Casino Games King: The Reign of Poker in the Casino World

In the expansive and thrilling world of casino games, one stands out as the undisputed monarch: poker. This captivating card game has won the hearts of players worldwide, establishing itself as the reigning sport within the realm of casino games and the undeniable protagonist of countless high-stakes tournaments and matches.

Poker by the Numbers: An Empire of Wagers

When we speak of poker as the king of casino games, the numbers substantiate its position. It's estimated that billions of dollars are wagered each year at poker tables around the world. This game of skill and strategy has built an empire on the excitement and uncertainty of every dealt hand.


Prestigious Tournaments: The Arena Where Kings are Crowned

Poker is not just a game; it's a battleground where players become legends. The World Series of Poker (WSOP), the most prominent event, stands as the pinnacle of this realm, where players compete for the title of world champion and the coveted gold bracelet. Other equally illustrious tournaments, such as the European Poker Tour (EPT) and the World Poker Tour (WPT), contribute to the grandeur of poker on a global scale.


The Digital Realm: Online Platforms and Virtual Poker

In the digital age, the king of casino games has expanded its realm into cyberspace. Online poker platforms offer excitement and competition anytime, anywhere. Players from all corners can participate in tournaments, compete against professionals, and experience the thrill of high-stakes bets without leaving the comfort of their homes.


Fascinating Statistics: Beyond the Dealt Cards

In addition to its dominance in terms of popularity and earnings, poker is filled with fascinating data. The average duration of a tournament may vary, but some epic events span several days, creating memorable stories and decisive moments that will be etched into the history of the game.


Poker and Psychology: A Game of Minds

Poker is more than just a card game; it's a psychological showdown. Masterful players not only read the cards but also interpret facial expressions, gestures, and movements of their opponents. The art of poker reads has propelled some players to greatness and added an exciting element to the game.


Poker in Constant Evolution: An Immutable Reign

In this eternal battle for supremacy in the casino world, poker continues to reign as the king of sports. From the carpets of traditional casinos to the cyberspace of online platforms, poker maintains its position at the top of the gaming hierarchy. Its reign seems endless, with new players and events constantly emerging to keep the excitement and competition alive.


Online gambling

The phenomenon of online gambling does not stop growing year after year. Its limited regulation in many countries and the huge investments of companies in advertising have greatly expanded its public, with the problems of gambling that this entails. In addition, their strategies have been replicated in other sectors, such as videogames or social networks, with a great impact on the population.

If you are a sports fan - it is also enough not to live isolated from the world - probably this will sound: Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar, Rafa Nadal, Usain Bolt or any other great sports star playing quietly at poker, roulette or betting on a match. Even well-known actors have ended up in these advertising moments, prompting the consumer to play some money in their team's next game. The explosion of online gaming is a recent phenomenon, only a few years old, but progressing unstoppably. So much so that it has even gone beyond the barriers of virtual casinos or sports betting to reach the world of video games, mobile applications and social networks.

From hiding to your pocket

The game always had a mixture between marginal and glamorous. Among humble people was a way to kill the time and at the same time give a little emotion to their lives; among the high society was an excuse to play with something that was left over in abundance and take the opportunity to strengthen other assets of greater value, such as social and political relations, that was the idea of ​​the first casinos. However, seeing the amounts of money that the game moved and the disturbances and problems it generated - depending on who played - the State decided to take advantage of the wave: this is how the first national lotteries began to be created from the end of the 18th century, thanks to which the State obtained resources and, at the same time, could distribute substantial prizes in a fair manner.

However, in an attempt to control a good part of the betting pie, the countries legislated with severity the game under cover of a mixture of public health, public order and even moral issues and relegated it in some cases to certain areas -as Macao, the only place in China where it is legal- or territories with legislative autonomy, in which they decided to encourage the local economy through casinos and other forms of betting -as in Las Vegas, Atlantic City or the US Indian casinos- .

