Poker Slums

Archive for August, 2009

Gambling and online poker has been seen as such a bad thing to do for many years now. It is not allowed in so many countries around the world but what is the real reason? What is so bad about the game and why are people so against it, let's take a quick look.

Personally I do not really gamble myself in any form whatsoever as I believe I worked much to hard for my money to risk throwing it away, but there are a lot of people that do gamble and I do not think that making the game illegal is something that should happen. There are so many positives that can come out of gambling.

Firstly and the most crucial aspect is actually is gambling is another sector, people rely on this sector to pay their wages and if it went hundreds of people would become unemployed and homeless. Just take a look at what happened in Russia recently for instance, The government has ordered the closure of all casinos and gambling halls Wednesday, consigning gambling to four special zones in far-flung regions in Russia, some of them several thousands of miles and half-a-dozen time zones away from Moscow. This has really hurt the economy and made thousands of people jobless.

Secondly almost every industry uses gambling to make money, but they do it in a more sneaky way. I mean what do you think you are doing when you ring in to enter into a quiz on a Saturday night? This is probably one of the craziest forms of gambling, I mean the quiz probably asks the easiest question ever, that everyone knows the answer too. Such as "What colour is the ocean? Then a vast amount of people ring the premium rate phone number which costs around £2.50 for the call, when you know that it is very unlikely you will win the main prize.

For great games of party poker and absolute poker

There is a big negative factor in the gambling industry at the moment, its nearly impossible to talk about it publically. The whole gambling sector has been pushed to the underground.

Whenever you tell people that you go to visit the casino or start playing online poker they look at you in a funny sort of way like you have done something wrong or you have obsessive behaviour.

All to be truthful all of this bad feeling towards gamblers has been created by the media. You can really tell just how much the media and such are trying to ignore gambling, I mean even submiting a gambling related press release wont get you far because noone will accept it.

But what I just dont understand is why the lottery is allowed to be promoted all over the globe? Why is there no law against this? What I am trying to say is that the lottery is probably one of the worst types of gambling that you can get. At least with gambling games such as poker and blackjack at least it takes some skill. But the lottery is something that is very much different its just about luck and picking the correct numbers.

But still the lottery is published all over TV channels all over the internet and newspapers and nothing seems to be wrong with that. It really does make you question the reasons why, is it simply because the lottery is run by the government and they are allowed to do anything they wish.

I definatley think that gambling should be a game that anyone can enjoy (age permitting), even when kids visit amusement or theme parks they are made to gamble with their money to win things such as sweets or teddies in the machines, so why should poker be any different?

For great games of party poker and PKR poker

The fans at PNC Park will be treated to a game between the Chicago Cubs and the Pittsburgh Pirates when they take their seats on Monday. Get your free pick here.

Righthander Rich Harden will take the mound for the Cubs to start this game. Harden is 4-4 this season with a 5.10 ERA.

Starting this game for the Pirates will be Zach Duke. The lefthander has a 3.09 ERA to go along with a 8-five record this season.

Oddsmakers currently have the Pirates listed as 105-moneyline favorites versus the Cubs, while the game’s total has not yet been posted.

The Cubs lost to the White Sox 6-0 as a -110 favorite on Sunday. The six runs scored fell UNDER the posted over/under total (9).

Carlos Zambrano allowed four earned runs on nine hits in 5 1-3 innings for the Cubs.

The Pirates lost to Kansas City 3-2 as a +140 underdog on Sunday. The five runs scored fell UNDER the posted under total (7.5). Free picks

Adam LaRoche was 3-4 with a run scored for the Pirates and Charlie Morton gave up three runs on seven hits in five innings.

Present Run:
Chicago has lost 2 straight games.

