Let’s say you’re new to the game. Some of you are tourists, some just turned 18 or 21 (whatever the legal age is in your country), or you are having some sort of mid-life crisis. It doesn’t matter. What matters is, you’re looking for a casino to go to!

Well, my first experience going to a casino was rather different. Some towns have local casinos or if you happen to live in New Jersey, you can always go to Atlantic City, or “AC”.

But me? I went to the Sin city, Las Vegas. Lights everywhere, people everywhere, stripper escort flyers everywhere; highrollers and poor folks alike just wandering about the city.

I did it big. The first casino I laid my eyes on was located at the Wynn Resort & Casino. Wow. This placed just looked beautiful from the outside. This place was developed and built quite recently, I think around 2008 or 2010 or so. The beautiful resort and casino cost a whopping 2.8 billion dollars to develop.

The place just looks beautiful from the outside.

So the hotel and the outside look great. What about the casino? Well, as you can expect from a 3 billion dollar lot, the casino is also magnificent. The service is top of the line quality and the interior is just spectacular.

If I could go back in time, I’d pick Wynn again. Wynn is definitely a winner.

Playing the Free Bet Blackjack is as simple as playing Blackjack itself and you shouldn’t need more than 10 minutes to learn the game. It obviously helps if you’re already aware of how to play blackjack, but you should be able to manage even if you don’t know how to play blackjack. The Free Bet Blackjack is exactly what the name sounds like – it allows you to make your split pair and double down wagers for free. With a house edge of less than 0.7%, the game might actually help you win some money as well. As experts have described it, playing the Free Bet Blackjack is like playing a game of Blackjack with a generous friend who takes care of all your supplemental bets and lets you keep the winnings.

The Free Bet Blackjack is played with six standard decks of playing cards that are dealt from a shoe. The dealer must hit when it gets a soft 17 and natural blackjacks always pay in the ratio of 3:2. Late surrenders are allowed ad doubling down even after splitting the cards which can again be split to a maximum of 4 cards are also allowed. However, split Aces will receive just one more card each.

The biggest difference in the Free Bet Blackjack is the way the additional wagering takes place. First up, the player is offered with the “Free Doubles” option for counts of 9, 10 or 11. Another exciting feature offered by the Free Bet Blackjack is the “Free Split” which is offered for all pairs, except for 10s. Additional Free Doubles and Free Splits can also be chosen as the hands play themselves out. However, if the dealer busts with a total of 22, all hands are pushed, irrespective of their value. This rule also applies to the natural blackjacks as well as hands where players hold a total of 21 or lesser.

Players playing Free Bet Blackjack can afford to play more aggressively than their original wager hands. Free bets should never be surrendered when playing Free Bet Blackjack, but make sure that you surrender when you’re holding anything between 15 – 17 when the dealer has an open Ace or less than 15 when the dealer has an open Ten. Since a split costs nothing, the liability becomes limited to the original bet. The ideal strategy would be to split the pair against any card that is opened by the dealer, excepting for 5 or 10. You should also ensure that you take a Free Double on a pair of 5s that get treated as a total count of 10.

It also helps to always choose the Free Double option when having counts of 9, 10 or 11. Furthermore, remember to hit on hard counts of 5 – 8 or soft counts of 12 – 15, irrespective of the dealer’s cards. Always stand the moment you get anything between 18 – 21.

The Free Bet Blackjack is most likely to offer you with a number of chances to win free money without having to risk too much of your own. This works to your advantage as the ultimate difference between and losing in Blackjack boils down to splits and double downs.

Any player who understands how to play the Five Card Stud Poker can feel completely at ease while playing Caribbean Stud Poker. All you need to remember is that while playing Caribbean Stud Poker, you play against the dealer and not against other players.

How to play Caribbean Stud Poker?

The Caribbean Stud Poker variant borrows most of its concepts from the original game and converts it into an extremely fast paced game of poker where players need to compete with the house, and not with other players.

• Ante – The game begins when players place an Ante. The size of the ante can be placed according to your preferences, provided it lies within the minimum and maximum bet limits that have been set for the table.

