Maybe you’ve always wanted to play blackjack but you’re a little intimidated. You’ve read up on strategy and have played friendly games at home wagering with peanuts. You’re still a little worried about starting a real game, though, partly because of the money involved. There are two ways to handle this problem. The first, as I have written about before, is by playing free online blackjack. Most online casinos have free blackjack games that you can play using fake money. The free games give you the change to practice your basic strategy without risking any of your money.

Once you have that down, though, you will logically want to step up to a real money game. While the upside of the free blackjack games is that you don’t risk losing any money, the downside is that you can’t win any money, either. With real money games, there is greater risk but there is also greater reward.

It would be foolish to go straight from the free games to high-stakes togel hongkong hari ini tables. Betting hundreds on each hand may not be a good idea for anyone and if it is, it’s only for the rich and experienced blackjack players. …

More Hold’em Excellence is renowned Card Player author Lou Krieger’s follow-on to his book Hold’em Excellence. While the first was an introduction playing a winning game of Texas Hold’em, the second goes further than just the basics, attempting to impart the correct decision making skills in the reader so they can take their game to an even higher level.

I would divide this book into three sections. The first section deals with some review material and gives general advice on topics like position, what decisions are more important, being aggressive, etc.. In my opinion, the review material is tedious in any sequel such as this one, but it was probably the publisher’s decision to include it. It’s also short enough not to be terribly distracting. The general advice looks generally correct to me, but most players who have played a little and read Krieger’s previous book, Hold’em Excellence, and have played a bit are likely to be able to answer a reasonable quiz on the section without having read it.

What I would categorize as the second section deals with starting hands and how they relate to position in more depth than in the author’s previous book. Most of the …

I’ve been talking a lot of trash about doing an analysis of a specific hold’em hand, and it’s time for me to put up or shut up. A few columns ago, I asked for suggestions on hands to analyze, and mentioned that Q-J (offsuit) might be a good starting point. Not surprisingly, Q-J turned out to be the leading vote getter. So, my short career as an objective pollster didn’t last long, but I do have a few observations to make about Q-J.

I’ve done two things with Q-J that I hope will be helpful. First, I’ve consulted the hold’em strategy books on my bookshelf, to find areas where there is a consensus about how the hand should be played preflop in limit games. Second, I’ve run some simulations to learn a little more about Q-J’s fate on the flop and beyond. There are other things we could do to learn more about when and how to play Q-J. These are just the two that fit in my column this month.

One of the reasons I picked Q-J is because it’s so tricky to play well. Every hand must pay its share of blinds, and even the worst hands will …

Any time a major star of the MLS decides to go on a winter loan, eyebrows are raised all throughout the country. There is that uneasy feeling that perhaps American soccer is not good enough to satisfy the player, there is concern that perhaps the loan could morph into a permanent move, and then there is always that fear that the player could suffer a traumatic injury. Such a tragic event forced David Beckham to miss an entire season for the LA Galaxy and the World Cup in 2010, when he was hurt on loan with AC Milan. But now Clint Dempsey, the shining beacon of American soccer, has decided to head out back across the pond to play for Fulham in the English Premier League again. What could this move possibly hold for the future of the player and the World Cup hopes for America?

Clint Dempsey leaves Spurs

At first glance the Clint Dempsey loan is a bit heartbreaking. Here is the finest player of the country, just 6 months removed from his massive big money move to Seattle Sounders, now turning his back on the club to play again at Fulham. You begin to wonder whether his …