Every good poker room features a forum where you can communicate with professional players and learn about the winning strategies. Many sites also offer poker winning strategies and bankroll building guides. One of the most important strategies is that every time you play and you can see your opponent’s card you will win.

Secondly, every time your opponent plays differently than the way he used to play and sees your card, you gain. This theory is the basis of many poker strategies. Slow playing and bluffing are other strategies to make your opponents to play differently.

The odds of winning and pot odds is another great concept in poker strategy. By inducing different deceptive methods, players can make their opponents play differently. Bluffing is a deceptive technique, which forces the opponents to fold even if they have the superior hand. Slow bluffing is another deceptive technique that allows betting weakly with a strong holding. Another important thing is the positioning in which players are seated around the table and play the game.

The players in the first positions need stronger hands than players in the last positions. If there are five opponents, for example, then the chances of at least one of your opponents having a better hand than you have are good. Every poker room has its own strategies. Some of the most popular poker rooms are Titan Poker, Poker CD, Pacific Poker, Paradise poker, ultimate bet, Everest poker, sports book poker, Paradise poker, Party poker, carbon poker, full tilt poker and Tony G poker, slots poker.

Raising the bet is another way to win a poker game like a blackjack. By raising the bet, you can increase your chances of getting a free card, bluffing, gaining information and driving out even the worse of hands. There will also be more money in the jackpot. Hand reading is also a great strategy to make possible guesses about the cards an opponent holds. The table’s image is a perception of opponents play.

Hampton Police Bust Three Business For Illegal Gambling – WTKR Your NewsChannel 3
Supporting only eCOGRA sealed online casino. Visit casino flash where no download and no deposit is required or choose one of online slots casino games. WAVY-TV Hampton Police Bust Three Business For Illegal GamblingWTKR Your NewsChannel 3, VAOn April 3 just before midnight the Hampton Police Division executed three search warrants on three different business in connection with [...]Click here to play

Texas Hold’em comes to Ladbrokes.it
Ladbrokes are launching a new online poker service for their Italian customers as part of the expansion of Ladbrokes.it ^Ladbrokes have announced an expansion of their Italian sportsbetting website
they are adding online poker later this month and bingo and more casino games in the near future ^Mary Ashton^^New online Texas Hold’em service for Italian players^Italian sportsbetting gets bigger

Texas Hold’em comes to Ladbrokes.it
Ladbrokes are launching a new online poker service for their Italian customers as part of the expansion of Ladbrokes.it ^Ladbrokes have announced an expansion of their Italian sportsbetting website
they are adding online poker later this month and bingo and more casino games in the near future ^Mary Ashton^^New online Texas Hold’em service for Italian players^Italian sportsbetting gets bigger

888 Pacific Poker Welcomes Shane Warne
Australian sports star, Shane Warne, has joined 888 as captain of the Australian poker team. Read the full story at http://www.classicasinos.com/news/PokerNews/ns_13022008_36.html

Online Poker Crosses Into The Real World
Online poker players to meet in the flesh. Read the full story at http://www.classicasinos.com/news/PokerNews/ns_25082009_294.html

The Brink of Fantasy Football History
I’m not sure how it’s happened, but it has. Otis, G-Rob and The Luckbox (that’s me) are all above .500 ten weeks into the fantasy football season and all have a legitimate shot to make the playoffs. Doesn’t sound like a big deal? Well, let’s take a look back at history. In the past 5 seasons, our three teams have a collective 4 playoff appearances and no Super Bowl crowns. We have a collective record of 89-104-3. We have a total of 5 winning seasons among us. Of course, Otis does a lot to bring that total down. All I’ll say about his career fantasy football record is that his only winning season is the year we played XFL Fantasy Football. I’m serious. He won the Super Bowl. But this year, the three of us are bunched at the top of the Carolina Division. I’m at 8-2 and Otis and G-Rob are both at 6-4. If the playoffs started this week, G-Rob and I would both be in the playoffs. Otis trails G-Rob by just two points for the final playoff spot and both of them trail the 3rd place team by a game. Of course, there’s still 4 regular season weeks left for something to go wrong. The only thing guaranteed is that at least one of us will be in the playoffs this year. Which sure beats last year when we were a combined 15-26-1!