• Understanding your cards – The dealer deals each player with five cards that are facing down. On the other hand, one of the five cards in the dealer’s hand is dealt facing up.

• Betting – After determining the strength of their hand, players need to bet or fold. Folding leads to forfeiture of the ante. If a player chooses to bet, he/ she must bet an amount that is equal to double the amount of the ante.

• Outcome – Once all bets have been made, the dealer reveals his remaining cards. The minimum hand that a dealer hand must have is an Ace-King high. If not, all players are paid in the ratio of 1:1. If the dealer manages to get a hand that is better than an Ace-King high, the players compare their hands with the dealer and the one with the best hand wins. The payment is made according to a pre-set pay scale.

Payout Rates for Caribbean Stud Poker

• Winning the game with an Ace-King high – 1:1

• Winning the game with a pair – 1:1

• Winning the game with two pairs – 2:1

• Winning the game with three of a kind – 3:1

• Winning the game with a straight – 4:1

• Winning the game with a flush – 5:1

• Winning the game with a full house – 7:1

• Winning the game with four of a kind – 20:1

• Winning the game with straight flush – 50:1

• Winning the game with a royal flush – 100:1

Common mistakes made by players while playing the Caribbean Stud Poker

X Folding the game when they have low pairs.

X Playing the game with an Ace and a Queen.

X Betting for the sake of betting. (Bluffing has no value in Caribbean Stud Poker.

X Playing without determining the strength of the starting hand.

X Playing the game without implementing a basic strategy to boost the chances of winning.

Backgammon is considered to be extremely similar to poker. Both are considered to be skill based games that are also dependant on probability and chance at the same time. Backgammon is essentially a two player game that is played on a game board that features triangles in alternating color. There are 24 triangles in total. These triangles are known as points and they are grouped into four quadrants with a total of 6 triangles in each quadrant. The quadrants are known as the home board and outer board for player 1 and player 2. A ridge that runs down the center of the board is called a bar. It separates the home board from the outer sections.

Each point has a numeric value beginning from the home board of the player. The furthest point from the home board has the value of 24. Each player is allocated with 15 checkers of the same color and they are arranged in the following order – 2 checkers on each player’s 24 point, 5 on the 6 point, 3 on the 8 point and 5 on the 13 point. Other items offered to players include a pair of dice and a dice cup. The game is tracked with the help of doubling cubes. The doubling cube is considered to be one of the main components of Backgammon and players can redouble as well.

The Object of the game

The main object of the game is to move all the checkers into the home board. Once the checkers are moved into the home board, they can be removed from the board by a process known as bearing off. The first player to remove all of his checkers from the board wins.

Starting Backgammon

Each player throws a single dice in order to start the game. The one with the higher number goes first. The players now move the checkers according to the numbers that are shown on the dice. After this, players throw the dice alternatively in order to move their checkers. When a player hits a 4 and a 5 on his dice, he must move one checker 4 spaces and another checker 5 spaces. Both moves can also be made by a single checker. Doubles require the players to move the checkers twice. Therefore, if a player gets two 6s on the dice, he needs to make four moves of 6 spaces. Players must remember that checkers can only be moved into an empty point or into a point that is occupied by another player’s checkers.

Key Objectives in Backgammon

Players are faced with two key objectives while playing backgammon – to get their checkers into the safety of their home board and to prevent the opponent from doing so by closing down key points.

Hitting a checker

All checkers must be moved from high numbers to low numbers. They can only be moved to an empty point or to a point that is occupied the player’s checkers. A player may remove his opponent’s checker from the board by “hitting” it. Therefore, the checker that is taken off must be re-entered from the opponent’s home quadrant and moved all over again. However, any point that has two or more checkers is considered as safe. The opponent cannot “hit” checkers from safe points.

Almost all poker players go through times when they just can’t seem to win. No matter how they place their bets, no matter what they do, no strategy ever seems to pay off the way it should. This could continue for days at a stretch or last for a few hours. Like all good luck streaks, bad luck streaks are also a part and parcel of the game and of your gambling experience. It can be difficult to keep your cool while going through a bad luck streak, but there are a number of ways by which you can actually break your bad luck streak while gambling.

