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Test Cricket – Is Its Popularity on the Decline?

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 14:44:06 +0200

When talking about any aspect of cricket, particularly its popularity, one has to keep in mind that today different forms of cricket are played at different levels even in the international matches. The different forms include traditional Test cricket, the ODIs or the one-day cricket matches and of late, the twenty-twenty cricket that has captured the fascination of even those who had very little interest in cricket. It has been recommended by experts that the whole scenario could be enhanced by cutting down the number of international matches and forming a much smaller panel of ICC. It is expected that these changes would help to rekindle the fast waning interest in Test cricket by making these long drawn series into truly exclusive events.

To better understand the reason for these monumental changes, especially for those who are not familiar with the game, let’s take a closer look at how the game is played. Two teams, each consisting of eleven players takes turns to bat and bowl a ball of hard leather. The game is played following a complicated set of 42 rules which are quite difficult to be understood by anyone outside the world of traditional cricket. In the early days, players donned white clothes and used red hard-leather balls in test matches. However, this staid costume has been replaced by eye-catching exclusive team kits that definitely bring in more drama to this otherwise solemn game. Test cricket matches might seem, well actually they are exceedingly long, where games can last even up to six hours a day with long refreshment breaks. On the other hand, the newer and shorter versions of the game can be wrapped up in just a day or sometimes even in a matter of hours. It’s no wonder that the limited-over matches like the twenty–twenty are gaining immense popularity.

There is no doubt that the traditional test cricket matches are still regarded with the highest esteem in spite of the advent of a number of new forms of cricket. But then, it has to be accepted that these newer forms of the game like the one-day international cricket or ODIs are rapidly gaining popularity among a wider span of the sporting world.
This team sport has been played throughout the globe in one form or other for about 800 years. It can even be said that cricket has soared to such heights that it has emerged as the universal conduit of South Asia, a sort of emissary to the world.

It is very unfortunate that the popularity of such a legendary game is on the verge of decline. While newer forms of cricket are being appreciated by more and more people, the game of cricket itself has to be well equipped to embrace the inevitable changes that are essential to make the game more appealing to a broader set of audience. Cricket already spans through a number of generations and with just a little more flexibility it is possible to make sure that time-honored matches like the Ashes Test series will continue to thrive and prosper for yet many more generations.

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Poker – History And Anecdotes

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 16:10:42 +0200

In The Past

Poker, the game and the name, have a debatable history. One school of thought is that the earliest such games were played in China, on New Year’s Eve around 969 A.D, between Emperor Mu-tsung and his wife. The other argument says that Poker has evolved from the German game Pochspiel, played in the 1400s. The Persian betting games of Ganjifa and As Nas, played in the 17th century, are often listed as the next milestone in the game’s history. The modern game seems to have borrowed much from the latter. The name ‘Poker’ appears to be a derivative of the 18th century Irish Poca or the French Poque which descended from Pochen, a German game.

All of these are believed to have developed out of the slightly older Spanish game Primero, wherein a hand of three cards was dealt to every player. While the name of the German game Pochen literally means to bluff, it cannot be said that the modern game owes anything in lineage to these games except its name. The game owes its popularity and propagation more to the French colonists who took their beloved Poque to colonies far and wide where new forms of the game evolved over the years.

The Thrill Continues

The recent history of the game continues to be interesting, a subject that has invited much research, violence and betting. In 2003 computer scientists at the University of Alberta came out with the beta version of the pseudo-optimal poker program and tested it against a world champion. 7000 hands of testing revealed that the human champion was the better player. Among the observations of this experiment was this game presents more computational challenge than chess.

Over time, cheating in poker has evolved as a science too. John Moss, winner of three World Series of Poker World Championship, maintains that he found about fifteen mechanical cheating devices on his opponents throughout his career. That is in addition to peep holes in the walls, mirrors and strategically placed cards and spies. For Moss, life as a professional player was a wild west adventure where pointing a gun at an opponent was a common matter. The most popular story of all time emerged from the White House. It is said that America’s 29th president Warren Harding, once bet away some White House china at one of his many notorious poker parties.