The Challenge!
On December 1st, 2005, I wrote this: I haven’t discussed this with Otis or G-Rob, but that’s okay. They’re just going to have to deal with my bravado whether they like it or not. Up For Poker is issuing a challenge to any other threesome in a last-longer for the WPBT Winter Classic. Here’s how I figure it will work: 1) Final results of the three entrants will be added together, lowest total wins. 2) Each member of each team will throw in $5 and the winning team will split the last-longer prize pool. (All teams are playing against all teams and the winning team will win the total prize pool.) So find your team, and leave it in the comments. I’ll bring a list to Vegas and you all can hand over your money. After all, you think anyone can beat the combination of Otis’ skill, G-Rob’s agression and my luck? Well, guess what? I still haven’t discussed this with Otis or G-Rob, but it’s on again. The Up For Poker crew is challenging you. Same rules. Same prizes. (FYI: Comments currently require approval while I work out some spam issues, so you won’t see your comment right away.)

South Carolina poker call to action
I am naturally suspicious of people who use phrases like “call to action.” It’s one of those marketeer phrases that makes me cringe. That said, if you are a South Carolina poker player or one who travels here to play in some of the best home games around, you should be interested in this. Moreover, if you live in Greenville, South Carolina and don’t join me on Monday night, you don’t care about poker and your right to play it. Monday March 30 at 5:30pm, South Carolina Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell will be holding two public hearings on a bill that would legalize home poker games and also expand charity gaming (including charity poker tournaments) in South Carolina. I will be there and you should be, too. Here’s why. Every Monday night I play in the best home game I’ve ever known. The action is great, the location is perfect, and the players are great people. The game has been running for years and shows no signs of dying off. There are games like it all over the state–friendly folks who just want to play cards in a safe environment. Under South Carolina law, local law enforcement could come in at any time and cite every player for violating the state’s gaming law. That we’ve never been raided is no great comfort. Even though this is a friendly game where the only rake goes to pay for drinks and snacks, it is still illegal. And if you think the local constabulary won’t bust a game of this sort, you are sadly mistaken. Last month I covered the trial of five people who were playing in a $20 max-buy no-limit hold’em game in Mt. Pleasant. The max rake on the game was 50 cents and the house owner, according to several people who testified, stopped taking rake the moment he had enough to cover the pizza and beer. The players were put on trial and, despite the magistrate’s obvious distaste for the law, convicted. [See the April issue of Bluff Magazine for my article on the trial.] A few years back, I held what was then my annual Bradoween poker tournament. It was not a huge affair. We had 43 people from around the country in town and crowded into my small house. The buy-in was insignificant and I charged no juice. People from other states laughed at me when I took the buy-in cash to my neighbor’s house and left it there. They laughed harder when I programmed my police scanner to listen for a raid and put a couple friends outside to watch the door. If I had watched myself that day, I might have laughed, too. It was ridiculous. It was a game among friends that wasn’t even charging for the BBQ and sweet tea. Still, if the raid on a similar game in Greer (a nearby suburb) a couple months before was any indication, I stood an uncomfortable chance of getting busted. It had happened to one of my friends just weeks before. He’d been playing in a similar game and had been handcuffed in front of his wife and kids. To people in less-antiquated states, this probably seems inconceivable. The simple fact i this: playing any game with cards or dice in South Carolina (read: Monopoly, bridge, poker, etc) is illegal. President Pro Tempore Glenn F. McConnell, a Republican from Charleston County, wants to change that. His bill would decriminalize social gambling (including poker) in a private homes where no rake is taken. It would also allow for charity poker tournaments for churches and charities like the Lions and Elks Clubs. Opponents of the bill suggest that opening the door to kitchen table poker is the equivalent of opening up the state border to the likes of MGM and Harrah’s casinos. Nothing could be farther from the truth. You can read the full text of the bill HERE. The language is specific, more restrictive than even I would like, and would in no way allow for casinos in the Palmetto State. All of the above is to say nothing of the rampant hypocrisy surrounding the debate. South Carolina is a lottery state. The South Carolina Education Lottery program is lauded by many of the same people who fight against decriminalizing home poker games. It’s nearly impossible to go to a convenience store or turn on a TV without seeing an ad for South Carolina scratch-off tickets or Powerball jackpots. Make no mistake: South Carolina is, in fact, a gambling state, as long as the state is taking the rake. McConnell held a hearing on his bill in Charleston last week. If news reports are to be believed, the pro-poker crowd outnumbered the anti-poker folks by 20-1. The Greenville hearing could be a lot different. The Upstate of South Carolina is a great deal more conservative than the Midlands and Low Country. In the past, I’ve seen giant protests over similar issues. Even the legislators are worried about bringing the issue to Greenville. Said Senator Robert Ford to Charleston poker players, “Y’all get a couple of buses. I’m always afraid of Greenville on these kinds of issues.” It’s my hope that we won’t need Charleston poker players to defend our rights to play in Greenville. I know there are hundreds of poker enthusiasts in the Upstate who care about this issue. The question is, do you care enough to show your support in public? You don’t have to speak. You don’t even have to give your name. You only have to show up. It won’t take but a couple hours out of your day. I know poker is a solitary pursuit, but the battle to legalize it is not. Don’t be the kind of player who complains but does nothing to remedy the situation. If you don’t show up, don’t complain about the law. When you finally have Republicans and Democrats agreeing something needs to be done about the antiquated South Carolina gambling laws, you know it’s time to give just a little bit of yourself. So, you coming? Monday, March 30th 5:30-7:30 pm Greenville County Council Chambers 301 University Ridge Greenville, SC 29601 The South Carolina Poker Players Alliance is trying to get a good idea on who might come. If you’d like to RSVP for the hearing, you can do so HERE. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment here or send them to my e-mail address: rapideyereality — @ — gmail dot com

