Other Sites

Wild Jack Mobile Casino

Play blackjack, video poker, slot machines, and the best Online European roulette game on mobile at Wild Jack Mobile Casino, the best casino for your mobile with the Best Free Bonus, the most helpful customer service, and state-of-the-art security.

Party Poker Software Download Guide

Party Poker has arguably the best proprietary online poker software in the world, which is why they rank 3rd in overall traffic. I’m using the Windows software, but Party Poker also offers a Mac version, instant play version and mobile version of the software.

How to Download Party Poker Software

The Windows and Mac software at Party Poker can be downloaded instantly from your web browser. It will only take minutes to complete the download. The lobby will launch when the download is complete and you’ll be able to register an account. To be able to download the Windows software you need Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7. As long as you’re running a new Mac OS such as Lion, Leopard or Snow Leopard and have an Intel processor you’ll be able to download Party Poker for Mac.

Party Poker also has an instant play version of the software compatible with Explorer, Chrome and Firefox. The instant version of the software has limited features compared to the full Party Poker experience, so we recommend downloading the software. It took awhile, but Party Poker is also a mobile poker room now, as they recently released an Android app. Unfortunately, they only offer an Android poker app currently and no iOS app. You need to run Android 2.2 or higher to access the app.

Top Party Poker Software Features

If you like high action poker games like PokerStars Zoom you’ll love Party Poker’s Fast Forward game, which is the same. You get to join a pool of players and you can fold your hand at anytime, at which point you’ll instantly move to a new table. The Fast Forward Poker tables start at just $.02/$.04 and go up although higher limit games have limited player pools during non-peak hours. Grinders can play up to 4 Fast Forward tables at once in the same player pool or in multiple player pools.

Multi-tabling is an important feature in today’s poker industry and Party Poker allows you to run 18 tables at once. You can even use two monitors to multi-table at Party Poker and there are expansive cascading, tiling, stacking or manual resizing filters. You can configure alerts as well when multi-tabling including good hand, big pot and raise sequence and time-out alerts. These alerts ensure you never miss playing important hands due to timing out at the table, which happens when playing 18 tables.

A unique feature that you don’t see elsewhere is anonymous heads-up poker tables. You can sit down at these tables and play against an anonymous opponent, which will ensure that they can’t use one of the many HUD programs to data mine your stats. There are over a dozen table features including advanced statistics, hand history replayer, player notes, table themes/decks and much more. The stats tracked at Party Poker are slightly more advanced than most poker rooms and can be reset at anytime.

The analysis of a blackjack hand

In blackjack, a player’s goal is to get as many blackjacks or at as many good hands as possible. Playing the game is not really all about seeing the other players lose. What’s important is that you win as much as you can, don’t pay too much attention on the others.

Experts would suggest that sitting at the leftmost seat in the table is best. In this way, you are able to see more played cards which can help you make better, if not good, decisions. Do vary the number of hands you play depending on the odds. Play a single hand if the odds are on the house and play two hands if the odds favor you. It is also recommended that you double your bet when playing two hands. But in playing a single hand, it’s best to bet the minimum to lessen your loss.

In playing regular blackjack, you should split if you have a pair of eight’s as against the dealer’s 10 or ace. If, for instance, the dealer accidentally revealed both his cards showing a total of 10 or 11, then you should hit against a 10 and stand against an 11. You see, when the dealer has a ten or an ace, you would know that he does not have a blackjack when it’s already your turn because of the fact that he or she peeked at the hole card. You can then be more aggressive in playing your hand. However, when both of the dealer’s cards are shown with a total of ten or 11, then there’s a chance he can draw an ace to the ten or a ten to the 11 thereby getting a 21.

Now, what if you have a total of 13 and the dealer’s upcard is 6? You should stand on 13 because a hit would do you more harm. If you stand, the dealer might bust four times out of ten.

When to surrender? Do this only when your chances of winning are less than 25 percent and the casino has more than 50 percent chance of beating you. In multiple deck blackjack games, remember to surrender only 16 when the dealer shows a 9, 10 or ace and 15 when the dealer shows a 10. Do not surrender your pair of eights as well as a soft 15 or 16 (a hand containing an ace). If the dealer’s cards show an ace, the player cannot surrender his hand until after the dealer checks for a blackjack. If the dealer gets a blackjack, you lose and can no longer surrender.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson is also a poker columnist at www.poker.co.uk

Blackjack, a history

No one knows exactly who invented the game of Blackjack, which has become the most popular casino card game in the world. Most historians believe the game originated in France in the early 18^th century and was known by the more colloquial term, ‘vingt-et-un’ (twenty one).

Read more

The age old battle in casino blackjack

A dealer is required to play his hand in a specific way unlike poker players that play online at sites like www.pokerstars.co.uk , and with hardly any other choices available to him. There are actually two very popular variations that would determine what totals the dealer must be able to draw to. In any given casino, you can tell which rule is being used by looking at the blackjack table. The table must have a clearly labeled sign that would indicate either one of these rules:* “Dealer stands on all 17s”

This rule is actually the most common. With this particular rule, the dealer must continue to take cards until he gets a 17 or higher. An Ace that is in the hand of the dealer is always counted as an 11 as much as possible without the dealer actually going over 21.

* “Dealer hits soft 17″

There are some casinos that use this rule variation instead. This rule is actually identical except for what actually happens when the dealer has a soft total of 17. Examples of soft 17 hands are (Ace, 6), (Ace, 5, Ace), and Ace, 2, 4). The dealer hits these hands and then stands on soft 18 or higher or on a hard 17 or higher. When this particular rule is used the house advantage against the other players is actually raised a bit.

It must be reiterated that the dealer really has no choice to make in the play of his hand. He cannot split any pairs, and he must instead simply hit until he reaches at least 17 or he busts by going over 21.

Simple but effective

One of the most popular card counting methods in blackjack is the hi-lo system.The hi-lo system of counting cards is also known by another term – the point count system. This system works by putting in point values of +1, 0, or -1 to each card that is dealt to the players in a game of blackjack. Every single one of the cards has its own value with the aces and 10 point cards getting a value of -1. the 7, 8 and 9 cards are given a point value of 0 while the 2, 3, 4,5, and 6 are given a value of +1.

As each playing card is dealt to the players, the player tries to keep a running count of the cards that have been shown. He then tries to make the betting decision that is based on the current total.

The higher the plus count is, the bigger the advantage is to the player. A high plus count means that a higher percentage of high value cards are still remaining in the deck. This sign is the indication that the player should increase his wager.

If, on the other hand, the running count remains at zero then it means that the deck is neutral – which means neither the player nor the house has a distinct advantage over the other. If the minus count is high then the advantage will belong to the dealer. This is an indication that the bet should only be for a small wager or, if the player is inclined to, leave the table.

Switch blackjack for poker and come and play at www.pokerstars.co.uk

keep looking »

Recent Articles

• Party Poker Software Download Guide
• The analysis of a blackjack hand
• Blackjack, a history
• The age old battle in casino blackjack
• Simple but effective
• The basics of blackjack
• Other blackjack variations
• Picking your points of confrontation
• Looking at beating the casino at blackjack
• An intro into the world of card counting

GM Network News

Lottery Books

• BUY THIS NOW