There’s a difference between someone who enjoys testing their luck in gambling and someone who is addicted to betting.
The easiest way to help a loved one who is addicted is by first understanding their addiction. It also is good to know what signs and symptoms to look for.
According to HELPGUIDE.org
You or your loved one may have a gambling problem if you/they:
-Feel the need to be secretive about your gambling.
-Have trouble controlling your gambling.
-Gamble even when you don’t have the money.
-Family and friends are worried about you
According to NewScientist.com
“FIVE years ago, Londoner Ashley Revell sold his house, all his possessions and cashed in his life savings. It raised £76,840. He flew to Las Vegas, headed to the roulette table and put it all on red.
The wheel was spun. The crowd held its breath as the ball slowed, bounced four or five times, and finally settled on number seven. Red seven.
Revell’s bet was a straight gamble: double or nothing. But when Edward Thorp, a mathematics student at the Massachussetts Institute of Technology, went to the same casino some 40 years previously, he knew pretty well where the ball was going to land. He walked away with a profit, took it to the racecourse, the basketball court and the stock market, and became a multimillionaire. He wasn’t on a lucky streak, he was using his knowledge of mathematics to understand, and beat, the odds.
No one can predict the future, but the powers of probability can help. Armed with this knowledge, a high-school mathematics education and £50, I headed off to find out how Thorp, and others like him, have used mathematics to beat the system. Just how much money could probability make me?
When Thorp stood at the roulette wheel in the summer of 1961 there was no need for nerves - he was armed with the first “wearable” computer, one that could predict the outcome of the spin. Once the ball was in play, Thorp fed the computer information about the speed and position of the ball and the wheel using a microswitch inside his shoe. “It would make a forecast about a probable result, and I’d bet on neighbouring numbers,” he says.
Thorp’s device would now be illegal in a casino, and in any case getting a computer to do the work wasn’t exactly what I had in mind. However, there is a simple and sure-fire way to win at the roulette table - as long as you have deep pockets and a faith in probability theory.”
According to Continue Reading
From PokerListings.com:
The 33-year-old professional poker player topped a field of 125 to take the $300,000 first prize in the three-day, $10,000 buy-in event at the Paiute Golf Resort.
“I’ve played in a lot of high-stakes poker games, but this was a whole different kind of pressure,” Garaventa said. “There were times out there when I missed shots because my hands or knees were shaking, but it’s an unbelievable rush.”
Poker personalities Daniel Negreanu, Gavin Smith, David Benyamine, Chris Ferguson and David Oppenheim joined Ray Romano, former MLB pitcher Greg Maddux and footballer Jorge Campos in teeing off in this unique event.
Negreanu, Benyamine and Oppenheim would all cash for the minimum $10,000 after winning their first round, but none of the three would survive the second day of play.
Campos took fifth place for $30,000 after busting out early on Day 3.
The World Series of Golf is open to any amateur golfer with $10,000 to spend and adds a No Limit Hold’em-style betting element to the game.
Players are given a 10,000 bank of chips and post ante at each hole. A random draw is made to determine the shooting order, with the button being given to the first player to act.
After the first round of shooting, the button can either check or bet and each successive player must match his wager (or raise) in order to stay in contention for the hole.
Following the betting round, each player still in contention hits another shot and another betting round commences.
Action continues until one player has won the hole, either by stroke count or by forcing his rivals to fold. The last player standing in his group of five wins the round and advances.
Previous champions include Mark Ewing (2007) and A.J. Johnson (2008), both of whom took $250,000 for their efforts.
Las Vegas is not the only city in the world know for its gambling. Here is a list of five sites throughout the world that are home to casinos:
Macau, China - Home to the largest casino in the world, The Venetian.
Monte Carlo, Monaco - Elegance and class, casinos are filled with men in tuxedos and women in full-length dresses.
Lyon, Nice, and Paris, France - France is the home of Roulette.
Venice, Italy - The site of the western world’s first known gaming house.
Baden-Baden, Germany - Is known for its thermal baths and therapeutic healing powers, but is also home to a casino.
“Tournament poker can be very exciting, but like many exciting things in life, it can also be terrifying. There is nothing quite like the thrill of playing at a big money final table. I am often asked how I handle the pressure of playing for such big money. I could give the standard answer of “You have to forget the money and just think about the chips as units.” This is certainly true. But, those units are worth a lot of money and forgetting about the money and prestige that comes with winning is easier said than done.”
Continue Reading for the 4 steps to achieving poker mastery.
Poker is growing in popularity around the globe! With its global appeal someone can incorporate a poker game into any vacation. Here are the top spots to play a hand.
1. Las Vegas, Nevada
2. Melbourne, Australia
3. Paradise Island, Bahamas
4. Monte Carlo, Monaco
5. London, U.K.
6. Macau, China
7. Barcelona, Spain
8. Los Angeles, CA
9. San Jose, Costa Rica
10. Dublin, Ireland
from Yahoo! News:
LAS VEGAS - Nevada gambling regulators have warned casinos in the state about a card-counting program that works on Apple Inc.’s iPhone and iPod Touch that illegally helps players beat the house in blackjack.
