Debbie Fletcher asked:


Poker Chip Sets – The Poker Chip and Challenge to Counterfeiters

Poker is a popular card game across the world with the excitement of gambling and potential for huge payoffs. Almost integral to the poker game are the poker chips, and indeed poker does not feel like poker without poker chip sets.

The chips are small discs of various colors representing different denominations, meant as substitutes for real money, which is instead stored in a more secure place. The use of money substitutes, or token money, can be traced back through the 13th to 17th centuries in Europe. Today poker chips are often made according to themes and formats that unite a particular set of chips. This is useful in avoiding counterfeiters, even for games at home or in private.

Casino chips use many different anti-counterfeiting measures, with the most basic being chip coloration and embossed or molded patterning. Holographic inlays, distinctive colored markings on the edges and ultraviolet markings on the inlays further deter potential counterfeiters. Lastly, Radio Frequency Identification or RFID tags are used by some establishments. The latter method can be quite costly, but the establishments that use them feel the cost is justified. Given the difficulty in counterfeiting chips, poker chip frauds in casinos are rare.

If you plan to play in private though, you should be careful of frauds, especially if you are using mass-produced chips. Another reason for these security measures is to identify which casinos they came from. This is usually not a problem, since casinos usually honor only their own chips and it is more of a matter of branding. In Nevada however, casinos are permitted to honor chips from other casinos, and these identifiers make returning chips to the casinos they belong to easier.

Poker Chip Sets – Composition and Coloration

Authentic casino poker chips are made of clay, though not pure clay which is too soft. Special composite mixtures have been made, using trade-secret techniques, the confidential nature of which is yet another speed bump on the counterfeiter’s path. Sometimes, special edition poker chip sets may be bought from casinos, though generally poker chips stay in the casinos. Poker chips made for home use on the other hand may or may not be of the same quality as their casino counterparts.

For home use poker chips, ceramic and ABS plastic are the most common materials. When ceramic is used, special compositions allow them to approximate the feel of real clay while maintaining a lower price profile. Ceramic chips are also used in some casinos. ABS plastic chips on the other hand may be molded with a metal disk or slug inside, to give them some heft. For those in Europe, poker chips may come in mother of pearl, which gives them an incomparable sheen and luster. Coloration is standard for different denominations in one set, but may differ across sets. For example, in some places there are standard coloration schemes for chips, while in others there are none. Of note is the US State of Nevada, where casinos are given free rein on their chip designs and colors.

Poker Chip Sets – Sets and Themes

Since poker games often involve large amounts of money, a large number of chips are needed. Standard sets have 300 pieces, while others can have 500 pieces, and yet others reaching a stunning 1000 pieces. Some casinos sell poker chips similar to those used on the floor but with a few differences for identification purposes. This is great for those who want to emulate the feel of their favorite places of gambling at home games. Limited edition sets can be highly collectible, and there is a thriving community of poker chip collectors.

Many of the poker chips are traded via eBay, and the most special ones can go for thousands of US dollars, regardless of face value. Whole sets of these special poker chips can cost even more than the individual pieces. What really ties the members of all poker chip sets together is the design of the chips. Poker chips in one set are often of identical sizes, of consistent coloration, and having similar inlays. Colors and inlays vary according to denomination, but the idea is that chips from one set are identifiably from the very same set.

The edges and rims may also be embossed with characteristic patterns and even have colored sections made via special multi stage molding techniques. The designs may be simple and straight forward, just simple chips with numbers. They could just as well be whimsical, like having humorous or otherwise interesting prints on the inlays. A set of poker chips will often be packaged in a poker chip case or some such container such as an acrylic poker chip carrier or humidor style wooden poker chip case, in the tradition followed in casinos worldwide. One would suppose that if you are going for the authentic feel, then there’s no point skimping on the little details.

Poker Chip Sets – Elements of Authenticity

Poker chips are essential to playing poker. One can “play” poker without them, but it will not feel like poker without the chips would it? It is the feel of these poker chips that gives a tactile sense of authenticity. The clink of these poker chips as they hit the table and trade hands adds to the ambiance. The nature of these poker chips ensures that no one can weasel out of the bet that they placed, so it ensures a fair game as far as bets are concerned. Speaking of amounts, the printed or inlaid values may vary depending on where you buy your poker chip sets.