Team records:
Chicago: 35-37 SU
Pittsburgh: 35-40 SU

Chicago most recently:
When playing on Monday are 6-4
Before playing Pittsburgh are 6-4
After playing Chi White Sox are 5-5
After a loss are 3-7

Pittsburgh most recently:
When playing on Monday are 2-8
Before playing Chi Cubs are 4-6
After playing Kansas City are 3-7
After a loss are 4-6

A few trends to consider:
Chi Cubs are 7-One SU in their last 8 games when playing Pittsburgh
The total has gone OVER in 8 of Chi Cubs’s last 10 games when playing on the road against Pittsburgh
Chi Cubs are 7-2 SU in their last 9 games when playing on the road against Pittsburgh
The total has gone UNDER in 16 of Chi Cubs’s last 22 games on the road
The total has gone UNDER in 6 of Pittsburgh’s last 7 games
The total has gone UNDER in 6 of Pittsburgh’s last 7 games at home
Pittsburgh is 4-1 SU in its last 5 games at home
Pittsburgh is 4-1 SU in its last 5 games

Click here for more information on claiming your free nfl picks.

With all of the exaggerations in the media today with the “Guaranteed Wins of the Year” or the “10 Star Locks of the Month”, the average sports bettor may find it hard distinguishing fiction from reality.With the promises of turning a small amount of money into $1000’s overnight clouds their judgment.Unfortunately this is not the truth.To be successful with sports betting you need to treat it like a marathon and not a sprint.Like the kids story The Tortoise and the Hare, slow and steady wins the race. 

I am approached by people all of the time asking if it’s possible to really make money from sports betting and my answer is always the same: Yes with a big BUT.You need to properly manage your bankroll, be extremely disciplined and must have a reliable and profitable sports betting system that you follow.What they really want to know is if it’s possible to make a lot of money from sports betting very quickly with little effort.To this I can only answer Yes and No. 

So let’s say you decide to make your sports betting target $10,000.Here are the 2 ways that you can go about achieving this target. 

Option1 – Choose a game to bet on from your favorite sport.Choose a team that you want and bet $11,000 and prey.If the game wins you just made your goal of $10,000.Unfortunately if you lose your are down $11,000 which is far from achieving your $10,000 goal.This is definitely not the option that I would recommend as it comes with too much risk.You can win a lot of money very quickly or lose it just as quickly. 

Option2 – Take that same $10,000 that you bet for option 1, but instead of risking it all on just one game you can spread it around on multiple games.My suggestion would be to bet 5% of your bankroll on any given team.The goal is to obtain small gains and use the power of compound interest to accomplish your $10,000 goal.For this example let’s say that you bet on only 2 games per day and a total of 14 games per week with a conservative winning % of only 57%.This is what it would look like.

 So by using this conservative example of increasing your bankroll by 7% per week and a winning percentage of 57%, you can achieve that $10,000 target in just under 11 weeks.Although it takes a bit longer, it comes with much less risk as you are never really jeopardizing your bankroll.I don’t know about you, but I like the safe and sure way and the best part is that once you have increased your bankroll by 100% then your bets now would be $1000 instead of $500.

Imagine what could happen if you increased your win rate to 60% and bet on more games per week.You achieve that 100% increase at a much quicker rate then the 11 weeks from above.

If you would like to learn more about how to be profitable at sports betting, then please grab a copy of my Free ebook : “Sports Investing Secrets – How to Turn $1,000 into $1,024,000 in Less Than 5 Years Betting on Sports” at my website http://www.1stopsportsinvestors.com.

I know it sounds strange, but the skills needed to building your own house can be used to be successful with sports betting.It is critical to have an action plan, a stable foundation and the perserverance and discipline needed to get past the obstacles along the way.The difference between the losers and the winners are directly related to how well they master these 3 traits.Now let’s have a look at each of the traits case by case. 

THE PLAN – Having a blueprint and action plan are usually the first steps that people take when they want to build a house.Details of the project are outlined to go over all of the details of who to hire, when work is to be completed and costs.This is a very important step to help define and guide the project to completion in a timely manner. 

