Moral issues on gambling
January 28, 2008
A lot of bad things have been said about the evils of gambling. A lot of people say that gambling has caused a lot of lives to be ruined. Gambling has caused a lot bad things to happen to families. It ruins their financial standing. It ruins their life goals. It ruins the very fibre that keeps them together. Fine, excessive gambling may have caused these things but not responsible gambling.
Yes, there is such a thing as responsible gambling. When you gamble for recreation, when you gamble for fun, or when you gamble to keep yourself entertained then there is completely nothing wrong with that. When you gamble your life savings away or if your gamble your house then there is something wrong with that already.
What are the moral issues surrounding gambling then? If you think about it, gambling per se is not bad. When you take gambling out of hand and turn it into a vice then that is where the bad things happen. You have to understand that gambling is not a stable means of earning money. If you think that you can consistently win in poker and take home the pot everyday then you are certainly mistaken. If that were the case then no one would play poker with you anymore, right? Who would want to lose his or her money without even having a chance to win it back?
Make sure that you gamble responsibly when you go out there at the poker table. Make sure that you do not go home with all your life savings out of your pocket. When you go to a gambling place, a casino, or any invitational out there, consider the money you shell out lost already. The mentality of the responsible gambler is that if he or she gambles one hundred dollars today, it is considered gone already. If everyone thought this way then there would not be anything bad happening regarding gambling. Who would want to throw away a thousand dollars without the guarantee that there will some sort of return?
You may wonder then, when is gambling morally good? This is a tricky question. When can gambling actually become good for a person? If gambling helps a person relax so that he or she can work better the next day then gambling is something that enables something good. If you think about it, some people are actually relaxed at the slot machine or at the poker table. When the following day comes, they will be able to work more easily and more productively. If gambling enables someone to do this then gambling can be considered morally good. Just treat gambling as any other recreational activity then you will be on your way to enjoying gambling as something that enriches and empowers people to live.
If you think that gambling is a black and white issue then you are wrong. Gambling has many faces and many sides. Make sure that you are on the good side of gambling.
Decision making in poker
January 24, 2008
Poker is all about making good decisions. Some people think that poker is about the end result. Some people think that poker is all about winning. To some extent, you want that to happen but at the backbone of it all, poker is all about good decision making skills. How do you develop good decision making skills in poker anyway? How can you assure yourself that you will be able to make the right decision at the right time at the right place? Will you be able to walk away from the poker table knowing that you made a good decision?
Making decisions in poker is all about probabilities. What are the chances? That is the ultimate and fundamental question you should be asking yourself after every card is dealt on the table. What are your odds of hitting a straight on the turn card and the river card? That is the question that you should be asking yourself. Should you raise the pot? Should you increase the pot? Should you call? Should you fold? If the odds are favourable then you should certainly make a move. If the odds are ultimately in your favour then you should make an aggressive move.
If the probabilities are on your side then you know what to do. Even if the outcome does not turn out the way it should have been, you do not have to worry. At the end of the day, as long as you have made the right decision, everything else is left up to fate. If you can make good decisions consistently then in the long run, fate and luck will go your way. If you have pocket aces before the pre flop and you lose on an all in then luck was not on your side but more often than not, you will likely win an all in pot with pocket aces.
So does it matter if you win or not at poker? Yes, it does matter but it is not the be all and end all of things in poker. You have to understand, poker is much like real life. You can make the right decision but have lousy outcomes. You can make the wrong decisions and get lucky. At the end of the day, the more right decisions you make, the better your chances of getting good outcomes. In poker, you have to practice making good decisions, not expecting good results because you really have no control with the results anyway.
If you want to make sure that you have a good poker career ahead of you then you should make sure that you learn how to make good decisions. You should not worry too much about the outcome because at the end of the day, you have no control of it anyway. Even if you got a bad break on a certain day, you should not feel bad if you made the right decision anyway. Stay in there and you will end up reaping rewards later on.