It is even possible to find manufacturers that make poker chips that reflect your country’s currency and useful denominations, though generic chips are also available. With the popularity of televised poker and TV series set in casinos, the mystique of poker chip sets has increased, and many people feel that poker chips are the only way with which to play poker. If you are the kind of person who likes taking souvenirs, then chips from the casinos you have visited make fine reminders of good and bad times alike. Poker chips are definitely the elements of authenticity in poker games.

Armen Wilson asked:

As you learn to play poker, one of the most important things you will need to learn are the Poker Hands Rankings.

Most rankings list the hands from highest to lowest, but here they are shown from lowest to highest, as this is how you will encounter them most often. It is often noted that Las Vegas poker is played by slightly different rules than casinos in Europe, but all online games have agreed to use the Las Vegas Rules, as do the Texas Hold’Em poker tournaments shown on TV including the World Poker Tour and others. These rules for card games were first written down for live card games by Robert Ciaffone in 1984, and have become the standard for online poker and other games of chance played with cards.

In order to win at poker, you need to know how different hands rank: that is, which ones are assigned a higher value than others, and some idea of the odds of creating any particular hand out of your cards and those on the table.

The three fundamental rules of poker (5 or 7-card Poker, High and High-Low Split) are these:
* The deck is counted from 2 to Ace, so Ace is the highest single card.
* Each player can only use 5 of the cards (yours plus those on the table or those you draw) to make your best hand. Don’ t try to use six or all seven.
* The player with the highest-ranked hand wins.

How can you tell who has the highest-ranked hand: Is it you? Memorize these poker hands rankings and practice, practice, practice!

Here are the most-recognized poker hands rankings around the world for any five-card or seven-card poker game:
from Lowest to Highest Rank:

* High Card- you have five cards of all different values and suits, with one card a higher value than all the others.
Example: 3 of Hearts, 5 of Diamonds, 7 of Spades, 10 of Hearts and Jack of Clubs.
ODDS: 1 in 2 that you will get this hand.

* One Pair- you have two cards of equal value in your hand.
Example: 3 of Hearts, 3 of Diamonds, 7 of Spades, 10 of Hearts and Jack of Clubs. Jack of Clubs, your highest card, is called the kicker. It will help you hold and win the hand. The value of the other cards
is also considered should another player also have the other pair of 3s (Spades and Clubs).
ODDS: 1 in 2.4 that you will get this hand.

Two Pair- you have two sets of 2 cards of equal value in your hand.
Example 3 of Hearts, 3 of Diamonds, 7 of Spades, 10 of Hearts and 10 of Clubs. The kicker here is
the 7 of Spades. It will help decide if you win the hand, if someone else has two pairs of the same value.
ODDS: 1 in 21 that you will get this hand.

* Three Of A Kind – you have three cards of equal value in your hand.
Example: 3 of Hearts, 10 of Spades, 10 of Hearts and 10 of Clubs, Jack of Clubs. The kicker here is
the Jack of Clubs. It will help you win the hand.
ODDS: 1 in 47 that you will get this hand.

Straight- you have five cards in sequence by value, in more than one suit, in your hand. Ace can be a high or low
card in a Straight. No kicker in this hand
Example: 7 of Hearts, 8 of Diamonds, 9 of Clubs, 10 of Clubs, Jack of Hearts.
ODDS: 1 in 255 that you will get this hand.

Flush- you have five cards of any value that are all in the same suit. No kicker in this hand.
Example: 3, 4, 7, Queen and King of Diamonds
ODDS: 1 in 509 that you will get this hand.

Full House- you have a pair plus three of a kind in your hand. No kicker in this hand.
Example 3 of Hearts, 3 of Diamonds, 10 of Spades, 10 of Hearts and 10 of Clubs.
ODDS: 1 in 694 that you will get this hand.

* Four Of A Kind- you have all four of the cards of a given value in your hand. Fifth card is the kicker.
Example: 8 of Diamonds, 8 of Hearts, 8 of Spades and 8 of Clubs, and 3 of Diamonds.
ODDS: 1 in 4,164 that you will get this hand.

