The big fantasy role-playing games that have come out in the past few years have left me wanting something, well, less. I quickly become bored when everything is at my disposal and nothing is left to the imagination. After talking with other gamers that were alive and kicking during the Nintendo and PlayStation 1 days, we concluded that there was a lot left to the imagination in those days. When pixels were king, faces and features were implied and we had to fill out what was left out with our imagination.

Today, everything seems to be done for us. Yes, we do have tons of options in LA Noire or other open world games. We can craft to our hearts content, we receive achievements and every game is gorgeous to look at, but somehow games have lost their wonder. How do we get that wonder back? Some games get it right and retro type 8-bit, 16-bit games are having a resurgence, and games like Red Dead Redemption and Fallout have the feel we love spades. Perhaps developers can leave vaguer story options open ended and take away from the focus on graphics and ultra-realism. Here’s to getting that sense of wonder, and before that happens, I may just stick to making some crossword puzzles.

Undeniably, the tournament is the predominant mode of playing poker today. It unites the universal dream of easy cash with the excitement of an entire day devoted to the world’s favorite card game. While I would like to claim that it is just these factors that have cemented the role of the tournament, credit must also be given to the modern media. The media has spun poker into the nation’ craze, created celebrities that draw more followers to the felt, and televised games to make people from all around the nation feel like they are at the table. The triumph of the tournament was a manufactured creation, not a natural evolution of poker.

As for my acquaintance, he still goes on with his love of internet gambling and finds himself at the online casino for at least 60 minutes at a time. He too has won some money, but it has high’s and low’s and the difference is, when you lose at gambling you usually lose a great deal but then, when you lose at the elottery syndicate, it doesn’t cost you very much. I reckon that the lotto is the only way for me to go plus the idea of winning it big and on top of that, it’s only costing me simply a few dollars “makes it more appealing”.

The problem with this style is that no one gambles to break even-you play to win. I can tell you from firsthand experience that it’s a lot more gratifying to walk away from a 2-hour blackjack session with $300 than it is to walk away with what you came in with. So far the best way that I’ve found to keep ahead of the game is to vary your betting scheme. Play your usual $5 poker hands, but every now and then, when you get the urge, throw down a bigger bet. A few $10 and $20 hands every now and then are what will build up your poker chips-the added risk goes hand-in-hand with a better payoff.

If you’re riding a good streak, take a few chances with the bigger hands, splitting a few, doubling down a few times, and the game will be not only more exciting, but you may just walk away with some spending money.

If this is the first time you have come across the Spanish Lotto, let me highlight simply how important this lottery is to the vast majority of the Spanish population. The Spanish lottery has been a public obsession in Spain for a very long time with massive involvement generated by the Christmas draw every year. Believe it or not 98 per cent of the population play this Spanish National lotto each and every Christmas.

There are a few central sound reasons why so many Spanish nationals join in the Christmas Elgordo lotto draw.

First, there is the inducement of the largest lotto prize fund of any worldwide lotto game – 2.20 Billion Euros! Second, there are in excess of 13,000 cash prizes to be won. Finally, the probability of collecting a cash prize in the Christmas draw are a highly achievable – 1 : 6.

With the amount of interest that is devoted to the Christmas El Gordo lottery draw, lots of individuals are unaware that there is five additional Spanish Lotto draws annually as well. These games occur in January, March, May, July and November. Despite the fact that these five games don’t boast the whopping prize fund of the Christmas lotto draw, they are big however, ranging from seventy eight million Euros to six hundred & sixty six million Euros. Also, these lottery games provide almost 3 times as many prizes as the Christmas lottery draw plus odds of collecting a money prize of an splendid one in three.

The Christmas Spanish Lotto functions in a different way to virtually all other world-wide drawings. A whole lotto ticket ‘billete’ is really dear, costing 200 Euros. However, these tickets are divided up into ten ‘decimos’ (tenths) costing 20 Euros apiece.

When purchasing your lotto tickets you have the option of purchasing one decimo, a complete ticket, or a part of a lottery ticket. If you don’t buy the whole lottery ticket, somebody else will buy the rest of your lotto ticket. E.g., when you purchase two decimos, somebody else purchases 3 decimos and someone else buys five and your lotto ticket wins one thousand Euros, then you will collect two hundred Euros, three hundred Euros and 500 Euros respectively. Owing to the expense of buying a whole lottery ticket, it is not unusual for households and acquaintances to amalgamate their lotto money and all purchase a separate ‘decimo’ (tenth).

While the seat to the immediate right of the poker en ligne dealer button is known as the ‘cutoff,’ the seat two to the right of the dealer has a name all of its own: ‘the hijack seat.’ As with raising from the cutoff, players who raise with any two cards from the hijack seat will often get more respect for their raise when they try to steal from the hijack seat, as it is less likely that someone would steal from two off the button than when they are the button.

Add to this the range that you have three poker hands where you will be in great position after the flop (the button, the cutoff, and the hijack seat) and you’ve got a lot of breathing room to work with as far as working to pick up loose blinds and antes while waiting for the big hands you actually want to play because of the quality of the cards.

Stealing from these positions in poker tournaments can often be the make or break mark for how deep you are able to go, as stealing your share of the blinds and antes especially late in the tournament can end up all the differences in keeping your chip stack fat and happy.

Those who love Christmas are at an advantage for this one as it tests your knowledge on famous and well-know Christmas characters. But no game is any fun without a challenge so think about the more unknown characters such as Cindy Lou Who from How The Grinch Stole Christmas or Jack Frost. To do this game, think of all the Christmas characters you can. Write down their names and movies on index cards. Then, tape the names to the backs of everyone at the party, gathering, etc. The guests then interact, looking at one another’s character and asking questions to try and figure out “Who am I?” The catch is that the questions must be answered with a simple “yes” or “no.” The first person who guesses they’re character correctly gets a prize! Keep playing until everyone guesses their Christmas character. It will be really funny and entertaining to see how long it takes for everyone to guess correctly. ]]> http://infosilver.com/how-to-christmas-party-guessing-game/feed/ 0 http://infosilver.com/poker-comics/ http://infosilver.com/poker-comics/#comments Mon, 15 Sep 2008 20:17:08 +0000 admin http://infosilver.com/poker-comics/ Poker and the arts have had a long and fruitful relationship across many genres. There are many classic poker films, and what TV sitcom has not had a poker night episode? There is the renowned painting, Dogs Playing Poker, and scores of poker related songs like Kenny Rogers’ The Gambler. One of the latest poker art forms to emerge is that of the online comic strip. For an audience that is turning more and more to the web for their entertainment, these strips provide the ideal game break. Arguably the best known of the bunch is “Life’s a Bluff.” Written by Frank Frisina, and loosely based on his own poker and real-life exploits, it follows the hapless card games, and social ineptitudes of a character named Charlie Blanks, perhaps a grown-up and hairier version of Charlie Brown. Another comic with a large following is “+EV,” which stands for the poker betting terminology, “positive expected value.” In this strip, author Bobby Crosby chronicles the life of a guy who gives up his job to play online poker, and the wife and child who has to deal with him. Both series have plenty of inside jokes for the poker pro as well as the bad beats and odd friends that anyone could recognize.