With Spanish 21 Multi-hand Blackjack the Player has the option of betting on a maximum of 5 hands at the table. Here is a quick overview:

* The game is played with 8 Spanish Card Decks which consist of 48 cards (the regular 52 cards subtracting the 4 tens).
* The Jacks, Queens, and Kings remain in the deck.
* In the event that the Dealer is holding an Ace Card the Player will be offered Insurance. Once the Dealer has checked for Blackjack, the Insurance bet is resolved.
* It is also a Hole Card Game in that when the Dealer has a 10 or an Ace card showing he checks for Blackjack.
* If the Dealer has Blackjack the Game is over.

This game is suitable for all players so whether you are an amateur or a pro you should give this game a go. It is slightly different to the traditional version of the game and is unique as eight decks of cards are used and you can play up to five hands at the same time.

The graphics are of a superior standard and designed to make your experience more pleasurable.

Available at: Grand Monaco and Spin Palace

The infamous online casino is betting that the blackjack tournamets will be as big or bigger than poker.

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We urge players to carefully review terms and conditions relating to each bonus, as they will differ.

online-gambling-insider.com

While such policies might spring from a moral viewpoint, they are unlikely to succeed in limiting online betting.

Because Internet gaming operations are often located outside of the U.S., there is little Washington can do to restrict their actions.

Moreover, a prohibition policy has perverse effects and encourages the behavior it seeks to curtail. This is illustrated by a close examination of one of the most popular forms of gambling: sports betting. There is a large demand for sports betting (search), and a large illegal sector has arisen to provide this activity despite a long-standing policy of prohibition.

A similar ban on all Internet-based sports betting also is likely to fail. A legalized regime is a better way to mitigate the potential dangers of Internet betting.

casinogamblingblog.com

las vegas (AP) — After six days of poker, 1,159 players remain in the hunt for poker’s biggest prize, the $12 million top purse for the winner of the main event at the World Series of poker.
Dmitri Nobles has the lead at 549,200 in chips when play resumes Friday at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino after a day off.

Ken Jacobs, son of poker pro Tom Jacobs, was fourth with 375,300, while Canadian “Kid poker” Daniel Negreanu was sixth with 331,000.

On Friday, for the first time this tournament, all the survivors of the original pool of 8,773 entrants will be playing in the same room at the same time.

The $10,000-buy-in, no-limit Texas Hold ‘em tournament also will begin paying off those who get knocked out, starting with the 873rd-place finisher, who will receive $14,597. The final table of nine will play down starting Aug. 10.

Defending champion Joseph Hachem was well back in the pack with 114,100 in chips. Other notable pros still in the hunt include Humberto Brenes with 148,300, Ted Forrest with 130,900, Josh Arieh with 85,600, Cyndy Violette with 79,000, Juan Carlos Mortensen with 77,600, Hoyt Corkins with 67,900, Annie Duke with 67,000, Freddy Deeb with 64,500, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson with 55,200, Kathy Liebert with 48,500 and Phil Ivey with 23,400.

Notables who have busted in the 37th annual World Series of poker main event include Phil Hellmuth Jr., Doyle Brunson, Greg Raymer, Mike “The Mouth” Matusow, Jennifer Harman, Huck Seed, Adam Schoenfeld, “Machinegun” Patty Gallagher, Men “The Master” Nguyen, Eric Froehlich, Barry Greenstein, John Juanda, Andrew Black and David Williams.

Also on the sidelines as play resumes are Lennox Lewis, Erik Seidel, Erick Lindgren, Max Pescatori, Vince Van Patten, Lyle Berman, Sean Sheikhan, Sam Farha, Benjamin Lin, Liz Lieu, Jennifer Tilly, Gavin Smith, Tiffany Williamson, Paul Darden, James Garner, Tobey Maguire, Chris Masterson, Mekhi Phifer, Antonio Tarver and Norm MacDonald.

T he grumpiest man I ever knew was an old poker pro in las vegas named Sarge Farris, who was universally understood to be the best five-card-stud player in the world.