Party Like It’s 1994
When I met the woman who would later become my wife, I was just 19 years old. I had a long, long ponytail. I delivered pizza. In 1994 I was thin, carefree, and spent more time planning my next road trip than with silly “conventional” distractions like rent, gas, and cable TV. I saw the Grateful Dead at Soldier Field that year. I saw Phish in Cincinnati and Louisville. I crashed a Phish show on my 20th birthday way up in Bethlehem, PA. I ended that year with the same wife-to-be and two of my closest friends, by spending New Year’s Eve in Amsterdam. Those were heady days my friends and, now, if it’s possible to have a mid-life crisis at 34, welcome to it’s heart. Maybe it starts with Phish. Could be Bonnaroo. It may be that having my brother living so much closer has a mutual bad influence. We’ve already caught the start of the Dead tour (as posted below) and now here’s a rundown of the summer to be : May 31 Phish@Fenway Boston, MA My friend “Uncle Ted” scored the tickets up in the rightfield grandstand. My brother and I are flying up that morning. We get in at 11:30. We leave Boston at 5:00AM Monday. It’s a whilwind, what Timmy calls a “Rockstar Vacation”. We’re just going to RAWK! Should make for a pretty interesting return flight in any event. June 9 Phish@Asheville Civic Center Asheville, NC Hard tickets to score but I paid the scalpers. This will bring about some scorn in the -Head community. I absolutely do not care. Otis, Pauly, and my wife will be there too. Should be silly since it’s the smallest venue on the Phish tour this year. This is an old-school venue. I plan to act in a very stupid manner. As soon as the show ends my wife and I will hop in the fully-loaded car and head to Charlotte for a few hours sleep before hooking up with my brother, his wife, and “Uncle Ted”. We’ll be getting an RV. June 10 Phish@Thompson-Boling Arena Knoxville, TN We’ll take that RV 4 hours down I-40 to Knoxville and hook up with a half-dozen more friends. We’ve got 12 seats for this one. Hopefully the Joker and TD will be there. Some other friends, both new and old will be using some of the 12 tickets my brother and I scored (all at face value) through various means. My seats are fantastic. Lower level, Pageside. After the show we’ll load up the RV and hit a hotel just 6 miles away. This will be the last clean bathroom for days. June 11-14 Bonnaroo Manchester, TN This is my fourth Bonnaroo. B and I went in 2002, 2004 and 2007. My brother and his wife will be with us for the third time. Uncle Ted, Matt, and Julie-Steakdoses are back for a second time. It’s awesome for a long list of reasons but my favorite are : Phish is playing both Friday and Sunday nights. Plus, The Beastie Boys. David Byrne Bruce Sprinsteen and the E Street Band Snoopy Dog etc. etc, etc, I can’t wait. August 15 Phish@Merriweather Post Pavillion Columbia, MD I threw this in for good measure. I scored 4 tickets on the Fishman side in the lottery. My wife, my brother, sister-in-accodance-with-law, and I will have fun. You know, because its the Phishes. Now here are my concerns, I’m not 19. I’m older, fatter, and more pampered. I do have actual responsibilities. And kids. I played in a decent frolf tournament Sunday and played well. Today my back and legs have been extremely sore. That makes sense. I competed for a full 11 hours. You know, competed. At standing, walking slowly, and throwning a frisbee. Yikes. If that hurts now, I’m more than a little worried about the stamina required for a summer of ’94. We’ll see how it goes.

