Expected Value

EV stands for expected value, and players usually speak in terms of positive EV (+EV) or negative EV (-EV). This simply refers to the value of a certain play in a poker game. If you call a $20 bet to win a $100 pot and you are better than 5-to-1 to win the hand, you have made a +EV play. If you are worse than 5-to-1 to win the hand, you have made a –EV play.

The Importance of EV in Poker

Put simply, expected value is what poker is all about. If you make more positive EV plays then negative EV ones over the course of your playing career, you will be a winning player in the online poker rooms. If you make more negative EV plays, you will be a losing player.

Calculating EV

Calculating expected value is not always easy and how you will do it will vary given the situation. For example, some players will refer to a decision to sit in a game at higher stakes than you are ready for as “-EV.” Even though this is not as clearly quantifiable as putting $50 into a pot that is only really worth $20 to you, it is still meaningful. If that game has stakes so high that the variance will wipe out your bankroll before you have a chance for your +EV plays to work, you are in a –EV situation. If you are in a game where most of the other players are making more +EV plays than you, you are in a –EV situation. Of course, more simply, calling bets when you don’t have the correct odds to do so is –EV.

Using EV
EV is a helpful analysis tool because it will alert you as to what the correct play will be should a similar situation arise again. Your goal as a poker player should be to identify common –EV moves that you make and replace them with +EV moves.

We can not deny the fact that gambling has already become a part of our everyday lives and daily routine. Online gambling, whether legal or not, should be done with great care. Many have engaged in online casino games, so if you want to get involved in online gambling, it is important for you to check the local laws of where you live, to ensure that gambling online is not illegal. If you can not get any information with regards to the legality of gambling, then the right thing for you to do is to get in touch with the local authorities and discuss with them the rules to make sure that it is indeed safe to gamble online. There are many places where gambling is legal, but you still have to check if the casino has a proper license to operate.

Online casino and gambling online is considered legal only to those people who are above eighteen years of age, so another thing to consider would be the age requirement. There are also many online casino websites in the internet that are readily available, so you also have to make sure that these online casinos are legal. But you have to be careful, before you actually play at an online casino, be sure to take legal advice just to be sure.

What Is Added Value?

Added value simply means that something is worth more than you are paying for it. If someone sells you a seat at the main event of the World Series of Poker for $5000, you have gained value, since it is worth $10,000. On the other hand, if Phil Hellmuth offers to sell you half of his World Series of Poker main event winnings for $6000, you are probably gaining value, even though the face value of such a proposition would be $5000, because he is such a strong player.

How Can You Take Advantage of Added Value?

The most common situation you will find yourself in where you can gain added value is in a tournament with a large guarantee. A guarantee means a certain amount of money will be paid out no matter how many entries they get. Generally, the buy-ins are enough to cover the guarantee but if not, you have added value. For example, with a $100 buy-in tournament with a $200,000 guarantee, the tournament would need to get 2000 players to make their guarantee. If they do not, you get added value, because there is more money available than has been contributed per person. Be on the lookout for these opportunities.

This year the contest is is held in Moscow and you can see all the entrants and their videos on the official Eurovision website. Each European country contest to see who can write and perform the best original pop song in three minutes or less. A few other countries seem to join in, like Israel.

The final is televised and becomes a must-see for the entertainment industry. 42 countries will be competing from the 12-16 May 2009.

Not sure if you are into this sort of thing, but if you are and fancy betting on the outcome then most of the online bookmakers are offering odds for the Eurovision betting. Take a look at their videos, you will get an idea of who has a chance of winning.

Rakeback Do’s and Don’ts

When looking for rakeback deals, do:

Go to a rakeback affiliate. You won’t find rakeback directly at your poker site. You will need to go to a site that is specifically designed to direct poker traffic to sign up with various online poker sites through offering rakeback.

Find the best rakeback deal you can. Not all rakeback deals are created equal. You may be offered 10 percent, 20 percent or even 30 percent rakeback. The amount of rakeback may depend on how popular the site is to begin with and how badly they need traffic, but even if you have a specific site in mind, it can’t hurt to sniff out the best deals.

