Category: English

Let’s look at a sample draw poker hand from start to finish. In this example, you will be in the privileged position of knowing what all of the players have in their hands. Of course, in a real game you will know for sure only what cards you hold and will have to speculate about the holdings of other players. However, as already stated, there are clues which will give you an indication of the strength of an opponent’s hand. Clues already mentioned are the pattern of betting and the number of cards a player exchanges, Other clues can be gleaned from a player’s body language (see the chapter on Reading Your Opponent) or from what you know about the player, i.e. what strength of hands he usually plays etc. So let’s get on with the sample hand. In this game there are four players (A, B, C, D). Their hands before the draw are:

Player/Hand

A    K(hearts), 7(diamonds), 5(diamonds), 4(clubs), 3(spades) – This is a worthless hand of very low value

B    2(diamonds), 2(clubs), 2(hearts), K(hearts), 5(spades) – This hand has three 2’s, which is very good starting position.

C    Q(spades), J(spades), 9(spades), 7(hearts), 4(spades) – This hand is not worth anythig yet but if he could exchange the 7(hearts) for another spadethen he’d have a flush

D    A(spades), A(clubs), 8(spades), 8(clubs), 4(clubs) – This hand has 2 pairs, aces up, which is a very strong starting position, although it is weakerthen player B at the moment. This hand aces and eights is called "Dead man’s hand".

 

Player A is dealer, so player B is first to act and opens for £10. Player C has the drawing hand, so calls the bet. Player D has a very strong starting hand and so he raises £10, It is unfortunate for player D that he does not know what player B is holding, otherwise he would not have raised (indeed he might not even have called), Player A, with his very poor hand, folds. Player B, with a very strong starting hand, re-raises. Player C (with his drawing hand) now has a decision to make: should he call the bet hoping to draw the flush and probably win the pot or should he cut his losses and fold? He knows there is a risk that he will be caught between two players who are re-raising each other so he could lose a lot of money which makes him cautious. On the other hand, he is a player who is at the game to gamble and so he decides to take the risk and call the bet (which is now £20 to him, the £10 raise and the £10 re¬raise). He also knows that the one bet and three raises rule applies in this game, so the maximum he would have to put in is £40. Next it is player D who has a decision to make. If he knew for sure that player B had three twos, his correct course would be to fold, but he is not sure. He calculates that player B has a strong hand but it might only be two smaller pairs than he holds. He could re-raise again in this position, but decides that a call is the wisest course.
This leaves three players after the first round of betting, B, C and D. They now have to decide how many cards they should draw. Player B could keep his three twos and draw two cards or keep his three twos and one of the other cards as well and draw only one card, This latter course is what he decides upon, reasoning that by drawing only one card he will make his opponents think that he has only got two pair thus deceiving them about the true strength of his hand. Player C has little choice; he throws the 7(hearts) away hoping to get a spade. Player D has a choice. He could do the obvious thing by keeping his two pair and taking one card – he would be hoping to draw another ace or an eight, giving him a full house. Alternatively, he could ‘stand pat’, that is take no cards, again in the hope of disguising the value of his hand. He would be hoping that the other players would think he had a very strong hand indeed and would fold as a result of him making a bet. However, he has seen that the other two players have each drawn one card, so he in turn draws one card because he does not want the other two players to think he has a very strong hand. He wants one or other to call his bet, if he decides to make one.
The cards drawn by each player are as follows:

Player/Cards kept       Cards drawn

B  2D, 2C, 2H, KH        5D                   – Player B swapped one 5 for another 5, it’s still a strong hand but he now thinks it’s beatable.

C  QS, JS, 9S, 4S         9D                   – Player C has thrown away a 7H but got back a 9D. Hiss hand os now a pair of 9’s, not very strong at all.

D  AS, AC, 8S, 8C         6H                   – Player D has thrown away the 4C but got back a 6H, again it’s no improvement but it’s still a fairly strong hand.