Card counting itself is not illegal under Nevada gambling laws, but it is considered a felony to use devices to help count cards.
The Nevada Gaming Control Board sent a memo to casinos last week warning them of the program.
In blackjack, certain card counting techniques help players determine when they are likely to win a hand and adjust their bets accordingly.
Nevada learned of the program from gambling regulators in California, where officials at an Indian casino found customers using it and tipped state authorities.
From Daniel Negreanu at Chron.com:
The best players in the world rely on small ball poker when playing in No Limit Hold’em tournaments. And though it is the optimal strategy, it’s not meant for players of all skill levels. You must have superior hand-reading and people-reading skills for it to be effective.
You’ll play a lot of hands in small ball poker which means you’ll often face difficult situations with marginal cards. That’s why this approach is simply too advanced for beginning players.
In my book, Power Hold’em Strategy, I teach two distinctly different strategies. One is targeted at the experienced player who is looking to get to the next skill level. The other is an entry level approach that seemingly contradicts some of the basic tenets of small ball poker.
Here’s the first tip for beginners: Avoid playing small pots against experienced players because you’ll almost certainly be outplayed after the flop. Instead, make much larger bets before and after the flop. Also, play fewer hands, especially when out of position.
On the other hand, experienced small ball players should come in for a slightly smaller raise when they are first to enter the pot. A raise of 2 ½ times the big blind is about right.
Say you’re dealt 7c-8c with the blinds at 50-100. A skilled small-baller would raise the bet to 250. Not so for a novice player; he should avoid playing the han
d altogether. You see, experienced players can get away with playing more hands pre-flop because they are less likely to make mistakes after the flop.
A novice, though, needs to play much tighter before the flop. And when they do get a playable hand, they need to make larger raises — as much as five times the big blind.
Large raises serve multiple purposes for the beginning player. They apply pressure on skilled opponents who like to play a wide range of funky hands. They also improve the beginner’s chances of taking down the blinds and antes without a fight. Finally, they can help novices avoid difficult decisions after the flop by inducing skilled opponents to lay down their hands.
Remember, this isn’t the optimal tournament strategy for skilled players; it risks too many chips in relation to the expected small payoff. It works for novice players, however, because their primary goal should simply be to stay out of trouble and survive.
Here’s the second tip for beginners: Use the same big betting approach through to the flop as well. For example, with 1,200 in the pot, make a large bet to apply maximum pressure on your opponents. A pot-size bet ought to do the trick.
A bet of that size, though, is clearly too steep for an accomplished small ball player. It’s too exploitable and forces skilled players to assume much more risk than is necessary. Instead, small-ballers should bet around 700 chips for which they would gain virtually the same information as the beginner’s 1,200 bet – but at much lower cost.
Big raises by inexperienced players cause advanced players to operate outside of their comfort zones. That’s because skilled pros hate playing big pots unless they have the nuts, or something close to it.
Big bet poker is effective against small ball players because it forces the skilled player to wait patiently for trapping situations. Yes, this approach does make the beginner more susceptible to a trap. But the pro must still catch strong cards in order to even consider calling a big raise, and that’s not easy to do.
Visit www.cardsharkmedia.com/books.htm for information about Daniel Negreanu’s popular book, Power Hold’em Strategy.
Gambling has existed for literally thousands of years and will probably exist forever. Human nature drives people to gamble; to take risks and to hope to win big.
Gambling took on many forms throughout history, whether it was wagering bets on who would win a war or a battle or chase down a wild boar the fastest. Then came dice games and other forms of relatively primitive games which allowed mankind its much needed outlet for risk taking and later on came cards game, roulette, sports bets and all the other gambling options we have today. All of these games had something in common though: they were all games played in one specific place, by a group of people who could see, hear and sometimes, unfortunately, smell each other.
Casinos were and are often a classy place to gamble in. They offer a glamorous and unique atmosphere in which to play with fellow gamblers.
All this changed with the help of technology and a little thing called the Internet. The Internet has changed our lives in many ways and in practically every aspect of life. Gambling, of course, is no exception. Online gambling caught on like fire and is today one of the most prosperous online industries in the world with billions of dollars in revenue each year, and the numbers just keep growing.
Continue reading.
Nice one buddy… you’re parents might murder you.
A 16 year old boy from Granada has generated a debt of 48,000 € using his parents credit cards on an internet virtual casino.
The Spanish Federation of Rehabilitated Gamblers, FEJAR, spokesman, Jorge Barroso, says that the boy ran up the debt on the parents credit card, and such things are common as nobody from the casinos sees or checks the age of who is playing. He said it was getting so common as to be ruining some people’s lives forever.
He also warned about the amounts now being spent by some children on their mobile phones, especially if Internet was present, with bills of 300 or 400 € a month not uncommon, and some children already suffering from deformed hands from sending so many text messages.
Latest data showed that the amount gambled on the internet in Spain is up five-fold since 1997 and will reach five billion €. The FEJA thinks that as many as five percent of the Spanish population could have a problem with gambling.
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