The key factor comes with the advance of time and the development of the online world. In the virtual universe, the game has found a much faster way to expand, reaching a lot more people, new audiences and in a more direct way, especially through smartphones, laptops and tablets. The result of so much encouragement and scarce training of citizenship regarding the game has been devastating: the cases of gambling and problems related to the game do not stop increasing and, what is worse, also in population groups for which until now the game It was something quite foreign, like teenagers. And this, with the consequent damage to many family economies. Thanks to this strategy, the sector continues to increase its profits and invest in advertising actions that further boost its profitability. The differentiating factor in this whole issue is not so much the background of online bets - making people play more - identical to that of bets in physical sites, but the form: a whole torpedo of behavioral economics to the waterline of our brains.


An Achilles heel called brain

There is a box with a rat inside it. Inside the box there is also a lever that, when activated, opens a hatch with food for the rodent. Obtaining your first reward is always accidental; the animal does not deduce first of all what relation there is between the elements of its box, but it learns fast. If the rat begins to press the lever repeatedly and food always falls, it is satiated and stops pressing; if you press and nothing appears, the incentives to repeat the operation are scarce and stop pressing. But, if you press and, without a fixed pattern, there are times when food comes out and others that do not, the animal presses the lever again and again as if there were no tomorrow. The rat has just become addicted to the game.




These were the conclusions reached by B. F. Skinner, one of the great psychologists of the 20th century and a fervent researcher of human behavior. The behavior of the rodent was an intermittent reinforcement of variable administration, and, without too many differences, the functioning of the human mind is practically identical. As is logical, especially in the face of receiving rewards, there are more types of behavior, but certainly this is the one that most parallels with the psychology applied to the game. Slot machines are the simplest example and close to the box in which the rat was enclosed, and the spread of these devices is widespread - some bars even have house betting machines like Sportium, Codere or bet365.

Unfortunately for humans, that our mind is more developed also implies that more sophisticated and sophisticated ways of tricking our brain have been developed, even though they all enter through that back door of intermittent reinforcement. In games with a high component of chance, like the classics of casinos-roulette or black jack-the mechanism to make us bet again and again is precisely to appeal to that intermittence in the reward: winning or losing is practically a matter of statistics and not skill. From now on, other cognitive biases will also join that will end up shaping the psychological cocktail from which online gambling houses are nourished, with enormous benefit.

It is not advisable to deduce that the desire to play has two positions, like a lock: open or closed. The human mind is very complex and the conditioning factors that act as potentiators or attenuators of these situations are numerous. In addition, these mental processes are at different times of our day to day and in different ways, without practically all of the population suffer addictions, although it is clear that in many people there is a more pronounced consumption of certain platforms that flirt with These stimuli, like social networks. Perhaps this is why exploiting this gap is relatively easy for many brands that live by betting and gambling. Whether through the press, radio, television and, of course, the internet, a large part of the public is exposed to a torrent of information, offers and notifications that, in one way or another, incite some money to be played in a roulette, a bingo, a poker game, etc. It is the great way they have to attract customers: make believe that it is enormously easy to make money, that it is the player who has control of the situation and not the house. And for this they resort to a multitude of promotions, from covering the first losses to offering better quotas.


Soccer as the new winning horse

It is in the sporting aspect where the gaming companies have invested the most, since there is an almost infinite variety of events, a much wider public and less socially stigmatized - to post a game is usually perceived as a way to give more excitement to the game -. Likewise, the development of the online world has allowed bets and meetings to go rhythmically, so bets, being practically live, grant a much more instant reward and, therefore, more intense.




Online bets have in Europe football as a favorite reef. The number of matches that can be if we count the different leagues -with their respective divisions- and national and continental tournaments amounts to thousands, and within each of them you can bet, in turn, to variables such as what the team will be in make more corners, which player will take the first yellow card of the game or if the last goal of the match will occur in the time of discount. The possibilities are endless. However, the world of football does not exclude that houses also cover basketball, especially the NBA, Formula 1, tennis and a list as endless as unlikely sports, from cricket matches to games of darts. And this without taking into account the geographical scope, practically unlimited. Would you like to play the money in a modest match of the Croatian men's league or the unknown Slovak women's league? No problem. Are you following a cyber sports team -more known as eSports- participating in a tournament of the video game family Counter Strike? Ahead. And, if we continue to extend, we also get awards such as the Oscars, the Emmys or even be able to bet who will win certain elections. The universe of bets has no end, and in the universe there are also black holes.