This is also the case with sports betting.A well thought out action plan is a must if you want to be successful.Just betting for the sake of betting with no specific objective in mind is just asking for failure.By sticking with a proven sports betting system day in and day out, will increase your chances of being successful. 

THE FOUNDATION – Now the building process begins.So what’s the most important step at this point? The foundation.This by far is the most important part of the project once the actual building has started.We have to face the facts and if your foundation isn’t solid then your house will have nothing to stand on.Having a weak foundation limits your building options. 

So what does building a foundation have to do with sports betting? 

Well in short, your bankroll is your foundation and is probably 1 of the main reasons why most sports bettors fail.Most of them fail when it comes to bankroll management which in turn leaves them broke.Your journey to success can’t continue if you don’t have any money.Protecting your bankroll is essential if you want to continue down your path of sports betting success. 

DISCIPLINE & PERSERVERANCE – I don’t know about you, but whenever I buy something at the store that says “Assembly Required” I cringe at the thought.What should probably take ten minutes to complete takes me about 2 hours.How often have you seen tasks taking much longer than expected, broken budgets and missed deadlines? These types of things occur all the time when building a house and need to be included as part of the original game plan.Overcoming these obstacles is very important to ensure project completion and any good project manager knows this. 

What’s the relation to sports betting you wonder? 

Unfortunately even if you are following a proven and profitable sports betting system, you will not win all of the time.It’s virtually impossible to win every game and anyone that says that they can is simply lying to you.There will be losses and there will be losing streaks, but if you stick to the proven system you will be successful in the long run.During these losing streaks what happens to most is that they end of quitting or increasing their wagers to make up for the previous losses.This approach will have your bankroll foundation crumbling very quickly.It is important that you stay focussed and stick with the plan.These losing streaks are all part of this sports betting roller coaster ride. 

To Learn more about how to be a profitable sports bettor, you can grab a FREE copy of my Ebook: “Sports Investing Secrets – How to Turn $1,000 into $1,024,000 in Less Than 5 Years Betting on Sports” by visiting my website http://www.1stopsportsinvestors.com

I know it may seem crazy to a lot of you, but if done properly sports betting can be a much more profitable form of investing than the traditional main stream options that we are accustomed to like stocks, bonds and mutual funds. 

Let me ask you this question.Are you happy with the way the stock market is treating you? 

If you are like most, you have either seen some tiny returns or even worse some serious losses.With how the market is performing these days most of the general public are losing money and a lot of it. 

What’s the interest rate that your bank is giving you? 2% or 3% if you are lucky.I don’t know about you, but these options really don’t sound that appealing.Now let’s look at an alternative option with betting on sports.

 To start off, the reason why most people lose while betting on sports is because they don’t treat it as a legitimate investment vehicle.They place bets on their favorite teams, don’t pay any attention to their bankrolls and wager just because the game is on television.The goal for today is to show that if done properly, sports betting can be extremely lucrative. 

Let’s say you start out with $1,000 budget that you set aside for sports betting.Your bankroll could obviously be different, but to illustrate I will be using $1000.Now what most people do is wager $100 on one game and maybe another $200 or $300 on another one that they like more.Unfortunately this is much too much to be risking on one game.What I personally do and recommend is never to bet more than 5% of your bankroll on any given game.Sticking with this example your bets should be no more than $50 per game. 

Now some of you may or may not know this, but to break even with sports betting you need to win 52.4% of your bets using the 11/10 offered on the most popular sports like football and basketball.For this example let’s use a very conservative win rate of 57% and that you bet on only two of the best games per day.Here is what the numbers would look after 1 month.

**Juice or Vig is the % that the online sports books keeping for taking your bets. Usually 10% 

After reviewing the numbers from this conservative example you can clearly see that you would have profited $280 and increased your total bankroll by 28 percent.With an increase of 28% after only one month, I’m sure you would agree that these are incredible results, but we are not done there.Now that your starting bankroll for month two is $1280, your new bet amount would be $64 which is 5% of the new bankroll amount.Sticking with this example and a monthly increase of 28% at the end of 1 year you would have increased your initial bankroll from $1000 to $19,342 and an astonishing interest rate of over 1900%. 

