Ultimate Poker Tournament: WSOP

The World Series of Poker is without a doubt the biggest and most prestigious poker tournament in the world. The WSOP, as it is known, gathers the best poker players in the world each year to battle each other until only one is declared champion and winner of millions of dollars—the biggest prize, and honor, in the poker world.

Poker tournament is a series of structured competitions where players compete against each other to accumulate all the poker chips in play. In "normal" casino games, each hand is unrelated to any other. Players can quit whenever they want. In tournaments, players can not quit and cash out their chips. Play continues until there is a winner.

There are different types of poker tournaments: "Elimination" or "freeze out" tournaments are the most common type. In this structure all players begin with the same amount of poker chips, and play continues until one player has accumulated all the chips. As players are eliminated, the active players are re-seated at fewer and fewer tables. While the winner of the tournament is the poker player who accumulates all the chips, the payout structure rewards several players. For example, if ninety-five players start a tournament, commonly the "final table" of nine players would receive prize money—with eighth getting a larger prize than ninth, seventh getting more than eighth, etc.

Baccarat Tips

(1) There are normally eight decks of cards in a game of Baccarat. You have a better advantage of winning through the banker's hand if the game is with lesser number of card decks.

(2) Baccarat offers three options for betting-Banker's hand, player's hand, and tie. Banker's and player's hand offer almost similar house edge and betting on either can bring similar winnings.

(3) Occurrence of a tie in a game of baccarat is very remote. However, you get back your initial bet amounts in case of a tie. However, if any poker player bets on a tie, you cannot get back your bet amount.

(4) Betting on a tie as the outcome of a baccarat game is very rare as house odds for a tie are as high as 14%. Hence, if you bet on a tie as the result, and if it is so, you have to pay 14% of your winnings to the casino.

(5) House edge for the banker's hand is 1.09% and casinos charge an extra 5% as taxes or commissions for winnings on this hand. Even then, you stand to gain by betting on the banker's hand as the outcome of this casino game.

(6) House edge for the player's hand is 1.24%. Hence, you pay the equivalent percentage of your winnings from the player's hand to the casino.

(7) There is no set pattern for the outcomes of any baccarat game. Baccarat is a game of chance and you cannot bet on any eventuality as the sure outcome of the next round of play.

(8) Have a clear and through understanding and knowledge of the game rules of Baccarat to be aware of any mistakes by any player or dealer in a game.

(9) Dealer burns that many cards as the number that appears on the face up card on the baccarat poker table.

(10) Player receives the first and third dealt cards while banker receives the second and fourth dealt cards.

(11) You take only the last of the two-digit card totals. If total of your cards is 12, it is only two.

(12) If the total of the initially dealt cards is eight or nine, the player or the banker automatically wins and it is a natural hand. This becomes a tie situation only if two hands have the similar occurrence.

(13) Only a natural nine can beat a natural eight hand.

(14) You need to draw if your card total is less than six or seven.

(15) Bank always draws on a total from zero to two. Card total of three makes the bank draw only if the player draws a third card of eight. If the player's third card is an eight, nine or an Ace, Banker can draw on card total of four.

(16) A third card between four and seven with the player can help the bank draw on a total of five. Bank stands on a total of six if player has a third card of either six or seven only.

(17) Bank always stands on a total of seven.

Play Blackjack Step by Step

Starting out: If you are new to blackjack, play online, casinos offer a practice mode with autoplay to assist you. Play until you have the hang of it so that you don't lose money foolishly.

Bankroll: Always predetermine your Bankroll prior to playing so that you are not spending money you shouldn't be in the heat of the moment when you just feel like the next hand could be "lucky".

Choosing a Table: Choose a poker table where the maximum bet is not higher than 5% of your bankroll, that way you will lose less and be able to enjoy a great deal more game time, rather than playing one or two hands and being done.

Basic Strategy: Memorise it, apply it and stick to it no matter what … This is probably the most important blackjack tip we can give you, and if you will only pay attention to one of these, this is it!

Think 21: The aim of blackjack is to get as close to 21 as possible, don't try to copy or beat the dealer, you will bust more often than you win.

Insurance is for cars and card counters: You can't card count online, so just forget that the option of insurance even exists.

Split: pairs of Aces and 8's, but DO NOT do this on any face cards or 10's.

Know when to hit and stand: Hit hard until you reach 17 or more, stand on 17 or more and hit soft 18 if the dealer has 10.