 

In the final betting round, player B is cautious and checks. Player C could bet here trying to make the other players think that he has a strong hand; possibly they might think he has drawn a flush or a straight. If he did bet here the bet would be described as a’bluff’, that is, he would be betting with a weak hand hoping that the other players would fold allowing him to win the pot. However, player C considers that he would not get away with the bluff and also checks. Player D is encouraged by the fact that the other twoplayers have checked. He counts this as a sign of weakness on their part and thinks it is possible that he has the best hand. However, he knows that both of his opponents are capable of checking a good hand in the hope of ‘trapping’ him and getting him to bet with an inferior holding. Players who use the trapping technique a lot are, not surprisingly, called’trappers’. So player D decides to be cautious and check. The dealer tells all of the players to turn over their cards and player B wins with the best hand of three twos.

 

 

 

Poker is really a generic term for a family of games. The most common vanahons are:

·     Draw Poker

·     Five-card Stud

·     Seven-card Stud

·     Texas Hold ‘Em

·     Omaha

I will start with how to play draw poker and five-card stud, with particular focus on draw poker, as all other types are derived from these two. If you can master the basics of these two games you can easily adapt to all other forms of poker.
The Basics

The Basics

Poker is played with between two and twelve people seated at either a circular or a kidney shaped table. A game of poker can last for several hours and is divided into hands. Each hand of poker takes about 3-5 minutes to play, depending on the number of  players at the table and how fast they play. Depending on the strength of his/her hand, players make bets by putting money (which is exchanged for chips if you’re playing in a casino) into the ‘pot’. The objective for each poker player, during a hand, is to win all the money in the pot of each hand. That is, to obtain the highest-ranking hand, or bet out all of the other opponents and be the sole remaining player left in contention. Pots are not all the same size so at the end of the playing session the person who has won the most money is not necessarily the person who has won most pots. The aim of the game is to win,as much money during the playing session as possible.

If you are planning to have a social game it is worth setting a limit on the stakes that are to be played for. It is also a good idea to set a finishing time in advance, as the losers, even when playing for very small stakes, usually want to continue playing until they get their money back.

 

The Ranking of Hands

Although there are many variations of the game of poker, the ranking of hands always remains the same. A poker hand is always made up of exactly five cards. The values of each card from the highest to the lowest are ace, king, queen, jack, 10, 9, 8, 7,6,5,4, 3, 2, ace (an ace can be high or low depending on the circumstance). In the remainder of this book, where appropriate, an ace will be shown as an’A’, a king as’K’, a queen as’Q’ and a jack as’J’.

Poker hands are ranked in the order of probability of being dealt in five-card combinations from the standard 52-card. deck. There are 2,598,960 combinations of five-card hands possible in the standard deck. The number of possible hands in each of the categories is given opposite. You will see that the high card is the commonest hand and easiest to get dealt, hence it is worth the least. By contrast, there are only four combinations of cards which will give a royal flush, making it the rarest hand and hence the most valuable.

Royal Flush – 4

The five highest cards of the same suit. Examples are

A(clubs), K(clubs), Q(clubs), J(clubs), 10(clubs) or A(hearts), K(hearts), Q(hearts), J(hearts), 10(hearts)

 

Straight Flush – 36

Any five cards of the same suit which are also in sequential order or rank. Examples are

7(diamonds), 8(diamonds), 9(diamonds), 10(diamonds), J(diamonds) or 3(spades), 4(spades), 5(spades), 6(spades), 7(spades)

 

Four of a kind – 624

Four cards of the same rank or value. Example 10(hearts), 10(diamonds), 10(spades), 10(clubs), 7 (clubs).  (Notes that most standard poker hands have 5 cards in a hand).

 

Full House – 3744

Three cards of the same rank or value plus a pair of different rank. Example 3(diamonds), 3(spades), 3(hearts), 9(spades), 9(clubs).