Unfortunately for Farris, no one had played five-card stud seriously for ages. Chances are, he wasn’t too sunny even in the days when he could find a game, but by the time I met him in 1980, he was also universally understood to be one of the world’s leading curmudgeons.

The game of choice for high-stakes poker had already become Texas Hold ‘em. And that was before the hold ‘em boom of the last few years, which has turned the legendary World Series of poker into what it is today:

A TV show.

The World Series is “American Idol” for pallid people who’ve spent too much time hunched over something — a poker table, if they’re old-school, or a computer, if they’re part of the new wave who discovered they could play online without the inconvenience of getting dressed.

With the last and flashiest event of the annual series of tournaments under way, this seems like a sensible time to explain a bit about the game and the event itself. I wasn’t there at the beginning in 1970, but I knew some of the people who were.

They used to rope Sarge Farris into playing hold ‘em, even though it wasn’t his strong suit. What else was he supposed to do with his time? Watch game shows?

poker face for TV

No-limit Texas Hold ‘em has everything television needs, neatly packaged around green oval tables.

Winners. Losers. Fast action. Colorful characters, drama, tidy story lines, huge bets.

The best poker players write books, sell signature model sunglasses and endorse poker Web sites.

You could say they are almost like actors, except that it’s actors who want to be like them. Ben Affleck, Dean Cain, Shannon Elizabeth, Louie Anderson and Brad Garrett all entered this year’s World Series.

Jennifer Tilly not only plays — very well, thank you — she lives with Dublin-born poker pro Phil (The Unabomber) Laak.

When I covered the early stages of the World Series 25 years ago, the vast media contingent consisted of me and a guy with a video camera the size of a bazooka. The World Series was played downtown at Binion’s Horseshoe Casino, and the entrants were easy enough to impress that Benny Binion wowed them by putting crab legs on their players-only buffet line.

About 80 players ponied up the $10,000 entry fee for the final tournament, a no-limit hold ‘em contest known as the Big Game, the Main Event or simply by the catch-all title of World Series. Stu Ungar, a stunningly scrawny former New York gin whiz , won the championship and $375,000.

When the 2006 Big Game began Friday at the 51-story, off-Strip Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino, a record 8,725 gamblers were in the field. The last player sitting when the tournament ends Aug. 10 will collect $11 million.

Editing furiously, minions from ESPN will have Big Game telecasts ready to roll by Aug. 22. Or, if you can’t wait, you can watch the duel at the final table on live pay-per-view for $24.95.

ESPN has telecasts of the World Series’ various tournaments scheduled through Halloween. That’s in addition to this year’s repeats and repeats of tournaments from past years, and does not include all the other poker competitions on what seems like every cable network from Bravo to the Travel Channel.

Show ‘em

Eager to put more rumps in seats around the poker tables of las vegas and Reno, card sharps and casino managers recognized decades ago that they needed to promote the game.

They tried making a spokesman of Amarillo Slim Preston, an old-time hustler who once won a bet by riding a camel into a casino, but he wasn’t much of a player anymore. The buttoned-down frat kid champions of the next wave, like Bobby Baldwin and Chip Reese, were too intimidating.

It took a TV executive to finally figure out the secret a few years ago: Show everyone’s hole cards.

Thanks to tiny cameras in the railings of the tables, viewers can now see exactly what former lawyer Greg (FossilMan) Raymer, the guy with the weird sunglasses, has for ammunition when he throws a $400,000 raise at Chris (Jesus) Ferguson, the computer science Ph.D. with the long hair and the cowboy hat.

It helps that Texas Hold ‘em is a fundamentally simple game, even if it doesn’t seem that way when you’ve just been reraised by a guy you thought was falling asleep.

Rules of the game

Legend says hold ‘em was invented by cowboys who needed a poker derivative that could include lots of players without exhausting a deck of cards.

A hand starts with each player receiving two hole cards. After a round of betting, the dealer lays three cards, known as the flop, face up in the middle of the table. Another round of betting precedes another up-card, known as fourth street or the turn. Then come another round of betting, the laying of the final card — called the river or fifth street — and yet another opportunity to bet.

