Tuesday, April 29, 2008

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Sunday, April 20, 2008

Poker Tips for Competitive Women

Women Conquer Online Casinos

Author: Walter Gordon

According to a recent survey of online casino players which announced its results this week, there are a growing number of women who are becoming keen fans of online casino games.



The survey was conducted by Red Lounge Casino, one of the UK’s most popular online casinos, and suggests that middle-aged housewives will soon account for a sizeable chunk of total online casino fans. The key finding is that that 57% of clients registered at various online casinos are female. 61% of the female clientele are married, 68% are housewives, and 54% are aged between 35 and 54.



The casino management highlighted several reasons for the survey findings. First, most housewives are eager to find new amusement for the time when they are alone at home, and online casinos have managed to fill this niche. The second factor that has contributed to the popularity of online gambling is easy access to the Internet. The third women’s likeness for online games – while most of them would hate going to smoky and crowded land-based casinos, they enjoy the fun of playing an interesting game from the comfort of their homes.



The trend is interesting, but far from surprising, online casino experts claim. Over the last few years, the demographic shift in the UK has been so acute that some sites are now reporting that 70% of their players are females who usually prefer to play Roulette and Poker. According to a survey conducted in 2004, £270 million is staked by women every year. Given the rapid development of this booming industry, the figures may as well have doubled in 2007.



Another group which is becoming increasingly attracted to online gambling is young adults. With their natural likeness for web-based activities and willingness to try new things, young adults are some of the keenest fans of online casino games. It is now obvious that the traditional image of men as the typical casino players was overturned as casinos went online.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/online-gambling-articles/women-conquer-online-casinos-313365.html

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Online casino Internet Roulette

Poker Fashion - Get Ready for the Tables

Author: Daphne Greene

Does fashion determine success in poker? After witnessing several tournaments, I can say that there is no event in the world with more fashion and age diversity than the World Poker Series. People of all ages, styles and backgrounds gather to compete with one another. You can truly find any look you can think of in the poker scene.



We will go beyond the obvious hat and sunglasses to see the group styles and the scattered horror looks that desperately need a makeover. After all, all that money could be put to good fashionable use!



We start this juicy piece by commenting on the established styles some players have adopted, whether it is for comfort, habit, or an (often successful) intention to create an image.



Male WSOP fashion can be classified into 9 groups.



The college student . It’s a known fact that the college crowd has a taste for the game, but some people just never get over the college look. There is the cool college guy look: the slender but muscular guys that look like they didn’t take a shower, just threw on any cotton shirt they found on the floor and a cool hat and they still manage to look like the latest indie rock star, with “sex symbol” written all over them! They seem to be full of confidence and intellectual appeal, even if the latter ends when they open their mouth. And don’t forget the college cap-backwards, frat-boy look; it still works! Then, there is of course the dorky college look. There’s people who never grow out of the nerdy style or are just very comfy in their freshman fashion: I am talking pastel-striped shirts, white sneakers, khakis, boxy haircut…what could be more charming? And last but not least, the computer-geek or trekkie look. Oh, the pale skin, jedi-like expression and washed-out dark cotton T or sweatshirt with the short untouched baby hair…so sweet!



The teenage star. Some players sport high-fashion choppy haircuts like the ones seen in videos of NSYNC and the Back Street Boys, no to mention the European-style dress shirts that make them look like they just won a MTV award. These pretty-faced boys have the air of confidence and glamour of teenage stars.



The cowboy. Hail all Doyle Brunson followers! Yes, we are talking about your big hats and fierce cowboy stares, button-down shirts and boots. Yeeee-ha!!!



The family guy. All those players who have lost their slender figure and wear a uniform of a white or yellow t-shirt with some jeans, shorts or slacks, but still shave and have neat haircuts, remind me of the dads you see at department stores, the movies, amusement parks or fast-food restaurants with their families on Sunday afternoons. Don’t dismiss them because of this – they could yet show you who’s the daddy at the table!



The sports fan. This is probably the most popular fashion tribe in poker: cotton t-shirts under hoodies, a baseball hat, jeans and sneakers sum it all. The only difference is that instead of being at the stadium watching their favorite game, they are playing it!



The poker billboard. Come on, anybody that has more than 4 patches with poker names on their sweatshirts is a human billboard. Yes, we know you are being sponsored, but tell your sponsor there’s no need to turn you into an eyesore.