Watch the values: If the dealer holds 7 or higher, play up until 17 or higher. Against dealers, 4, 5 or 6 double with 9 and play soft hands of 13-17. Double your 10 against dealer's 9 or lower and double with any hand of 11.

Variation is key: Vary your betting amounts according to your results, increase them if you are winning and decrease them if you are losing. This is common sense that is often forgotten in the excitement of this casino game.

Top 10 Interesting Blackjack Facts

1. There is great dispute amongst the Italians and French as to who first invented the game of blackjack, although most think it to be the French.

2. The game was originally called vingt-et-un (French meaning 21).

3. It is well documented fact that Napoleon loved the game of 21 and played it when he had time to kill on his exile in Elba.

4. The name Blackjack came about due to a variation in the rules of the original game where payouts were given if a player held the black Jack of Spades.

5. Blackjack was banned in the US at the turn of the 19th century and went "underground" until 1939 when the state of Nevada removed its bans as it gave birth to Las Vegas.

6. In the early 60's Edward O. Thorp wrote a book entitled "Beat the dealer" detailing the mathematical workings of this casino game and is known as the father of card counting.

7. The publishing of Thorp's book lead to increased player attendance and winnings at casinos. The casinos then altered some of the standard rules, bringing about new variations of standard games.

8. Al Franesco was the inventor of blackjack team play, earning him and his team millions of dollars and resulting in the formation of many famous card counting teams over the years including the famous MIT card counting team document in the movie "21".

9. The seats positioned around a dealer at the poker table in blackjack are called "bases", and referred to as "first, second or third base", however these are the only baseball terms that appear in the game.

10. There is a Blackjack Hall of fame. It was launched in 2002 and honours blackjack experts, authors, and professional poker players who have made significant contributions to the game.

Play Baccarat with Maths

Baccarat is one of the simplest games in casino. And what matters most in this casino game is the betting method.

I am not saying that they are the lucrative way or the right way to play, but players use these 2 kinds of betting systems the most—progressive betting system and Fibonacci betting system. Today I'd like to elaborate on the former one.

Here being progressive means throwing out poker chips with a predefined formula, an ever-increasing upper slope. Because, common sense says: if you want to win big, you need to bet big. Meanwhile, you just can't bet big in a random way. Right? Anyway, that's the reason why progressive betting system is applied in a large scale.

And here is a sequence often used in the system. For instance, you have in your pocket $10, the whirl goes this way: 10 20 40 80 160 320 640 1280 2560, so on and so forth.

Attention! Take this for a note: the basic principle behind the winning poker strategy is try to lose as little as possible while win big. While people usually just focus on how to avoid losing money when they sit at the poker table. They are probally right about keeping their butt on the chair but they may not enjoy the true essence of gaming.

Well, back to the game and take a good look at the number sequence. Let's say, if the luck is against you, with a straight loss, you just can't turn back, for all you need to do is throw your chips out again and win the next round. Just win once, and you can gain all your previous losses back. While you stop at that moment and calculate your "jackpot" You can win? Only 10 dollars. In retrospect, it just isn't worth the effort and sometimes if you can't throw the bad-luck monkey off your back, it may drag you too deep to a dangerous marsh…

For a novice of Baccarat who doesn't have a large bankroll, you may probably be using this system right now. Though I recommend you adopt the famous Fibonacci betting system, which I may explain in my later articles. Hay, don't get mad or something. I am not judging. After all, for some people, not losing equals winning! Haha …

Roulette—the most charming casino game

It's the "chef-d'oeuvre" in the casino hall. Fortunes are lost and won at the spin of a wheel and the game's reputation is sealed. Since the total of all numbers on the wheel is 666, Roulette is jokingly coined as the game of the devil. And it undeniably has a hold on people who are eager to experience the real thrill of the casino game.

The following are something you may not know about Roulette.

1, essentially there are two versions of Roulette, with different wheel layout. In European Roulette the wheel has 37 slots, comprising of numbers 1-36 and zero. American Roulette has 38 slots, an extra slot, for the double-zero.

2, a minimum of one player is required, with a maximum of eight being accepted at each table. Every player is allocated one colour of chips (to avoid bets being confused).

3, be careful about late betting and misplaced chips. If you bet after the point the dealer has said he is no longer taking bets, your bet will be void. With so many chips on the table, it is inevitable that some will be knocked and end up moving to numbers they are never intended for. While misplaced bets tend to be the biggest source of disputes, by playing online casino you don't need to worry about that any more.