What sets hold ‘em apart from most other poker games is that all players use the five cards face-up on the table, combining them with their two hole cards to make the best five-card hand. Since so many cards are common knowledge, bluffs come as frequently as Sarge Farris frowns.

To jump-start the action before each deal, the two players to the dealer’s left set out mandatory bets known as the small blind and big blind. At your average kitchen game, the small blind might be 50 cents and the big blind $1. The player to the left of the big blind must match the $1, fold or raise, and betting continues clockwise.

In tournaments, the blinds increase regularly, making it an expensive proposition to sit and wait for a great starting hand on the order of two aces or the ace-king combo known as Big Slick.

A growing pot

The first World Series of poker did not include a no-limit hold ‘em showdown. Binion gathered 35 poker pros at his casino in 1970, and after a week or so of high-stakes games, they voted Johnny Moss the best player on the planet and gave him a silver cup.

The next year, Moss — a fair-sized grump himself — won a tournament and left with the title again, along with $30,000. Entries and prize money have grown dramatically since. By 1983, when a delightfully forthright failed accountant from Grand Rapids named Tom McEvoy won the event, first prize was $580,000.

The prize jumped to $1 million in 1991 and had inflated to $2.5 million when Chris Moneymaker won in 2003. He was a rookie who earned his way into the Big Game by spending $39 to enter a tournament online, and he topped a field of 838 players.

Apparently on the theory that if Moneymaker can win, anyone can, the field more than tripled in 2004, and jumped to 5,619 last year. After another quantum leap this year, it’s clear that the World Series of poker has become a full-fledged cultural phenomenon.

Nah, probably not.
By Neal Rubin

Frankly, they just don’t understand how poker works. They’re often the same people who suffer huge losses at the table, but only manage very small wins.

You should never be preoccupied with your winning percentage. Basically, it’s a meaningless statistic. People brag to me that they’ve won 22 days in a row and that they’ve come out on top 80 percent of the sessions they play. The thing is, when you look deeper into their results, you’ll often find a very unhealthy pattern.

While these players are winning more than three-quarters of the time, some of them are still net losers in poker. It’s amazing, but true.

I looked at an old friend’s poker records and immediately found the problem with his approach to the game: Monday 3 hours +$147, Tuesday 2 hours +$220, Wednesday 1 hour +$400, Thursday 2 1/2 hours +$160. Then comes Friday: 16 hours -$2,210. Yikes. That’s a recipe for disaster if I’ve ever seen one.

Because my friend was so obsessed with having to win every time, he couldn’t quit when he was losing. That leads to poor play and fatigue, which is better known in the poker world as tilt.

Despite the fact that he won four out of five days, he was behaving the exact opposite of how he should have.

Winning raises confidence
When you’re losing at poker over a long period of time, it’s difficult to play effectively. Conversely, when you’re winning, your confidence rises and this can only help you at the table.

As a rule, your winning sessions should be longer than your losing ones. Nevertheless, too many players do what my friend did and keep digging a deeper hole. In fact, about 90 percent of the world’s poker players share this common problem, and it’s often their biggest downfall.

The good news is there’s an easy fix.

Before you even sit down at a poker table, decide how long you will play. For example, if you show up at 6 p.m. and decide to play six hours, you should quit at midnight, regardless of your result. This strategy will help you shift focus from wins and losses to putting in quality hours at the tables when your mind is alert.

When I started playing professionally, I put myself on a very strict schedule: Monday to Friday from noon-8 p.m., much like a real job. If the game was particularly juicy, I’d play a little bit longer, but only under one condition: I had to be winning.

Stick to a plan
Your mind often plays tricks on you when quitting time rolls around especially if you’re losing. The voices in your head will tell you, “Stay, stay, get your money back. You’re playing well, get these guys!” Do not listen to that evil voice. It will only destroy you.

Your mind wants you to believe that losing hasn’t had a negative effect on your play. Believe me, it has. Continuing to play will only hurt your confidence, your stack and your overall game. Go home. There’s always tomorrow.

As you become more disciplined, you can consider playing longer if the game is lively and you’re ahead.

