Casino Tricks

The day you become greedy, and hope to get ″lucky″, is the day you lose all of your money (and all of your pride). Sounds a bit strange, but it seems to be true. The only time I ever win money is when I don’t care about losing it. I went to the the casino last night with $20 in my pocket. I couldn’t care less about losing it, I mean, what is $20? So guess what happened? I ended up leaving with $120 profit in 1 hour!

Another occassion I was at the casino with my friend Ben. I went in with $100 that I could not afford to lose. I got greedy, I got scared, and I ended up betting too much and losing it in 32 minutes! The lesson my friends is never bet more than you can afford to lose. If you don’t care about losing, you have a lot more chance of winning big!

How else can you increase your chances of winning at Roulette besides setting a budget? Never bet on single numbers! Sure, they come up every once in a while, but they don’t come up often enough to ensure a steady profit. Only bet on 1:1 bets e.g. red, black, even, odd, 1-18, and 19-36, and 2:1 bets e.g. 1st dozen, 2nd dozen, 3rd dozen, etc Bet on odds that pay relatively high.

With the basics covered, how else can we further increase our chances of winning at Roulette? By turning probability into our friend, as opposed to our mortal enemy. ″You cannot win at Roulette″, my friend Ben would say to me. ″Its completely random because any number could come up″. Sure, my friend Ben does have a point, but at the same time, he is missing an important part of the picture. I totally agree, red or black could come up 30 times in a row, but how often does that happen?

I’ll leave you with that thought my friends. How often does red come up 8 times in a row? How often does 1-18 come up 5 times in a row? There is no way to predict future roulette results, however, common sense will tell you that probability works in a lot of different ways. It can work against you, and it can also work to your advantage. The day that starts happening is the day big profits will start rolling your way!

The recent explosion of online poker has seen poker companies listing on the stock exchange and everybody trying to get a piece of the action. There are now hundreds of poker sites on the web to choose from but at the end of the day they all offer exactly the same thing – the chance to gamble some of our hard earned money against faceless opponents, sitting miles away in some other part of the globe. In our underwear if we so wish.

The adrenalin rush of sweating it out on the turn of a card with a small fortune at stake is now reachable without having to leave the house. We don't have to travel, go out into the cold, worry about dress code or a taxi home. We can play any time of the day or night – there's no closing time. We don't have to miss Corry or Enders. As long as there is money in our poker account we can play till our hearts content.

But that's the problem isn't it – how do we keep money in our account. The first few times of playing we're feeling our way in, learning the rules. But it seems so fast and furious. We're always being told to hurry up by the computer – "Hang on I'm thinking! He's probably got an ace but I'm really not sure. Give me a second to think! Oh I fold then."

But as time goes by, and we start to worry about how many Neteller transfers we seem to be making, we gradually get the hang of it. We win a few hands; we start to work out our opponents; we actually come off a table in profit!

We're hooked.

We up our stakes, we start playing the bigger tables – no limit even. We enter a tourney or two – even get to the final table. Can't quite win though. But we're not feed for the sharks anymore. We haven't made a deposit for days now and we're still playing!

But this is all dependant on winning – at least now and then. Poker is all well and good when we win, but when we have to keep clicking that 'Deposit Funds' button it becomes rather tiresome. If only there was some way to guarantee that funds are deposited into our account without the credit card taking the hit.

Well actually there is and it's amazing how many people are currently playing poker (right at this very second even) who do not know about Rakeback. It appears to be a little known fact that many of the poker companies, who are desperately vying for our business, actually offer money back just for playing.

Well it's time to spread the good news.

The profit that the poker companies make is called 'The Rake'. They take a percentage of the pot of every game that is played. We don't even notice it's gone. But it builds up into quite a little pile of profit for said company. The term Rakeback actually comes from the method used in casinos where the dealer would use his chip rake to drag a few chips into a bucket…just to cover their costs. And make the odd million.

Online poker companies do the same thing, albeit electronically. And as an incentive for us to sign up with their site, they offer referral incentives, in the form of Rakeback, through various online Rakeback sites. This is exactly what it says on the tin – we get a bit of 'The Rake' given back to us. Thus, for every single hand that we play, the poker site takes their share and gives us a little back through the affiliated Rakeback site. If you play enough poker this can add up to a tidy little sum and come the end of the month, our poker account receives a nice little injection of cash.