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Jobs At A Casino

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 13:48:38 +0200

Casino jobs and service standards Fun filled jobs at the casino

Why not consider a job with a casino if you are you a die hard Casino lover? This way you can make money in a profession that you love. Gaming industry is one of the important driving forces in world economy. It is known to create millions of jobs worldwide.

It is clear from research that employees in the gaming industry earn much more than other similar sectors like hotels. The gaming industry not only offers the best salaries but also provides added benefits like health insurance and training. This is mainly to skill their workers and to get them at par with the industry standards. Most of the places like Las Vegas and Atlantic City, which are known for their casinos worldwide, are famous places to find jobs. Tourism is so well promoted here that there is always a great demand for skilled workers.

It is believed that to serve the guests you need to be way beyond the best. A casino is known for its very friendly and approachable staff. They always go out of their way to entertain the customer. Whenever you are at a casino you are sure to be greeted with a smile. At a casino, it’s not always necessary for you to be on the floors of the gaming area. There are other departments also that can be considered. Human resource, marketing and finance are some of them. Besides these, the department of Fraud and Security are also the most prevalent ones. No casino can survive without these. Casino jobs offer full time as well as part time positions to its employees. Any person above the age of 18 can be considered for these jobs.

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WSOP

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 16:33:42 +0100

Control Mistakes
The better the mistakes you control, the greater you get the chances of winning. One of the bad mistakes that the poker players will make is they really do not know the method of calling. For most reasons, you must have to call while you play the poker game. This will make you to look at good array of cards, which in turns bound the opportunity of getting losses. Calling – the really best strategic approach that the online poker player must consider to a better understanding to make a right manipulation of odds from pot and thereby they can set the bluff during the future betting. Serious approach and practice will bring you good revenue from WSOP.

Strategy to play at WSOP:
Holdem Poker rooms are famous and they have the simplest rules. Actually on the surface holdem poker appears to be very simple and straight without any complex rules. But below the surface holdem poker is prevalent with refinements, chances, and conclusions. It is left to the players as to which hands must start the game. This plan is vital because if any error occurs then such a mistake will only aggravate exponentially as the game advances. Thus it becomes necessary for the players to predicate their choice on which opening hands to play on their initial position prior to the collapse.
Seats:
Seat numbers 1, 2 and 3 are Early Position. At any of these three positions the players will have to play only superior starting hands. The superior hands are as follows: AA-77; AK-AT, suitable and inappropriate; KQ-KT, matched, KQ-KJ, not right QJ-QT, well-matched and unacceptable; JT-J9, apt; T9, fitting.
Seats 4, 5, and 6 are center position. In center position, players can play all of the early position initial hands and these extra hands: 66-55; A9-A6, suitable; K9, suitable; KT, unsuitable; Q9, suitable; J9, suitable; JT, unsuitable; T8, suitable; 98, suitable.

Seats 7, 8 etc:
Seats 7 and 8 are the late position seats. The poker players in this position play the early position beginning hands along with the middle position starting hands and in addition to this they also play the following: 44-22; A5-A2, correct; K8-K2, correct; K9, unacceptable; Q8, correct; Q9, unacceptable; J8, correct; J9, unacceptable; T9-T8, unacceptable; 98-97, unacceptable; 87, correct; and unacceptable; 86, correct; 76, correct; 75, correct; 65, correct. Seat 9 is the tiny blind. Under this strategy the holdem players generally call a half- stake along with late position beginning hands or even better. Seat 10 is the big blind and this is the position for the players to check.

