Wednesday 30 July 2014

How to Play Online Keno

Keno is one of the simplest of the online casino games, but it is a lot of fun and can get very exciting. The object of the game of keno is to guess which keno numbers, from 1 to 80, will be drawn by the casino keno computer. Keno is similar to a lottery but it's played more frequently and is way faster. Online keno is a wonderful game for anyone who likes to try his luck at guessing numbers.

Playing Online Keno

The first step in playing keno is to pick your wager amount by increasing or decreasing your coin size.
Then, you select your lucky keno numbers. The keno board has 80 numbers. Depending on your preferred keno strategy, you may select anywhere from one to fifteen numbers. Your selected numbers will be highlighted in blue on the keno board.
Once you are satisfied with your wager amount and your keno number selection, click the Play button. The keno machine will shoot out twenty numbered balls with the winning keno numbers. If a winning number matches a number you selected, it is called a "hit." Your hits will be highlighted in red on the keno board. If you get enough hits, you win at keno.

Winning at Keno

Winning at online keno depends on how many numbers you selected and how many hits you achieved.
  • If you selected only one keno number, and that number hits, you win 3 coins. (How much a coin is worth depends on the coin size you picked at the beginning of the game.)
  • If you select eight numbers, and four of them hit, you win 3 coins. Five hits will pay out 6 coins, six hits will pay out 19 coins, seven hits will pay 90, and eight hits will pay 720 coins.
  • If you select the maximum fifteen numbers, and all fifteen hit, you win 10,000 coins!
The payout schedule is always displayed prominently on your screen, so you never have to guess or worry about forgetting or getting mixed up when you play keno online. You can just enjoy picking your lucky keno numbers and collecting your keno payouts when they hit. That's the fun of online keno.

Monday 21 July 2014

Myth or Truth: Are Professional Gamblers Real?

From the outside, the life of a professional gambler might seem as something straight out of a high budget Hollywood movie or an action-adventure book. Most people would not believe that a job that involves the opportunity to travel around the world, play no limit tables, win major jackpots, and reach worldwide fame actually exists. And in honest truth, it is a life that all gambling buffs can only dream about. Why? Because this extravagant life is, in fact, a fabrication. Now, before you deem me a liar, light up the torches and organize a veritable mob to my office, let me explain myself. While professional players do very much exist, this glamorous idea of the lighthearted luxury life is not true.

Professional players are not successful because they were “blessed” with the gift of luck. They are successful because they have read countless theory books and practice relentlessly in all sorts of environments. On an interview with AskMen, Phil Ivey, who is considered the world’s best poker player, stated that practices every day, even if it is only for a couple of hours.

Moreover, he does not limit himself to big stake tables. Ivey is known for logging into online casinos and play for real but also free money, because “every time you play a hand, be it online or wherever, you learn something. That’s the great thing about poker.” Turning any game of chance into a viable way to make a living implies huge risks, but constant practice can teach you the aspects of the game that can be controlled. Do not believe in luck or fate, believe in statistics and strategies.

Poker pro Vanessa Selbst, the most successful female player of all time and a recent 2014 winner of her third WSOP bracelet, has a thing or two to say about strategy. For her, much of her play heavily relies on pre-game groundwork: “Analyze your play. Take notes when you’re not sure about a hand…Post on online forums, study your opposition. If you’re playing high enough stakes, there should be videos or other resources featuring your opponents, so use what is available to you!” Like we said before, going pro is not taking a year off to play and chill. There is a strong possibility that you will spend more time hitting the books than ever before!

Also, apart from the true top dogs, most professional players do not live in the lap of luxury. They have a modest lifestyle and know how to be financially smart. When going pro, most hopeful players give themselves a year to try to make it. In fact, some general recommendations from the pros are to keep your living expenses and your poker bankroll separate and fixed. If at any time you only have only three or four months of expenses left, maybe you should consider more traditional employment options.

In sum, although it is possible to live life as a professional gambler, few are the ones that actually make it and even fewer the ones that win outrageous amounts of money. Keep in mind that going pro means you are your own boss, and the freedom that comes with it can act as a double edge sword. If you do not manage your time and money wisely, you could end up with a huge amount of debt. Professional players are over all great administrators who are deeply grounded and meticulous. However, do not let us taint your dreams of gambling! If being a professional player is truly your passion, we will not discourage you! As with any other skill, going pro is possible when you have a will of steel, maintain a composed head, and put in the time and the work!