It doesn't matter whether we've won or lost – we've played. And that's all we need to do to get our Rakeback. If we play enough it can fund our poker for the whole month. We can even lose and still not be out of pocket. Imagine that.

All we have to do is ask Uncle Google to find us some "Rakeback Deals", sign up to our new poker site through the affiliated Rakeback site, and hit the tables. Now all our winnings are inflated by the Rakeback we generate whilst playing. Lovely Jubbly!

Me and my friends used affiliate Rakeback sites such as http://www.rakebackdeals.co.uk and http://www.paidpoker.co.uk who offer Rakeback deals with many of the popular poker sites, but a quick search on Google for "Rakeback Deals" will throw up plenty of choice.

Now go forth and spread the word…

Poker powerhouse Bodog will send 11 poker players to the main event of the World Poker Finals, November 12-16, for a once-in-a-lifetime chance to become poker’s next TV superstar and millionaire. The nationally televised tournament, held at the Foxwoods Resort Casíno in Mashantucket, Conn., will give the 11 Team Bodog members, each of whom qualified on Bodog, an opportunity for big-time TV exposure, major cash winnings and a dream-come-true chance to play with the pros, including Team Bodog poker professional David Williams.

All 11 Team Bodog players earned their entry through one of the regular WPT satellite tournaments offered online at Bodog.com, where players can wín a seat for as little as $1.50. As a member of Team Bodog, the qualifiers are rewarded a prize package that includes the $10,000 tournament buy-in, travel expenses, and Team Bodog gear.

Held in the largest casíno-based poker room in the country, the World Poker Finals annually showcases one of the largest fields and cash purses on the World Poker Tour. Last year’s World Poker Finals featured a total cash purse of more than $7.8 million, with the winner taking home a whopping $2.1 million, and tournament officials anticipate this year’s event to surpass 2005’s record-setting amounts.

″The World Poker Finals is one of the richest and most respected tournaments on the World Poker Tour, and we’re thrilled to have these 11 players join David Williams on Team Bodog, as they compete for a shot at poker fame and fortune,″ says Calvin Ayre, Founder of poker and digital entertainment giant Bodog.com.

After the World Poker Finals, Bodog Poker will next hold online qualifiers for the WPT LA Poker Classic, held at the Commerce Casíno in Los Angeles, February 24-March 1, 2007. Bodog is also giving away three prize packages to WPT events in 2007 through an online contest at www.bodogpokerchampionships.net.

With aggressive tournament schedules and an array of bonus programs, Bodog Poker continues to lead the industry with its multitude of products. Bodog’s poker room community enjoys huge tournaments with monthly guaranteed prize pools of $3.5 million.

In addition to its WPT satellite qualifiers, Bodog also hosts regular qualifiers for the World Series of Poker. This year, Bodog sent more than 500 players to the World Series of Poker and that contingent walked away with a combined $15 million in winnings.

Team Bodog professionals Josh Arieh and Evelyn Ng performed especially well, but it was David Williams and the newest Team Bodog member, Jamie Gold, who stole the headlines. Williams, a bracelet holder and one of the top money winners in poker history, won the 7-Card Stud event, taking home over $160,000, while Gold was crowned the world champion by taking the coveted main event and winning a record $12 million.

″With the amazing success of Team Bodog at this year’s WSOP, Bodog Poker has proven that it’s an effective training ground for players who eventually graduate to playing and winning tournaments at land-based casínos,″ says Ayre.

Have you ever watched a poker tournament on television and decided you'd like to play texas holdem in a tournament. Well now you can and you can do it from the convenience of your own home or any other location where you have an Internet connection. When you register for free at a good poker room you can learn to play texas holdem from the experts and practice with other players for free for as long as you want. Then when you're ready to try your hand at risking some money there are always lots of seats available at the tables. You can play whenever you want for as long as you want. You can play for high stakes or low stakes, the choice is yours.

