Online Casino Blog

Poker is considered to be born in the USA in the second half of the 20th century. For a long time poker has been only one of existing gambles but everything changed in 1970. The owner of a legendary casino “Binion’s Horseshoe” in Las Vegas, a great fun of poker and an eminent player Benni Binion and his son Jack Binion organized in their casino a tournament between the most known US players. In the tournament took part six players who have been competing during seven days in gambling of different kinds of poker. A champion was determined by voting and that was Johnny Moss. This tournament provoked a poker boom among people and attracted more audience. Many people expressed their will to take part in the next similar tournament. Binion took decision to continue organizing such tournaments and united them under the name World Series of Poker (WSOP). Every year the number of WSOP participants grew in geometric progression. If in 1971 the number of participants made 14 persons, in 2004 it made 1700, in 2005 – 5800, in 2006 – 8900 and in 2007 – over 6 300.

WSOP is the greatest tournament but besides that a great number of the other attractive and popular tournaments took place in Paris, London, Vienna, Amsterdam, Helsinki, Moscow etc.

Poker was given a powerful incentive in development and popularization in the 90s of the past century with development of the internet network and appearance of on-line poker rooms. Poker turned to be the most pertinent and the most interesting gamble for millions of users all over the world. Poker fever in Internet is still going on. Mostly thanks to internet a number of people willing to compete in “live” tournaments, clubs is growing by leaps and bounds. And now nobody is surprised by the fact that the winners of prestigious poker competitions are skillful casino players experienced in online poker room games.

Today poker is no more a gambling, it turned into a popular socially important phenomenon. Thus, according to the data of the American Gambling Association in 2005 the number of people willing to play poker made 35% of the US population aging from 21 to 39, 18% of the US population aging from 40 to 49, 15% of the US population aging from 50 to 64, 11% of the US population aging over 65. In conformity with the results of the polls by the Association for most of this people poker is more than a gamble, it turned into a way of communication, a nice leisure.
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The first type of an intellectual effort let us call it a logical one. The idea is that by assumption of all possible actions of the opponent and by the estimation of all positions the player chooses the way to continue the game which can lead him to victory.

Chess players have a “tree” choice of options to choose from. The player considers all possible variants in turns and all possible answers as well. Then all his\her answers and so on. While analysing the game this way, ideally the player chooses the variant which could lead him to victory faster (the mate to the adversary king or to the damping material advantage).

The similar “tree” of choices we can also find in poker. But here the poker player analyses possible moves of the opponent, the game reaction to any action of the player and all these actions are done with a glance of possible changes of game situation as a result of emergence of next cards.

The “tree” of choices in chess is incomparably stronger and consists of far more branches than in poker. Our conclusion is that a logical intellectual effort is present in both, chess and poker, however, the role and sense of it in chess are more important.

The above-mentioned type of an intellectual effort is rarely used in practice. The majority of game situations are uncertain and we can seldom find a chance to find the updated version which can lead us straight to victory. And of course, this type of search for decision is more peculiar to machines not for a human being. Thereafter we proceed to description of the second type of an intellectual effort. Let’s call it analytic. The main sense of it is that the player considers those variants that can lead him to one or another position. The position which the player wants to achieve so badly doesn’t guarantee him victory. But the player believes if the desirable position is achieved he has the evident position advantage. This means that the player estimates his total position benefit status rather highly and expects to find moves to continue the game in such a way that is more likely to lead him to victory. The desirable position will be very comfortable for a further game of the player or very uncomfortable for a further game of his opponent. Thus, by having achieved the objectively equal position, only because of its unique features the player expects his chances to be higher than those of his opponent.
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Similar advantage can be also achieved in poker. To the position advantage in poker we can refer the factors of your position with relation to your opponents, the availability of varied membership and the number of opponents continuing the tournament, your aggression, the size of opponents’ stacks and so on. From all of the arts of poker the most important is the creation and realization of position advantage. Here it is as important as in chess.

The conclusion is that an intellectual analytic effort is present both in chess and in poker but they are not alike as the position advantage differs in quality.

The third type of an intellectual effort is connected with the analysis of the part of a game situation which is not connected with the game process itself. This type includes taking into account the psychological peculiarities of the duel.

Strictly speaking, this psychological element is not as widely used in chess, mainly because of the game information which is fully open to both opponents.

In poker the psychological element is very important indeed. It provides almost the half of success of the player. The restricted type of information in poker makes the players only deducing it and it can be done only by observing your opponent. And here you meet a great chance to misinform or manipulate him or create the psychological pressure upon him, and etc. We can name at least three aspects of a psychological element that are often used by experienced players.

Firstly, it is watching for the “signs” of an opponent and the “sings” that you send him. Secondly, one uses the continuous assessment of the psychological state of opponent. Thirdly, one may cause the psychological pressure upon the opponent in order to impose one’s will on him.