Prepare to sign up with some of the less well-known sites. If you have to play on a major site like PartyPoker or PokerStars, you’re out of luck when it comes to rakeback. These sites are big enough that they don’t need to offer this kind of promotion. If you don’t mind playing on one of the less popular sites though, you can find all sorts of great deals.

When looking for rakeback deals, don’t:

Don’t try to get a sign up bonus and a rakeback deal with the same site. You cannot do both, so if you’ve already signed up with a site using an online poker bonus (or signed up without any kind of promotion), you will have no chance of getting rakeback for that site.

Don’t sign up through a rakeback deal if you don’t plan to play on the site long term. Rakeback really pays when you put in many hours at a given site. If you’re planning a “hit and run,” you’re much better off seeking out a lucrative sign up bonus.

Many online casino sites are now offering online bingo to their customers. I had a look at casino review sites last night and Rushmore casino online is offering bingo online, together with an impressive array of other online casino games… some of them I have never even heard of before! So if you are interested in bingo online, why not take a look and give it a go.

Gala bingo is another one… and I have to admit I didn’t know there was so much to playing bingo. I just thought you sat there with a bingo sheet full of numbers. You waited for the numbers to be called out and if you had the numbers that they called out, then you crossed them off your bingo sheet. When you had crossed out all the numbers on your sheet you are finished. The first bingo player to cross out all their numbers, shouts out “Bingo” and is the winner…

But there is a whole lot more, have a look. You get bingo jackpots, bingo sign up and deposit bonuses and the catch phrase that I really like is bingo online – know your “bingo lingo”!!!!

Sound familiar?

Then young Billy (Billy junior) chips in (excuse the pun…) with “why dont you watch internet poker tv?”, with that durrr look on his face, like I cant believe you “old folk” dont know about this… you can watch it any time it suits you, no fuss all you have to do is go to the site… durr…

Got some good poker hands this weekend, was very pleased with how things worked out. I stayed at home and mostly played poker online, which was a good decision because it paid off nicely. I also got a good tip off about Poker Central, a great poker portal for poker bonuses, freerolls, a choice of poker rooms and reviews to help you make that choice – thats if you are looking for new deals. With their bonus code you are entitled to special promotions, its worth a look…

Peter Eastgate the 2008 World Series of Poker champion from Denmark is playing and he reaches for the chip stack and grabs the wrong color chip thinking it is a lessor value. Daniel Negreanu notices and tells everyone, and Eastgate admits to his mistake – it kind of gives it all away the players still in the hand realize that his hand is not that strong, they out play him and he loses the hand.

I wonder if the poker game would have played out differently if Negreanu had kept quiet and if Eastgate had made it look like that is what he wanted to do. The other poker players may have thought wow, he has a serious hand to bet that much and they may have folded if he had kept applying pressure, by increasing the raise by a lot.

It ends up costing Eastgate $25,000 because he threw the wrong color chip into the pot – phew!!! What an expensive mistake!!! Bet he won’t do that again in a hurry!

Because they do nothing about trying to improve their situation. Change jobs, get a second job or just get a job in the first place. Start a business, look for opportunities don’t just sit around and complain!

Then again you can look for ways of making your money last longer. You could look for promotions, shop around a bit and compare deals. Poker players should be looking at online poker review sites, weighing up the best casino bonus options, so that they can get that better bonus.

The casino bonuses allow you to play poker or other casino games for longer, giving you a better chance of winning the jackpot. Its all sitting there waiting to be exploited, you just have to get off your rear-end and do something about it.

Don’t know if it was just the tables I happened to be playing at, but they were quite happy to fold when I applied the pressure. Maybe I came across as an extra aggressive player… who knows? But as soon as I put in a really huge raise, these guys just gave in. Most of the time they were just giving away the blinds, but still it was so defensive and tight.

Wonder if people are getting afraid of losing money because of the harder times?