You can also choose from a variety of tournaments where you can play texas holdem. There are single table and multi-table tournaments with different buy ins and prize levels to choose from. There are also speed tournaments and rebuy tournaments available. New tournaments are starting all of the time so you never have to wait long to get into one. When you play texas holdem online you find that it is just as challenging and exciting as playing in a regular casino. A good poker room will even provide you with the opportunity to win free entries into the big money tournaments.

Why should you play texas holdem anywhere else? When you play at a top rated poker room you'll have a secure account and great customer service. You'll also find that there are many special prizes and other incentives available that rival anything you can find elsewhere. Sign up today and get in on the fun.

Have you become tired of the daily grind? Fed up with low wages and dead-end jobs? Are you ready to change your fortunes with a new career amid the lights and glitter? Then working for a traditional casino, Native American casino or one of the online casinos may be just the thing for you!

Imagine yourself as a high stakes casino blackjack or poker dealer, flipping cards to the rich and famous. Or perhaps you prefer to work behind the scenes as a casino pit clerk, cage cashier, slot technician, or casino surveillance officer. Those are only a few of the hundreds of entry-level casino and gaming related jobs available to you. With new casinos opening every year both in the United States and abroad, the opportunities are nearly endless.

Being a Casino game dealer can be fun, challenging, and lucrative. Many dealers find roulette to be one of the more interesting games to deal. Although it is a bit repetitive like blackjack, there are different things roulette dealers do. In blackjack it’s constantly dealing and counting the cards, and paying or taking money. In roulette dealers pick up chips, spin the ball, and move chips around on the layout. But the tips are a little bit less at roulette. Bettors tend to wager less money on roulette than on blackjack, and they tend to tip in proportion to what they are playing.

What is the most challenging part about roulette for dealers? Definitely the totaling of bets because there are so many combinations to figure out. Sometimes the math can get a bit hard. But you get used to it after a while. You’ll be able to look at the layout and know how much to pay without even thinking about it. And you have to be very diligent about watching the entire roulette table, especially when it becomes crowded. Manual dexterity also comes into play as a roulette dealer. When you are working out of a tray on the blackjack table, you just take the chips out to pay the players or pick up bets. But in roulette you have stacks and stacks of chips to slide across the table to the players. That’s why dealers receive a lot of breaks. Not only is there constant repetitive motion in roulette, but it also requires constant mental concentration in order to keep it all together.

After several years of dealing, one can expect to climb their way up the ladder. In a casino, the usual hierarchy goes dealer, floor supervisor, pit administrative boss or supervisor, assistant shift manager, shift manager, and finally, casino manager. As an assistant shift manager, you usually help shift manager with whatever tasks needed that day. On the regular shift manager’s days off the assistant operates as the shift manager. As such, they are basically in charge of the entire casino during that particular shift. The gaming industry is definitely a service industry now and their main desire is for people to have fun. They make sure that the customers are having a good time. But their main responsibility is still to watch the money and to ensure that everything is on the up and up.

Management can be a stressful job. Some days you come in and nothing goes wrong. However, there are some days that the phone starts ringing and suddenly there are a million things to do. This person checks in, that person wants more credit, this one has won a lot, and that person is mad because he has lost too much. So anything can come up.

Managers are generally on the casino in order to be visible and make themselves readily available if someone needs them. And it does become bewildering at times to see people blow an enormous amount of money. So you can get jaded after a while. But it’s important to remember it’s not you who is taking the money, it’s the game. You can’t take it personally. You learn to realize you have no control. All the odds are built in.

The industry has changed a lot. The dealers did not have a lot of say in the old days. You made good money so you weren’t going to talk back. It is more of a guest-service industry now. For the dealer it’s no longer, ″Hey, you [the customer] want to gamble, I don’t have to be nice,″ and for the player it’s no longer, ″I have all this money so I can call you [the dealer] whatever I want.″ The whole industry has become a more pleasant place in which to work. You meet many wonderful people, fellow employees as well as customers. Dealers also enjoy the games, and of course, the money they earn.

More casinos are going corporate whereas they used to be privately owned. Corporations offer better benefits and more vacation time. The industry just keeps growing. Workers also noticed that it didn’t used to be hard to move from city to city but now it seems much more difficult after the industry opened up all over the country. Many would probably not be able to go into a Strip casino in Las Vegas and still be an assistant shift supervisor without losing their position. It still is pretty simple moving from property to property within the same area, though.