Take a break

If things just don’t seem right, it always helps to take a break. Constantly losing one game after the other can have a huge toll psychologically and it can also shatter your confidence. You might begin to feel that you can never win a game again. This is definitely a false assumption as you could start winning once again at any point of time. One of the best ways to break your losing streaks is to take a break. Do something to clear your head, divert your mind, refresh yourself and then try your hand once more. It also helps to call it a day and come back the next day.

Take out those lucky charms or become superstitious

If you’re into that sort of thing (many gamblers believe in lucky charms or gambling superstitions), perform all the rituals that you do to break a spell of bad luck when you take that break. I have heard of people changing their position, taking a bath, moving their screen position, wearing lucky charms such as lucky T-shirts, lucky bracelets, etc. Well, if it works for you, there’s no harm in giving it a try.

Play games which allow you to concentrate and don’t distract your attention

Gambling is actually quite the same as working, it’s just way more exciting. A single mistake can ruin your entire hard work and concentration is the key to success. If you’re going through that bad luck streak, stop multitasking between games at once. This will just make you lose faster during that bad luck streak. It also helps to try and concentrate your entire energies into games that allow you to do so. Bringing back more control into your game can actually help you break that bad luck streak.

Try out other games

You might have been playing on the same table for way too long. If nothing seems to be removing that bad luck streak, try switching to another game for some time. Take a break, walk around, rejuvenate your senses and then play at another table. Your luck might just come back all of a sudden.

Reduce the size of your bets

Your bad luck might be a direct result of your enormous bet size. If you’re low on your bankroll, it always makes sense to reduce your bet size and make your bankroll last longer. This will help you to cut down on your losses during a bad luck streak and come back strong once that good luck decides to come back into your game.

Before you proceed with understanding whether gambling is a part of your midlife crisis, you need to understand what the term midlife crisis really means. Midlife crisis refers to a particular period in a person’s life where they start to think about their morality and become dissatisfied with everything they have done until now. This period normally comes between the age of 40 – 60 and it can cause major alterations in a person’s life, including the changing of beliefs, ending of marriages and changing careers.

However, studies have shown that just about 10 – 15% of the middle aged people are psychologically affected by the aging process. To better under the midlife crisis, you need to understand the various causes that trigger a midlife crisis and the symptoms that cause middle aged men to go crazy.

There could be a number of reasons for changes in a person’s behavior as they cross the 40s. Some of the most common triggers include things like the death of a close friend or relative, crossing yet another birthday or becoming grandparents. All three factors are likely to make middle aged men and women feel really old and this thought is likely to have far reaching effects on the person’s psychology. Other factors that could lead to middle age crisis include physical changes like graying of hair, wrinkles, fine lines and other signs of aging, the lack of variety and a monotonous lifestyle or children leaving home to start a life of their own.

A few common behavioral aspects that most people facing midlife crisis exhibit include a range of symptoms such as looking for younger partners, going back to school to learn skills that might allow them to change their existing jobs, paying more attention to physical appearance, drug use or drinking, the desire to seek excitement at the casino, useless purchases that is normally way beyond the budget.

Just listening to these causes and symptoms are enough to make you understand that even though it might be natural for people to feel so, midlife crisis can actually take a toll on a person’s life. To make sure that your loved ones don’t go through the same experience, you need to ensure that you take some steps.

When it comes to gambling, you need to understand that seeking excitement by way of gambling is perfectly normal. In fact, gambling is a natural human tendency that allows them with an avenue to break free and rejuvenate their senses. The adrenaline rush is something that allows people to get that excitement back into their lives and the joy of winning brings in those precious moments of happiness. However, it might become a problem if one of your loved ones who suffer from a midlife crisis take to gambling. They run the risk of losing all their money in order to feel younger and seek enhancement. If you’re faced with such a problem, there’s just one thing that you can do. Take your loved ones for counselling and keep a track of their finances so that they don’t end up wasting away their life’s savings.