Thursday 17 July 2014

Exploiting Online Casino Bonuses – And Why it Doesn’t Work

The beginning of the millennium was a golden age for online gambling. The whole industry’s growth was largely unhindered by laws and regulations, and competition was tight. There was only a handful of online casinos that were in business; and each of them were itching to get as much players as they can into their fold.

To get more people to sign up, most early online casinos offered humongous bonuses and promos to prospective players. These freebies usually came in the form of sign up bonuses- with most casinos offering up to 100% bonus when players sign up and deposit with them. It didn’t take too long for enterprising players to exploit these bonuses as money making schemes. For example, if you play blackjack at optimal strategy, you can expect to lose 0.5% (house advantage) of the total bets that you wager. At a 20Xinitial deposit cash out, every $2000 that you wager will net you at least $90 in free money. It might just be a small amount, but it piles up as time goes by especially if you are a skilled player.

Unfortunately though, online casinos have caught up with the scheme; most online gambling establishments already have various safeguards in place to ensure that players won’t be able to take advantage of their bonuses. The deposit requirements for the bonuses have gotten much higher, and there are restrictions that prevent people from exploiting promotions and freebies.
While this is bad news for unscrupulous players who used these bonuses to leech money off these casinos, it might probably be a good thing that this practice had already died down. Why? Here are some reasons:

1. You need an awful lot of money to get started

The bonuses can only be cashed out if you have already deposited a certain amount into the coffers of the online casino that you’re playing in.

2. You have to be a very skilled player in order to profit from this scheme.

Blackjack is usually the game of choice for bonus leechers, since the house advantage for this game is so small. A skilled player or a card counter can easily make quick money if s/he plays using optimal strategy. But someone with average blackjack skills might find it hard to make money from the game, let alone receive the in-house bonuses.

3. You have to put in a lot of time and effort to make just a small amount of money

For full time professional gamblers, these bonuses are just a little extra on top of their regular “income”. The casual gambler has to put in a lot of hard work before they can cash out any “free money” that the casino might be offering.

4. Leeching money off online casinos just take the fun out of gambling

Gambling is supposed to be a hobby, a past time that you do for fun in your free time. It’s really not something you expect to make money out of.

Make money through online casinos through the legal and easy way: play games and be good at them. Hone your skills at blackjack, study poker theory, practice good bankroll management- these are the only way you’ll be able to make money out of online gambling sites.

Tuesday 8 July 2014

How to Play Poker

If you are thinking about trying your hand at gambling, or if you are interested in learning a few casino games, probably the best place to start is poker. This is a card game that is one of the most popular casino games around the world and it is often played at private parties where a few people get together for a few hands of cards and to wager some hard-earned money. In this article we take a look at some of the basic rules of the game and give you some tips on how to play poker.

The history of poker 

It is widely documented that poker probably originated in New Orleans in the early 1800s, spreading through the rest of the United States courtesy of the Mississippi riverboats (where gambling was a common past-time).

The variations

There are lots of different ways to play poker, but there are generally four main types:

Straight – a complete hand is dealt to each player and players bet in one round.
Stud Poker – cards are dealt in a combination of face-down and face-up rounds, with a round of betting following each deal.
Draw Poker – a complete hand is dealt to each player, players can improve their hand by discarding cards and being dealt new ones.
Community Card Poker – players are dealt an incomplete hand and then a number of face up cards are dealt in the centre of the table, players can then use these cards to make a 5-card hand. Texas Hold’em is a version of Community Card Poker.

The dealer 

In private games the role of dealer generally rotates around the players – the dealer is marked with a button. In casino games a house dealer handles the cards but a dealer button is still used to determine the order the betting amongst the players.

The deal

The cards are dealt clockwise around the table, one at a time. Cards can be dealt face up or face down – the approach followed is determined by the type of poker being played.

The betting

Betting is done in rounds, between the betting rounds the players’ hands are developed by dealing additional cards. At any time if an opponent is unwilling to match the bet of another player then they fold and their hand ends. If no player matches the bet then last player to bet collects the pot of bets that had been placed on that hand.

Online poker

The birth of online poker in recent years has seen another surge in interest in activity in the game of poker. Players can join online tournaments and play against other players around the world. Big prize pools have made online tournaments incredibly popular and are a great way for inexperienced players to build their poker experience without the pressure of having to go to a casino.

So if casino games or card games are your thing, or perhaps a new hobby that you are looking to explore, then poker could be the game that you need to learn.