The most challenging part of the casino experience has to be learning to deal with all the personalities of the other employees. There aren’t many women in this field, so workplace dynamics can be difficult for them to fit into. Most of the craps dealers are men, the roulette dealers are women, and blackjack gets a mixture of both. Management is still mostly men, but figures are always changing. Anyone interested in this industry should just go for it. The stress level of working in a casino is there but some days are better than others, as with any job. It’s also a great career if you have children or if you are going to school because you can work almost any hours to fit into your schedule.

Many experienced dealers suggest that new dealers start out with blackjack since it is one of the more basic and easier of the games to deal. You can get the fundamentals down with blackjack, then when you move to more complicated games you will already understand security procedures, such as how to make sure no one is cheating the house and how to show your employers that you are not cheating them. You’ll be able to focus more on the dealing itself. No dealer is expected to learn all the games, but they are somewhat more valuable when they can.

Arnold Snyder is not new to gambling, but he is a new writing force in the world of poker. Having recently written a ground breaking tournament poker manual, he has ignited a debate of old school verses new school, aggression versus conceding, and blunt force betting verses the fear of losing. With the publication of The Poker Tournament Formula, Snyder has captured a loyal and expanding audience of strategy-hungry tournament players that contribute to Snyder's online forum like packs of wolves, frequently taking frisky bites at the old school tournament thinkers.

Collectively, those thinkers are represented (at least ideologically) by David Sklansky the resident professor and writer of Tournament Poker for Advanced Players. This book, now several years since its first publication, and before the boom, put into motion the tight-early and tight-aggressive strategy that simply made common sense of hold'em tournaments. This strategy is guided in nature by the Gap Concept described in Sklansky's book as "you need a better hand to play against someone who has already opened the betting, than you would need to open yourself". Even modern superstar writers like Dan Harrington and Phil Gordon use this in their strategies as well, so you know it has to have some merit. As such, it is not unusual to find that squeaky, tight-aggressive player at numerous final tables that has got enough playable cards during the tournament to have survived to the final table.

Survived is the key word here, as he (insert any Sklansky drone) is rarely among the chip leaders. Further, rarely does the player return to a final table, because the basic tight strategy of relying on enough quality hands also has to be fused with having them actually win pots, and hold up throughout the tournament. As Snyder points out with much experience, it is those "quality" hands he gets kicked out of tournaments playing, as opposed to position plays with weak holdings.

Where Snyder feels The Gap is a completely misguided concept is in the smaller buy-in tournaments that many players participate daily, in local casinos, regional events and online poker sites. Snyder feels that this is a lucrative segment, as many players may never have a bankroll big enough for $10,000 and $15,000 entry fees for the WPT and WSOP. However, if you play these smaller tourneys the way Snyder plays them, you will soon enough be able to pay for a $10,000 entry fee!

Snyder breaks these smaller tournaments down, and categorizes them into a skill level based on the chip and blind structure combined with the amount of entries. Depending on the skill level and patience factor of the tournament, your strategy is going to be radically different than anything Sklansky would recommend. The underlining of that strategy is based largely on position play, and pressuring your opponents, who have likely missed the flop as much as you have. This is executed in spite of your hole cards, not because of them. Snyder's wolves say this strategy works it sheer numbers in large part because of the Sklansky type tournament opponents who know nothing more than to fold out of position or out of flop weakness.

Both writers have forums and both have supporters, and it is interesting to hear some of the challenges put forth from the Snyder Wolves - "specific mistakes in Sklansky’s and Malmuth’s advice", "I’ve been giving a lot of thought to the ″Gap Concept″ and why it’s wrong.", "Waiting for Sklansky to speak", " The burden of proof was Sklansky’s, and all he did was add to his errors", "Sklansky’s ″proof″ is a perfect example of his incompetence at poker logic″ and on and on. This is juicy stuff!