So let me ask the question again.How did the market do for you? Even if you drop down the win rate to 56% or 55% you will still have exceptional returns for the year.Any way you spin it, sports investing needs to be looked at more seriously as a alternative investment vehicle.

If you would like to learn more about how to be profitable with sports betting, you can grab a FREE copy of my ebook: “Sports Investing Secrets – How to Turn $1,000 into $1,024,000 in Less Than 5 Years Betting on Sports” by visiting my website at http://www.1stopsportsinvestors.com

There are a lot of serious gamblers out there that are looking for means to increase the odds that they will win at the races. A Horse Racing System has been created to help people that bet on horses increase the odds that they will win more often. Many people have not heard of them before, so we will look into them in a bit more detail to help explain them.

There are many websites that offer a special horse racing system. Gamblers know that the system that they choose to use is one of personal nature and there are a variety of reasons that have a bearing on the choice they make. These systems help people get a wealth of information that can aid them in betting smartly. This in return ups the profits that they will make from winning.

A horse racing system is an investment that many avid gamblers make. Bookies have put together the knowledge of past races together with results of newer races to create statistics that a person can use to assist them with making good bets. Race winners is not always the way to go. More often consistency of a particular horse is the way that a person should look at in analyzing this information.

There are also numerous message boards an forums on the internet that can give you useful advice on what is good and bad with certain horse racing systems. When you first start gambling on horse races, it is worthy to start with small bets as this will make you less vulnerable to big losses should something not work out in your favor with regards to the race that you bet on. These can help people make smart bets and avoid a large monetary loss that can happen when a beginner jumps in without thinking.

After a system has been chosen, then you can look into other options that can help with your gambling experience. Some help with the calculations that you will need to know. Others help with printouts of analyzed races; there are many other things that they can help you with as well. These tools help a person make betting on the races a lot easier than ever.

Once these things are all looked into, you can look into the way that you are going to bet. There are many different types of bets that can be placed, and it all is dependent on the person that is betting’s personal choice. Educating yourself on what the kinds of bets are, how they pay out, and the odds of winning is all a necessity before you place a bet. After all, the goal is to win some money with the bet you place.

Using a Horse Racing System can make your gambling exposure very rewarding. Remember though that gambling is always a risk.

The money that people gamble is real and without knowing what you are doing could be very damaging to your wallet.

A sports betting system is software that helps you to pick winning teams with up to 97% accuracy.

If you are enthusiastic about sports and often bet on your favorite teams, you must have hard times while deciding the team on which you will bet and the betting amount. Most people have to rely on their bookmakers for the odds. You can study the information and the situation yourself but that will be a lengthy process. It is also tough to find all the facts.

A sports betting system calculates the wining probability on the basis of previous game data. The information is kept in the software or sometimes it downloads the required information from websites. There are different betting tools for different sports and you have to select the one you need. The accuracy of the system largely depends on the amount of information that is analyzed.

There are different categories of sports betting systems found on the market. There are more basic tools available for personal use to track less volume of previous game data. These tools use worksheet applications.

On the other hand there are professional sports betting systems that are more expensive and use more complex calculation.

There are so many websites from where you can buy the betting software. Most of these websites promise to increase your earnings from betting. The accuracy of the system mainly depends on the calculation of the previous data. Therefore, while selecting the betting software look for the capacity of the software to collect and analyze information. A thorough search over the internet is the best way to find the right product.

After installing the software check the claims of the system and get used to its features by refraining from betting straight away.

97% accuracy is the level of accuracy of the top systems. If you can get hold of a sports betting system with proven accurate prediction like this, it will be well worth the money you pay for it.