* Straight Flush – you have five cards in sequence by value, all in the same suit. No kicker in this hand.
Example: 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 of Spades.
ODDS: 1 in 72,193 that you will get this hand.

* Royal Flush- you have the top five cards in value, all in the same suit. No kicker needed for this hand!
Example: 10, Jack, Queen, King, and Ace of any of the four suits.
ODDS: 1 in 649,740

Remember, the more thoroughly you study the poker hands rankings, and the more you practice at internet and live play, the better you will learn to play poker — and the more you will win!

Mark R. Holland asked:


The beauty of poker is that it is easy to learn but almost impossible to fully master. A player who has learned the basics of poker strategy including starting hand selection, the various kinds of odds and table position looking at advanced poker strategy tips and information needs to cover many areas. This article suggests 5 advanced poker strategy areas that can improve any player’s poker skills.

Advanced Poker Strategy Area #1 – Game Theory

Game theory is actually a branch of mathematics which looks at situations where 2 or more people have conflicting interests. It can be applied to poker in many ways. The most common example is ‘Optimal Bluffing Strategy’ in which you aim to randomize your bluffs in a way that is ‘unexploitable’ by opponents. This advanced poker strategy involves making your bluff frequency exactly the same as the odds your opponent receives to call the final bet.

Advanced Poker Strategy Area #2 – The Independent Chip Model (ICM)

ICM is a model which gives a tournament player’s chip stack a dollar value based on prize pool distribution and the stacks of remaining players. It is then used to calculate your true risk – in terms of dollars not chips – when making a decision during play. This advanced poker strategy is commonly used in Sit and Go tournaments but can be equally useful in multi-table poker tournaments.

Advanced Poker Strategy Area #3 – Heads-Up Poker Play

There are actually 2 advanced poker strategies designed for heads-up play. Both are used at the end of tournaments and rely on math to ensure that an opponent has no numerical way to exploit you. The first is known as the SAGE system and the second ‘Nash-Equilibrium’. Becoming an expert in these systems will help you reach that number one spot – where the big payout is!

Advanced Poker Strategy Area #4 – Stack Size Flexibility and Inflection Points

Made famous by Dan Harrington the concept of ‘M’, zones and inflection points is a must for players learning advanced poker strategy for tournaments. You can calculate your ‘M’ score at any point during a tournament by dividing your chips by the blinds and antes. This score is then used to assign a ‘zone’ which dictates your strategy as you travel through inflection points (changes between zones).

Advanced Poker Strategy Area #5 – Rail-Birding The Online Pros

Watching the professional online tournament players at work is a great way to pick up advanced poker strategy tips. Effective rail-birding involves analyzing the hand as a whole rather than just the cards in play. Stack-sizes and reads are just two of the many things to watch out for.

Robert Grazian asked:


Poker card guards are similar to paperweights in function. Just like a paperweight is placed on a pile of papers to keep the papers together and safe, these card guards can be placed on top of a set of cards to keep the cards together and safe. When playing the game of poker, the cards are frequently placed on the table head down. By placing a card guard on it, a player can ensure that the cards will not be exposed accidentally or by foul play. These can be handled easily and these are heavy enough to keep the cards together.

Card protectors come in various sizes and shapes. A majority of them are either circular or rectangular with curved corners. Actually, card guards are a late entrant into the list of poker accessories. But it quickly became very popular as a collector’s hobby item and a convenient item as a gift. Unlike poker cards and chips, card guards are allowed in casinos. That makes it a must have item for regular poker players. Card guards are not that much expensive. These have an average price of about $20. However, there are expensive card guards with chic designs for the fashion savvy people among the poker players.

Poker card guards are available aplenty in various shops in the United States. The fact that it is used commonly as a gift item explains its immense popularity. It is present even in shops that sell goods that are unrelated to the game of poker. Also, the same fact explains the trend of putting eye-catching designs on the card guards and giving imaginative names to them. One can buy card protectors from the internet also. There are hundreds of websites that line up to sell what they call “the best and most elegant card protectors in the world”. One thing to remember is that there are some genuine websites and there are some websites that sell card guards of very poor quality and substandard finishing. So, one should be careful about making purchasing decisions on the internet. To be on the safer side, always buy the products of genuine and famous companies.