All I can say is, between the two of them, someone has got to know what is going on here! All we want to know is how to win a bloody tournament! It seems to me that elements of both strategies are needed to win tournaments. Take a look at players like Daniel Negreneau, Erick Lindgren, Gus Hansen, Greg Raymer or Gavin Smith. They have often made some amazing lay downs to aggressive opponents, but I more often see them playing stuff like QJos, 57s, KTs and even more rubbish hands to not just one raiser, but two! These guys truly understand, like Arnold Snyder, that if you layed down like Sklansky does, you are just not going to see many final tables. By the way, have you seen David Sklansky at a final table recently?

All of the above tournament players, who are definitely more tuned into Snyder's slant have won big, and won often. Yes, I want some of that.

In this article I’d like to share with you the 5 biggest gambling mistakes of most average gamblers. Las Vegas thrives on people making these mistakes and makes more money this way.

Since it’s time you started winning follow these tips so you win more and lose less
Discover how to turn professional at the casino using my time tested advice and tips that have won me thousands of dollars, and have got me banned.

″The 5 Biggest Mistakes That you should avoid!″

For years the casinos have been ripping off players just like you for hundreds of years, to generate insane profits in the billions every year! Within this article I’d like to share with you the five most common mistakes gamblers make that maximize your odds of losing, that you may not even know you do!

The 5 Biggest Gambling Mistakes:

Most gamblers visit a casino in hopes of winning some money but ultimately you gamble for fun. Unfortunately people wholely on pure luck to win nearly always lose. If you want to win then make sure you follow these rules…

Mistake #1. Not setting a bank roll limit.

When you go and visit a casino only take a certain amount of money with you for gambling purposes, and leave all your plastic cards at home. When you spend your entire bank roll move on and find something else to do, don’t bother getting emotionally involved with the games you’re playing because it’s the quickest way to spend much more money!

Mistake #2. Not knowing how to play.

When you choose a certain game to play at the casino, you should know well in advance exactly how the game works and how to play it scientifically so you win more money. Most players hit games they don’t know, thus they lose more than they can gamble.

Personally speaking, if you truly want to super charge your results, then I highly recommend you uncover every tip and strategy for maximizing your odds

Mistake #3. Impairing your judgment.

The casino loves to fill their guests and customers with free booze of all types and kinds. Drinking impairs your judgement and gets you emotionally involved within the game thus losing feels worse, and most importantly you won’t be able to play using scientifically proven strategies that shrink the odds of the casino winning.

Whatever you do, don’t gamble if you are going to be drinking. It just makes no sense and just drains your bank roll!

Mistake #4. Choosing the wrong games.

In order to win you’ve got to choose the games that pay out the most money and that the casino has less power of making the odds of the game in their favor. Not all games are created equal, so find out which games pay out the best and then start practicing, studying and playing those games in real life or the net, until you master it!

Once you’ve mastered a game then and only then are you truly ready to fork out cash to play at a real casino.

Mistake #5. Picking the wrong casino.

Like the games themselves casinos are not all created equal some casinos may pay out much better than others, and it’s your job to find the best paying casino. If you are searching for a list of loose online casinos that fork out free 25% signup bonuses, you can review my personal list of favorite casinos by visiting my website:

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Ready to start gambling online? The difference between gambling online and gambling in a casino is like the difference between night and day. Casinos are designed to distract you from everything except gambling. Drinks are served regularly, people add to the crowd, and the smell and touch of money gets everyone excited. As casino owners know, that leads people to make foolish bets or play foolish hands, all designed to make sure you lose money.

However, if you gamble online at home, you have the luxury of being able to control your environment. So before you log on to that website, make sure you’re comfortable and prepared. Rid yourself of any distractions. Turn the TV off, turn down the ringer on the telephone and send the kids out to play. A distraction at a crucial betting moment can cause you to make a hasty decision.

Have plenty of soft drinks or non-alcoholic beverages on hand, but keep anything alcoholic like beer, wine or liquor, tucked away. Alcoholic beverages affect our judgment and cause us to make poor decisions. It causes us to have a harder time calculating odds, and we also have an inflated sense of confidence. When alcohol mixes with gambling, most folks walk away a loser.

Keep a clock nearby. You may even want to set a timer. Casinos never have clocks on the walls because they don’t want players to know how long they’ve been gambling! But the longer you gamble the more you’re at risk to lose, so set a time limit, or at least keep an eye on the clock.

