Casino

New Frontier Race and Sports Director Tony Nevill viewed Boise State’s 43-42 overtime upset of Oklahoma in Monday’s Fiesta Bowl as fulfillment of the American dream as well as a perfect example of how the playing field in college football is being leveled.

″It reenforces everything that’s good about college athletics and is indicative of the parity that has been achieved by limiting scholarships,″ said Nevill, who had ″well balanced″ action on the game and closed it at Sooners minus 7.

″Here you have this superpower getting beat by a small, mostly unknown school.

″It’s an American story that keeps people, the public as well as those involved in programs throughout the country, excited about college football.

″I had a man tell me his wife doesn’t know or care about college football, but she sure got into that game.″

Vegas Valley books had mixed results with the Rose Bowl.

Many had Southern Cal favored at kickoff, while late money poured in on Michigan at others.

The Trojans won handily, 32-18.

″The Rose Bowl was a nice win for us,″ Nevill declared.

″We were at USC minus 1 1/2 at one point and it went to Michigan minus 2 1/2.

″The Christmas-New Year’s bowl week overall was pretty good to us.

″In fact, other than early in the year, football was good in both the colleges and pros.

″We saw quite a few dogs prevail in the pros.″

Bowl season has been like an extended rollercoaster ride for Eric St. Clair, race and sports director at The Cannery in North Las Vegas and Rampart Casino in Summerlin.

″Up and down,″ he said.

″We won most games early, but Jan 1 took away the profits.

″It wasn’t like we got crushed, but we did lose.

″We got hit with some big parlays, one for $10,000 and another for $15,000.″

Two things really hurt the pair of books: Michigan’s late, but meaningless touchdown that put the Rose Bowl OVER the posted total and Boise State’s upset, which gave the Broncos a money-line win as well as a straight-up victory versus the pointspread.

″That late Wolverine touchdown really hurt,″ St. Clair continued.

″And Boise State was a very public team.

″A lot of people watched on TV and it seemed like they all had money on the Broncos.″

The Stratosphere Tower is one of the city’s focal points on New Year’s Eve as revelers flock to the north Strip casino to view its giant fireworks display.

Sports book supervisor Pat Rethore noted they must have partied hardy because Monday traffic was unusually slow for a New Year’s Day.

″They must have been out all night and couldn’t get out of bed,″ he said.

The Stratosphere has three properties under its wing — Arizona Charlie’s East and West in Las Vegas and another satellite book in Laughlin.

″Together, the four properties did OK,″ Rethore said Tuesday afternoon.

″They won and we lost.

″Laughlin had Michigan money, a lot of it; we had USC money and lost.

″We had Boise money, they had Oklahoma money.

″We haven’t gotten much on the Tuesday night game (Orange Bowl).

″It’s been like Louisville-Wake Forest … that must be a basketball game.

″We’ve been getting a lot of action on Wednesday’s game (Sugar Bowl), though, and it’s coming in on Notre Dame.

″We’re up (from LSU minus 7) to 8.

″I just took a couple of big bets.″

Reaching Out With The Spirit

By

Dr. Gary S. Goodman Ó 2005

President, Customersatisfaction.com

At first, I thought he was just cold. The casino’s air

conditioning was pumped up, and it did feel a bit brisk.

But then, he turned to the side, and instead of seeing the

outline of crossed arms beneath his tee shirt, I saw a flat

silhouette. Instinctively, I turned away.

I didn’t want to acknowledge that the gentleman standing in

front of me in the buffet line, the chap who seemed so

nonchalant, easygoing, and totally comfortable surrounded by

three family members, had no arms.

An odd mix of emotions suddenly coursed through me, making me

woozy.

I wondered how he managed everything. My two days of carefree

card playing, dancing, roller coaster and log rides, embracing

my loved one, swimming, climbing to the top of the water slide,

all of these things, things I could do flashed before me. Most

of my pleasures had involved grasping, gripping, touching,

feeling, balancing, gesturing, and thousands of effortless

manipulations, of which this gentleman was nearly incapable.

How would it feel to be him, to be in that body? I wondered.

Instantly, I was flooded with self-pity, hopelessness, and

despair. I wouldn’t want to live, I thought.

It was then that I realized what a coward I must be, compared to

this guy. He seemed the least self-conscious person standing in

line. I felt grotesque, as I considered how I shrink from

challenges, large and small.

Like a kid, I tell myself I don’t want to do this or that, and

so I don’t. If he could only have a day indulging the

opportunities I turn down, it would be nothing less than heaven.

Traffic was light, heading back to LA. I easily made it to my

Black Belt class. The Sensei had us hitting bags. His

instruction was simple: Outdo anything you’ve ever done before.