The common aspects to check before buying a poker card guard are the following. One should always check for any finishing defect in a card protector. Such defects include broken edges that are unrecognizable in casual glance, narrow cracks through the body that are very difficult to spot, and spilled paint and other painting problems. When buying from a website, one should always ensure that the company will refund the amount or supply a brand new card guard if the original one is found defective or of poor quality. If you are careful and smart enough to check the above aspects, purchasing from the internet is a highly cost-effective option for buying a card protector.

John Finney asked:


As the world of poker players continues to gain members everyday, more and more players are looking for easy ways to win the game. For cheaters, many feel that rather than take the time to hone their skills, they would prefer to master the skill of cheating.

Some players have learned how to mark cards as a way to help them win the game. Depending on the skill level of the cheater, marked cards can be obvious, or unnoticeable.

Sometimes the dealer will use his own deck of cards, or will get one prior to game play. Many cheaters have learned how to mark their cards during game play. To avoid having the marked cards noticed by other players, the cheater will usually make his marks so that they do not go all the way thru the card, because it would let light be seen through the card, thereby showing the mark.

Cheaters card markings are usually just small changes to the back of the cards. They may be scratches, change in design of the card, or possibly a bend in one corner of the card.

Marking the cards gives cheaters an advantage to their game play. They will most always mark all the high cards, or any other they card they think is crucial to the game.

Some cheaters prefer to mark their cards by using what is called shading. They will use a very fine ink to change part of the design on the back of the card. It requires the cheater to be very precise with his markings, but if he does a good job, no one but him will ever notice the marking.

Another technique many cheaters use is called daubing. Daubing uses a special form of ink and a small dauber. The cheat daubs the ink onto the back of the card, and the ink is invisible to the naked eye. Special sunglasses are required to see the markings. The kit to do this with can be purchased at magic or novelty stores.

Corner crimping is a method that many cheaters will use to mark their cards with. The cheater will see a card that he wants to mark and will then move that card away from the other cards and use his thumb or pointer finger to bend the corner of the card ever so slightly. He will be able to spot the marking during the game, and remember the card. Some cheaters when dealing can shuffle a number of cards to the bottom of the deck, and crimp the corners on all of them at one time.

Still other cheaters prefer to use thumbnail marking on their cards. The cheat will see a card he wants to mark, and then drive the end of his nail into the back of that particular card. Players who aren’t trained to look for these marks will not notice them, while the player will be able to spot them for the duration of the game.

Matthew Donaldson asked:


Poker Stars is considered the largest online poker room website, having the most traffic and visitors among other online poker sites. With all this traffic, Poker Stars get great advertisements, promotions, different types of poker games and even the prime poker tournaments there are. Literally, there is a poker tournament that starts every single second in the Stars website. You need not wait too long for a new game. The website also hosts the biggest weekly tournament with a $1.5 million pot Sunday Million. This is just one of the many tournaments that the site holds. They also have a massive player base that gets more and more players joining their poker games. If you are one who loves poker and looking for the right online poker room, then Poker Stars should definitely be included in your options.

But if you are one who loves your bonuses, you will be disappointed to know that the Stars site does not offer the largest bonuses unlike others. However, they do provide the longest time period wherein you can earn your bonus and increase it. For those who play during the weekends, this definitely means the difference between earning all of the bonuses and earning 25% of it.

The Poker Stars website is presently offering to its players a 100% deposit bonus that reaches up to $50. This only goes for your first deposit, which means that if you want to big possible bonuses, you would need to enlarge the amount of your first deposit. If your initial deposit is only at $50, you are only eligible to receive $50 bonus. Likewise, if you make an initial deposit of $20, you are only entitled to a $20 bonus.

The Poker Stars website lets their players earn their bonuses for a full six months. This is the longest that any other online poker card room can give. Normally, online poker rooms only give their poker players 3 to 4 months before their unearned bonus becomes forfeited. Poker recognizes that the new players will usually play at small stakes. This is the reason why they give this additional time extension for these players to earn the bonus they provide.

If a player wants to fully earn his bonus, he must earn the size of their bonus times ten in base FPPs. Earning these “base FPPs” can be attained by playing on real money game tables, playing real money in MTTs and playing real money in SNGs. If you want to earn more bonuses, you need to play more.

