Weekly Online Poker Update - December 30, 2014

Weekly Online Poker Update - December 30, 2014

The worldwide poker online cash player count dropped by 1% now, which wasn’t unexpected because of the holidays having people busy with celebrating inside them for hours less time to experience poker.

The loss was small compared to expected though and in comparison with now a year ago the gap has improved from 19% last week to merely 17% immediately, meaning that it outperformed the prior year’s numbers in the winter holiday by 2%. Among the top 10 sites, there was clearly a straight split with 5 increasing their traffic and 5 declining.

Bodog dropped from 6th to 7th place, to the career they normally spend time at, trading places with Pokerstars.it who passed them. Adjarabet and Pokerstars.es also traded places, with Adjarabet dropping to 10th and Pokerstars.es climbing back up to 9th.

PokerStars has reaffirmed its place because king of online poker. PokerStars boasts more cash-game players compared to next 10 most favored poker sites/networks combined including 888poker, iPoker and Party Poker.

Traffic dropped off significantly on Christmas Eve, but by Christmas Day things had recovered. The New Year’s celebrations are known to require a toll about the numbers so expect a dip out of this as well.

What is the Theory of Poker?

What is the Theory of Poker?
Do you know the definition of theory? According to the definition found in , theory is a suggestion, whose standing is still speculative. In other words a theory is like a hypothesis. A hypothesis is an educated guess based on what you already know about the specific subject you are speculating. (It is not something you say just because it pops into your head.) Based on this information, what do you think is the theory of poker? Or better yet, does poker even have a theory?
Before we decide if the game does or does not have a theory, let us gather up all the information we know about poker. If you have ever done some research on poker you probably know that the origin of poker is very shady. (No one really knows were, when or how poker started.) Some people believe poker was created in china, wile other say poker is an original American card game. (Well, you can flush this approach down the toilet.)
Okay, now lets state all the things we do know about poker. Poker is the most popular game around the world and you can play it both online and offline. Over the years, different varieties of poker have been invented. Although there are many different varieties of poker, the same basic rule apply to most of them because the aim for most of the varieties of poker is the same; at the end of the game one player has to have the best possible five-card poker hand on their hand. Each style of poker has its own strategies which can lead to success when you know them.
Now that we know what we know, lets go back to the theory of poker. Since very little is known about poker itself, except for the rules of each poker game, I personally think that there is not a theory to poker, at least not one that everyone can agree to. What to you think? Do you disagree or agree with me?
What ever your answer may be to the theory of poker, one thing that we can all agree on is that poker is a fun game to play. Although at the begging poker may be a bit difficult to understand, once you get the hang of it, playing poker can be a piece of cake.
Now, just for the fun of it let me tell you some of the variations of poker you can choose from. Texas hold'em, five-card draw, seven-card stud, Razz, Omaha high, Chinese poker, crazy pineapple, deuce-to-seven, double-flop Texas hold'em, Omaha hold'em, Texas hold'em, five card stud, pineapple hold'em high poker, pineapple hold'em high-low split, joker poker, let it ride and let it ride bonus, Vegas double action, and Caribbean stud poker. Don't you dare think these are all the variations available in poker!
Forget about the theory of poker if it does not make sense to you or if thinking about is giving you a headache. Just worry about what variety of poker you want to play and of having fun wile playing it. Adios, and have fun!

Is The Casino Table Hot Or Not? 5 Quick Ways To See Before You Sit

To make sure you stay focused and this does not happen to you here are 5 quick ways to see if a casino table is hot or not.
#1 Jam Packed - Look for a table that is crowded. A full casino table is usually a casino table full of winners. The energy is good and people are waiting in line to get a seat at this hot table. * Just make sure it is not because it is the $5.00 casino table, some people are just plain cheap!
#2 Pearly Whites - Look for smiles at that crowded table. It could be crowded just because the casino is busy that night, maybe the association of car wash executives is in town and there is not a seat left in the whole casino. Smiles indicate a good time and winning is definitely a good time. Even if the smiles are because people are having fun and not striking it rich, you are going to feel a lot better when you are playing (it is called the gaming industry after all)!
#3 Stacks of Checks - Look at the casino dealers tip stack. If they are giving the money away there should be a pretty healthy pile of chips over behind the discard rack. Usually the casino makes them color up the tokes so that people can not use this tip to their advantage, but most casino dealers will wait until told to this (because it is not their money, so they want you to win)!
#4 Nice Rack - Look at the casino dealers rack of chips in front of them. If it is empty and the chips are in front of the smiling faced crowded casino customers, chances are you want to grab a seat and plant some roots. This is also a great way to see if the table is hot, if the casino dealer has been told to start coloring up and dropping his tips this could be another strong indicator. Empty racks are a great sign of a hot table!
#5 Mr. Pit Boss - Look to see if there are a lot of managers around. This is an awesome tip to know because if the table is hot, the casino table dealer has been told to drop their tips, the smiling people at the crowded table are hiding their stacks (some people do not like advertising a hot table), and security just brought a fill so the rack is no longer empty you would not think to sit at this casino table. If there are a couple of extra floor men watching the casino table though you might want to pull up a chair and order a drink because this is going to be a hot casino table!
So you see there are a lot of factors that come into play when looking for a seat at a casino table. Fight the urge to just sit anywhere because it is overwhelming. A little research plus a healthy knowledge of what signs to look for, could have you sitting smack dab in the middle of a heater!

