Video poker introduction

The two main types of machines in casinos are slot machines and video poker machines. Slot machines tend to be more mundane. It's simply a matter of dumping coins into the machine and hitting a button to see if you got lucky. Video Poker, on the other hand, rewards players that can think. There's actually strategy involved in video poker. The game doesn't have a steep learning curve. In fact, the basics can be learned in minutes.

If you have never played video poker before, let me give you one good piece of advice. Don't play unless you can afford to play the maximum credits. That's where the real money is made. I wish someone had told me that when I started out. I walked up to a quarter video poker machine, put in one quarter, and hit a royal flush. I got paid $62.50 for the quarter. However, had I played the maximum credits, just $1 more, I would have received $1,000. I lost $937.50, because I didn't play $1 more. That's a huge chunk of change to lose.

Playing video poker is pretty simple. First, you load credits into the machine-remember to always play the max. You are dealt a hand of five cards. All machines tell you what combinations you need to get a payout. After looking over your initial hand, you decide what cards, if any, to keep. When you hit deal again, new cards are given to you and your hand is now complete. Should your final combination warrant a payout, it will be paid now. While it's rare to get a royal flush dealt to you on the first five cards, make sure you have all five cards held before hitting the deal button if this happens.

Video poker never gets boring. There are so many types of video poker games out there now. They all offer different payouts and many offers different ways to play the game entirely. For instance, there are different styles like traditional, Joker's Wild, and Deuce's Wild. There are also different payout methods like Bonus, Double Bonus, Triple Bonus, More for Four and so on. Before playing any machine look to see what the required paying combinations are and what they pay.

The best machine to play, from a consistency standpoint, is a 9/6 Jacks or Better machine. The 9/6 refers to the payout on a flush and full house. Not all Jacks and Better machines pay the same amount. Make sure yours is a 9/6 machine before playing. These machines give you the best bang for your buck. The 9/6 machine is known as a “full-pay” machine. It's named this because players are getting the best possible payout for their money. It's no secret that a skilled video poker player can almost eliminate the house advantage by playing a 9/6 machine and using the proper strategy.

Increase gambling affiliate revenues through article submissions

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If you have a gambling-related website then you are certainly concerned with its rankings in search engines because you want to increase traffic to your website to increase affiliate revenues.

Fortunately, with article submission services and directory submission you can increase the visibility of your website as well as its ranking in the search engines because you will be gaining one way links and visibility. Consider the following benefits of article submission and directory submission so you, too, can enjoy a high ranking from the popular search engines.

Article Submission

The benefit from article submission is not as much from the information in the article, but from the links embedded in the article that increase your rankings with the search engine. Search engines work on a variety of levels, one of them including the amount of links on the Internet pointing back to your website. As a result, the more links you have the higher you are ranked.

So, part of your search engine optimization strategy should be to use article submission services. You simply write or buy an article and have links to your site and different pages in your site embedded in the article. Then, the article is submitted to various article directories and spread across the Internet as well. The more links you have the higher your search rankings and a great way to get a lot of links is to use article submission services.

Remember, once your article is submitted with the embedded links to your site it is more than likely to stay on the Internet forever and you will have one way permanent links to your site that are always helping you in the search engine rankings.

What makes this technique really beneficial to casino/poker/gambling affiliates is that they are able to not only create one-way backlinks, but also strengthen the theme relevance of their websites.

Example: A gambling-related article is submitted to an article submission service. The anchor text used in the article are gambling-related and point to gambling themed content on the target website. This type of link is very powerful. Together with the likelihood that the article will be hosted on a 3rd party site which is also gambling-related - the theming strength of the article, it's position and backlinks makes for a very solid linking strategy.

Directory Submission

If you are interested in your website truly performing the best in search engine rankings then you will concern yourself with directory submission. There are thousands of different directories out there, some that apply to your website, and others that do not. By focusing on directory submission in the directories that are related to your site you will certainly increase your rankings. Of course, each directory has categories as well so it does take some research and effort to get your website submitted to all the directories in the right categories that really benefit your site. But, once you do you have a permanent listing of your website in the directory that will direct your target audience to your site day in and day out. Remember, however, that just any directory submission is not going to get you the traffic you want. You need to focus on submitting to directories that relate to your website in order to have your website directory submission in the location where your target audience is.

Theming is really about creating critical mass around your content, both on-page and off-page.

Article Submission = Permanent Links

When you rely solely on other websites to host your link in order for you to host their, you are risking that other webmasters simply chose to remove your link and with it your Search Engine rankings go down. However, when you use article submission and directory submission in order to build links to your site and make your website more visible to your target audience you are basically receiving permanent links and advertisement for your site. The benefit of this is that with a little effort you can get your articles submitted and your website listed with the directories and then just sit back and enjoy the permanent links and higher search engine rankings you receive.

Online poker tournaments a two part primer part 2

In the first part of this article we discussed in general terms how an online poker tournament works. In this article we’ll go into detail about the different types of tournaments.

Multi-Table Tournaments

Multi-Table tournaments are big tournaments; some can have 2,000 players or more. In a multi-table tournament, you compete against the players at your table, the winner of that table moves on to another table. This keep going on until there is only one player left. As you can imagine, multi-tables can last for quite a few hours.

Single Table Tournaments Or “Sit and Go” Tournaments

These are reasonably small tournaments, usually nine or ten players. You’re only competing against the other players at your table. These types of tournaments usually start when the required number of players has registered. These tournaments tend to be shorter then mult-table tournaments, often lasting around one hour. These tournaments often have only one winner.