Dead Again
(Posters Warning : CJ told me this blog now has a more diverse focus. I still plan to stick to gambling in some sense. Because I am a problem gambler, this still leaves an immense range of topics about which I can, and will, post. I just felt like writing again.) I saw a wookie bounce off the hoods of three cars. He streaked past me, with clumped hair flapping and woozy knees wobbling, presumably running FROM something that only he could see. With wookies there’s an equal probability that he’s running from : A) The Law. B) His Past. C) His Imagination D) Soap. He’d just run down our aisle when he darted between cars, bouncing off one, into another fender, then off a hood. I thought he got away. I later heard he was slammed down by three cops. For those of you playing at home, that’s “A”. Now, generally I like to get all settled in before wookie watching, but since this is the first Dead tour in years I was prepared for anything. My wife, brother and I got to Greensboro at least 3.5 hours before showtime. Presumably enough time to either drink a dozen beers or wait once in the porta-potty line. The good news is that most of the salesmen were pretty savvy. That’s unusual for a wook. The two most active undercover cops were a big burly guy in a yellow shirt that said “Dead” and another guy, also burly, but at least 6 foot 6 with a crew cut and a blue ‘do rag. I saw douche-rag guy hit up one pipe vendor near our car. Pipe vendor was holding his glass in a black case and strolling down our lane when douche grabs a random pipe and whips out a wad of cash. My car was blasting tunes at the time and I couldn’t hear everything said but I saw douche-rag point several times to the “bowl” portion of this young wooks glass. Wook, again, was savvy. The only part of the conversation I actually heard was wook telling cop, “These are for tobacco man. I could hook you up with THAT if you want.” Cop grabbed his money back from the wook, put the glass back, and stormed away without a word. That’s the gamble that is the Dead lot these days. I remember back in the day, we’d see more of everything than you can imagine ( I mean wow, really, everything) and the cops did nothing. It used to kinda freak me out the way cops would just ignore all the obvious, illegal activity at a GRATEFUL DEAD show. Maybe Jerry was responsible for greasing the locals, but the cops ain’t cool these days and they haven’t been for quite some time. Granted, like the wookies themselves, some people deserve what they get. One kid, a girl who I’d say was about 17, came by our car holding a ticket in her hand. She showed it to me….busted for drinking in the lot. Now, here’s where she got super-extra-mega-dumb. Her girlfriend was in the process of getting busted by yellowshirt guy (who again, could have just worn the uniform for all the subtlety he brought to undercover work) and our kid goes up to give her friend a hug. During the bust. While holding an open beer. Sigh. These are tomorrow’s leaders. So once inside we take totally excellent floor seats just to by the soundboard (Philside) and I continue the now standing bet I have with Pauly. We each pick 3 songs for 1st set opener. 3 more for second set. 3 more for encore. I took $20 off him when Phish opened with Fluffhead at Hampton. We pushed all three for the dead. Here’s the setlist for those who care : Set 1 Music Never Stopped Jack Straw> Estimated Prophet > He’s Gone > Touch of Gray I Need a Miracle > Truckin’> Miracle Set 2 Shakedown Street All Aong The Watchtower Caution Jam Drums Space Cosmic Charlie New Potato Caboose Help on the Way > Slipknot! > Franklin’s Tower Donor Rap Encore: Samson and Delilah Some notes : I love Music Never Stopped but am unable to NOT hear Donna scream OHHHH YEAH at crucial parts of the song. I’m not sure what that means. I’ve never actually SEEN Donna but that’s what years of bootleg cassettes will do for a man. My brother and I really, really, really, really, really, wanted to see Estimated Prophet simply because we like screaming AH NA NA NA NA along with Bobby Weir. We’re amused by simple things. He’s Gone was written long before Jerry died but when you’re touring without him you do know the audience assumes it’s ABOUT him now….right? Miracle was the highlight of the first set. I got stuck in the beer line during Touch of Grey and missed part. In fact, I missed so much that I missed Truckin’. I was so oblivious to it that I PICKED Truckin’ as one of my 3 second set openers with Pauly. It was a dumb bet. I enjoy the song Shakedown Street very much. I also Enjoy All Along the Watchtower and Warren Haynes really shredded it up on this one. Caution was awesome and this is the best thing about having Warren play with the band. He can actually sing the blues. Not the douchey Bobby Red Rooster blues but the good ol’ Pigpen brand. If you get to see the Dead this year, hope that they play this song. During Cosmic Charlie my wife said, “you know the DEAD never played this but all the after-bands (Phil, Ratdog, the Dead) play it all the time. I wonder why.” Then they played New Potato Caboose. Wow. I don’t even own a bootleg version of this soon. I couldn’t remember the name until it was half-over. I do remember that “touching makes the flesh cry out loud.” That counts for something. The band started the Help>Slip>Frank at 11:30. That’s 4 hours in. My brother and I assumed all day, it being Easter and all, that we’d see either Promised Land (my guess) or Greatest Story Ever Told (his). Samson and Delilah is what we got. C’est la vie. This is the kind of crap I blog about now. It did contain some gambling. That counts.