If you are a seasoned pro or are new to sports betting, then you probably know that it’s not an easy task to make money from this endeavor.Knowing what you are up against before you get started can make this task a little less difficult and profitable.  

In the sports betting world there is this misconception that we are all trying to “Beat the Bookie”, but in reality the sports books are not the enemy at all.They just offer a safe and secure method for the general public to place their wagers and they take a little % of all of the action as a service fee called the juice or vig (Usually 10%).The main goal of the online sports book is to have equal amounts of bets on both sides of a particular game.They don’t care who wins as they get to keep their 10 percent just for accepting the wagers.  

The standard odds of 11/10 that are primarily used on football and basketball, will be used for this example.What this means is that you need to wager $11 to win $10 or $110 to win $100.Here is how it works.  

We will use the New York Jets and the New England Patriots for this example and let’s say the Patriots are the favorite by 7 pts.So if you wanted to bet on the NY Jets +7 pts then you would have to bet $110 with a opportunity to win $100.If you wanted to bet on the Patriots minus 7 you would have to bet the same amounts.So here is how the online sportsbooks make their money.If they managed to do their jobs correctly they should have had the same amount of wagers on both the Jets and the Patriots.  

Group A – 1000 people bet on the Jets + 7 for a total of $110,000.
Group B – 1000 people bet on the Patriots -7 for a total of $110,000.  

Now let’s say the Patriots win the game by 10 points and cover the spread making all of the Group B winners.The sportsbook then collects the $110,000 of the losing Group A bets and pays out $100,000 to the Group B winners pocketing a cool $10,000 in the process just for accepting the action.Not a bad pay out for about 3 hours worth of work.Now multiply this one game times several games that go off each week and month and you can see that the sportsbooks are singing all the way to the bank.  

As you can clearly see the sportsbooks are not the enemy.It’s the lines makers that you need to beat and with a little discipline, bankroll management and a proven sports betting system it’s a number that can be beat.  

If you would like to learn more about how to be profitable at sports betting, then please grab a copy of my Free ebook : “Sports Investing Secrets – How to Turn $1,000 into $1,024,000 in Less Than 5 Years Betting on Sports” at my website http://www.1stopsportsinvestors.com.

If I can't get pocket aces or pocket kings then I always hope for AK or AK suited. But playing the micros where there are absolute maniacs i.e. those who play anything aggressively pre-flop, take the joy of landing AK. I mean donks who are in every hand, and I mean every hand betting, raising, or re-raising whatever he has even air. They ruin it because of course they stand a good chance as any to land something better than AK on the flop, unless you land a good one too.

I’ve made three typical plays to deal with these players. One is to push them hard PF and then after the flop if you hit something, play passively. If my poker software says I am up against a maniac, I feel tend to bluff more even with air if he senses weakness in your hand. It’s the perfect way to trap him especially if you flop something big like a KK or AA, or get flush or a straight draw.

The second is I play normally as I would pre-flop so that I can just let it go if I don’t hit the flop and reduce the risk of a major suck out. 

The 3rd alternative is to put him to the test for all his money. Needless to say, if they don`t have a pocket pair, you are ahead with AK. Poker odds math suggests I am good against all other hands aside from KK and AA. Once there, I just hope that the AK holds up. I am reasonably confident it's not pocket aces or kings, since I am already holding part of that.

Each one of these strategies depend on the type of maniac I’m facing, and if there is poker tournament strategy involved. If he’s a super donk and a known idiot who will call and raise any hand just to get to the flop, I do number three. Which is a very popular strategy indeed. This is proven profitable.

If he’s aggressive but is known to play a good hand or two, and shows a penchant for waiting for the flop, I go with number one. In the long run, you should have the higher chances of winning as you have top hand other than AA and KK, and have as much a chance of flopping flush or straight, and have an edge of winning top card.

If I don’t have enough information yet on said donk, I go with number two until I know more about him at least. Profiling your antagonist is clearly important. After several years of playing AK, those are my best ideas for playing the hand.