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10 best Commencing hands in Texas Hold'em

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 16:33:08 +0100

While playing a game of hold’em poker you can deal with 169 varieties of a couple of card commencing hands. This also enables 13 pairs, 78 suiting hands and 78 hands which are not under the pairing category. All players should understand that your selection gets reduced to better quality standards whenever you have a real intention of winning the poker game. You have never paid a red tenor of dollars for getting a flop with the hand of 5/9 or 3/6. These aspects are called as rags in poker lingo as their future is reduced to ashes.
You can witness the enumeration of various commencing hands which are spelt out here under.
• A/A – Thumping winner hand. You will be in a position to win plenty of games by being the best hand by the inclusion of pocket rockets, bullets as well as American airlines.
• K/K – This is second in command in terms of strength which will give you enormous possibilities of making a fast buck. A couple of kings or cowboys can be controlled by A/A.
• Q/Q – Queens are suitably good hand for winning jacks as well as categories below them.
• J/J – All these ten handed pairs of jacks have ample opportunities of almost winning 20% of the time. But, you have to be careful for having a smooth sailing.
• A/K suited – It is a tricky hand while it gives partly and enables you to pay off. It is not an unsuitable category.
• K/Q – It is beware of an ace falling on the board and manifest signs of fear.
• A/Q suited – It is also a suitable hand enabling victory.
• A/J suited – It is another drawing hand which is playable even though unsuited for various purposes.
• K/Q suited – You should watch out when an Ace falls on the board.
• A/10 – You can take a straight plunge as it is a good hand but you should be too strong when you encounter unsuited categories lest you should lose the game.
Experts may have a line of thought over the ranking categories of various hands but it nevertheless does not matter because you will be taking the help of more than half a dozen hands. This is by way of utilization of your skills. In this manner, your ten holdings constitute only six percent of various hands you will be in a position to get support of in this connection.
You may have to deal with your top 10 hands very meticulously and carefully. The most prominent hands are A/K unsuited as well as number 10. Any specific pair emerges once in 221 hands and all the suited hands once in 332 hands each.
To conclude, a lot of advantages are involved in utilization of pocket tens which has a plethora of beneficial results for enabling you to fold before the situation of flop occurs. This way you will be in a position to mitigate your loss and ensure bare minimum earnings intact in every deal at the casino.

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Poker on Silver Screen

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 14:37:25 +0100

The movie Rounders, starring Matt Damon was released in September, 1998 in North America and had very high ratings from the critics (7.3/10) in the movie chronicles.

Written by the renowned David Levien and Brian Koppelman, it was directed by John Dahl. The Rounder is a drama depicting boyfriend-girlfriend relationship, card game, loan sharks, courtroom scenes, golf practice, gambling, poker, mafia, prison etc.

It is credited with winning an SEFCA award in 1999 for Best Actor award going to Edward Norton who portrayed the role of Lester Worm Murphy and a nomination for Matt Damon in 1998. The main plot of the movie Rounder is that of a young man (Mike Dermott) plays the role of a Gambler who is reformed and is trying to return to Poker game by taking on big stakes only to help one of his best friends liquidate his loans.

The movie gives out a kind of message that one has to play his cards that he is dealt. One has to trust everyone but always has to cut the cards. That to allow the sucker to keep the winning is immoral. The other prominent artists in the movie-Rounder are Paul Cicero as Russian Thug: John Malkovich as Teddy KGB: Martin Landau as Abe petrovsky and so on. The most compelling aspect of Rounder is the projection of interpersonal relationships in the film that can make anyone be moved. The game of Poker is so well introduced in the film that even an unfamiliar person with the game, is fully made aware of the features of the game, while getting entertained throughout the length of the movie. Several other games like Omaha, Omaha Hi Lo, 7 card stud and Texas Hold Em are neatly presented to the viewers. A special edition of DVD was made of the movie Rounders in comparison with the top movies like Helmut, Johnny Chan, Chris Jesus Ferguson etc.. One cannot but be awed by the characters played by Matt Damon, Ed Norton, MalKovich, Turturro and Laundau. Malkovich excelled in the role of Russian KGB particularly as a master poker player, he relieves Mike Dermott (Damon) of his Bankrolls by hitting a full house on 4th Street crippling smaller boat of Mike.