Free Roll Tournaments

These tournaments are free. Pokerrooms periodically hold free rolls. Entry into one of these may be given away as a comp to existing players or as a bonus for making a deposit. In any event, it costs you nothing to enter, and you have a shot at willing real money.

Satellite Tournaments

Satellite Tournaments are smaller tournaments in which the prize is entry into a bigger tournament. At some pokerrooms, you can “satellite” your way all the way up to free entry into the World Series of Poker held in Vegas.

Here’s some additional info

Re-buy or Addons: some tournaments allow you to purchase additional chips after the start. There are usually specific rules about how much and when you can purchase. Also, the ability to purchase additional chips usually ends at a certain point in the tournament.

Blinds: During most tournaments, blinds increase periodically on a specific schedule. This is to help to shorten the length of the tournament, by making it more costly to simply keep folding. Larger blinds force players to play more aggressively.

NL/PL: These stand for No Limit and Pot Limit respectively. No Limit means a player can always bet all of his or her chips. Pot Limit means the maximum bet size can only be equal to the amount of the pot.

Well, I hope these two articles have given you a sufficient intro to online poker tournaments. The next step is up to you, if you think you’re ready for it. Good Luck!

Limit shorthand poker strategy

Let's say you are in the middle of a game of poker – the game is limit shorthand. There are some situations you might wanna take a look at to make a better idea of what strategies and actions you should think of.

When in preflop and you just realize you have been dealt a pocket pair, a small one then you must think if your pot is a large one. If you are indeed in a multiway pot, then your pocket pair might just work, even if it is one less than seven. If you are in a blind position and all others just called the big blind, then you should just check to enter the flop cheap. But, if you are on the button and before you there are one raise and a fold, then the best thing to do is to force the blinds by reraising.

Once you get yourself on the flop you should just do the justifiable thing: fold if you didn't hit or continue if you did hit.

When in a shorthand game, if you want to bluff on the flop then you might consider bluffing when you are up against one or two players tops. Simple bluffing here, you have nothing because of a weird flop, and the thing is that when few players are involved they will probably have nothing also, so you should just go ahead with it, it might work. If they call you then decide whether to go on or not. Analyze the odds you have for a draw and consider that if they are also bluffing, what your chances for the plot are. So, if your hand is made only of low cards, just check or even fold most times because they can have a better kicker.

There are some things you should never do in a shorthand game like going for the draw when you have just an Ace and there are others that went in. They might have a pocket pair or a better kicker and you would lose.

Always try to play within your bankroll. These types of games take a long time to really win. You don't want to risk loosing a hand and then have no more money to wait for the winning pot. If are simply playing your cards in a shorthand game you are making a very big mistake. You should consider that strategies are easy to apply here and others will try them. You should always pay attention to other and try to play their hands also - it is a crucial part of shorthand strategy.

Earn money playing slot machines... or not

Yay, what a life would that be - sitting behind the fancy slot machine, hitting buttons, sipping Bud Light and constantly cashing out big bucks, or coins. Sure, we know that casinos (even online casinos, yes) take their "edge" and earn hideous profits, but we don't think about it when we step into a local casino or log on to our favourite online casino.

There's always a constant battle between "us" (the players) and "them" (casino) and most of the time we're pretty equal, until the slot machine suddenly turns into a money-leeching demon and starts eating our cash. So, after losing again, you ended up reading this article that has a title which gives you some hope.

Not that I want to sound rude, but reconsider because you won't win your money back. Every bet you make equals giving your money away. Actually, there's only one way to gain a profit visiting a casino - that's when you sign up for a casino's club card and go visit the place once in a while. You won't play but always claim your "Club Member Bonus" free drink. After drinking it you should leave the place, but knowing you guys, that almost never happens.

For people who still believe that they can win with slot machines, I have listed some myths and rumors that aren't true. Believing in them brings you debts and misery.

Some people believe that a poorly paying slot machine is about to hit big, maybe even a jackpot, so it would be smart to keep on playing or even raise the bets::

Well, actually there's no difference if the machine has been paying poorly for a long time or not, because each spin is unique and totally random (IF, that is, you're playing at least Casino Control Commission or a GamblingRalf approved casino and the machine uses well-known software). There's different situations in land based casinos, because even if they claim that slot machines payout percentage is fixed and constant, it still happens sometimes. The payout percentage has been lowered to nonexistent and you can keep on playing and losing forever. There's also no such thing as "feeding the slot machine" (this equals losing your money in order to win it back later) or "milking it".

Talking on a cell phone when gambling drives high tech slot machines crazy and helps to win big...or not! Actually some cell phones damage digital slot machines (especially before GSM coverage, when NMT was a superhit), but I haven't heard any stories of players being able to cheat the casino with this trick and withdraw the money.

I know a few players who have had sudden $100,000 on their bankroll and weren't paid, because the computer chip made a mistake (probably caused by cell phone). Every bet and win has to be proved by a slot machine's previous winnings history, which is saved and constantly checked.

::Temperature of the coins affect slot machines and payout rates. Hot coin means more money!::

Another twisted fairytale. If you're already so credulous, don't visit casinos at all - you will gamble your brains off like that and go home crying. Computer chips have a RNG chip (Random Number Generator) that isn't affected by anything, even not by the coin you have stored and heated up between your buns.

We could continue this list, but I'd rather not do it because it all comes down to one thing - in the long run there's no way you can beat the slot machine and steal its edge. If winning was easy, there would be no casinos. There's no simple "How to Beat Slot Machine" tactic, only some simple rules that should be followed to keep your losings as low as possible.