The emptiness, or the laxity, legal in terms of online betting, something that does not apply to other types of gambling - such as physical casinos or television games, a phenomenon in clear decline in Europe - has been one of the main culprits in its proliferation. This situation has caused that the online brands have taken advantage of the vacuum to start announcing in tromba in all types of platforms, whether television, radio, internet and even the football team jerseys. It is not strange that before a meeting begins or during the break, the quotas given by a certain house - sponsor of the space - are offered according to the result.


These bets have transcended the profile of the traditional player - a middle-aged man - to open up to virtually any type of sports consumer, including teenagers. Although the laws have managed to be efficient in preventing the access of minors to physical gambling, they can not boast of success in the online game. The controls to prevent minors from betting are practically nonexistent and, if they exist, they are very simple to flank - it is enough, for example, to register fraudulently with the data of any adult, since in most cases They are not checked. And this if we stay in the field of the virtual. In the real world, betting houses and bingo halls, with their door and their striking sign, have colonized crowded streets - almost always in humble neighborhoods - in a subtle message of being the place where luck can change, getting poor and leaving Rich in a matter of minutes. That illusion almost never becomes real, and often the opposite often happens: leaving with less money than the one you entered.

This, in turn, is causing a reaction in some countries. Italy has decided to put an end to the freedom with which houses move online and take them to a restricted area, like the rest of the bets. Spain has also been aligned in this regard and the advertising of online bets will be heavily regulated from 2019. In other countries, the debate is stretched and becomes increasingly important.


Video games get on the bandwagon

The success of these online gambling houses has been such that the logic behind their achievements has begun to be replicated in other areas not directly related to games of chance, such as video games. This, although it has granted enormous benefits to brands and studios, has transferred many processes linked to gambling to audiences that until then hardly had any contact with the game, such as children and adolescents. Such is the case that Belgium and the Netherlands have begun cataloging some well-known video games as products closer to casinos than to mere and healthy digital entertainment. Some regulation is even being proposed at European level to try to limit this situation and the World Health Organization has decided to include videogames as cause of disorders, although this is also due to a myopic approach of the organism. Because, far from criminalizing video games as the cause of evil, the problem is never in them, but, in this case, in a very specific part: the so-called loot boxes.




These 'rewards boxes' follow the same logic as the mouse experiment: benefits - weapons, coins, appearances, points or any other value device - granted in a random way, so that the player feels that emotion and constant encouragement to continue looking for a way to collect its fruits. This way of monetizing the games has been widely used in those of free download, either for phones, game consoles or computers. Here they enter from the Candy Crush to the Clash of Clans, Hearthstone or Fortnite. But also in the games of payment have appeared this type of practices. The most flagrant case is that of FIFA 18. Although until a few editions its star game modes were the single-player, no-need-to-connect race mode and a quite aseptic online multiplayer, in recent installments it has been developing a function, called Ultimate Team -'definitive team'-, based, among other things, on opening envelopes of players and rewards generated in a random way. These envelopes go by levels - the most basic envelopes, with the worst rewards, are very common, while the top-level envelopes are much more difficult to obtain, a dynamic that also reaches collectible sticker envelopes - and leave practically as the only way possible to get the best players pay with real money for those envelopes or for the coins that allow you to unlock the envelopes.

The issue is that these practices are generating gambling problems in very young people and significant financial setbacks in many families, who see in a surprising way how some of their offspring have spent a fortune on online rewards. This is an underlying problem: society barely pays attention to it -in its majority, because it does not know that it exists- and online gambling companies clearly win the game thanks to their gigantic investments in advertising and even position themselves as actors. committed to the fight against the damage that their activity causes in society. However, the promotion of responsible gaming, rather than a brake on its activity, serves to use public platforms and whitewash their image, influence future public policies and instrumentalize public studies on the issue to their benefit.

This snowball is far from stopping. The outlook suggests that it will continue to increase in size. It is difficult to put a brake or be aware of the dangers that entail some logic after this phenomenon when the new generations have internalized as something natural and old have yielded in many respects-largely due to ignorance. In the end, the notifications on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook are exactly the same: claims for you to give back to the lever and feel better if you announce a new interaction.



Poker fever comes to Dublin

More than a thousand participants compete in the eighth edition of the Winamax Poker Open, which combines face-to-face games with 'on line'.