The playboy. Yes, you know who I am talking about. Glossy, designer sweat suits, sunglasses and a bling-bling smile that only says “come to me, babe…”



The gangster. This category is very diverse, since it includes players of different ethnicities who choose this particular look to adopt a mysterious, dangerous air. There is also the American mob look: tough, big guys who nobody should mess with. It works every time!



The business man. This is the classiest look: attractive middle-aged men who look like they were just at a conference room giving condescending lectures to their board of directors and then stopped by to play some poker.



Female poker fashion is not as varied, since they are still a minority at the tables, but we’re bound to see more styles as their numbers increase. However, they still make 4 fashion groups.



The tough-but-hot mama. Attractive middle-aged women who look as if they take no games from anyone. They will take all your chips and grind you to dust, all the while smiling sweetly and talking about their children.



The sports-illustrated babe. I am sure showing off well-stacked cleavages, kittenish hair and glossy makeup is part of their distracting strategy. Good call, girls!



The business woman. Very classy and elegant players of all ages pull this look off to perfection. It gives them the right confidence for the game plus suggests they know it all about winning.



The girl next door. Cute, fresh faces with fashionable clothes and a smile that misleads any sexist contender. Good strategy!



The moment of truth has come. Let’s now talk about the unique and peculiar looks that sometimes make it seem more like a tacky-movie character reunion than a poker event.



The weird and wonderful. We have definitely spotted the occasional purple or green hair dyes that can be hallmarked miles away, the bikers, the five-year-old girl face that will surely leave you broke, the country Jesus, the Asian-dragon guy, the punks, the skin-heads and the I-don’t know-what look. Seriously. What a melting pot. Some of these people should rethink their wardrobes, especially if they care enough about their image to choose such accessories!



Well, I surely said it all. But even if I may have raised some eyebrows, I must insist that I truly enjoy each player’s uniqueness, even when it is not necessarily prompting the kind of effect they intended.



The bottom line is: your style makes you visible, we love to watch you play and we love you all the way you are! See you at the next series. Bring out your Sunday best!



This article was published courtesy of Bonuswhores.com. Bonus Whores (www.bonuswhores.com) is the best site to find the most current and comprehensive online poker bonus information on the Internet, as well as Game Quality Grid and site reviews.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/online-gambling-articles/poker-fashion-get-ready-for-the-tables-284318.html

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Part Iv: the Future of Women and Poker

Author: Daphne Greene

Fifteen years ago high-stakes female poker players were almost unheard of. Sure sometimes Mafia leaders would occasionally bring their mistresses to the high-rolling tables and allow them to try their luck with the big boys by throwing a measly couple grand at them, but there were very few serious women poker players that were engaging in such intense games. Thanks to pioneering professional female poker players like Linda Johnson, the "First Lady of Poker", countless women have begun to take the poker world by storm.



As part III of "Women and Poker" showed, there is still a depressing image of women in the gambling world, as for the most part women are still used as sex symbols to help business owners promote their various endeavors whether it be online or live. Yet this clearly does not mean that progress has not been made: lately there has been a flurry of tournaments, clubs, magazines and websites that are all dedicating toward promoting women in the poker world.



One of the hottest up and coming women-only movements going on in poker right now is the High Heels Poker Tour. Created by Lauren Failla, the HHPT has been growing fast in the short years that it has been running. The tour has expanded to all over the Southeastern United States and is quickly spreading every year. The company's mission statement says it all:



"Our Mission at the HHPT is to empower women who want to become champions in the growing world of poker. The HHPT wants to provide the best competitive environment where women can explore, develop, and continue growing and learning top strategies and their "A" game. Opportunities and Recognition are what the HHPT is all about."



The HHPT is not alone in galvanizing the female poker player movement. There are dozens of other organizations that are pushing for the same ideals from local tournaments to international magazines. All over the internet poker clubs, blogs and websites dedicated solely to women seem to pop up every month. It is movements such as these that will finally give women the respect that they deserve.



Nowadays women are constantly making it to the final tables of the biggest poker tournaments in the world. More women than men are signing up to play online poker and nowadays one of the most fearsome online competitors in the world is an incredible 19 year old Norwegian girl by the name of Annette Obrestad. Do not be surprised if players like Annette soon become known not only as the best women players in the world, but as the best poker players in the world regardless of sex.