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Tink, F%$#!
It’s the first lesson I taught my wife when she joined me for a round on the frolf course. She’d never seen disc golf before so I figured I’d start easy. **TINK** “F%$#!!!” It’s the sound of a disc hitting the basket, but not staying in, and the subsequent reaction of the player. It only took about 5 minutes before we heard it happen the first time to a player in a group behind us. It’s been more than a year since I’ve been on the disc golf course, and it felt good to be back! The course in E-Vegas is amazing. All 18 holes have nice concrete tee pads and pictures of the hole at each tee. In fact, a number of the longer holes have alternate tee pads for women, amateurs and G-Rob. There’s a lot to like about the set-up of the course, too. There are mandatory openings through which you must throw the discs. There are lots of places where a bad throw could land you out of bounds or in the water. And the holes offer lots of opportunities for a variety of shots. It’s a longer course than Timmons Park back in Greenville, but it also doesn’t have as many Death Star trench-like shots either. On this day, I managed just one birdie (despite what the course suggests, regular frolfers consider all holes to be a Par 3). But I was happy with how I threw considering it had been so long since I was on a course. And I can’t wait to get back out and do it again! Plus, this gives the guys from G-Vegas just one more reason to visit. 1) Free place to stay. 2) Casino boat with poker room. 3) Disc golf course. 4) And for Bad Blood… some adult establishments.