It’s always OK to quit early if you’re losing. Also, whether winning or losing, it’s smart to leave if you’re not playing your best or if you’re just feeling tired.

The next thing you should do is start focusing on a new statistic. Forget about your win/loss records. Instead, start tracking your hourly rate. Divide your results by the number of hours you’ve played. If you’re earning one big bet an hour, that’s a good result.

Leave the braggarts to their amazing 22-session winning streaks. You take it one hand at a time and focus on making good decisions every time out.

The results will take care of themselves.
By Daniel Negreanu

las vegas — Amateurs, seasoned pros and celebrities sat down together Friday as the chips were divvied up and the cards dealt for the World Series of poker.

By 2:30 p.m., there were 8,580 entrants registered for the world’s biggest poker game, pushing the top prize to $11.7 million.

Alternates were waiting in the wings and new players were being accepted until Monday, when the grand prize could swell even larger.

At the very least, the last 12 players still standing when the 37th annual no-limit Texas Hold ‘em tournament wraps up will win at least $1 million. The final table is scheduled to begin play Aug. 10.

“Everybody’s got dreams and aspirations but you’ve got to get through a lot of people here,” said Greg Severson, a 45-year-old building contractor from Upland, Calif., who qualified for his $10,000 seat online.

“One step at a time,” he said. “First break, dinner break, first day. One day at a time.”

By the break after the first two hours, about 80 players already had been eliminated. The first field of 2,140 players was set to play as long as it takes to get down to 900. A staggered start over four days will cut more than half of the field by Tuesday.

Celebrities such as Spiderman star Tobey Maguire, Mekhi Phifer from ER, James Garner of The Rockford Files and Maverick and boxer Antonio Tarver ponied up to the felt for $10,000 each. poker pros Gus Hansen, Eli Elezra, Michael Mizrachi, Barry Greenstein and Juan Carlos Mortensen also took to the tables Friday.

Thirty-three days of poker have led up to the main event at the Rio hotel-casino. In earlier rounds, 21-year-old University of California, Santa Barbara student Jeff Madsen became a millionaire, and pro Phil Hellmuth Jr. won his 10th bracelet, tying the record with poker greats Doyle “Texas Dolly” Brunson and Johnny Chan.

James McManus, a poker player who became famous when Harper’s magazine assigned him to cover the World Series in 2000 and he ended up placing fifth for $247,760, said on Day 1 of the main event, he’s already “kind of pooped.”

“I’ve been here since June 26th,” McManus said. “If I advance, it’ll be seven weeks. It, at least for me, answers the question, ‘How much is too much poker?’”

Opening day highlights

BIG NEWS: The world’s biggest poker tournament kicked off with 8,580 registered players, easily topping last year’s 5,619, and pushing the top prize to $11.7 million. The 12 final players will win at least $1 million. More players can still enter for a $10,000 seat until Monday.

STUD OF THE DAY:Saturday Night Live star Norm MacDonald’s pocket aces failed him when Australian pro Mark Vos’ queen and jack both paired on the board. Vos later knocked MacDonald out with an ace-high straight when MacDonald made a lower straight. Vos amassed $79,500 in chips and held the lead heading into the dinner break.

BUSTED OUT: James Garner, Tobey Maguire, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, Chris Masterson, Mekhi Phifer, Antonio Carver and Norm MacDonald.

CELEBRITY UPDATE: After busting out, Maguire paid $540 to enter a so-called “second chance” tournament that runs every day at 5 p.m. By 7 p.m. he had about 2,000 in chips, after starting with 1,500, and was getting a massage. Entrants play just for the stakes entered; their main event lives are over.
By Ryan Nakashima

las vegas, July 27 /PRNewswire/ — On Wednesday, August 2, Caesars Palace will celebrate its 40th anniversary with a toga party at the legendary resort’s outdoor Roman Plaza amphitheater. This historical event will be hosted by actress Jenny McCarthy and feature a live performance by Otis Day and the Knights, the band that rocked “Shout” during the toga party scene in National Lampoon’s Animal House. Following the musical set, toga-clad partygoers will be invited to an after party at PURE Nightclub. Guests who arrive in a toga* will be granted free admission to both the outdoor concert, sponsored by VEGAS Magazine and Hendrix Electric Vodka, and the after party at PURE. Doors to the outdoor concert open at 7:30pm and PURE will open at 10pm.