Men should beware because once there is an equal number of women players as of men, they will surely dominate. Already women poker players have learned to use their sex appeal to muddle men's minds when playing poker. Whatever lay in the future, there is certainly great hope for poker's women.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/online-gambling-articles/part-iv-the-future-of-women-and-poker-358772.html

About the Author:
This article was published courtesy of RakeBreak.com.
RakeBreak.com is a newly re-launched rakeback and bonus code hub for online poker players. Players who meet monthly quotas in VIP points also receive invitations to freeroll tournaments and complimentary memberships to other sites like StoxPoker.

Women and Poker 1

Author: Daphne Greene

Part I: A Brief History of Women in Poker



The precise history of poker is one that is riddled with myths and legends. The truth is that no one historian of the game knows for certain how poker came to be the world famous phenomenon we now see every day on our TV screens. Some have speculated that because it closely resembles the Persian game of as nas, Persian sailors may have passed this game on to settlers in New Orleans while restocking supplies at the local harbor and it eventually took hold as the modern game known as poker.



Others believe that it may be an offshoot of the Irish card game Poca or even the French game poque, which is thought to be descendant of the German pochen (which essentially means to brag as a bluff.) The true origin of the game may never be known and in fact the more likely story is that somebody created poker after learning various similar games from different backgrounds.



Whether poker is a Chinese, Persian, Egyptian, French, German or Irish creation is of no consequence. What is certain is that some point in history the Persian Ganijifa (Treasure Cards) were changed from a solely Persian game into a new hybrid called poker.



French colonials are thought to have imported their beloved poque to the New World when they first arrived in Canada. The game was then brought to New Orleans in the beginning of the 18th century by a group of French Canadian settlers.



In 1834, Jonathan H. Green made one of the earliest known written references to poker when he mentioned rules to the “cheating game,” that had been gaining popularity on various Mississippi riverboats. Before people knew how it even happened, poker became the fashionable game for river-boaters all over the Mississippi. What started out as Louisiana phenomenon quickly turned into one of the most popular games in America.



At the turn of the century poker was still an illegal game in most parts of the United States. Its popularity was too wide-spread to keep its fans from playing and the game soon spread to the Old West where legends such as Wyatt Earp and Wild Bill Hickock earned reputations as sharp card players as well as pistol slingers.



While poker became a popular mainstay among men, women soon caught on and began playing as well. The first of these women to gain a serious reputation is none other than Poker Alice, the first known professional female poker player. Born in Devonshire, England she soon moved with her family to Colorado where she married a mining engineer, Frank Duffield. After the death of her first husband Alice needed a new way to support herself. Duffield had shown her a few hands of poker and she had taken a liking to the game. After his death she began to pursue gambling as a career becoming a card dealer.



During her career as a poker player, Alice gained a serious reputation. On good nights she would earn as much as $6,000 and would gloat amongst her peers daring any newcomers to try their luck against her. Never one to be caught off guard, she was known to carry a .38 revolver with her and never hesitated to use it. By the time of her death in 1930 she had already firmly established herself as one of the most legendary poker players of all time and paved the way for future generations of professional female poker players.



During the 1920’s, there were only five games that were legal in Las Vegas and three of those were variants of poker. The legalization of gambling began in 1931 and the first legal casino license was issued to a woman, Mayme Stocker. Her husband and boys were working for the railroad and anybody caught in the gambling world who worked for the railroads would be immediately fired from their job. That is why Mayme put the license in her name instead of her husband’s. It was a good gamble for the Stockers as they quickly became one of the leaders of the casino community in Las Vegas.



Although legal in Las Vegas, card playing remained illegal throughout the rest of the United States. It was during these post-Prohibition years that poker gained its reputation as secretive game played in back alleys and garages. Doyle Brunson, one of the original Rounders (road gamblers), often talks about how taboo the game was, "I remember one time back in the fifties," he shook his head as he reminisced, "I saw an old college buddy walking down the street, coming toward me. He crossed the street so he wouldn't have to talk to me."



Gradually poker gained popularity to the point where, nowadays, almost everybody has at least played poker for sunflower seeds or M&M’s. Starting in the late 1990’s a new game started to emerge on the poker scene, that game was Texas Hold’em. Ever since the creation of Texas Hold’em, poker has become one of the most popular games in the world. Nowadays one can see more poker on ESPN than baseball and kids start playing for money as early as Junior High.