Which Horse Should I Key In a Trifecta Bet?

Hitting a big trifecta is a great thrill and certainly good for the old bankroll as long as you don't spend more to hit it than you make on the payoff. The problem is that hitting that big tri is no easy task. If you use long priced horses as your main interest then you will miss quite a few wagers.
As your total losses add up you realize that the big score is thrilling but the long wait between hits is not for the weak hearted or impatient bettor. Switching your focus to short priced horses or even, heavens forbid, favorites, will result in more wins, but as we all know exotic bets with the favorite usually don't pay well and once again, your cost to buy your tickets will probably outweigh your winnings.
Let's take a closer look at how people wager to get a better idea of what might possibly be a profitable betting strategy. First of all, generally speaking, what is true of the win pools is also true of the exotic pools. The way handicappers wager on horses in the straight pools is how they usually wager in the exotics. In fact, many people who are casual players will look at the odds on the tote board in order to choose runners for their trifecta and superfecta bets.
Studies have shown that their are two betting interests that are usually over bet. I would go one step farther and add that they are also used too often in exotics and therefore it is hard to find good value if you key on them. I am talking about long shots and favorites. If you want horses that are more fairly priced and valued closer to their true odds based on the probability of placing in the top three, look for middle priced horses.
I'm not saying that you should never play a longshot or chalk (favorite), but I am saying, that most of your focus should be on those horses that fall into the sweet spot somewhere between. For instance, in a race where the favorite is at 6-5 odds it is tempting to key that one on top over a few longshots. It seems that the chalk is the most likely winner, which it is, and it also seems that those long shots do have a possibility of hitting the board and therefore creating a good payoff in spite of the favorite prevailing.
Half of that logic is correct. The long priced horses do have a chance, albeit a slight one, of completing the trifecta, however, you are not the only one to make that assumption. Remember that those long priced horses are often over bet even though they are at long odds. A more realistic bet with value in mind might be to key one of the mid priced horses over the favorite over a few other mid priced horses with a long shot or two to round out the field.
Pay particular attention to horses that are in the range of 3-1 to 8-1 if you want to make money betting on horses and playing trifectas. They are overlooked by the favorites players and eschewed by the long shot Louies and Louisas.

Holdem Betting Strategy - A Weird Tip You Wouldn't Think Would Work

You wouldn't think that this weird Holdem betting strategy tip would work but it does. It will explode your earnings and make it easy to win more pots, faster.
Holdem Betting Strategy - The Weird Tip
This weird tip is a counter-intuitive one and you won't hear many famous or great poker players teaching it. However, I feel that it really does help newer players find their place in the game. For brand new, beginner and even lower level intermediate players this is a great way to win more pots.
The exact tip is to never ever check and never ever call. What's that? Never. Yes never. When you play this aggressive style you only ever raise or fold. And if someone else re-raises you and it comes back to you, you can only re-raise them or fold.
The reason this Holdem betting strategy works is because it forces you to play aggressive. An aggressive style of play is the most lucrative because you will win more money and more pots. When you play aggressive you have two ways to win - the first is you win fair and square but the second, more importantly, is your opponents might just plain out fold.
As well as forcing yourself to play aggressive by only betting or folding, it makes you think about your game a lot more. All of a sudden, you aren't going in to pots with poor cards, you aren't going to the showdown with just a top pair and you aren't making as many mistakes. This is because you will naturally play better poker because you know you are going to amp up the stakes.
When there is more on the line you will play better. Even in the situations when you think 'oh I could just call to see the next card' dont do it. Stick to this counter-intuitive Holdem betting strategy and you will see dividends.