The movie-Rounder goes under heavy gripping scenes when the viewers cannot see what Teddy KGB held in hand in the game. But there is a consensus that Teddy has in possession Pocket Aces which was indicated in many ways like: The way he bet all through the hand: the manner in which he pushes all his chips once the Ace appears: the way he reacts when le lost the Hand: the sarcasm he shows to Mike on the Ace Appearing. The movie with 121 minutes runtime has Dolby Digital sound mix and was filmed in Atlanta City, New Jersey, New York City: Newark, New Jersey, Siwanoy Country Club, and Bronxville with an estimated budget of $12,000,000. The opening weekend itself netted $8,459,126 in USA on 2176 screens.

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What to Do When an Opponent Goes All In During a Poker Tournament

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 09:47:11 +0200

You are sitting at the poker table and one of the people sitting there with goes all in. What exactly should you do you wonder. Wonder no more, in this article I will explain exactly what you should in a when someone seated at your poker tables moves all in. This strategy only applies to forms of poker tournaments. However, whether it is an online poker tournament, a casino poker tournament, or even a poker tournament in your buddy’s basement this strategy should be followed as a rule of thumb. Far more than simple strategy, many professionals feel following this guideline is actually part of poker etiquette and that it should be followed to a tee.

Whenever you are playing in a poker tournament your ultimate goal is to outlast the other players. Of course in able to do this you will want to make sure you are playing your best possible game, but one very important part of playing your best possible game is sadly often over looked. For one reason or another; be it they are nervous, caught off guard, or simply do not know the preferred procedure, people more often than not fail miserably when an opponent goes all in, and inevitably often cause only themselves harm.

The proper way to handle a player going all in during a poker tournament is to use team work in order to get him or her out. I know this may sound odd as poker is generally considered an everyman for himself type of game, but this is the one area of poker where people get to show they are a team player. The reason you want to work as a team when a player moves all in simply boils down to odds. You do not know what the person who has moved all in is holding in their hand, you may possibly have them beat, but there is also a chance you may not have them beat. Even if you have pocket aces there is still a chance that he will catch two pair, three of a kind, a straight, or even a flush effectively beating you and doubling themselves up.

The best way to prevent this from happening is of course to have as many people as possible involved in the hand. If the person’s chips that has moved all in are equal to only a small portion of your chips, regardless of what you have you should call them, likewise everyone else at the table should too. If you are seated at a six person poker table this will force the player who is all in to have to beat not only one hand to double up, but instead five hands. Do you see where we are going with this?

Okay, so now we have six players involved in the hand, the person who is all in, yourself, and at the moment your four teammates. The reason I refer to them as teammates is because you need to help each other out so that you can all stay in the hand until the very end. How do you accomplish this? By not making any bets at all for the remainder of the hand. Even if you have a strong hand, say a pair of aces and make a big bet, other players may fold their hands. This may not sound bad, but considering the person who is all in could very likely make a straight beating your hand and doubling themselves up, you may very well have forced someone who would have made a flush and eliminated the person who is all in to fold their hand.

The only time you should ever even consider making a bet when an opponent is all in is if you have nuts after the river has been turned over (poker jargon for the best possible hand). But I must warn you, even in this situation it is considered by many to be very unsportsmanlike and foolish, so expect to catch some dirty looks if you are in a casino, or some off color comments if you are playing online.

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A widely played sport

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 14:31:27 +0200

Poker is becoming a widely played sport these days. In each of these poker tournaments the winners are decided by playing a particular style of poker. Primarily these tournaments can be open or invitational. Of all these tournaments the most esteemed is the $10,000 buy-in no limit Texas Hold 'Em tournament, the main event of the World Series of Poker falls under the open category of poker tournament.

