Gambling Web Surfer

Once you’re comfortable with the situation chart in blackjack, and perhaps once you’ve tried out a few betting systems that either did or didn’t work for you, the next step in giving yourself as much of an advantage as possible in this game is card counting.

In case you’re familiar with the term, but not the actual real-world details associated with it, allow me to quickly summarize. Card counting in blackjack is a way of remembering or keeping track of every card that crosses the table, thus giving you the ability to ascertain which cards are still out there that may come up in future hands. It’s all addition, subtraction and having a good memory.

To answer your obvious first question as to whether it’s actually legal - yes, it is, technically. Or more specifically, there’s no law against it. However, since casinos are all private establishments, they can kick you out for picking your nose one too many times, not to mention if they think you’re cheating them with a card-counting system. You’ll probably get a friendly but stern pat on the back the first time it happens, but after that, as DeNiro said, “You can either have the hammer and the money or you can walk out of here.” Great movie.

Anyway, to clarify, it’s not illegal to count cards using only your own head on golden casino. Any other type of machines or tactics probably cross the line between getting tossed out on your butt or getting tossed out on your butt into a jail cell.

OK, so you’re going to give it a try…now where do you start? There are multiple systems out there, and here’s one that’s better suited for beginners. It’s not as dead-on accurate as other systems, but what you give up here you gain back in ease of use, which goes a long way for someone trying to focus not only on his chips and the strategy of the game, but a booming, noisy casino and the expected jitters stemming from attempting something you might not feel is completely ethical. That, obviously, is an entirely different article.

Here, quickly, is the gist of what’s called the casino gambling KO system. A normal system assigns a point value to each card, and you add or subtract each value as that card comes up on the table. When the count gets to a certain number, you have a deck with a higher probability of spitting out face cards and winning hands to the player. In a usual counting system, if you go through the entire deck, you end up at zero. In the KO, a 7 is added to the mix. This makes it easier for the player to keep track of the count. You can search online and come up with a full, in-depth look at card values in general and the KO system.

So you’ve been playing poker online now for awhile and have been seeing some success at the tables and you’re thinking about becoming a poker professional, but you don’t know what to do. We’re going to spend some time today going through some questions you need to ask yourself if you’re contemplating on becoming a professional poker player.

• The most important thing you need to ask yourself is what your bankroll is for poker and also for your expenses. If you’re single then your expenses are probably pretty low and you might be able to afford trying to become a professional poker player, but if you have a family it’s much more difficult and stressful. You also need to make sure you can handle some losing streaks at the poker table and still have enough money to bounce back.

• Playing poker on TitanPoker as your job can make it a lot less fun and a lot more stressful since you need to make money when you play. It’s important you have friends and family who know what you’re doing and who you can rely on for a support system. There is no doubt you’re going to run into some rough times in the early months of your career, and it’s great to have some family and friends who can help you through the rough patches.

• If you want to play mac poker everyday as your career you need to make sure that you absolutely love playing poker. If you don’t love playing the game then you’re going to quickly become bored of playing the game everyday and then you’re going to be jobless. When you’re not playing for fun and you’re playing for your job the game becomes a bit different and it isn’t the same as sitting down on a weekend to play for fun.

• You’re going to have enormous amounts of pressure on yourself and especially in the early months of your career while you’re building up your savings. When you have this much pressure on you a lot of people can’t handle it and collapse under the pressure. If you can’t handle the pressure then you shouldn’t try becoming a poker player for your career.

• You need to keep taxed as a poker player and every three months you need to cut a check for the IRS or else they might come after you which isn’t worth the hassle since it’s a felony. Typically you should hire an accountant to take care of your taxes for you throughout the year so that they’re ready to be sent out every three months to the IRS.

• Playing poker for a living is going to be long and tough hours as well and you might end up spending more time at the poker table then you did at your old job. Some days it will take 12-15 hours to make a small profit and you can’t do anything about this except deal with it. Your social life is going to need to take a hit and your health can even become in jeopardy due to the long hours needed in the poker room.

March 21: Hawks at Cavs: Atlanta’s quietly put itself in the #4 seed in the East, just under the three powerhouse teams, of which the Cavs are a part of. Won’t matter come Saturday, expect a 9-point line in favor of the Cavs, who, despite Atlanta’s 6-game win streak to match that of Cleveland’s, will roll over the Hawks. The Cavs, despite what I still consider to be a great NBA betting option, and a lack of championship depth, will almost assuredly increase their record-threatening home record pace. By the way, Cleveland beats teams by an average of 9 points a game…best in the entire league.

March 21: New York at Orlando: Another great Eastern Conference Saturday game, this time between a team in the Magic trying to prove they belong in that elite class, and the Knicks, beaming from a renewed sense of confidence stemming from their recent and unexpected road success. The Knicks still have a mountain to climb to reach that #8 spot, but to hear it from their mouths, they have as good a shot as anyone. I doubt it, though. The stink from Isaiah Thomas’ awful management skills will keep this team down for at least another year. I’ll put the NBA Odds at 2:1 and give the Magic a 7-point line, but I wouldn’t be so quick to plunk down a huge chunk of change on them. Confidence can carry a team a long way, especially on the road these days. If the line is that large, I’d give the Knicks a chance.

March 21: Lakers at Bulls: Sticking with the Saturday theme, and since this one is on national TV for everyone to watch, the best team in the West comes and visits the two-faced, often inexplicably horrible Chicago Bulls. As much as it pains me to speak ill of my Bulls, they’re just a train wreck. For a team with this much talent, they should be right up there with the Hawks fighting for home court in the first round, but instead they’re fighting with the Bucks, Knicks and others for the right to get plowed by the Cavs. How ironic it used to be Chicago waiting to prey on the sacrificial #8 seed. Anyway, Lakers get a 10-point line here, and easily cover. Bulls will start to fade even more as we come down the home stretch. All they can hope for is another miracle in the lottery and maybe some production out of their big men next year.