV from the living room next-door. Coffee cups are in the sink, toaster is still warm. A nice morning to be remembered.

It appears to be a casino lobby on the 3rd floor. John stands beside the Roulette wheel, his eyes rolling tightly with the little gold ball. It's a 2-grand bet. The roaring voices around evaporates into thin air the moment it stops at slot 26, his pregnant wife's birthday.

2nd floor turns to be his gaming specialty store. He dedicates a whole shelf for equipments like Mahjong tiles and poker cards. Another one is piled up with books on poker strategy and poker rules. On the wall, posters of celebrity poker players and their autographs are everywhere.

Ground floor is the bank VIP room. The bank manager brandishes a roll of documents in front of John's face, looking helpless. The Financial newspaper on the table typed in capital letters: 1929 in 21th Century.

Pong …

The clues are not clear. The detective before the monitor rethinks his judgment.

October 06, 2008

Top 10 Worst Starting Hands in Texas Hold'em

1. 2-7
7-2 off suit is considered the worst hand in Texas Hold'em. They are the lowest two cards you can have that cannot make a straight (there's 4 cards between 2 and 7). Even if they are suited, they will make you a very low flush, and if either pairs, it's an awfully low poker hand.
Because it is the worst, some players will play it for fun and in online games, it is known as "the hammer."

2. 2-8
This is the same basic problem as above, only you've got an 8 instead of a 7. Still pretty bad for a high card. Suited or not, this is a fold'em hold'em hand.

3. Tie: 3-8 & 3-7
The 3 makes this hand able to beat the two above it, but with the 3-8 you still can't make a straight and the 3-7 still, well, just sucks.

4. 2-6
While if the board gives you a miracle flop of 3-4-5, you will have a straight, someone with a 6-7 will have a higher straight. If you get a flush, someone will probably have a higher flush. Against even 4 poker players, this hand will lose about 90% of the time. Not good odds.

5. Tie: 2-9, 3-9, & 4-9
The only thing these three hands have going for them over the hands above is the 9. If the 9 pairs, you'll have a middle pair that could still be beat by anyone holding pocket 10s, jacks, queens, kings, or aces, yet you might be fooled by a board filled with low cards into thinking you have the best hand and losing a lot of money. No straights can fill the gap between these cards, either. Beware.

6. 2-10
This hand has a legendary quality because Doyle Brunson captured two World Series of Poker Bracelets with it. But it's not a good hand -- Doyle Brunson is one of the all-time best in the game and unless you're a Texas road gambler who's logged thousands of hours at the poker table, you shouldn't try and win with the Doyle Brunson.

7. 5-9
Another hand people play because it's fun is the old 9 to 5, the "Dolly Parton." If you're playing to win, it's not a good idea to play hands because they have a funny name. That may be how you pick the winning horse in a race, but poker's a marathon, not a sprint, and over the long term there's no doubt this hand is a statistical loser.

8. Tie: 4-7, 4-8, 5-8, 3-6...
All these hands will rarely win, especially unsuited. Toss 'em. Just toss'em. Yes, even in the little blind. If you see two low cards in the hole, unless you're in the big blind and you can see the flop for free, fold.

9. Face card + low card, unsuited
One of the most common mistakes I see beginners make is that when they see any paint in their hand, they play it. J-2, Q-3, K-4 whatever -- and most of these hands are losers. They're junk that may win a few pots, but more often will lose you huge cash when you find the other poker player has a higher kicker and the winning hand.

10. Ace + low card, unsuited
This is another common beginner mistake, playing any ace. Again, it may win occasionally, and heads-up it's a fine hand, but at a table of 4 or more, this hand shouldn't be played if there's a raise in front of you. You're going to be outkicked a lot with Ace-little, and it's going to feel like a kick in the junk when the other player shows their higher ace.