The poker fever has arrived these days in Dublin with the Winamax Poker Open, from September 17 to 23, at the premises of the imposing Hotel City West in the Irish capital. The event, which celebrates its eighth edition, welcomes a thousand players from around the world in the various modalities of this championship, an unmissable event for lovers of this practice.

Among the Spanish participation, stands out the presence of Pablo Beautell from Tenerife and the media from Leo Margets. The Catalan, who is our greatest ambassador of this discipline that drags millions of followers, is one of the most important rivals in this tournament organized by Winamax. Other elite players include the Irishman Max Silver, the Belgian Davidi Kitai and the Italian Mustapha Kanit.



The program of the Irish poker festival consists of 40 tournaments, for all tastes and pockets. All events have a peculiarity: they will be played on short tables of six players. Among all the tournaments, highlights the Main Event, which is celebrated in the modality of 'Texas Hold'em No-Limit' for three days, from Friday to Sunday.

Also outstanding is the WPO High Roller program, which is held for two days and with an entrance fee of 1,500 euros, as well as the Warm-Up, which is the inaugural tournament, of 300 euros of buy-in. Finally, highlights the Monster Stack, also two days long and with a price of 300 euros.


Record of participation

The tournament is open to everyone and allows you to get very attractive prizes. The different games are disputed in person or in the online mode. In this eighth edition, the record of face-to-face participation has been broken when it reached the thousand registered, a record that expects to increase in the coming years.

Winamax organizes three tournaments throughout the year. The WPO of Dublin, the SisMix that the last season was celebrated in Marrakech but that in this one has predicted to arrive at Spain, and the WPT of France. There are three competitions of the highest level that allow you to live the passion for poker in all its splendor.

Brandon Adams wins Event # 2 $ 25K NLH from Poker Masters for $ 400,000

The tournament, the second of this new edition of the Poker Masters, began by bringing together an impressive group of well-known players at the PokerGO studio facility located at the gates of the Aria Resort and Casino. When it all came to an end, Brandon Adams had achieved victory in Event # 2: $ 25,000 No-Limit Hold'em.

The day began with a lot of action and never stopped. In fact, it was precisely this action that benefited Adams, who usually does not lift his foot off the accelerator and enjoys putting his rivals to the test. It is that point of aggressiveness that is allowing him to be one of the most outstanding players of this Poker Masters. He came to this second event in the fourth position of the general classification, and there he had no problems to destroy his rivals. He managed to add another 300 points, was made with a prize of $ 400,000, and was placed in the first position of the general classification.


The leader of the tournament before starting Day 2 was Jared Jaffee, who shortly after starting was in an unbeatable situation when flopped set against Adams and his pair of aces. However, the board took an unexpected turn giving full Adams, who left Jaffe very short and placed leader to set the pace of the tournament in the following minutes.

Curiously, the two of them, Jaffee and Adams, ended up fighting for the heads-up victory. The confrontation did not last long (only two hands), and Adams ended up claiming the title. Jaffe had to settle for second place and a prize of $ 262,000, plus 210 points for the classification by the purple jacket.



Final table action


The day was not very long, something that Adams contributed with his repertoire of movements, which pushed his stack and bluffed when he needed it. Daniel Negreanu understood his strategy quite quickly and tried to play two tens very slowly. The board came loaded with low cards to the turn, which was when the Canadian moved all in to see how Adams paid him instantly with two ladies. The ten that the PokerStars star needed did not come on the river and that made him the first eliminated from the final table.

Shortly after, Jason Koon ran into two confrontations against Bill Klein, and was left with "pipes." He was able to win a pot soon after to get back into the fight, but Jaffe ended up eliminating him from the tournament with a pair of tens. In the next orbit, Klein became the shortest stack and that led him to move all in with king-jack before a raise from Jake Schindler, who paid him at once with ace-eight. That was enough for Schindler to take the pot, eliminating Klein from the tournament.

After a couple of levels with only three players, Schindler became the next to take the path of the cashier counter. Adams decided it was time to squeeze and began to move all in right and left. After having to fold several times, Schindler decided he had had enough and decided to pay with a lady-ten when Adams had ace-five. Schindler could not connect in the community and Adams took the pot and the tournament reached the heads-up.