Again there are single table tournaments and multi table tournaments. In multi-table tournaments players play at more than on table, is it tow or twenty or even two hundred. The best entry point to gain entry to a major poker even without depositing a major amount of money is the satellite tournaments to high-range, costly poker tournaments. The buy-ins for these games are very less – almost just one-tenth to one-fiftieth of the buy in of the main tournament. The other major advantage is that these tournaments can be conducted anywhere or everywhere or even online. The winners or top listed players in this tournament are awarded entry into the main tournament instead of cash prizes – more or less a wild card entry in certain other sports. We need to make special mention of Chris Moneymaker here. He was the 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event champion and had gained entry into the actual tournament by winning one of the online Tournaments and his buy-in was a surprisingly low $39 buy-in. In 2004, Greg Raymer, won the World Series of Poker championships, through the seat he got while winning a $165 online poker tournament.

In a single-table tournament or an STT, there are certain numbers of places assigned to a particular table and play at that table starts when the specified numbers of players are ready and have taken their positions. Because these games start off when all their players are seated, these games are fondly referred to as sit and go tournaments.
Rankings in poker tournaments are always in the reverse Players are ranked in reverse sequential line up. The person finishing last comes first and so on and so forth. Because of this tie-ups that occur in most of the other games are ruled out in poker tournaments. When prizes are awarded, the house can use either the fixed or proportional method to distribute this prize money. In fixed method the first, second and third ranked players get a certain fixed amount of pay off whereas in proportional payouts, there is a certain percentage of the total amount that is paid out. In the latter type of payouts, if there is more number of participants, then the prize money increases.

Now that we are done with the various forms of poker, let’s stray our attention to the various forms of poker that are played in tournaments. For improved returns, there is always a good mix of various games – HORSE stands out among the lot and is a combination of Hold’em, Omaha, Razz, Stud and Stud Eight. It is history that at least one type of stud or community card poker game has a marked place in each and every poker tournaments.
Another form of poker that needs special mention is the game of sit and go. This game starts off when all its players are seated and hence they are called sit and go. They begin the games when a particular number of players register and then it becomes a regular poker tournament where the usual rules and regulations are followed. Blinds and antes increase for every fifteen minutes in usual sit and go tournaments and not like other cash games. Freeze outs are those sit and go tournaments that provides first prize as money. Rest of the tournaments normally heads on one on one and never increases the blinds. It stays the same throughout the complete tournament, ensuring most skilled play to be prized in the continuing games.

Unlike any other game like cricket or baseball, poker does not need a properly infra structured venue. You can play poker in a casino or college campus or even over the sea – Surprised! Don’t be – because it is a fact that the World Series of Poker games in 2005 and 2006 were played over the sea at the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas

The most initial games to be conducted somewhere external to the Binion's Horseshoe Casino where the 2005 World Series of Poker games. The last days of the primary event were however held in the historic Benny's Bullpen. For tournaments that were played at various later stages, either of the Harrah's Entertainment properties served as the venue, but since 2005, the venue has been the Rio. Across the continent of Europe, the most celebrated is the WSOP Europe which had its genesis in 2007. Annette Obrestad had the pride to become the first ever winner of the same. Betfair has offered to sponsor the WSOP Europe games till 2011. Other tournaments that are broadcasted by the World Poker Tour include various tournaments with buy-ins starting anywhere from $ 5,000 to $25,000 all across US and the Caribbean. Of these various events, some that need special mention because of the fact that they stand alone is the Caribbean Poker Adventure. However, most of these tournaments are held in combination with tournaments that are being conducted at the casino which is the host like the Commerce Casino's LA Poker Classic, the Grand Sierra's World Poker Challenge and the Bicycle Casino's Legends of Poker.

While talking of tournaments, the two of the most prestigious are the World Poker Tour championship event and the World Series of Poker. These are both conducted in the flamboyant city of Nevada in Las Vegas. These games have been The World Series has been conventionally broadcasted over the ESPN Channel dedicated to games.
The other games that have been broadcasted on ESPN include The United States Poker Championship at the Trump Taj Mahal casino.

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