Advantages and disadvantages of online poker
January 20, 2008
So you are bored at home and you have nothing to do. You are itching to play poker and your computer has an internet connection. Hook up to one of the online casinos and you can play poker already. All you have to do is log on to some poker site and upload some funds. Sometimes, you will be able to play for free but you will not have any reward at the end. Go out there and surf the web for a good online poker room.
There are a lot of advantages in online poker. First of all, you can pay poker at the comfort of your own home. You do not have to worry about dressing up or looking okay because you can play poker right at your bedroom. You do not have to pay for gas and your do not need a car to get to the casino. Wow, that is a lot of your back. You do not have to worry about all those things just to play poker. Another advantage of online poker is the ability to transact online. You can upload your funds online. All you need is your credit card number. You do not need to go to the bank and withdraw money for use in a casino. Your credit card number will do online.
It is now time to look at the disadvantages of online poker. First, you will not be able to see your opponents. You have no idea what they look like. You have no tells. You will not be able to find out if they are bluffing or not because you can not see them. This is also advantageous to you because they can not see you. Playing online takes a lot out of the game of poker, especially the reads and the tells. If your skill in poker is finding out who is bluffing or not then you are at a handicap on online poker. Another disadvantage of online poker is the fact that you can max out your credit card if you get frustrated with your game. If you are unable to control your credit card expenses then you will keep loading and loading funds into your account. Before you know it, you have a ten thousand dollar bill on your credit card just because you were frustrated one night on online poker.
Although online poker is fun, I think that nothing beats the real poker at the real poker table. It is very different when you are playing at a real poker table. You can see people and you can see whether they are bluffing or not. Even if you have to dress up, you will still be able to appreciate the glam and the thrill of real life poker. Personally, if you were going to ask me which is better, I would say that real poker is better. Although if you have nothing to do at home and you want to play poker with someone on the other side of the world then why not do online poker? It is also fun in its own respect.
Lack of Aggressiveness
January 16, 2008
There are some people out there that play poker too safe. These poker players have a lot of things to upgrade in order to be competitive in poker. Poker is not all about having the right cards. Sometimes, you have to be aggressive in poker in order to win, regardless whether your cards are good or not. Here are some tips on how to increase your aggressiveness on the poker table.
First, try to play hands that are not really good. If you are dealt with a three and ten off suit then you should try playing it once in awhile. Sometimes your cards get pretty on the flop. If you are the safe pre flop player then you should try to be more aggressive. If you are only joining a pot when you have a king and an ace, a queen and a jack, a king and a queen, and so on and so forth, all those face cards, then you should rethink your strategies. If your opponent has a king and an ace and you only have a two and a three then why not try fighting it. If the flop comes out with three two’s then you have certainly beaten the ace king already.
Second, try to bluff. Yes, I am telling you to lie. Sometimes, try to bully your opponent out of the pot by raising a substantial amount for him or her to fold. For example, if you do not have anything on the turn card, why not try increasing the pot and scaring off everyone? If you succeed in your bluff then your poker skills are increasing. If you fail in the bluff then learn from your mistakes and try to bluff better next time. As the wise people would say, if it does not kill you then it makes you certainly stronger!
Third, be unpredictable. Sometimes you just have to do something out of the norm to throw your opponents off their seat. For example, why not try going all in on the first hand on the first round? Even if you do not have great cards, you might be able to steal the pot on the first round, right?
Lastly, why don’t you put a bounty on someone on the table? You can make a side pot with your seat mate and bet on who will be able to take out player number six. If you take out player number six then you will be able to bring home a side pot with your seat mate. If your seat mate takes out opponent number six then he or she will be the one to take home the side pot. In this way, both of you are being aggressive on one particular player. Sometimes, even if you lose a hand but if you take out the bounty player, you are still a winner at the end of the day because of the side pot. If you want to make the game more interesting, you can put a bounty on your seatmate and bet on who will take out whom. This is a seat mate rivalry and it will force you to be aggressive with your seat mate.