I held nothing back, as the image of that fellow glowed in my

mind.

Over and again, with renewed spirit, I struck the bag for both

of us.

Dr. Gary S. Goodman is a popular keynote speaker, consultant,

and seminar leader and the best-selling author of 12 books. He

is the author of the Nightingale-Conant audio program, The Law

Of Large Numbers: How To Make Success Inevitable. Gary teaches

Entrepreneurship and Consulting at UCLA Extension, and he is

President of Customersatisfaction.com and The Goodman

Organization, in Glendale, CA. He can be reached at

gary@customersatisfaction.com.

With poker being the latest craze, mobile poker games are seeing dramatic increases in sales. In order to help you find a mobile poker game that you will actually enjoy playing, I have put together reviews of 7 different popular poker games. The best poker game was THK2 and the worst poker game was Sexy Poker 2006. The rest of them fall somewhere in between.

WPT by mForma

The sounds and graphics in WPT are fairly weak. There is basically one sound, and it's a twinkle. There are other sounds but I turned them off after I heard the twinkle ten times.

The single player poker is alright. You play with five other computers and they're somewhat smart.

There are a couple really strange things about this game. For example, when you fold, the round stops and automatically calculates which computer AI won, and the next round starts. You do not see how the round finishes or how the computer bets.

I think you can tell where I'm going with this review. This game is just average. Not terrible but not great. It is therefore not a good buy; save your money for the great games.

Texas Hold'Em Kings 2 (THK2)

The graphics were exactly what is needed. I could see multiple hands as well as my own and I knew exactly what was going on. It was incredibly easy to read and straight-forward.

The single player gameplay was even more impressive. I thoroughly enjoyed building up my bankroll which I would later bring to the multiplayer tables.

It was so refreshing to actually play with people online. Also, you can play the resident pro at certain times of the day to win prizes. Not only that, but they have a leader board which, if you get in the top three, you win prizes. So basically this game not only is a lot of fun but it can pay for itself.

The game and betting interfaces were simple and contained everything you needed. It was really easy to go from single to multiplayer as well as navigate all the options and menus.

Finally the AI was some of the best I've played with. Granted, AI can always be better. I find it extremely difficult to bluff the AI because I'm convinced it is looking at my hand in cyberspace. Maybe that's not the case but still, AI can always be better. Compared to the other games, this AI was really clean.

I would definitely recommend this game to anyone who enjoys poker. Actually, even if you don't like poker you should get this game. This game is available from magmic.com.

Downtown Texas Hold'Em

I thought it was a little weird that this game started with a brief explanation on how to play poker. I doubt the market is very big for people buying poker games who have no idea about how to play poker; but that's just me.

The game interface is weak. There is a giant logo for the cyber tournament that you are playing in at the top of the screen. The words "Muckawa Casino Final" are scrawled in giant letters, taking up a fifth of the screen. This doesn't add anything to the gameplay and it takes away from vital screen space.

I really don't recommend this game to anyone. If the game interface was better I might suggest it for single player but I can't and I won't.

Aces Texas' Hold'em

This game has no sound which isn't such a bad thing in poker. The graphics are quite well done and overall this poker game is looking sweet. The interface is clear and simple, with a lot of options to change. Resetting your bankroll requires you to start a new game; that wasn't so great.

The AI was fairly smart; they wouldn't let me bluff them. Sometimes I could but rarely after the flop. These AI's are definitely not like playing a person which is alright because I don't expect programmers to be able to program a human brain.

All in all this was a great poker game. The single player is amazing and the only thing lacking here is some decent multiplayer. This is a great game and definitely worth buying. The game is available from concretesoftware.com.

Sexy Poker 2006

This game is horrible! First of all it's not Texas Hold'em, it's 5 card draw. The only reason you would ever buy it is because you want to watch a cartoon girl take off her clothes. I have no idea what the allure of a cartoon girl's nipples are but it doesn't matter because you don't even see any nudity. There are big stars covering her swimsuit area. So boys won't like this game because there is no nudity and everyone else will hate it because it's just simply a bad poker game.

I recently read that female gamers are big business in mobile gaming. Obviously this company did not get the memo and has only programmed females into the game; definitely bad for business.

Overall this game is easy and a complete waste of money.

Secrets of Hold'Em With Howard Lederer

This was a fairly boring poker experience overall. It was nice to play a six player game of hold'em but the fact that there was no multiplayer was disappointing. Hold'em is all about playing humans who are weak and can be bluffed. Playing with robots means that they call you way too often; they're unflappable.

To save you some time and money, I'll let you know what the secret to poker with Howard Lederer is: Bluff. I bluffed out Lederer and you can too! Once I figured that out the game was super easy and it gave me a bad impression of the AI.

