Live Poker: Pros and Cons of Participating in a Tournament

If you have had enough of playing poker with friends or with playing it online and winning some money and then losing some money to only win that money back again, then you have reached the stage in your poker playing experience where you need to start entering live tournaments. That is the real deal. No more long hours in front of the computer, no more feeling guilty for taking your friends' money: you are now ready to turn pro.

But, before you do, here are a few things you must consider:
1) One of the big differences of playing in a tournament is that you need to pick you hands carefully. Spend most of your time throwing your cards away at the right beginning. If you see that your cards won't amount to much, fight the urge to exchange most of them, and just hand them all in. This is what most tournament players do anyway. If you don't believe me, watch the others play.

2) Money you take with you to tournaments lasts for a much lengthier period than when playing with friends or online. This is one of the advantages of not playing every hand you are dealt. (Hint: You should do the same thing when playing with friends even though that then becomes boring.)

3) Do not sit to the left of the dealer. Ensure that there are at least two players between the dealer and the players to the left. Why? Only the first 2 players seated on the left of the dealer have to place the ante. Since, most of the tournaments involve ten players on each table, you save this much each time you play. This also means that each hand that you fold will mean that you have spent only half that of the lower limit. This amounts to three dollars in a two to four dollar rake tournament.

4) Take into consideration that the mere fact that you are away from home means that you will spend money on food and drinks. Try and get your own, but in any case keep it light.

5) Tournament dealers are not paid much, and so it' general practice to give them about three percent of whatever you win. Consider that all gambling halls and poker rooms also take a certain percentage but at least this comes from the money you win and so you don't feel it.

6) One of the other advantages of playing in a tournament is that you can use more money than you had. For instance, for a hundred dollar sit-in, many casinos and poker rooms will give you about five hundred in tournament chips to bet with.

7) If high odds and high risk is not what you are looking for you can take advantage of the late night satellite tournaments. These generally begin at one in the morning and since the number of players won't be high, you stand a bigger chance of winning.

Conclusion:
Playing poker requires tremendous skill as well as come luck. While you cannot depend on luck, improve your skills and your online casino or other kind of betting account will show a profit.

How to play animals

While sitting around with friends this weekend I discovered the greatest card game ever. The name of the game is Animals, and the game is very easy to learn, easy to play and a great source of entertainment.

The game is not a gambling game but gambling can be done easily enough, but I would not expect to see this game in your local casino anytime soon.

I suspect the game started out as a memory game for children, then was taken you young adults and turned into a drinking game, but it does not matter if you are gambling with this game, drinking with this game or just trying to have a fun evening with friends, because it is fun whatever you are playing for.

The best way to play the game is with at least 4 people but no more then 8. You will also need 2 or 3 decks of cards to play Animals and a table for everyone to sit around.

Before the game starts each player must choose an animal noise and a hand gesture to represent them in the game and going around the table each player must announce the name of their animal, the sound the animal makes and its hand gesture. An example of this would be to say I am a cat, meow and the hand gesture may be wiping your face with the back of your hand.

In this game the dealer remains standing the entire round. The dealer will go around the table continuously dealing 1 card to each player until all the cards have been dealt. The dealer must stay at a steady pace and go not too fast and not too slow.

the players must continuously scan the other players top cards and when someone has the same number card on top of their pile as you, you have to make that persons sound and hand gesture. If you do it before they do you get all their cards.

That person is not out of the game the next time the dealer goes around they still get another card. The person with the most cards at the end of the game winds, and is the dealer for the next round.

For kids this is a great game because they have to remember everyone's noise and gesture, this is a fun way for them to help develop their memories, and a great way to get them away from the television for a little while.

For those looking to gamble this game may not earn you as much as playing Blackjack but it is a lot if fun to sit around and make fools of yourselves and make a few bucks. All you have to do is set an amount and everyone puts their money into a pot and the winner gets the pot. It does not get any easier then that.

The drinking game has an extra rule or two. If you make someone's noise and gesture before they do yours, besides getting their cards they need to drink and at the end of each round all the losers need to drink.