The Ante
January 8, 2008
The ante is basically the amount of chips or the amount of money that you need to put into the pot before getting any of your cards. Why do poker tables have the ante anyway? The reason for putting the ante on the table is because if there were no ante, the players will simply wait for the best cards they get and only play on those hands. The ante gives the poker players a reason to play. It forces them to make a move even if they do not have nice cards. For example, if there are ten players at the poker table and each person is required to put a dollar ante for every round then there will always be ten dollars on the table to play for. Even if your cards are not that nice, you will still try to make a move and get the ten dollars.
Antes are normally raised after ten to fifteen minutes of play. If you started with antes of fifty cents then after fifteen minutes, you could raise the antes to a dollar, and so on and so forth. This will speed up the game and it will make everyone play more aggressively toward the very end. If you are putting out antes of ten dollars for every round then you will be forced to grab the pot as much as possible.
What are ways of speeding up the antes? Sometimes it takes a lot of time to put the antes into the pot. You may encounter trouble finding out who did not put the ante or who have already placed an ante. Sometimes, long debates might even go on during prior distribution of cards because no one knows who put the ante or who did not put the ante. One way of solving this problem is to make the dealer pay the ante for everyone. Since the dealer rotates after every hand, the dealer can pay the antes for everyone at the table. The only thing that should be kept in mind in this situation is that everyone at the table must be able to deal an equal amount of times. Player one and player seven have to deal a one dollar ante for every rotation of the dealer button.
In some cases, the ante is completely removed but it is advised that every poker match have an ante. If you are hosting a poker tournament then make sure that you know the rules for antes so that when the tournament begins, no one is lost. Explain the rules of antes to the players so that no one will be confused.
If you do not like putting antes in your poker tournament then maybe you should simply increase the blinds. This way, everyone ends up giving their portion of the pot for every round as the dealer button rotates. In any case, the bottom line in any poker tournament is that there must be action on each and every round and that every player on the table must contribute to the action by putting in a portion of his or her chips on the table.
Dressing up for poker
January 3, 2008
Dressing up for poker is always a topic to talk about. What should you wear to a poker tournament? What is up with poker fashion nowadays? What should you wear to a normal poker invitational to your friend’s house?
The main rule of thumb in dressing up for poker is to wear something comfortable. If you are comfortable wearing a suit to the poker table then go ahead and do so. If you are comfortable wearing a polo to the poker table then go ahead and do so. If you like to wear a skirt to the poker table then go ahead and do so. There are no restrictions at the poker table unless specified by the host. For instance, if your host says that the poker invitational is strictly formal then expect to wear your coat and tie or your tuxedo. If your host is lenient then you can actually wear anything you want to the poker table.
What about the casinos? I knew you would ask this question. Well, depending on which casino you are playing at, there are dress codes. If you are playing poker in the Las Vegas casinos then you should certainly dress up a bit. If you are playing poker in suburban casinos then you should not worry about dressing up too much. Still, the rule of thumb still applies, even if you are going to dress up, make sure that what you are wearing is comfortable.
One of the fashion accessories at the poker table are sunglasses. How come so many poker players wear sunglasses? Why do professional poker players always wear sunglasses? One of the more obvious reasons for wearing sunglasses is to avoid your opponents seeing your eyes. When an opponent looks at your eyes, he or she is trying to find out if you are bluffing or not. If you have sunglasses on then the other people will not be able to see what is going on with your eyes. Another reason which makes sunglasses popular at the poker table is that they make you look like a professional poker player. Have you noticed that at the poker tournaments, the poker heavyweights always have a pair of sunglasses somewhere there? Wearing sunglasses at the poker table makes you look more professional.
A fashion accessory that can hide your eyes are caps. Aside from sunglasses, caps can also serve as a great way to elude your opponents. Just tilt your cap a little bit down and you will be able to shield yourself from your competitors. They will be unable to check out your eyes when your cap is tilted downwards.
If you are not a fan of sunglasses and caps then maybe you should wear something else to cover your eyes. What else is out there to cover your eyes? Yes, you are right, a mask! If you are really daring and a bit weird then you can wear a mask to the poker table. Try a Batman mask or a Ronald McDonald mask. But seriously, you should stick to the sunglasses or the cap.