When Caesars Palace opened its doors on August 5, 1966 the standard of luxury and magnificence for the hotel and casino industry was changed forever. Its opulent Roman-Grecian world of fantasy captured international attention as the first deluxe themed resort casino if its kind. With imported marble statuary, cocktail servers costumed as “goddesses,” a dining experience fit for royalty and nightly performances by the world’s greatest entertainers, Caesars Palace immediately became the industry standard for the ultimate luxury resort experience. Forty years later, Caesars Palace has expanded to almost five times its original capacity. The 85-acre resort features 3,340 guest rooms and suites, the largest poker room in the city, a world-class health and beauty salon and a 4.5 acre pool and garden complex, two dozen restaurants and the world renowned Forum Shops at Caesars. In March 2003 Caesars Palace opened its 4,100-seat Colosseum spotlighting international performers Celine Dion, Elton John, and Jerry Seinfeld. The Roman Plaza, a 4,000-seat outdoor amphitheatre plays hosts to a variety of outdoor sporting events, concerts and private functions.

* (All guests must be age 21 or older and have valid photo ID. Admission limited to venue capacity. Management reserves all rights).

Ameristar and Harrah’s took first and second place in every category in the Best of Gaming 2006 poll, with the exceptions of best bar, where Vertigo at Harrah’s was the only bar listed; the best comedy club which went to Penguins Comedy Club at Isle of Capris in Bettendorf, which was the only comedy club listed; and Best Room Packages, which also went to the Isle of Capri in Bettendorf over Harrah’s and Ameristar.

The survey took place prior to the opening of Horseshoe Casino in Council Bluffs, the nation’s 19th largest casino market.

Adam Fine, editor in chief of Casino Player, said he’s curious to see what impact the Horseshoe will have on the local market.

“It’s a fantastic property for the Midwest,” he said.

Fine also said he wants to see how Harrah’s goes about fitting into the expanded Council Bluffs market and what moves Ameristar may make in response to the Horseshoe.

Ameristar Casino Hotel won Best Overall Casino and Best Overall Hotel accolades and 28 overall awards including 15 first-place awards in the market. Slots, craps and video poker took the top awards, with Prairie Mill Café winning Best Coffee Shop and Ameristar taking the top spot in the Best Overall Entertainment category.

Ameristar General Manager Teresa Meyer said the company’s investment in the facility, training and recognition of team members is paying off.

“It’s just wonderful,” she said.

Meyer said she was most proud of winning in the category of Best Casino Hotel.

“And I like the one, Luckiest Casino, because luck is a perception,” she said. “It’s kind of a happiness, feel-good kind of thing. I think that’s really a compliment to us.”

Harrah’s won 13 first-place awards, including Best Overall Hotel Casino and Best Casino Promotions, and 29 awards overall. Reel slots, blackjack and players club were other areas where Harrah’s took the top prize.

Christie Scott, manager of public and community relations for Harrah’s and Horseshoe Casinos, said the company was pleased with the number of first-place honors Harrah’s Council Bluffs received.

“The variety of awards shows that our customers really have fun playing at Harrah’s and that they receive a real value in our Total Rewards program,” Scott said. “Our guests know that they can play with us and earn comps that can be redeemed at any of our Harrah’s Entertainment properties around the country, including our new Horseshoe Casino as well as all of our casinos on the las vegas strip.”

Casino Player’s Fine said Iowa took some risks in starting out as the first casino riverboat state, and that has limited the industry’s growth.

“It’s very frustrating to see that from an industry standpoint,” he said. “The market is there. The problem is the casino facilities themselves.”

The biggest problem, as he sees it, is an absence of hotels.

“If you have the rooms, you have the people downstairs,” Fine said. “And that Horseshoe can handle a great hotel.”
By PHIL ROONEY