If You’re Gambling, Do It Right – When You’re Well Enough Ahead, Take the Money and Run

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If you want to become a responsible gambler, try to exercise some discipline when you’re winning so you can leave a winner. It takes self control but believe me, you’ll feel a lot better when your cash out ticket(s) and/or chips tally up to a larger sum than what you walked in with.

The late Frank Lefty Rosenthal, a sports handicapper whose real life character was portrayed by Robert DeNiro in the movie Casino, once said during an interview, “When you’re gambling, it’s not hard to win, it’s hard to quit.”

If you have a circle of friends who visit casinos, you probably heard these responses time and time again when you asked, “how did you make out at the casino?” And with some hesitation it’s usually, “Well, we did OK.” Or,” We’re about even.” And then there’s, “I had a good run in blackjack but I lost it all on the slots”. Sometimes you’ll hear, “My husband won a little but I lost a lot.” Then there’s the best one all, “Hey, what the heck, we didn’t expect to win, we were just out for a good time.”

Just because your entertainment dollars are part of your disposable income doesn’t mean that you have to dispose of it so quickly at the casino. Sure you’re going to lose occasionally, but there are times when you’re going to win.

We’ve all seen casino advertisements that brag about their loose machines and generous odds. They boast about paying millions in winnings to players.That may be true but that does not mean that all those winnings ever left the casino.

Here are a few tips for you when it may be time to ponder, should I Take the Money and Run?

Before Playing

  • Keep your gambling dollars separate from your other money.
  • Set a win goal and a loss limit such as:
  1. Win Goal – When your session buy-in amount is doubled
  2. Loss Limit – When your session buy-in amount is lost

When Playing

When your in the casino and ready to play, think about trying the following with your budget:

YOUR MACHINE BUDGET – Consider dividing it into separate sessions. For example, if you’re playing three credit quarter slots with a $100 budget, break it up into five $20 deposits instead of putting the entire hundred into the machine. If you hit a payout or payouts that double deposit amount, ($40) Cash out the ticket right away. Take a little break before you continue gaming.You’ll feel good with that extra $20 in your pocket or purse when you’re not playing.

YOUR TABLE BUDGET – Consider buying in for at least 20 times the table minimum for each session. For example, buy-in for $200 at a $10 minimum blackjack table. The same applies when playing other card games, roulette, or craps. While playing, try separating the chips that you won from the buy-in chips. Only bet with the original units. If you’re having a decent run and the winning stack is at least double the buy-in, tip your friendly dealer and say goodnight. If you lose the $200, just say bye bye!

Remember, the house edge always belongs to the casino over the long term. When there’s an opportunity to pick up winnings in the short run, take advantage of it. Remember, responsible gambling money management is to Take the Money and Run! Good Luck!

Early Chip Leaders in Poker Tournaments

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Since the only way to win a poker tournament is to finish with the most chips, having the biggest chip stack is always a good thing – even early in the tournament. In fact, getting an early edge on your opponents offers many advantages. Alternately, having a small stack and being at the mercy of early leaders can be a nightmare. Here’s what you need to know about the importance of early chip leaders in poker tournaments.

When You’re One of Them

Being the chip leader puts you that much closer to ultimately winning the tournament, even if you’re several rounds away from the final table. It’s important to take your status seriously, though. Instead of getting comfortable and playing tight in an effort to keep your stack intact – or alternately playing too loose because you feel like you can absorb the losses – use your chips wisely by taking smart risks and by using your superior stack to bully your less well endowed opponents.

When You’re Not

If you’re not leading, it can be discouraging, especially if you’ve made a mistake and find yourself short stacked early in the tournament. Many players make the mistake of going after the chip leader with an aggressive bluff in an effort to double up, but that’s a good way to bust out of a tournament early if they call or reraise with a good hand. Your best move is to stick to your original strategy, but be wary of getting trapped or bullied by a chip leader.

Pros and Cons of Being the Chip Leader

Having the most chips in a tournament has obvious advantages. Many of your opponents will not be able to call bets that represent only a fraction of your stack. That makes bluffing and semi-bluffing much easier and puts you in control of the action regardless of your position in any hand. As an early chip leader, you should definitely be taking advantage not only of your extra chips but of the small blinds by seeing more flops.