 

Flush – 5108

Five non-sequential cards of the same suit. Example A(clubs), K(clubs), 7(clubs), 5(clubs), 2(clubs)

 

Straight – 10,200

Five cards of mixed suits in sequence of rank. An example is 7(diamonds), 8(hearts), 9(diamonds), 10(diamonds), J(spades). Although the ace is normally a high card it can also play as a low card to form a five-high straight (or indeed a straight flush). Thus A(clubs), 2(diamonds), 3(hearts), 4(clubs), 5(spades) is the lowest possible straight.

 

Three of a kind – 54,912

Three cards of the same rank, also called a set or trips (short for triplets). Example 6(clubs), 6(hearts), 6(diamonds), 10(hearts), 9(spades).

 

Two Pair – 123,552

Any two cards of the same rank, plus any other two cards of the same rank, plus one odd card. Examples are A(hearts), A(clubs), 4(diamonds), 4(hearts), 5(clubs) called’ aces up’ as aces are the higher pair, or 7(clubs), 7(spades), 3(hearts), 3(diamonds), Q(hearts) called’sevens up’ as sevens are the highest pair.

 

One Pair – 1,098,240

Any two cards of the same rank, plus three odd cards. Example 8(hearts), 8(spades), K(hearts), J(clubs), 3(hearts)

 

High Card – 1,302,540

If no player has a pair or better then the highest card held wins. Examples are A(clubs), K(hearts), 10(spades), 8(clubs), 5(hearts) which is an Ace high, or 9(clubs), 8(clubs), 5(hearts), 4(diamonds), 2(spades, which is a lowly nine high.

 

There are some aspects of hand rankings which can be confusing for beginners. For instance, flushes are ordered in terms of their highest card, then the next highest and so on down to the fifth card, so A(clubs), K(clubs), 7(clubs), 5(clubs), 3(clubs) is a bigger flush than A(spades), K(spades), 6(spades), 5(spades), 2(spades), although both are called’ ace-high flushes’. Also, if there were two flushes exactly the same size, e.g. Q(spades), 7(spades), 5(spades), 4(spades), 2(spades) and Q(clubs), 7(clubs), 5(clubs), 4(clubs), 2(clubs), the two hands would draw and the pot would be split between both players as in poker there is no difference in the value of suits. Similarly, with two-pair hands, if two players have the same highest pair, the lower pair determines the winner, so A-A-4-4-J would beat A-A-2-2-Q and both would beat Q-Q-J-J-K. In the unlikely event of two players having the same two pair, the player with the higher fifth card would win. Thus, J-J-5-5-Q would beat J-J-5-5-9.

Chasing rainbows
More than half the U.S.population gambles fairly regularly. For most players, gambling is a fun diversion from the normal routine. However, you can easily cross the dangerously thin line from pleasurable pastime to deadly addiction. One of the best ways to avoid the pitfall of addiction is through education. Your chances of winning increase dramatically ifyou understand the odds and psychology of the games you play. That’s where this article comes into play.
You can easily get caught up in the chase. Everyone enjoys winning more than losing, and no one likes to come home defeated. But you need to remember that no one wins every trip or every day or every session. Gambling is all about educating yourself about the long odds you are facing and selecting the best bets in the casino. So keep this advice in mind: Losing a small amount and walking away is far better than dumping a bundle trying desperately to get even.

By far, the best known and most popular progressive gambling system is the Martingale system, which has been around for centuries. On the surface, this system seems so foolproof that thousands of hopeful gamblers think they have reinvented it, only to find out later that it’s not as infallible as they thought.
The appeal of the Martingale lies in its simplicity. You start off by betting one unit – say, $5. Whenever you win, you continue with the same $5 bet, but
whenever you lose, you double the next bet. Ifyou lose the next hand, you double again ($5, $10, $20, $40, $80, $160, $320, $640, and so on).
To many gamblers, the Martingale seems perfect. However, it has a couple of fatal flaws. The first problem is that by doubling up after every loss, eventually
you bump up against the maximum allowable bets in many casinos. A $5 starting unit will exceed $500 if you lose seven straight hands (which happens far more often than you may think).
But the real problem of the system is that it doesn’t work. If you’re playing a negative expectation game, such as roulette, you can expect to lose an amount that is close to the preset house advantage of 5.26 percent. The Martingale does give you a lot more winning sessions, but they’re mostly small. Your losing trips, however, are bone rattling.