To summarize the aforesaid we can say that both games are intellectual fights but their profiles differ. From the three component of an intellectual effort – logical, analytical and psychological, the most important ones in chess are the first two while in poker the last two. But the analytical component dominates in both the games, which is quite understandable because these two games are intellectual.
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According to the historians’ statements and to the archaeologists’ testimonies, games have existed throughout the whole history of human society. Before we start to learn more about poker we would like to formulate the general classification of games and to identify the place of poker within its frames. Mostly classifications are relative but still we need them in order to have the general idea of any phenomenon.

Athletic games, intellectual games and gambling.
Athletic games: the idea of the game, where the final result (victory or defeat) is achieved largely at the expense of athletic qualities of the competitors.

Intellectual games: the idea of the game, where the final result (victory or defeat) is achieved largely at the expense of intellectual qualities of the competitors.

The relativity of these definitions is obvious. Athletic games (boxing, football or any other type) surely contain intellectual component. In every type of games we have to think. The majority of famous athletes today prefer to keep their personal athletic diaries where they describe in every detail all of their competition and training matters.

Standing apart from others is the third type of games: gambling and casino games.
The definition of gambling and casino games based on the idea of the game, where the final result (victory or defeat) is achieved by chance. In such kinds of games the athletic or intellectual or any others qualities of the competitors are not principal. Believe it or not but according to this classification poker belongs to the second category, intellectual games. Let’s turn to the more detailed review of the latter.
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Choice of the poker room for the poker game is very significant. It is prudent to pay attention to the following factors: convenience of depositing and withdrawal options, availability of the required games and consequently – total amount of players, level of opponents, software, support, bonuses, etc…

If you intend to use only credit for depositing and withdrawal funds and bank transfer, then it will immediately limit the list of the available poker rooms. If you can use several methods of depositing and withdrawal funds, for example, you have an account with e-wallets such as moneybookers or neteller then this issue will not restrict your choice.

The next question is: what poker game and at what limits are going to play? Texas hold’em limit and no limit, also single and multi-table hold’em tournaments are popular at any online room, but those who prefer Omaha poker, and stud poker have to choose the most attended rooms (Party, Stars, Full Tilt) to find the opponents. The same refers to those who love high stakes, not all online poker rooms even in holdem have players who stake $50/$100 or higher.

Most poker players want to win money, so they look for weaker poker opponents. Lately the trend of leveling the poker opponents in different poker rooms is becoming more and more obvious, nonetheless Party and casino poker rooms are considered to have less professional poker players (Prima networks, Boss Media, Playtech, Pacific Poker).

Poker player may have specific requirements to the poker room software, for example, non-downloaded software is offered by poker rooms of Ongame, Â2Â, Prima and Party Poker. Many poker rooms allow to reduce the size of tables, and the computer screen without overlay holds four table with the resolution 1024õ768. For somebody the facility of Poker Tracker can be a criteria. One can buy Tracker and use it, other poker players prefer poker rooms that are not allowed the Poker Tracker.

In general, it is not about WHERE you play but HOW you play. So, choose the poker room with sufficient number of opponents at your selected limit, convenient depositing and withdrawal funds options, maybe good bonus and go ahead!

The game.
After registration, log-in and enter the lobby of the online poker room. Here, as a rule, a poker player will find out the number of players, latest news, choose options, enter the cash desk to make deposit. But the main thing is the choice of the poker games. A poker player may choose the necessary game (holdem, Omaha, stud, etc.), its type (limit, unlimited, pot-limit), cash or tournaments (sit&go or multi table), limits. The number of poker players and anticipants is shown for each poker table and also average jackpot, number of poker players at the flop and number of hands per hour. The poker player can view information about all the players of the selected poker table in anew window. The player may join the vacant table, or wait list (the player can wait for the first vacated table at the particular limit or particular table).
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Let’s start with differences of online poker from off line poker game and the pros and cons of the online poker version. The main principal difference is obvious – poker players, the opponents cannot see each other. Hence, on one hand online poker player does not have to maintain his “poker image” and on the other hand the poker player cannot “read” the opponent hand by focusing on the Body Language. So, in online poker room the psychological moment of the game is rather weak, for somebody it is good and for someone it is not so good. In other respects online poker presents only advantages and it will take a long time to name all of them. Here are the main ones.

Any online poker room the same as any online casinos work 24 hours a day 365 days a year and any poker player may play all around the clock hole year.

Online poker room player does not have to tog up and go somewhere. Playing poker online at the computer is more comfortable that at the casino table.

Online poker room player can choose from a wide variety of games including the rarest ones. Online poker room player may play during a fifteen minute break; or leave the table any time. Poker player may participate in a number of tournaments and cash-games. Online poker room player can play short handed tables or face-to-face. Online poker room player may play at several online poker room tables at a time, play many games in an hour with simultaneous shuffling and dealing. Time limit for decision taking makes the game more dynamic. Online poker room player does not have to control and count the jackpot and his own chips.

Playing poker in online poker room is a good practice for the beginners playing micro limits which cannot be found in off line casino.

Before playing the game.
If you are ready to play poker in an online poker room, you should install online poker room client programs. Basically the poker software comprises two parts – server part – here the cards are generated and information about all the players is collected. Client’s part – here the player sees the cards, opponents and makes poker decisions. Both parts of the software are connected via the Internet and constantly exchange information.
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