Being a chip leader early in a tournament can give some players a false sense of comfort. They get too comfortable and start taking bets with more risk than gain. Others break their advantage down slowly but consistently by calling on bets they shouldn’t, simply because they can. It’s also important to remember that while you’re now a larger and more difficult target, you’re a target nonetheless, and many players will challenge you simply because you’re the chip leader.

Why it Matters in Different Tournaments

Being a chip leader offers the largest advantage in a sit and go, where an early lead will often see you through to the end. In a bounty tournament or rebuy, where players tend to be looser and more aggressive in the early rounds, having the biggest stack can actually make you an obvious target for maniac players with something to prove. In a regular MTT, being an early chip leader gives you some important advantages, but you need to manage your stack wisely to get the full benefits of your good fortune.

The Fabulous Four Roulette Strategy

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Let’s talk today about another method that my wife loves playing (yes… she’s a roulette freak too!). You’ll probably either love it… or hate it, depending on whether you’re winning or losing.

It’s simple and easy to learn and can be a consistent winner, but it does require a session bankroll of around $200 or more, depending on the minimum chip value of the table you play.

I’ll present it here as I learnt it, then I’ll elaborate and tell you how I adapted it to be a more consistent winner.

As you know (or should!) the roulette table layout bears no resemblance to the layout of the wheel. It’s the roulette wheel layout we are interested in for this method.

For this method, we choose 4 numbers on the wheel that are side by side. Numbers 13,14,15,16 might be together on the table, but they certainly aren’t on the wheel! It’s amazing how many times you hear the comment; “Just missed by one!” from someone who has their chips on 16 when 17 comes up!

Referring again to the wheel layout, let’s pick 4 numbers. It doesn’t matter which 4 you choose, so for the purpose of this exercise, let’s choose 14, 31, 9, 22. Of course, as always, we are working with the European (single zero) wheel. ALWAYS seek out the single zero wheel.

The staking sequence goes like this:-

1 Chip on each for 6 spins

2 Chips on each for 5 spins

3 Chips on each for 4 spins

4 Chips on each for 3 spins

5 Chips on each for 2 spins

TOTAL – 20 Games – 200 Chips

To illustrate, I’ve downloaded an online casino software package and fired up their ‘Play for Fun’ European Wheel. Always play the European wheel. I’ve put 1 chip on 14,31,9,22. I’m using $10 chips. (Easy when it’s Play Money!) Six spins with 1 chip on each.

First spin number 16 – a loss

Second spin number 1 – a loss

Third spin number 32 – a loss

Fourth spin number 31 – a win

$160 out – $360 back – Won $200

Now I can tell you bluntly, that it doesn’t always go that easy. The guy I learnt this method from, recommends that when you have a win, that you double the amount of chips for another spin, hoping of course, for a repeat or a spin in the neighbourhood. Then, if that won, to double up once more! But if the first double-up didn’t win, revert back to the original one chip for 6 spins, re-starting the whole sequence.

I don’t know about you, but that’s just a little too deadly for my blood. Anyone that knows me, knows I prefer to take little drinks from the well… regularly. So I would have stopped with the $200 win and restarted… with different numbers. That’s how I play… conservatively. Maybe that’s why I’ve been successful for the past 25 years or so!

Now what my wife actually does, is watch several spins to get a ‘feel for the wheel’. With experience, you can pick up on what the dealer is doing. She will look for a repeating spin in a certain area and then choose 4 numbers in that area. Hit – win – rinse and repeat.

Alternatively, you can ‘cover’ a larger area of the wheel, by leaving one number out. For example, bet 14, 31, leave 9 out and bet 22, 18.

Another alternative I’ve seen is bet every second number… like 14, 9, 18, 7. That leaves a few gaps though.

As always, never bet with real money until you have practised and practised. Then never bet with money you can’t afford to lose.

Barack Obama Slot Machine Critical Overview

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Playing poker at someone’s residence can be a little aggravating if they don’t have poker chips. People are always fumbling through their money and then they throw out a $20 bill thinking it was a $10 and all kinds of arguments start. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a set of chips that nobody else had again, say maybe some Barack Obama Commemorative Casino Poker Chips?