As we have already said, the face-to-face was one of the shortest they are remembered. On the second hand, Jaffe moved all in from the button and Adams paid at once. Jaffee had a king and Adams an ace. The turn gave Jaffe a good pair of outs to stay alive and fold, but none of them appeared on the river and Adams took the victory.

Adams is no stranger to Poker Masters, last year he won the # 4 $ 50,000 No Limit Hold'em event and in this edition he finished fourth in the first tournament of the festival, Event # 1: $ 10,000 No-Limit Hold'em . This victory places him leader in the race for the purple jacket.

Poker tips for new players

Then you are new to the game of Poker. It is a fun and exciting game that includes competition, strategy and even the opportunity to earn good money. But how to start? And once you've started, how do you progress as a new player?
To begin, when one is new to the game, getting the basic principles is the first priority. You will have to learn the rules, hand rankings (which is better than another) and how the bets work. A simple dive by an Internet search engine will take you to many resources to learn the rules and other basic concepts, but a good place to start is PokerStars School's poker courses. The lessons of the PokerStars School will not only take you to the basics, with everything you will need to know in detail, but also prepare you and take you directly to the basic strategies of the game.

So, what is the essential thing to start with? Let's look at some points now:


- Initial Hands.
Recommendations to know which initial poker hands and which positions are an excellent place to start. As you gain more knowledge and experience, you will learn when you can deviate cost-effectively from these basic guidelines. But while you're new and get that experience, a good hands-on strategy will help you avoid problems. If you see your poker game as a house, the basics of the starting hands would be the foundation, the foundation. Once you have the skills and experience necessary to adjust your initial hand ranges, you can do it, but every house needs a solid foundation. And if you are not familiar with the basic recommendations of the initial hand, you will not know how or when to deviate from them.

- Position
It is much more advantageous to act after other players, because you get the benefit of seeing what your action will be before making a decision. The player who acts first does not have this luxury.

- Odds / Probabilities.
While mathematics can be a scary subject for some, there's nothing to worry about here. The basic odds of poker and math are an important component for the growth of poker, but all the mathematics involved are easy to use and you can memorize things like pot odds and draw odds.

Now that we've talked a little about the starting points to learn, let's talk briefly about some things you can expect as a new player that will help you be ready at the tables.

- Comet mistakes.
As a new player in the game, you will make mistakes and play badly. Many. Do not worry, this is normal and as you learn more and gain more experience, the frequency of mistakes will decrease.

- Complaints
Without a doubt, you will find opponents who complain about your game (when you are lucky enough to beat them) or they will even attack you in the chat. It should slip, not matter in the least. It's okay to not even respond, or if you wish, use the software to block your chat. Many players lack emotional control, and this manifests itself in poor behavior when they lose a hand they perceive they should have won if their opponent "played well". Do not get caught up in the fight. And remember, they were also new once and they made all those same mistakes. It is the reality of the game.

- Lucky factor.
While poker is a game of skill, there is also an inherent element of luck. You use the ability to make the best possible decisions, but you can not control the decisions of your opponent or the next card in the deck.

If you get all your chips against the opponent having only 1 out (only 1 card can get to win the hand), that's a great result ... but 1 is very different from zero outs, and from time to time they will get that miraculous card .

It is important to try and not lose emotional control (also called TILT) when this happens. During the game of poker you will experience gusts of good and bad luck, and often groups of one or the other united. Try to remember that this is part of the game. Nobody complains when he gets his 1 outter, but everyone complains when his opponent gets his.

Learning poker is a process. Accept it and enjoy it. Part of that process includes playing, both to gain experience and to put new skills and ideas into practice as you learn them.

As a new player of the game, a good place to start is PokerStars School, which offers a lesson plan directly from a beginner level to intermediate skills and concepts. And all for free, thanks to PokerStars. And remember, when you're "running" well (experiencing a good run of luck), you're not that good, and when you're running badly, you're not that bad. Keep working, playing and keeping calm, and you will progress well.


Neymar finishes sixth in a poker tournament

Criticized for simulate faults at the 2018 World Cup in Russia, Neymar competed in a poker tournament and finished in sixth place out of 288 competitors in a Brazilian Series of Poker event.

