Educating Yourself Is Key to Enjoying Internet Gambling

Online gambling has taken the entire world by storm. Millions of people all over the world are having fun and trying their luck at online slots, bingo, roulette, blackjack, and poker, and in some countries online sports betting is extremely popular too. Online betting has some advantages over live gambling. For one thing, there are plenty of people who simply don't live close enough to a casino to travel there very much, if at all. Plus, online wagering can take place 24/7, and you can play from the comfort of your own home, in your favorite chair, with your dog next to you as your wingman.

While some online casinos offer sports betting, others don't, and laws differ about where this is legal, so it's a good idea to read up on the legality of online sports betting where you live before signing up. That said, if you want to participate in the exciting world of internet sports betting, you owe it to yourself to get educated before you put down any real money. Find out which casinos offer what types of bets, and learn all you can about spreads, handicapping, and how to hedge bets with different establishments offering different odds. Making those wagers, and especially winning, is a lot more fun when you feel like you know what you're doing.

As for other casino online games, you should find out which games offer the lowest house edges, so you can play the games where you have the best chances of winning. Educate yourself on various casinos' payout percentages, and whether their payouts are independently audited. This information is displayed on the website of any reputable web casino. In general, the games with the lowest house edges include craps, baccarat, poker, and blackjack. The "pass" bet on a come-out roll in craps has a house edge of just 1.4%, for example, and with baccarat, the house edge on "banker" bets is just 1.06%! On the other hand, "tie" bets at the baccarat table have a house edge of 14%, so you should avoid those. It's easy to find out which games and which bets have the lowest house edges, and you should do so before putting any money down.

Another thing you should consider when playing at online casinos is their bonuses. Almost all of them offer nice sign-up bonuses, but there are specific rules as to which bets count toward being able to cash out your bonus, and which don't. For example, most don't allow you to hedge bets (for example by betting on black and red in roulette) as part of your play toward cashing out a bonus. Also check to see which casinos offer loyalty bonuses. These are becoming more common as a way of competing with the generous sign-up bonuses offered by so many.

There's no question that having your own online casino guru can make a big difference in how much enjoyment you get from playing online. Take your time and compare sites before committing to any, and take advantage of free play opportunities so you can get an idea for the pace of the various games and determine which games you enjoy most. Learning a bit about where your best bets are and practicing the games can really pay of in terms of how much you enjoy gambling online.

Read more »

Why The Best Online Poker Players Make Decisions At Random

The numerous randomized elements of poker online are a huge part what makes the game so strategically complicated.

We will never know with 100% certainty what cards our opponents have, or what cards are going to be dealt on the flop, turn and river. So why in the world might anybody want to add extra randomized elements to the game?

Believe it or not, the exceptional online poker players in the world make a few choices at random-nearly like rolling dice to see how many squares you get to move in Monopoly.

Before going into how-and why-they do it, I need to explain frequency-primarily based decision-making.

Optimal frequencies (usually) require a mixed strategy

When constructing an 'optimal' real money poker strategy, we try to make each choice at a positive frequency (e.g. you must call with at least 33% of the hands in your range when you're getting 2-to-1 pot odds).

In certain scenarios, it is most desirable to choose different actions with the exact identical hand at differing frequencies.

Why might we want to try this?

Believe which you are playing poker online in opposition to opponents, participant A and participant B, in a 3-surpassed cash sport.

Participant A always makes the identical choice with all combinations of a specific hand. By way of comparison, participant B uses a 'mixed strategy', wherein she can now and again blend up her selections with special combos of the same hand at certain frequencies.

Players that rent an effective combined method are difficult to overcome because we can't make as many definitive assumptions about their tiers.

For example, you open from the button and player A is in the big blind with A♠Q♦. AQo is some distance robust enough to a few-bet for price against a button open, so participant A will always 3-Bet it.

Participant B might method the spot in another way. she will still try to extract value with AQo a massive majority of the time-say 85%-but will also call the improve at some frequency-the remaining 15%.

we can completely eliminate AQo from player A's variety whenever he calls our open. This information permits us to put extra pressure on him while the flop is something like A-Q-2 or ok-J-T. participant B's blended strategy helps protect her range on such boards.

Read more »

Prepare Yourself For Poker Success On The Table

In the article series. we looked at the key steps you should take in order to prime yourself for poker success while you are off the table. In this serious article we shall explore the other side of that coin, and take a look at what you need to be doing at the table. We will not be looking at in depth poker strategy in this article, but rather taking a general look at ways to achieve optimal success on the virtual felt.

Why is poker considered a game of skill rather than a game of luck? Answer - Edges. Poker is a game of skill edges. If a good player and a bad player sit down to battle it out in a game of poker, over a large enough sample of hands, the good player will emerge victorious every single time. So why do good players sometimes lose money to bad players? Answer - Variance. Poker is a high variance game where even the strongest players rarely have a huge edge on the field in the short term. The smaller the edge, the longer it takes to get a large enough sample in to overcome the variance and see your true win-rate.

This brings us to the golden rule of poker, and any form of investment for that matter; use good bankroll management (brm). If your bankroll is not big enough to overcome the variance vs your opposition at the stakes you are playing you run the risk of busting your bankroll before your edge has the chance to shine through. The worse your brm, the more you are relying on variance (luck) rather than skill in order to win. You can control your skill level, you cannot control your luck level therefore any serious professional poker player should use good brm in and plant his destiny firmly into his own hands. Don't rely on to the poker gods to win, aim to become a poker god. See the image below for suggested brm by game type.

Read more »