Pius’ original interest in poker stemmed from watching High Stakes Poker and World Series of Poker on television. He and his friends decided at the time to give it a try and after a couple of weekends playing for petty cash, he realized that it is not about luck but about skill – a skill that can be developed.

He then started playing poker online and it was there that he discovered the sheer number of poker information readily available. He read all that he could and developed his skill and style. It was at online poker rooms where he gained the expertise and the experience needed for him to succeed professionally in poker. As his online tournament winnings exceeded $ 700,000, he made the decision of trying out for the World Series of Poker. He first ranked 7th place in one event and cashed in more than $83,000 in WSOP’s No Limit Hold ‘em, the first live tournament he ever participated in.

For the Main Event, he came in on the first day of the competition. The reason for playing so early in the event was that he wanted to go home as soon as he could if he didn’t make it. At the beginning of the game, Pius Heinz proved that he has got what it takes when his gut instincts proved him right.

For 8 days straight, he slowly amassed his chips staring with only 89,550 to 16,425,000 at the end of Day 8. The final table lasted for two days and the fight between the last two men standing lasted around 6 hours. On November 9, he was finally awarded the coveted World Series of Poker bracelet together with the pot money of $ 8,715,638.

He is officially the first player from Germany to ever win in the WSOP Main Event. At 22 years old, he still has a lot to go but for now, he has already been cemented and immortalized in poker history as the reigning poker champion in the world—at least for this year.

Poker cheating is not uncommon. The easiest way to put it is, if you have been playing poker for some time, you have probably run into a cheater. It has been happening ever since the game came to the United States. In poker, the line between deceit (mucking your 2, 3 off suit and telling everyone you had a pair of nines) and cheating is a fine one. Many players have flirted with that line on various occasions. So, how do you identify a person who is cheating at a table, and what do you do about it?

Oddly enough, most people would believe that the common cheater would be the beginner – the players who want to show their skill to the rest of the table. Or, the player who uses sleight of hand to magically have the right cards appear. In reality, much of the cheating is done by more experienced players who understand the advantage of appearing natural and unsuspecting of any cheating going on.

The key to identifying the cheater at the table is to be alert. If you have been playing poker for a while you should be able to identify the signs of cheating, such as illogical betting, increased speed of the game, rapid change of playing style or raises in unusual situations. Whether it is card-flashing, marked cards, culling or stacking a deck, or two players working off each other when betting, a confident and attentive poker player should be able to see what is going on.

So what can you do about it? Use the cheating against the cheaters. If you start to bet illogically because they should know the hand you have, then do the opposite of what you would normally do. That is the greatest position of power for a person who is suspicious of cheating. When you start winning hands, or not falling for traps when you have a pair of kings and the cheater across from you was dealt two aces, you have the upper hand.

You also could try to expose the cheating. This is a touchy situation because often times it is difficult to prove another player has been cheating unless you have insurmountable evidence to that effect. It might work if you are dealing with two players who are crossfire betting, but if the house or the dealer are involved, then you could be asking for trouble.

Leave the game. This is the best option. If you are losing your chips quickly, it is probably a good idea to leave the table anyway. One thing you can do is play the game for a while with the cheaters until you have no doubt in your mind something is going on, and just before you get up, subtly make them aware you knew what they were up to.

Unfortunately, there will never be a way to totally eliminate cheating as long as humans are involved. People are always looking for a way to gain an advantage over others, and many will stop at nothing. They have no respect for that line of deception versus cheating. So, arm yourself with knowledge about the game, and about how people are cheating and you won’t get bit the next time a snake plays at your table.

And it is not always obvious to find the answer to that question if you do not know where to look. As the Internet can be at time contradicting and by searching on google or bing for example, you may get conflicting answers or even reach pages that do not event attempt to answer the question. Yes search engines are not perfect, far from it.

Bit thank God you can find the answer here: Pokerstars does not offer any form of rakeback and they are en fact completely against any form of rakeback. If they catch an affiliate offering some form of rakeback by sharing his commissions for example, they will close his account. We are not sure why they are so stringent about rakeback, but one theory is that this is related to how they are regulated by the Isle of Man and rakeback might be considered to be forbidden by the regulators.