The Brazilian, who fell in the World Cup against Belgium 2-1 in the quarterfinals, converted his entry of $ 1,877 in a profit of 21 thousand 308 before being eliminated in the High Roller final, organizers said.

"I am very happy to play in this tournament for the first time and to reach the final with great players," said the Paris Saint-Germain star moments before the final began. "This is a new experience for me."


Ney entered the tournament with five of his friends and was the only one who managed to pass the second day.

The final table was scheduled on Tuesday night, but the participants agreed to postpone a day for the attacker to attend a friend's wedding.
He returned to compete on Wednesday, but after four hours of play he was eliminated after betting heavily on two hands he lost.
Poker has become a relaxation game for Brazilian soccer players.

The grand entrance of Phil Hellmuth disguised as "Thor" in the WSOP Main Event

As he wants best tradition, Phil Hellmuth made his spectacular entry on the third day of the WSOP Main Event, on a historic day not only for the World Series but also for the whole poker world: with 4,751 members, a surprise day 1C it is the most numerous flight in the history of the most famous tournament.

Phil responded in great style to Randall Emmett who had tried to challenge him on day 1A.


Poker Brat presented himself disguised as Thor, the god of thunder, surrounded by an army of models dressed as Viking warriors. Everything makes color in the WSOP and undoubtedly Hellmuth theaters are never lacking and they turn the spotlight on the poker world. This is the Main, this is a unique tournament!

The 7 golden rules of Daniel Negreanu for beginners

Daniel Negreanu offers his advice to beginners, those who want to get high in poker but are starting. Enjoy with its 7 golden rules.

If you were to play your first big live tournament and you could ask Daniel Negreanu for advice, what questions would you ask him?

Before starting the main event of the PokerStars Championship Monte Carlo 2017, Canadian professional Negreanu, one of the best players in the world and probably the most charismatic in the world, sat at a table with a group of recreational players.

This meeting was not scheduled or registered in the official schedule of the tournament, it was only a first contact and welcome before the tournament, with good atmosphere, even laughter, while enjoying the good Mediterranean climate of the Principality on the terrace of the Salles des Etoiles on the roof of Monte Carlo Casino.



We were able to take a seat with all of them (recreational and Negreanu) to listen to the questions and answers. We will not expose all of them, but we will focus on the key points that Daniel urged his listeners, with their own words.


1. Do not show (the letters) if you do not have to

There is no reason to show your cards, it does not matter if you had a good play or you were just bluffing. People will analyze how much you have wagered, how you acted in doing it and collected all the details of the hand.

At some point they will use this to confront you. Wait to teach the cards to your opponents until you have more experience (then you will know when and how to do it).

I like that my table mates know what I am capable of doing, but in spite of it, I would not use this type of attitude with everybody, I would always do it or not depending on who is sitting at the table.

I also recommend not playing too much or forcing the situation (overplay) with some hands. AQ is a clear example since it is a very delicate hand.

Do not do 4bet with her because if you get an even stronger bet (or even all-in), your hand is dead. What do you think would force you with a 5bet or all-in your rival?


2. The reading of the rivals is based on small details

Everything depends on noticing something and taking it into account (write it down mentally) for the future, but you should know that it is not always the same for each player, they are always different details and aspects. It is not easy to read the rivals and it takes a lot of time (and maybe also experience).

Be careful not to laugh at you, do not be fooled. I often do "reverse tells" (tells the contrary of the usual or what I want to show). Once, I went bluffing and put my hand on my face. This tournament was televised and my action was shown on television.

The opponent saw my bet and everyone saw that he had tried to bluff. For a year, whenever I had the nuts (the best possible move) I made that same gesture, with the rivals watching my bet again and again.


3. Do not go bluffing

I do not bet bluff, ever. Well, except that time with Isaac Haxton. One thing is to go semifarol, with outs and options to take your hand if they see your bet and another go bluffing, something you should not do when you are a beginner.


4. Do not play loose too early

If you think you should see many flops when it's cheap, you're wrong, doing that is playing poker badly.

Do not dedicate yourself to limping when the blinds are low. With blinds 25/50, there are only 75 points in the pot that you can take, that's all.