For you to totally qualify for the bonus, you would have to take a 2-step process. First of all, when you are undergoing the sign-up process, you will need to enter the word POKER-KING when you are asked for the marketing code. Next, when you are going to make a deposit, input the Poker Stars Bonus Code “STARS50″ when asked for the bonus code. This Poker Stars Bonus Code is necessary if you want to get your bonus.

These are the two steps you need to take and you are done. After this process, you may well be on the right track into earning 100% Poker Stars bonuses.

Ronald Cheese asked:


Being aggressive is a must strategy for any poker player. Just how do you achieve this? Many years ago I started playing seven card stud poker in college. The game was basically a game of showdown. Nobody folded and the luckiest player won. After graduation from college I stumbled upon a book that basically gave the odds of getting a particular hand given and developed a strategy based solely on odds. My poker results were pretty good as long as I followed these odds. What the odds told me was that there were some hands that were not worth playing, so part of my poker strategy was to fold those hands. As the years went by I developed what was a decent stud game.

Today poker and poker strategy are different because of three occurrences. First there is the invention of the internet . With the invention of the internet online gambling has removed one of the biggest obstacles to playing poker, finding a place to play. You can now go online at any time and find a game at the numerous online gambling sites.The second difference is the introduction of Texas Hold em as the main game. It is played with two cards in your hand and five community cards to make the best five card hand. The third occurrence has been the introduction of poker to television. Today on numerous channels you can find professionals and amateurs alike engaging in poker tournaments.

Today’s popularity has caused a shift in poker strategy. Online poker players are more aggressive and more prone to play hands that are outside the common prescribed playing hands. When playing online today you cannot dismiss any card combination. Today’s online poker player plays a strategy of playing many hands and adjusting after the three card flop. One of the things that many of the new internet players are adept at is folding if the flop is not favorable to them. Since the internet takes personal observation out of the game an internet player can and usually does have a wide range of hands being played.

Therefore when playing on the internet one must be very careful especially when making a play after the flop. Unlike common strategy of playing only certain hands for profit one must consider that the online player is playing a wider range of hands.

Sean Moranse asked:


Internet poker is everywhere. Especially playing on poker stars net. Poker stars net is where everyone likes to start playing on. On poker stars net you can win a seat into the poker tour world or poker series world. Some people even start on poker yahoo or think with mathematics poker brains. There is a poker theory to winning online poker and if you play smart you can make some great money.

The one poker theory you should agree with is to play with bonus poker. What do I mean by that? Many poker sites offer a 100% deposit bonus when you sign up with them. The poker sites that offer a 100% bonus are as follows: Full tilt poker, poker stars, and bodog poker all over a 100% deposit for first time depositers. If you download poker on your computer and deposit into one of these sites you can sleep easy at night knowing that you just got the most for your money. You can get up to 600 bucks on your first deposit for doing nothing. That is an extra 600 bucks you have to play with to jump right into the poker tables. You can watch free poker video or take a look at card poker which will help you increase your odds of winning also.

Once you learn all the poker rules and try out advance advanced holdem player player poker, you will be ready to jump right into real money poker. Playing for real money is unlike any kind of poker game. When you play for play money people just absolutely don’t care. They will go all in with anything and play absolutely like a maniac. It’s depressing watching your aces or kings getting crushed by some idiot going all in with 34. It happens, with poker you need to accept it. Luckily you didn’t lose any real money if this happened to you at the play money tables. It happens all the time at the real money tables also, which is why I have retired from playing cash games and I make a great living now playing only sit and go’s. I have deposited 1 time in the last year and I have never looked back. Soon as I started strictly playing sit n go’s is when I was finally able to quit my day job, buy a new house, car, etc…

It has truly been a blessing waking up whenever I want and spending at least 4-5 hours a day playing sit and go’s. The breakdown is as follows for sit and go’s

1st place = 50% of the total prize pool

2nd place = 30% of the total prize pool

3rd place = 20% of the total overall prize pool

Now when I play sit and go’s I have one thing in mind every time I play. I go after first place every time no matter what. I do not play scared and do not think about getting knocked out and placing in the money. To be profitable you need to play like this also.