Many players erroneously believe certain events are due. For example, if the roulette ball lands on a red number five times in a row, some gamblers feel black is due to hit.
It’s true that, over time, 50-50propositions Oike flipping a coin) even out and finish close to the average. But the most likely outcome for the short-term is
anything but average. It’s not unusual to have seven heads and three tails in ten flips of a coin. Even if you take time off work and meticulously keep track
of a million flips, it’s highly unlikely the results will be exactly 500,000 for each. The occurrence of heads and tails will be close to 50 percent, but there
still may be thousands more heads than tails.
How does this example relate to gambling? Don’t get sucked into illusory concepts such as hot dice, cold cards, or streaky machines. This fact is just the principle of random walk at work; short-term fluctuation is normal in any game.
But can you predict that fluctuation or make money off it? Absolutely not!

Forecasting the trends
Some gamblers mistakenly believe that trends develop in some games – and that smart players can spot these trends and use them to predict the future.

To encourage this strategy, casinos even display previous numbers hit on the roulette wheel and give players paper and pencils to track results at the baccarat table. Unless you’re planning a future career as the scorekeeper for the Lakers, such activities are a waste of time. The previous results are only meaningful if
there were a bias in the machine or wheel. But modern casinos are extremely vigilant about regulating all their games, and it’s very rare for non random events to creep into games of chance.

Succumbing to sefective memory
All gambling superstitions and misconceptions share one common denominator – they all lose in the long run. You don’t believe me? Perhaps you have a friend who always wins at slots or crushes the craps tables every trip. The truth is that people do win sometimes – otherwise no one would ever return to the casinos. But I would speculate that an average gambler finishes ahead about one out of every three trips. That’s simply short-term fluctuation at work.

The problem for most people is that they don’t keep records, and it is human nature to recall big wins and minimize losses. Consequently, many gamblers think that they’re winners when actually they’re net losers.

It’s a fact: In most casino games, the house has the edge. But you can get an edge over the casino in two ways:
– Using match play coupons to double your fun.
You can often find match play coupons in the free fun books distributed by many casinos. Rip these coupons out and tuck them underneath your bet. In most cases, they essentially double your wager without having to risk any more money.
– Taking advantage of promotions.
Promotions can be the best way to secure a positive expectation. Here are a couple of examples: I have played at several casinos where they changed the rules for a short period of time and paid out 2 to 1 on all blackjacks. This change tipped the odds enough so that even basic-strategy players had nearly a 2 percent edge over the house.

Another great promotion was when the Pioneer Casino in Laughlin, Nevada, offered Double Jackpot Time on some slot machines. Twice an hour, for a short period of time (approximately 30 seconds), they generously doubled the payout on certain jackpots. Most people shrugged off this opportunity as just another marketing gimmick, but it was verylucrative. A friend of mine made six figures a year there playing only a few minutes every hour.

Finding out about these great deals isn’t easy. However, one helpful resource for casino promotions and coupons is the Las Vegas Advisor. Another tactic is signing up for casino mailing lists to keep abreast of upcoming special events.

Paying less than the true odds
Another way the casino makes money is to payout less than the true odds. Take roulette: With 38 numbers on the wheel, your odds of guessing the winning number are 37 to 1. So you bravely place a $100 bet on a single number and hit it. Congratulations! After you quit jumping up and down and kissing the cocktail server, dealer, and anyone else who couldn’t quickly escape, you collect $3,500. But, wait a minute. $3,500 means a payoff of 35 to 1. What happened to the true odds of 37 to 1?The fact is, even though you win, your payoff is less than the true odds. The bottom line? Casinos take $200 out of every $3,800 wagered, which leaves the house with a hefty edge of 5.26 percent.