Sit in a comfortable chair. Proper ergonomics is important for anyone who spends a lot of time at a computer and desk. If your gambling session will run for more than an hour or so, make sure you have a comfortable chair that’s positioned correctly.

If you enjoy playing poker offline you may also enjoy playing poker online at online poker tables. There are a variety of benefits to playing at online poker tables and you can have the time of your life while doing so. Following are some of the benefits to playing at poker tables online that may make you think again before going back to a casino.

1. Nowhere to Go

If you decide to play at poker tables online you will not have to worry about leaving your home. With gas prices being quite high lately it may be a nice change to be able to play a game you love from the comfort of your own home. Add in the savings on drinks and snacks at a Casino and you have saved big by staying home. No need to sacrifice the game to save money since technology allows you to play at online poker tables on your own computer.

2. Sharpen Your Game

Maybe you have not been playing well lately and you want a cheap way to brush up on your poker skills. If so, then playing at online poker tables may help you get the edge you need to win next time you play with your buddies. You can play at poker tables online for free, so no need to blow money while sharpening your skills.

3. Make New Friends

When you play at online poker tables you will be able to meet new friends that you never would have met otherwise. Often you will play with people around the world and be able to enjoy a hobby with others that enjoy it as well. You will have the opportunity to develop new friendships when you play at online poker tables.

Its really not that big of a stretch of the ole imagination to think that today's gamblers are no different than gamblers of old, the only real difference is what gamblers of old wagered on and what gamblers of today wager on.

Today we gamble on a lot of the very same things that gamblers of yesterday wagered on, with regard to wagering on horse races, cards, dice, and even political elections to name a few, but gamblers today have the ability to wager on a much wider assortment of things including but not limited to church and fire hall bingo, slot machines, poker machines and even state sponsored lotteries, heck, today we even have a state who has an economy built around gambling halls or what we now refer to as casinos.

It's kind of hard to believe that it was not all that long ago when a gambler interested in wagering on a sporting event was more or less forced to run his/her wager thru a local bookmaker and thus had to take the line given if he or she wanted to place a wager, unless of course the same gambler had access to other "outs", meaning that this same gambler had an out of town connection that he used in order to allow himself or herself to gain an edge with respect to the posted spread or money line placed on an event.

In days gone by before the invention of the personal computer, a smart gambler with the right connections could find more than his fair share of "Middle’s", meaning that if for example NFL team Blue were at home against NFL team Red, it was not that unusual to find the hometown Blue team bet up with the local books because of hometown sentiment while the line placed on the visiting Red team in their hometown would hold steady or be bet down.

Thus, a savvy guy or gal with the right connections in both the Blue city as well as in the Red city might just find a 2 or a 2 1/2 point and sometimes even a 3 point difference in the local line from town to town if he or she looked hard enough and did not hesitate on making a wager upon finding the difference in posted lines city to city.

As an example, lets say that the home Blue team was favored to win by 5.5 points on the opening line but by game time the home town Blue backers had bet the line up to –7 points, meanwhile, the visiting Red team's fans back home bet the line down to +4.5 by game time.

Thus the line at game time in Blue town is +/- 7 while the line in Red town is +/- 4.5, this creates what is known as a "Middle" meaning that a 2.5 point difference now exists between these teams, the worst that can happen is that one wager will lose and one wager will win which means that all that one would lose is the "juice" associated with the wager, meanwhile, the best that can happen is that the actual score falls somewhere in the middle which allows the gambler to collect on both ends.

Today however, sports wagering is getting bigger and bigger thanks to the availability of the home computer, cable TV, sports talk radio, and of course the influx of so many off shore sports books, thus the days of finding a good many "middles" are gone although an astute gambler can still catch a middle opportunity now and then if he or she keeps their eyes open.

The lines placed on sporting events today are a lot sharper then in days gone by, but it all evens out in the end because the odds maker is now not the only one privy to the multitude of information available surrounding any given sporting event, this is of course due to the large number of gamblers today owning a home P.C. which allows the savvy gambler to not only gain valuable handicapping information via the internet, but to also "line shop".

So, the real question my friend is "Why should today's savvy gambler wager on sports instead of wagering on other games of chance"?