Addiction to gambling, better known as compulsive gambling is a type of impulsive-control disorder. Their urge to gamble goes beyond their control despite being aware of its consequences and ill effects. It is all they can think of. Compulsive gamblers shed their lifestyle and engage themselves completely into it irrespective of their monetary conditions. Gradually, it extracts everything out of an individual he/she probably owns. It is important to understand the symptoms associated with it and take remedial steps to cure it at the earliest. Problem Gambling is a behaviour wherein an individual spends more and more money, chasing losses despite knowing its serious consequences is known to have a gambling problem. Also known as ludomania, it is an urge of the individual to continuously gamble. Severe gambling problems may be associated with pathological gambling which a common disorder is found amongst many gamblers. It is associated at the cost of the family where an individual stakes not only his money but also his familial relationships at stake.

It is important for individuals to be aware of the symptoms associated with gambling, and if needed take remedial measures in order to avoid any major problems associated with it.

Addiction to gambling is often referred to as a hidden illness as there are no obvious symptoms attached to it in comparison to those of alcoholics or drug addicts. But the underlying symptoms need to be carefully observed in order to take timely help if required.

Some of the symptoms shown by compulsive gamblers are:

1. Secretive about gambling: When people hide or lie about their gambling habits from others. It is an indication that they themselves are aware that there seems to be a problem yet are unwilling to accept the same.

2. Face trouble controlling their gambling: When people despite making best efforts to control their urge to gamble are unable to do so indicates the hidden problem. It signified that the problem has already been laid in and necessary steps need to be taken in at the earliest.

3. Gambling even when broke: When people gamble despite the fact that they do not have any more money left with them in the hope of winning some and recovering their lost money in yet another indication of the problem.

4. Denial to acknowledge the problem: Continuous denial to the problem can never be a solution to it. Yet many gamblers do so despite being aware that there lies one. Unless one acknowledges that there is an issue, a solution can never be arrived at.

5. Withdrawal from families and friends: Gradual withdrawal from family and friends and investing more time alone is yet another important symptom.

Compulsive gamblers deal with problems within themselves, and hence what they really need to get out of the problem is the love and support of their families and friends. Considering it as a taboo and hiding the problem can never be a solution to it. Sincere efforts to overcome the problem has to be made by him, only then will the addiction to gambling by nipped in the bud. 

Like any other game, poker has a number of rules which you should be familiar with before you sit at a casino table. But, besides the rules of different varieties of poker, there are also rules of conduct which the players need to abide while in the casino, and throughout the game.

These rules are commonly known as “house rules”, and each gambling establishment is likely to have its own, unique set of rules. When setting foot in a casino for the first time, you should always consult the house rules, because you don’t want to unintentionally break any. If you do, you risk anything from a warning to actually being kicked out of the casino – a most humiliating outcome. The rules can be found posted online, or at the reception – where you can also request a printed copy.

Most casinos have, however, similar general rules. For instance, all of them will ban weapons inside the premises, and most of them will have areas where smoking is not allowed. Profane language is also banned throughout the casino. Vulgar, abusive or obscene language will lead to being penalized or removed from the casino. This rule applies to foreign languages as well. A casino is not the best place to show off your knowledge of exotic languages. Always use English or the official language of the country in which you are playing. It’s a sign of respect, and you also avoid misunderstandings.

Other common rules refer to the table itself. Generally, poker players are not allowed to leave the table while playing a hand nor speak on the phone, in order to prevent attempts of cheating. In most casinos, you will only be allowed to place your cards, chips and drink on the table, which prevents clutter and gives everyone unobstructed view of the game.

House rules also regard your cards and chips. You shouldn’t dent or bend the cards, as no one should be able to distinguish between them. You are also expected to keep your cards and chips on the table, throughout the game. You are only allowed to touch your own cards and chips. Don’t touch those of other players, as you could be suspected of cheating or theft. Also important, even in the heat of the game, don’t throw chips into the pot. While dramatic, it will annoy the other players and make counting difficult. Place the bet in front of you and the dealer will rake it into the pot.

House rules are set by casinos in order to offer players a welcoming environment and a pleasant gaming experience. These are just some of the most common house rules, but in the end it comes down to just one basic principle: respect others and you shall be respected in turn.