Muddling the odds
Casinos offer three types of games – games with fixed odds, games with variable odds, and games where skill can affect the odds. They all have different styles of play and appeal to different kinds of gamblers. Although you should naturally gravitate toward the games that are the most fun for you, you need to be clear on the three classes of games. This section looks at the three types more closely Games with fixed odds When the odds are fixed (not subject to change), the bean counters in the back room can calculate exactly how much each of these games wins for every $100 gambled. That’s because, no matter how much gamblers vary their play, the casino has the same edge. The house seldom has a losing day on games with fixed odds, such as Slots, Craps, Keno and Roulette.

Even though the profits fluctuate each day (due to short-term luck), casinos can easily forecast for the long run because they have hundreds of machines and tables all operating at once. Games with flariabfe odds In this classification, the odds change, depending on how well gamblers play their cards or place their bets. Several of these games may yield better odds for smarter players. But the gain in these games can only go so far because over the long run, the odds still strongly favor the house. In other words, even if you play better than anyone else at the table, these games can’t be beaten.
Some examples of these games include
– Pai Gow poker
– Three Card poker
– Let It Ride

Games where skills affect the odds
A few games reward skillful play and allow a tiny minority of gamblers to get an edge over the house. These games are variable-odds games, but they offer an advantage that the others don’t: Gamblers actually have a chance to win money in the long run. But don’t think you can walk in off the street and start pocketing Ben Franklins. Winning requires study, discipline, patience, and practice. Here are the games where skill can get you over the hump:
– Blackjack
– Video poker
– Regular poker
– Sports betting
– Horse racing

To be a successful gambler, you must understand the intersection of statistics, probability, and the odds. In simple terms, that means you need to understand how likely something is to happen (statistics), how likely that it can happen to you (probability), and what you’re going to get out of it, if it does happen (odds). With a grasp of these concepts, you’re ready to tackle the casino with realistic expectations, and you can understand why some games should be avoided.

The best example to start with is the coin flip. You probably know that heads and tails each have a 50-50shot at turning up. As I say in the previous section,
you can communicate the probability of the flip in terms of odds. In the case of a two-sided coin, your odds of flipping heads are 1 to 1. In other words, with
two possible events (outcomes), you have one chance to fail and one chance to succeed. Clear as mud? Here’s another example. Consider the roll of a sixsided
die. What are the odds that you’ll roll a 3? The ratio is 1in 6, so the odds are 5 to 1.

Odds are, you’ll hear the word odds used in other contexts. For example, the amount of money a bet pays compared to the initial bet are sometimes called odds too. But don’t confuse payout odds with true odds. True odds refer to the actual chance that a specific occurrence will happen, which is usually different from the casino payout odds.

When I told a friend I was writing this article, he laughed and said that “only dummies would ever gamble.” I smiled to myself. Although it’s true that most people who gamble do lose, the real dummies are the ones who take on the casinos without first educating themselves especially on concepts about probability and odds, understanding the house edge, and identifying which games offer the best chance for success.

Unfortunately, too many newbie gamblers rely on luck to guide their experiences. Casinos can be an easy place to burn through money, so your best chance for hanging on to that hard-earned cash is through a little dose of knowledge. But, you wonder, when it comes to striking it rich in the casino, isn’t there such a thing as luck? Technically, the answer is yes – but don’t count on your rabbit’s foot to keep you on the path to riches over the long haul. The term luck can describe many situations, especially in gambling.