Later, when they come into play before, there is much more to gain when you see the flop, that is the time to open your hand when entering the boats (play loose).


5. Get them to recognize that you play tight

If you have not played a hand for quite some time, make sure that your tablemates are aware of it because only then you will get benefits for it.

If the other players at the table do not realize that you have not played a hand in a long time, you will not be able to get anything from that game strategy.


6. Have a goal and a reason

You must have a clear goal, but I also firmly believe that you should not only know what you want or where you want to go, you also need to know how to get it and why you want to do it.

Think, for example, of a poker tournament. Why do you want to win it ?, for the money? Perfect, but ... Why? What are you going to do with it?

Or do you simply want to feel fulfilled? Well, but why is it so important to you? If you do not have a clear reason why you want to win the tournament (in this case), it will be more difficult to achieve your goal.

I've seen billionaires who only talk about making more money, people who will never get ruined or stop being rich who protest because a coffee costs them five dollars (or euros), why do they even worry about so much money?

These people believe the lie that more is always better. They think that if they have more money they will be happier, forgetting that this is not the case.


7. Fail

Failing is important, everyone does it. Yes, I have also failed.

More than once in Las Vegas I was making money, thinking I had the game, as well as the table, totally dominated and only 24 hours later I was bankrupt, I had lost so much that I had to walk back to my hotel.

Those walks were very important to me. I'm still benefiting and I continue to learn from them.

This team will win in Russia 2018 according to the betting houses

For more than two weeks we have seen how the selections of the 32 World Cup teams seek to be the champion of the 2018 World Cup in Russia. This is a battle that the fans have taken to another platform: the betting one, which provides a new way to live the passion of your favorite teams and, in addition, to win economic prizes.

There is still time to get to know the absolute winner of this edition of the 2018 World Cup, but in virtual betting platforms, such as PlayCity, there is already a marked tendency on who could be the winning team that will lift the Cup, and they are the same players who predict that Brazil will be the future winner, followed by France and third in the England team.

Although nothing is written, some virtual betting platforms, including PlayCity, show the behavior of the teams that are still on the way through the World Cup through tutorials and statistics that allow users to place a bet on their chances of winning or losing the following matches, this, by means of odds, which are the opportunities for an event to happen.

It will be the previous elements - tutorials, statistics and odds - based on their representation, those in charge of financially rewarding who makes the bet; This is explained in the following way: the closer the momio of 0 is, the better the chances of winning will be; in as much, the equipment more remote from the 0 will be those that offer a greater economic retribution to who makes the bet after its result.


Although the matches have been held at atypical times, mainly in the mornings, the Mexican fan has not stopped participating in this type of bets, and has even increased the flow of them since the beginning of the 2018 World Cup in Russia, showing an increase of 25 to 30%.



This type of platform offers users the most pleasant way to enter the world of betting. Here it is not necessary to be an expert, just follow a trend based on statistics, or in other cases, listen to a hunch for a specific team.

The betting options vary: you can make a predetermined by the possible winning team or, as in PlayCity, you can make a quick bet, in which, as the name implies, the user will immediately know the outcome of your bet . There are also other categories where to bet in Russia 2018, among them, the absolute scorer, who is the winner of the Golden Boot. In this category, the trends point to the favorite footballer Harry Kane, of England, followed by Romelu Lakaku, from Belgium, and Kylian Mbappé, from France.

Keys to make a right decision, according to a former poker player

Annie Duke is world famous for being a former poker champion, winner of tournaments such as the World Series of Poker (2004) and the Heads-Up Poker Championship of the United States (2002). Few know that before becoming famous for his skills in this game, he earned a Ph.D. in cognitive science at the University of Pennsylvania.
In a talk with the BBC, the expert in this popular game argued that "poker is a unique place to observe and understand the decision-making process".


For this, everything we have to solve happens in an environment like this game. And with the idea of ​​contributing to this topic he wrote the book Thinking about bets; how to make smart decisions when you do not have all the data.

As mentioned in the title, the former champion observed that at the time of making a decision "there are many hidden things in sight, much information that we do not have or do not know and when it comes to predicting the future, luck also intervenes" .

This happens both in poker and in life, therefore, the strategies used by players to solve their dilemma, can be very useful to address everyday challenges.