Fortunately you do not really need pokerstars rakeback because pokerstars offer their own VIP program that acts as a de facto rakeback systems as players get rewarded with gift or cash prizes. This is based on six tiers starting from the Bronze level all the way to Supernova and Supernova Elite, the ultimate VIP status. So this is like an equivalent rakeback system. For the lower tiers the rakeback percent is around 10% but for the higher tiers it can reach 50% or even more.

In fact if you are a super active online poker player, then the best deal on earth is probably to try to reach SuperNova Elite, as this is usually believed to equate a 60% rakeback if not more. Just attaining that level is worth over $100k if you include all various rewards along the way such as milestones bonuses, regular bonuses, VIP freerolls and live tournament entries.

In short the VIP program at rakeback is geared toward low to mid stake active players and no room on the Internet matches the level of benefits you get if you can achieve the top tier. many try, few succeed.

When there is a tie between the house and player, it is usually referred to as a Push. Ten Blackjack and ace on initial 2 cards that is dealt, is a winning.

Read below playing Instructions on how to play blackjack.

To win at Blackjack, a player has to beat the dealer by avoiding busting. Players bust when their cards cross over the 21 mark and they lose automatically. Any player having cards close to 21 is the winner. By adding the card values, you may reach 21, the best score.

Six players sit around a table to play. The dealer shuffles either 6 or 8 card decks. After this, he dealer places them in the shoe, which is the card-dispensing box.

As player of the game, you need to place your wager before you receive any cards. You are then dealt 2 cards. The dealer receives one card face down and one card face up. In turn, every player stands or hits to get one more card in attempting to get close to 21 while avoiding busting. Any player not busting has to wait until the dealer’s turn. The the dealer reveals his down card, when you have finished playing. The dealer has to stand by the compulsorily rules of play if there is a count of 17 or above. Likewise, if the count is 16 or below than that, the dealer needs to draw.

Players win automatically on making a blackjack (21) with their initial two cards namely with the Ace and a face card or a 10. This is known as Blackjack, which offers a prize of 1 and a half times the bet you placed. Otherwise if you have a higher count compared to the dealer, you win an amount equal to your initial bet. As for players who show lower count, they lose their bet. If there is busting by the dealer, all players win. You may try different betting options such as Surrender, Even Money, Insurance, Split and Double Down.

Surrender means you give up playing and only lose half your bet. Early Surrender, here, you may surrender before the dealer actually checks for any Blackjack. Late Surrender, if the dealer confirms having any Blackjack. Even Money involves cashing in a bet as soon as a payout ratio becomes 1:1, if you have natural Blackjack, with the dealer’s card showing Ace. Insurance is a side bet up to half a first bet opposite the dealer, against the dealer having a natural 21. The dealer needs to possess Ace here. Next, if the dealer makes Blackjack having ten faces down, the insurance is at 2-1 odds. Splitting pairs, you split into two, the first 2-card hand for playing them separately. Double Down allows you to only get one more card and double the bet.

Good luck to you with the great game of Blackjack.

For pre flop hand strength, during the pre flop round the usual meaning of hand strength, and draw strength aren’t that useful. Without a board, the possibility of a draw is just that only a possibility. And the strength of your hand is greatly affected by the range of hands that your opponent will play. Issues of domination, implied odds, and position greatly affect how strong a hand is pre flop. Because of this, creating measures of pre flop hand strength has been a topic of great debate. Sklansky and Malmuth have developed the concept of hand groups, and Abdul Jalib created his preflop rankings through simulation.

For all-in equity, if all betting has finished, and no one can fold, this measure represents the fraction of the pot that you will win on average. This value is independent of the size of the pot, and doesn’t take into consideration any future action, bets, or folds. It does consider all draws and redraws. And if you can put your opponent on a range of hands, then you can determine whether calling an all-in raise is correct or not. In some ways, equity can be viewed as a combination of both linear hand strength and draw strength, and it’s usefulness is directly linked to situations where every hand that is the best will be shown down, and every possible draw will be drawn to.