This game wasn't terrible but it wasn't great; which means save your money for a better game.

Era of Eidolon, Badaz Poker

I've read other reviews which say that there is online play for this game. I played this game for hours and never found it. Maybe it's my version or maybe it's a giant conspiracy to boost sales; I'm not sure.

The storyline for Badaz poker is fairly interesting and innovative. It's very much a quest adventure game where one of the minigames is poker. If this were a review on RPG's then I may give it a good review. Problem is, I'm looking for good poker games and this is definitely not one.

So hopefully I have saved you some time and money when choosing a mobile poker game. If you purchase THK2 then look out for qBored in the public poker rooms; I'll be ready to take your money!

All of these reviews are taken from QuicklyBored.com.

The most profitable game for online casinos is roulette, and conversely it is the most profitable for professional gamblers. That is it attracts many amateurs - it is easy to understand and play. However what sets amateurs aside from professionals (apart from the bankroll) is their use of strategies and a deeper understanding of how the game works.

In roulette, the odds against you are pretty standard for every bet on the board, at a somewhat nasty 5.26% house edge. This means the house will win 5.26% more of the bets on the table than they lose. A few places offer single zero European roulette. This lowers the edge on every bet and end up as 1/37, or 2.70%

For prospective professional online gamblers, this statistic is some what of a turn off. However, by firstly taking advantage of European tables, and using some lesser known tips of the professionals, the odds can be significantly reduced, and in some cases turned in your favour.

The only way to completely remove the house edge is to have a good understanding of how online casino software works. In order to avoid situations in which players might doubt the randomness of the roulette wheel, those developing the game made it certain that specific events were programmed to never occur. Using this knowledge and the knowledge of where to put it to use, it is possible to reverse the casinos odds and take advantage of the design of the game.

This information is discussed in greater detail at http://www.roulette-edge.com/strategy.html

There is one thing and one thing only that will take any gambler from constantly losing to any hope of making a profit. It's not lady luck; it's not any magic trick, and it's not a mystical ritual.

Gambling has been around in various forms for hundreds of years and is an enormous source of revenue for a multitude of casinos, government agencies, bars, clubs and other organizations. The reason that these organizations make such a lucrative income is not so much the huge numbers of people gambling as it is the high percentage of these people who fail to learn the one secret they need to know to have any chance of making a profit at all.

The usual gambling approach goes something like this: You go to the race track and overhear a stranger telling a friend that a particular horse is ready to win so you put ten bucks on it. Result – the horse loses. Or you go to the casino and put fifty bucks into a slot machine because you believe it is your "lucky" machine. Result – you walk out fifty bucks lighter if you're lucky. In most cases you'll have blown even more because you have the extra cost of drinks, and you may have been so caught-up in your attempts to win that you actually put more like sixty or seventy bucks into the slot machine.

So what is the secret that you need to change your gambling situation? The secret is this, "Education". While ever there are people who make no attempt to educate themselves to a point where they can make informed choices then the casinos and bookmakers will always make very lucrative profits from the suckers who walk through their doors day and night.

As an example, let's say we play heads-or-tails with a coin and I offer to pay you $1.80 per dollar bet every-time you pick the correct outcome. A typical gambler might think that's pretty good and try to pick more winning picks than they lose in the mistaken belief that they can make a profit. An educated gambler on the other hand would see the truth, which is that the odds of picking any one outcome here is 50/50; so over one hundred spins on average you would win fifty times. The reality is that with a 50/50 game if you outlay one hundred dollars and win fifty of those at $1.80 your total return is $90 or a loss of 10%.

The above situation is not uncommon in many casino games. Slots for instance has a house advantage of up to twenty percent (meaning that the casino always makes up to a twenty percent profit on all money that is put through the slot machine), and yet gamblers continue to throw their money into the slots despite the fact that the longer they play the more they'll lose.

To improve your overall chances of coming out in-front when gambling start with a few of these tips:

• Play games where you either have an edge or the house edge is very low, and
• Games where you have some choices over the outcome (for example with slots you have no influence as the machine is programmed).
• Learn to spot the games where the house has a large edge and stay away from them.
• Never gamble on the basis of a tip, lucky number, favorite color etc.
• And finally, never gamble with money you can't afford to lose.

Note - If your gambling has reached a point where it is an addiction then stop and get help. You will find many sources of help by searching for the term "problem gambling" on the internet.

Successful stock market investors never buy stocks based on a tip or because they like the name of a particular company, otherwise they would go broke very quickly. They learn all they can and make informed decisions when choosing what to invest in. Stop gambling now until you educate yourself enough to make gambling choices that are likely to return a profit, rather than lining the pockets of the casinos.

Copyright © 2006 Colin L Wolfenden