Quite simply because a gambler has a much better chance of winning on a consistent basis when gambling on sporting events than he or she has when playing any casino game, slot or poker machine, the state lottery or for that matter any other game of chance, except for maybe poker or blackjack, but regardless of whether you gamble on poker, blackjack or sports, the savvy gambler must have a firm understanding of the game itself and must do his or her homework.

When it comes to wagering on major sports such as football, baseball, basketball and hockey, usually a spread or money line is placed on the game by the lines maker and then this established spread or money line is wagered on by the gambler, however, most novices as well as a lot of supposed experienced gamblers make the mistake of believing that the spread or money line placed on a sporting event is a true indicator of one teams strength and ability versus the opposing teams strength and ability.

The truth of the matter is that the spread or money line placed on a game is meant to garner equal action by the gambler on both teams involved, the winner wins his wager while the loser pays the "juice" associated with the particular wager that he or she placed, thus creating the commission that the middleman or bookmaker/sports book makes for handling the transaction between winning and losing gamblers.

The serious gambler understands that it is not the bookmaker or sports book who is his or her enemy, the true enemy is actually the "Joe public" bettor that places uninformed, opinionated wagers which of course causes what is referred to as line movement.

Line movement is simply the difference +/- in what the opening spread or money line was on a particular event versus what the closing numbers were on the same event, it must of course be understood that many factors can and will influence the opening and closing numbers on an event, including but not limited to weather and injury concerns, but always remember that it is the very same "Joe public" bettor that still influences the established line when they hear of possible weather or injury concerns amongst other things and thus often creates an over reaction with regard to line movement.

Its all about odds and percentages when it comes to gambling my friend, and that is what truly sets apart sports wagering versus other forms of gambling, take a moment and think about it, if you wager on a football game for example and the posted line is –3 or –5 or minus whatever, it is still a 50% proposition on a straight wager that you are either right or you are wrong which makes the odds essentially the same as a coin toss.

Of course you must take into consideration that you pay more when you lose, thus on a straight wager you pay 11 to 10 odds or 110 to 100 dollars wagered, thus the real "Break even" point or winning percentage that you must achieve on straight wagers is actually 52.38% in order to avoid a monetary loss.

Keeping in mind that 52.38% is the break even point with regard to straight wagers, a gambler needs to realize that anything above this percentage is money made, most honest, professional handicappers achieve winning percentages of 57% to 60% over the course of an entire season, often the more experienced handicapper can achieve winning rates of 60% to 65% if the ball bounces right for him or her here and there over the course of the season.

I pointed out the above with regard to what the "Break even" percentage is versus how honest professionals fare over the course of an entire season for a reason, did you ever notice those ads placed in Fridays edition of the USA Today newspaper by scamdicappers claiming winning percentages of 80% or 85% or 90%?

Ever see those claims of "Can't lose", or "Sure lock winner", or "Game of the year"? Heck, if you get up early enough on Saturday or Sunday morning you can even catch a scamdicapper show or two on TV with some of the very same individuals whose ads were in the previous Fridays USA Today newspaper.

Ads such as the ones described above are designed to sucker in the poor souls who in all likelihood have dug holes for themselves and are panicking, in a lot of cases these panicked losers will do or pay anything for a "Can't lose", or "Sure lock winner", or "Game of the year", I would even venture a guess that this sort of desperate gambler knows in their heart that those claims of 80% or 85% or 90% winners are bogus.

So how did this desperate gambler get into his or her situation to begin with? It happens season in and season out because of a failure to start with a dedicated starting bankroll that is used solely for sports wagering which negates the need to use monies ear marked for the mortgage or car payment.

A dedicated starting bankroll and a firm understanding of money management is a must if anyone wants to survive the peaks and valleys and ups and downs of the season long marathon that is involved with sports wagering.

I will get into the different aspects surrounding money management and other topics in another article, but for now remember the key points brought out in this article, the importance of doing your homework, understanding that the line or odds placed on a contest is meant to garner "equal action" which means that Joe Public is the reason for line movement which of course amplifies the importance of shopping for the best available line thru multiple "outs" while keeping an eye open for middling possibilities.