Expected value is a well-known poker term. This is the Holy Grail of hand measures. Given a game context, the expected value (EV) of specific action represents the average profit or loss over all possible scenarios. Everything you know about a context can be used as input for this measure. Because of this, it is almost impossible to compute with absolute accuracy. But the more information that you can integrate into an estimate of EV, the more precise that measure will be. In some limited situations, very good estimates of EV can be constructed. But with a nearly boundless amount of information (including general experience, specific opponent information, and external meta-game issues) it’s impossible to create a practical definition of EV for all cases. So, just as the Holy Grail will never be found, no computation can ever give you the true EV of a situation.

Bingo Wonga also have a great range of the latest online slot machines such as Tomb Raider, Spiderman , Call of Duty 4, Monty’s Millions, Da Vinci Diamonds plus many others. As well as free online slots, they also have free online Keno, roulette and even blackjack.

Bingo Wonga only promote the very best online bingo sites that have set high standards in regards to great support, fast and easy cash outs and quality game play.

In real terms they have simply “cherry picked” the very best online bingo sites such as Virgin Bingo. They realise that online bingo players seek out value for every pound they deposit plus require outstanding promotions. Better still Bingo Wonga has dozens of the games from each online bingo site that you can play completely free before you even think about signing up. We find it refreshing that they simply don’t list every online bingo site preferring to only promote the very best brands.

Perhaps the best aspect of Bingo Wonga is simply their great range of free games. All games are completely free without any restrictions or time limits. If you are contemplating signing up to an online bingo site then Bingo Wonga should be your first port of call.

Characterizing a player is somewhat important because most “characters” play alike. If you beat them once you can win them again. While joining a table of players you have never met before it is helpful to get a quick three or four hand read on who and what kind of characters there are. 3 – 4 hands is enough to pick on the “tells” the players unknowingly give away while playing.

Some of the characters you will meet are for example the sunglasses or cap wearing “pro’s” or advanced players, tight and conservative players, the long- pause thinkers, aggressive and loose players who are regularly loud and rude.

The long- pause thinkers, the women who play poker are “characters” and believe it or not, but most women who play poker should not be underestimated and don’t let their acting fool you. An inexperienced looser is characterized by thinking he is always getting bluffed so try not to bluff them because they will call you with a pair. Not trying to discriminate but ethnicity also plays a part on characterizing.

Be warned, don’t mess with the cocky on-a-roll players. When winning a big hand after hand, you should fold until they loose the wind from beneath their wings because luck sometimes comes in consecutive hands. Pre-flop raisers are most annoying but relax they mostly just try to steal the pot and there is always a pre-flop raiser at the poker table. Try to accept them with open hands because they are the players that make the pot interesting. The rare pre-flop raisers have a high pair or high suit cards. Most characterizing is done by looking at a player’s body language, speech patters and betting/ chip handling manners.

It is estimated that there are millions of online poker players in the world and this figure is expected to continue rising in the near future. Cool but how many are addicted to poker? And what is poker addiction, or more generally a gambling addiction to online casino games like online video poker?

In the United States it is believed that between 2 and 5% of players are pathological and dependent on gambling. This is because the game of poker provides an immediate satisfaction. Our brain is very sensitive to such feelings and may crave for them on an ongoing basis. This is because the brain releases a substance sending waves of pleasure to our mind: dopamine. It stimulates the feeling of satisfaction and pushes players to repeat the experience.

If you think that you are addicted to poker, you should consult a specialized website.

Poker addiction may develop over poker games, following a series of bad luck where the satisfaction has lessened so that the game of poker becomes an obsession to get this intense pleasure again. The online poker player spends more time in the game, he forgets everything around him, lies to his friends and family, becoming aggressive and isolated.

Despite attempts to stop playing, the desire to gamble becomes uncontrollable, the player has become a compulsive gambler, eventually diving into a veritable hell. The financial and social consequences can be impressive: debts, unpaid rent, fractured social environment, etc.

So what to do in a case of poker addiction?