Someone may have a lucky run at the baccarat table, or maybe your Aunt Rosemary plays a lucky slot machine that never loses. But in order to have a realistic perspective of your chances in the casino, you need to view luck in rational and mathematical terms: Luck is a temporary fluctuation or deviation from the norm. In the short run, you may perceive that you got real lucky when the dealer busted eight hands in a row at blackjack. But in reality, such an event is just normal fluctuation – also known as a random walk – such as when the stock market drifts one direction or another. For example, in Caribbean Stud poker, for every $100 you wager, you can expect to lose about five bucks. Yet over the short run, anything can happen.

You may get lucky and finish the day ahead – or you may get unlucky and lose far more than $5. In a purely mathematical sense, neither of these results has anything to do with luck. They are simply the normal consequences of fluctuation. For example, try flipping a coin. Half the time it should be tails and half heads. But over a short-term sampling, it can veer far away from 50 percent.

In today’s massive casinos, five-star hotels merge with gargantuan, themed buildings, encompassing entire city blocks and housing restaurants, bars, theaters, nightclubs, gaming tables, slot machines, ATMs,snack bars, gift shops, and even the occasional theme park. A casino’s security division, therefore, must function much like the police department of an entire town. This article explains who the security personnel are, lets you in on who’s watching you, and details how you can be proactive to protect yourself when betting your hard-earned money.

Security personnel: The human touch
In the old days, casinos simply had hired muscle watch after the owners’ millions. These days, casino security folks are considered important members of a casino’s floor team. Because it’s a dynamic and demanding job, casino security has become a true career; casinos offer competitive salaries and benefits so they can hire people who are mentally and physically fit. Security staffs have a two-pronged task:
– Protect the casino’s property
– Safeguard the casino’s guests
Unfortunately, a security employee’s job is made less agreeable by the fact that one task doesn’t always go hand in hand with the other. For instance, some guests are also out to separate a casino from its money, either through cheating or through faking an injury in crowded conditions. The responsibilities of security employees range from viewing the rows of surveillance cameras in high-tech rooms to patrolling the casino floors, constantly on vigil for fights, thieves, drunks, and other disturbances.

Surprisingly, security also keeps a close eye on the help – casino employees have initiated many cheating scams over the years. You can easily spot the security staff; they’re always available to help you
resolve a conflict or point you in the right direction. Even though every casino is different, security staff typically wear a uniform that is quasi-military, with a shirt that says SECURITY or at least a nametag or badge that identifies them as such. Other identifying features include a walkie-talkie, a badge, and possibly a gun. Keep the gun in mind the next time you feel the urge to help yourself to the dealer’s chips.
Bigger hotels can have several dozen security officers working at the busiest times of day and a supervisor in each major area of the casino who manages the team. Security supervisors must wear many hats, including the hat of a diplomat. Their staff is on the front lines, both protecting and ejecting guests, and when the occasional temper flares or a misunderstanding arises, the security supervisor must wade in to render an on-the-spot verdict.

Surveilance: The eye in the sky
On-site security personnel at a casino can only see so much when trying to protect the casino and its guests. To assist them in their daily rounds, security personnel rely on electronic surveillance – the eye in the sky. One-way glass conceals thousands of digital cameras in any casino. Some are hidden where you least expect them. Others are prominent, large, and noticeable so that they serve as warnings. Technology is such today that sophisticated cameras can see not only a player’s face but also the cards in his or her hands and even the serial numbers on dollar bills. On-site security personnel can view banks of television screens to identify cheats and save casinos millions of dollars each year.
In the most brazen scenarios, a nickel-and-dime thief reaches over from his machine to grab grandma’s slot tokens. The cameras capture his attempt, and the thief is quickly arrested. In less obvious but equally common situations, security personnel carefully observe, identify, and apprehend cheats and cons.
Although most surveillance is for the detection and prevention of cheating and swindling, the eye in the sky also protects honest gamblers from slick crooks prowling the casino for easy prey. The newer casinos have cameras outside the building, such as in the parking garages, to cast the safety net farther for you.