'Middling' the Pointspread in Sports Betting

What is 'middling' and why bother with it? Middling is where you can seriously increase your bet winnings by profiting from both sides of the action.
You can do this by carefully monitoring the movement of the line and finding a situation where betting both sides becomes advantageous. The down side would be a small loss due to the vig / juice (sportsbook commission).
You can use this betting strategy in any sports where you have a pointspread, so NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB and college sports. As an example lets take a basketball match-up between the Lakers and the Cavaliers. We'll keep things simple and for arguments sake say that the spread for the first posted line reads: Lakers -3, Cavaliers + 3.
The smart bettor evaluates this spread and determines that the Lakers are good value and so bets the Lakers at -3 on the pointspread.
A day or two later the bookmaker decides that he is taking a lot of action on the ever-popular Lakers, so in an attempt to even things up, he decides to move the spread to Lakers -4.5 and by default the Cavaliers to +4.5. The linesmaker fundamentally wants to attract more action on the Cavaliers and slow down the amount of action he is receiving on the Lakers.
The odds remain at this level and the smart bettor decides to go in again and bet the Cavs at +4.5. What does he hope to achieve by this? He is looking to middle the spread.
If the Lakers go on to win by 4 points he wins his Laker bet at -3 and wins his Cavalier bet at +4.5. Say he wagered $110 on both bets at the standard odds of -110, he makes $200. If he loses, he loses on one bet for -$110 and wins on the other for +$100, and so only loses $10.
Now of course the bettor won't be hitting his middles in every game or even every fifth game but all he needs to do to break even is to hit his middles once in twenty-one games. So if his total loss after twenty games is $200 (20x$10) and he hits his middle on game twenty-one, he will win $200.
In all likelihood the smart player will be hitting his middles far more often than once in every twenty-one games. He's getting terrific value and reducing his down side dramatically - the reason for betting middles in the first place. If the bettor does not worry about his downside, he may simply choose to stick with his original bet, in this case the Lakers at -3, knowing that he has a great bet with the spread having moved to -4.5.
It gets better for 'middlers' in terms of their downside because they can still make a profit even if they don't hit their middles. Quite often they will 'push' (draw/break even) on one bet and win on the other. So if the Lakers win by 3 points, the bettor would push that bet at -3 and get his stake returned for no loss - but he will win on the Cavaliers' bet at +4.5 making a profit of $100.
Remember that the better the line movement the more chance there is of hitting a 'middle'.

Horse Racing Betting Strategy to Win More and Lose Less

After you evaluate the runners in a horse race by handicapping their recent form, the next step in the process of making money betting on horses is to use that information to find a good bet. Whether you play exotic bets or straight bets (win, place, show), the process starts the same. You must find a key horse that is not being backed by the crowd at the odds it deserves. In other words, if--in your opinion---the horse has a 1 in 4 chance of winning and it is at 5-1; then it's a good bet.
More sophisticated horse players realize that no matter how hard they work or how much they know, they will still encounter losing streaks. While statistics will help you and indicate that favorites win about a third of the time, any horse player knows that the favorite doesn't win every third race. Out of a sample of 100 races the favorite will win about 30-33, however, in a smaller sample, that percentage of winning favorites may be skewed.
Therefore, smart bettors mix their bets up and try to cover a wide range of odds. Betting lower priced horses--favorites and those at lower odds--will result in more winning tickets. Backing longshots means bigger payoffs and less wins per betting run. The wise gambler knows that cash flow is critical: You must keep the money coming in.
So the answer is to select bet ranges and then to structure your wagering campaigns to encompass all betting ranges from chalks to long shots and everything in between. Because you include longshots in your scheme, you will have the occasional big hit, but also, since you've included favorites, you will cash many tickets.
The key to successful betting is to allocate funds not to always have the biggest ROI (return on investment). On the other hand, you should set a cutoff point for your bets--a minimum ROI that you find acceptable. Many horse players consider a 10% profit good, so shooting for 10% by spreading your bets is a good practice, if you're of that mindset. When investors set out to make long term profits from their investments, they diversify their portfolios. When people who bet on horses for a living set out to make a year's pay, they also diversify with security and rate of return as their two main concerns.
Take a look at your bets and see if you aren't leaning too heavily on one odds range and if that might account for your lack of profit or losing streaks.