This type of addiction should not be taken lightly, although most poker blogs do not spend much content dwelling on this aspect of the game. If you feel like falling into a spiral of obsession, you must know how to pause, to take a break from the game for a few days, living normally during this period. The game of poker should first of all be and remain a game, nothing more.

Some aid organizations exist which will support players in need of advise. Note that it is very easy to ask your online casino or online poker room to block your access, or to limit it. This is one more difference with land-based venues that do not really have the means to check for people asking to be self-banned.

The first contact with online poker was a shock to me. The possibility of earning money while having fun and most importantly at home, had never crossed my mind before.

A whole new world opened to me, but probably not as easy as I had imagined at first sight. Here is a quick summary of my journey that will better define me. And if you can get some advice from this story, then even better.

Like many other beginners, I spent countless hours watching poker on the television like WPT replays, listening to the advice of Mike Sexton and other pros chatting or getting interviewed. The sums of money involved made me almost faint, and like many gamers, I wanted to be part of this money machine.

Unfortunately for me, the transition from the micro-limits at Party Poker to the EPT London did not happen overnight. The learning was painful, costly, in loneliness and by tiny incremental steps.

Poker is no exception to the rule, like any art, mastery comes with experience, and a lot of it for the ones who understand the meaning of the word mastery. If I had to give a few words of advice to a beginner, it would be: progress step by step, bankroll management is the cornerstone of your development and survival as a poker player, never play above your means and always be patient.

Never try to rebuild your bankroll at a higher limit, while slightly on tilt to add to your troubles. This is not the way for solid poker because you can catch up your losses half the time, and use your credit card the other times. Take it from someone who has lived this experience many times, you will feel really miserable when you lose everything. Because it puts you in the face of reality: mathematically, you’re a fish!

Nothing is more important than the love of the game of poker. If you do not love poker, you cannot stand the variance and the downswings. You must put aside the amount of money involved, and only consider your bankroll as a tool that reflect your skill as a poker player.

Be the master of bankroll management and you will have the foundation for building up your skills.

In today’s casinos and online casinos, the game selection does not stop from increasing with plenty of gambling games to choose from, old and new. Roulette for example is a very old game believed to have originated in seventeenth century France (roulette means little wheel in French), while Badugi Poker is a game that only appeared in American casinos in recent years.

So with so much choice, why do many smart casino players prefer playing video poker? Of course there are plenty of reasons and it can be a matter of preference related to each player. But there are two good reasons to play online video poker compared to other games according to Phil Ivey, a top poker pro.

The main benefit is that the house edge is very low at video poker, so low that it is even possible sometimes to find machines with a payout percentage surpassing 100%, an ideal situation for any gambler.

Obviously video poker machines with such an amazingly positive expected value for the players are far and between, but they exist. Also unlike any other game, you can see the payout and house edge for each video poker machine. Let’s first review the house edge for other casino games.

The house edge for European Roulette is 2.70%, 5.26% for American Roulette. Keno is very unfavorable with over 25% house edge. Blackjack has a low house edge around 0.50 to 1% depending on the casino rules, while Baccarat is slightly over 1% and slots range from 1% to 25%.

With respect to video poker, Jacks or Better is the standard game variation with a low house edge of only 0.46%. No other game has a lower house edge except Blackjack played from a single deck using Las Vegas rules, but nowadays casinos rarely offer such a game. But wait, that’s not all. Here is a list of video poker games with a negative house edge.

Full Pay Double Double Bonus has a -0.06% house edge, Full Pay Double Bonus a -0.17% house edge, Full Pay Jokers Wild (Kings or Better) a -0.64% house edge and finally Full Pay Deuces Wild a -0.76% house. These are the machines you should seek if you want to put all chances on your side while playing video poker.

This is the advantage of video poker that if you pick a specific machine, you will know exactly the house edge, as all machines are built the same way and run like clockwork. This is not so of slot machines. Also unlike slots, video poker is a skill game requiring to apply a strategy, which makes it more interesting.

Overall, video poker is a game with a lot of fun and it is not costly to play it given the great odds offered to the players. So if you have yet done so, give it a shot.