Under the premise of helping others from his experience, Duke also created an organization called How I Decide, to which young people come to develop critical thinking and the ability to make decisions. And it gives some premises that also contribute to those key moments of our life:

- Do not think in black and white or in right and wrong. What we have to decide belongs to the future, therefore we do not have all the knowledge about how things will be and, in these cases, luck can intervene. On the other hand, if we already have the preconception that something is right or wrong, we are conditioning ourselves and it is certain that we will reject any new information presented to us.


- Seek to be precise and not have the absolute truth. If we start with the idea that only what we hold is the right thing, we will never go in search of another truth and we will surround ourselves with those who think like us. If we look for precision, invariably we must open ourselves to other opinions, which will broaden our panorama and perfect our own thinking.

- Exchange with people who think differently. Help integrate groups that complement our thinking in front of unknown situations or when we realize that our opinion is partial.

- Do not be afraid to say "I'm not sure". If instead of frightening us, embarrassing us or reserving the state of insecurity, we open ourselves and express our doubts, surely there will be someone who will bring us their thoughts and this can help us to make a better decision.

The World Cup of bets is just hours away

The predictions for the 2014 World Cup Brazil that gave specialists and agencies of high reputation had a particularity: they all failed. There were several examples that put Spain in the final and Brazil winning the game against Germany, for example.

Paddy Power, the most important bookmaker in Ireland, had named England as the Cup winner, while Italy and Uruguay also appeared as great candidates.

But that's already history and the bookmakers are back on the agenda, in the lead-up to the biggest world soccer event. And just hours from the start of Russia 2018, they have something clear: Lionel Messi is the great candidate to be the scorer of the World Cup, although Argentina is not among the main favorites to lift the trophy on July 15.



Brazil and Germany come to the World Cup as the main contenders to be champions. In the second line, always according to specialists, appear France and Spain.

The forecasts of Bet365, William Hill, Sportium and Betfair note that the cast of Tite is the most likely to take the World Cup, with a fee between 5 and 5.50 euros.

For starters, Betfair are inclined to a new consecration of the five-time world champions, with a quota of 5.5 euros for every 1 wagered. Hand in hand with Neymar, those led by Tite showed great performance in all the friendlies they played and will be one of the great attractions of the tournament.

Behind them appear the Germans with a fee of 6 euros and the first European selection of the ranking, despite not having achieved good results in their recent friendlies. The same house argues that Messi will not be enough to save Argentina (11 euros).

The third favorite here is the Spanish team (6.5), which will try to erase the bad image that it gave in the last World Cup. France appears behind the Iberians (7). There are two cases of countries that come with real options, although somewhat smaller to win the World Cup.

Betfair, also, shows another particularity: it assures that Russia, the local one, will not surpass the first stage and thinks that they will be Uruguay and Egypt those that will finish progressing to the second phase in that group.

For the Bwin house, meanwhile, the scheme of the first four does not change much: Brazil, Germany, France and Spain. Although in this case the Gauls climb the third step. The Brazilian team pays 5 euros for each bet. Here, Argentina pays 10 euros and is located again in the fifth step of the ranking.

While, for virtual fans, Bet365 shows a similar scheme to Bwin: with the four countries mentioned above and the cast of Jorge Sampaoli in the fifth placement ($ 10). After the agonizing classification in Ecuador, the bets were modified month by month in the most popular sites. At least for the most expert houses in the world, it is not enough with the presence of the No. 10 albiceleste for Argentina to lift its third world cup.

But if the bettors are guided by what happened in Brazil 2014, the picture can be modified. Of course, if the World Cup was a favorite thing, it would not be funny. This is where the countries with attractive sums appear. In this lot we find those of Sampaoli, with quotas that in general go between 10 and 11 euros, and Belgium, between 11 and 12 euros.

The betting houses ensure that the trophy to the top scorer in the 2018 World Cup of Russia is disputed between Messi, Neymar and Antoine Griezmann, with quotas that range between 10 and 13 euros per euro invested for the one who hits.

I Said I Was Easy…

…and apparently Full Tilt Poker believed me. The result is the first ever ad here on the Pile; a development certain to drive a spike in the number of players on the fastest growing poker site on the 'Net. Hey, they got me to download their software for the first time.