Michael Hanna asked:


Poker has been around for centuries, so how come the sudden boom that has recently taken the Internet by storm?

I’m a big poker fan, and have been for years. I played poker regularly with my friends and family years before the advent of poker online. There were some things that I didn’t like about playing with my friends: the first thing was that I had to wait till we got some folk together before we could play, so I usually had to wait till a Wednesday or Sunday evening; second of all, when it started getting late people started dropping off to go home, which left little enough people to play, until within a few hours it was over; thirdly , and sometimes most annoyingly was that if you went all in and went out early in a game you had to sit and watch everyone else play for maybe an hour or more – how frustrating!

These, I believe, are the reasons for the boom in poker popularity. These reasons were the biggest reasons not to play poker, but now when you play poker online you have full control over when you play; when you stop playing, and when you go out you can simply start another game. Because of these features added by the power of the internet, a great game has been allowed to flourish.

The only difficult part about making the progression into the online world of poker is finding out where the best places are to play, and where to stay away from. When I started playing poker online this was the most daunting stage for me. If I’d have known then what I know now I would have been a lot more at ease when I was starting out.

What I have learned along the way is that there are sites out there to help the online poker beginner find out where the best places are to play; which places to stay away from, and which poker rooms are suitable to play in when the poker player fancies a change of scenery. One such site is the poker review site Poker Online UK. This site gives a number out of ten (a poker rank) of the top poker websites on the internet; and gives a description of the sites that it has ranked. This site also provides bonus codes and links from which the poker beginner will get bonus cash when they make a deposit using the code, or signing up through the link.

Another poker review site I found out about is Poker Websites. This site is similar to Poker Online UK, but in a different style. Poker Websites has a number that has been mathematically calculated to rank all of the top poker websites. The last time I was on the Poker Websites site I found out about the new site Poker News that’s associated with Poker Websites. Poker News is a new website dedicated to providing online poker players with the best poker news that they want to know about.

Poker has been around for a long time, but it’s only now that we enthusiasts have the freedom to play it whenever we want. God bless the Internet!

Della Franklin asked:


It is always important to conduct yourself in a professional manner when playing the game of Poker. And to be able to do just this, you have to be familiar with the rules and equally important is that you are familiar with the Poker lingo. Talking the talk will help make you look more like a professional!

Remember that playing Poker is indeed a form of gambling since you are playing for money. When you have “tapped out” or being “tapped out” simply means that you have managed to loose everything after betting all that you have.

The game of poker is usually played with 52 cards where each card belongs to one of four different suits, namely the hearts, clubs, diamonds and spades. Some Poker variations will make use of the Joker as a “wild card.” Wild cards can be played as if they were any of the 52 cards in the standard card deck used for Poker. There is no need to be worried and confused about these house rules since they should all be determined and explained before the actual game begins.

When playing on a Poker table one would think that Poker players have their own set of codes to describe the hand that they are playing. Poker usually involves words used by players to declare betting status and these words are most often used to describe their “hand.” The “hand” pertains to the combination formed by the set of cards that a Poker player holds during game play.

Starting with an Ace, combinations can be called “Ace high” or “Ace low.” Players state this phrase depending on how the Ace will be used in the hand. When you declare an “Ace full”, it means that you have a full house containing Aces. This is one of the better hands that you should expect during game play.

A game is “in action” when the pace is relatively more aggressive than usual where there is a lot of activity on the Poker table. This may include “betting”, “raising” and of course “checking”. When you decide to “check”, it only means that you are betting but you are not increasing the pot amount.

When you say you are “betting everything” it means that you are very comfortable with your hand and you will add it to the pot for a bigger payout. Be careful when you say “bet everything” since meaning what you say is one of the major Poker guidelines.

When you say “up the ante” you are referring to putting additional money to further fill up the winning pot. “Raising” an opponent means that you are responding to a previously declared bet by the particular opponent and that you would like to increase the pot.

A broke player on a poker table is usually called a “broomcorn uncle”. “Broomcorn uncles” happen when a particular player overplays his or her hand.

Playing Poker in casinos usually involves “a buy” which only pertains to the amount of money that you need to carry in order to get into the game. It is up to you to make sure that your betting total does not exceed the amount required in the buy.