Pinball machines in the 80’s had immortalized Rock ‘n’ Roll Stars such as KISS and Elvis, now current television shows are starting to show up on pinball machines. The old arcades are fading due to home entertainment systems but learning How to Win at Slot Machines will never die. How would you like to capture a piece of history by celebrating our 44th President Barack Obama by owning your very own Barack Obama Slot Machine?

These are one of the Best Slot Machines we’ve come across and is a one of a kind because it pictures the first African-American President; there will never be another one like it. If you play the slots then you know that a machine with some originality has allure. Connoisseurs of vintage machines play for nostalgia reasons and grabbing hold of the future can be celebrated when you own this original. History buffs will no doubt want to own this treasure because the picture depicts President Obama with an American flag and the Presidential seal behind him making President Obama forefront.

The machine has been re-furbished to play like new; it only accepts tokens and comes with a lifetime warranty excluding light bulbs. Often these Slot Machines For Sale have not even been played for the minimum two years so you might be getting a machine that is only a couple of months old but it will still be a great addition to your gaming room, but in this case these are brand new right out of the factory. It also comes with toll free customer support and a basic operations manual. The best part is that it plugs right into a standard 110-volt outlet so you can start playing immediately.

Supporting the USA can be done in several ways, those who choose to obtain an original slot machine with our 44th President are letting those who come over to play slots know just how much they appreciate President Barack Obama. The Barack Obama Slot Machine is decorated with American symbols and the date of the Presidential Inauguration, January 20, 2009. It’s a red, white, and blue beauty and is perfect for the neophyte that wants to learn How To Play Slot Machines.

When you walk into a casino, the lights and sounds can be exciting, you pick your slot machine, or it picks you, and then you sit down for an either good conversation or a one sided one. The way that slot machines are laid out in a casino helps to create a maze that makes you wonder through their aisles searching for a way out if you are not winning. Owning a Barack Obama Slot Machine lets you play as long as you want so you can feel like a winner before you ever walk into a casino.

There will be several USA related slot machines that come out and although they celebrate American history there is something about owning an original slot machine that bears the likeness of Barack Obama that makes you proud to be an American. Impress your friends and show them that you have got patriotism and you are willing to let them sit with the chance of winning on your machine. By owning your own Barack Obama Slot Machine, you can change the skill level and have complete access to this one of a kind entertainment conversational piece.

Bring Live Casino Gaming Home with Internet Gambling

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If, for you, the worst part about going to online casinos is leaving then your sorrows are over. With online casinos you can bring the excitement of live casinos home with you! Online casino software emulates real casino games so well that you may even forget that you are in your own home and not in Las Vegas! Online casinos have everything that live casinos have to offer, so the next time that the urge strikes you to head to Caesar’s Palace all you have to do is turn on your computer.

An online casino is not so different from a live casino. When you play online you can choose from all of your favorite gambling games. Online casinos offer virtually any casino game you can think of including, but not limited to, slot machines, video poker, regular poker, blackjack, baccarat, keno, roulette, craps and even bingo! The games are played by the same rules as in live casinos and online gambling software is even designed to look just like real casino games! Some Internet casino websites even offer software in which you have a character that must walk around a three-dimensional casino space with other players and choose your games.

It is the belief of many gambling enthusiasts that online casino games are not as exciting as real live casinos because when you play online you are sitting by yourself at your computer and there is no interaction with other players. This is not the case at all! In fact, most Internet casino sites encourage interaction between players, especially in multiplayer games like blackjack, craps and poker.

There are also tournaments in which players compete against each other in all forms of casino games, including slot machines. Online casino tournaments can be a fantastic social experience! When you play in online casino tournaments you pay an entry fee. For this fee you receive a predetermined amount of chips. Each player receives the same number of chips and has a specific amount of time in which they may play slots machines or poker or roulette or whichever game is specified by the tournament. At the end of the allotted time the player who has the most chips is the winner. The prize pot is made up of player entry fees and can be quite large depending on the number of players. Additionally, interaction is encouraged during the tournament through chat software and can make online tournaments a fantastic social experience.

As you can see, gambling online can be just as fun and exciting as playing in live casinos. The best part is you don’t have to book a plane ticket or even leave the comfort of your own home! If you have a computer and Internet access you can participate in Internet gambling twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week! All you have to do is choose a casino online and start playing and you’ll never be sad about leaving the casino again!