Along with the explosion of the contemporary poker scene we have seen the emergence of women as dominating figures in the game. Who are these women and just how successful are they? These questions and more will be answered in Part II!

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/online-gambling-articles/women-and-poker-1-339069.html

About the Author:
This article was published courtesy of RakeBreak.com.
RakeBreak.com is a newly re-launched rakeback and bonus code hub for online poker players. Players who meet monthly quotas in VIP points also receive invitations to freeroll tournaments and complimentary memberships to other sites like StoxPoker.

Women and Poker II

Author: Daphne Greene

Part II: Poker’s Modern Day Female Warriors



Poker has certainly come a long way since the days of illegal back alley tournaments and Mafia run card houses during the Prohibition. Although poker in America received a setback that sent everyone back to the 1960’s due to Congress banning all forms of online gambling save dog and horse racing (go figure how those remained legal). For years women poker players were the exception as opposed to a regular fixture at the felt tables, but nowadays the majority of poker players are still men but women are rapidly catching on and are slowly making their mark in poker tournaments all over the country.



Unfortunately it will likely be many years before women reach an equal representation at poker tables, but there are increasingly many outstanding women who have begun to dominate the tables they show up at. Below, in no particular order, is a list of the best of the best – the women who are making men respect the fair sex all over the world:



Jennifer Harman



It’s difficult to discuss poker’s best female players without mentioning Jennifer Harman. To date, she has two WSOP bracelets around her wrist that she earned at the time she became a professional card player at the age of 21. Nowadays she can be found playing at some of the most impressive high roller tables in the world including the Big Game at the Bellagio. She was also part of the group of poker players who went up against multi-millionaire Andy Beal, and during this match she raked the largest known pot in a cash game in history, a sum reaching over $1.7 million dollars. She is a regular at the $3000 / $6000 limit Hold’em tables, and her total career tournament winnings sit just shy of $2 million nowadays. Arguably, Harman’s biggest accomplishment came in 2000 when she won the WSOP 2-7 Triple Draw tournament: amazingly, she had never even played the game before the tournament!



Annie Duke



Another mainstay on the poker scene, Annie Duke holds the honor of being the most successful female poker player in the history of the World Series of Poker. To date, she has made it to 11 final tables and has accumulated more than $500,000 in winnings. The sister of accomplished poker star Howard ‘The Professor’ Lederer, Annie Duke has had no problem emerging from the shadow of her brother. During her first WSOP event in 2004 she actually knocked him out early on in the Main Event and went on to win the Tournament of Champions along with a $2 million prize. Her total career winnings have now surpassed $3,476,942. Most importantly, Duke has been an outspoken critic of the US government for banning online gambling and has been consistently working towards its re-legalization.



Barbara Enright



Barbara Enright began playing poker at home while she was only four years old. A passionate player, she began playing in card rooms in 1976. Since then she has become one of the most recognized professional female poker players in the world. Over the years Barbara has accumulated an impressive stack of titles and records. More importantly, she has been one of the founding spokesman for women in the game as an author and magazine editor. She is also a WSOP bracelet winner. Her career winnings have easily exceeded $1 million at this point. For years she was the only person to reach the final table at the WSOP Main Event but now other women share this accomplishment.



Kathy Liebert



Kathy Liebert, who made the number one spot of the highest earning woman poker player of all time on pokernews.com, is easily one of the best women poker players that have ever lived. Liebert recently passed the $4 million mark which is more than any other woman has one in tournament play by far. She has been playing poker for over 15 years and has an impressive record to show for it: she has garnered multiple first-place finishes as well as earning a WSOP bracelet, and she has made it to more final tables than any other woman so far, including 23 cashes at the WSOP and 13 cases at the WPT (five of which were earned at the final table.) Besides playing poker, Liebert is also active in the stock market and also holds a blue belt in Karate.



Cyndy Violette



Poker’s spiritual and health guru, Cyndy Violette is one of the most recognizable faces in poker today. Although she is small in stare, this fearsome poker player demands respect. Raised in Atlantic City, Violette has now been playing poker professionally for over 23 years, and she has accumulated an impressing $1.3 million throughout various tournaments. During the 2006 WSOP Cyndy Violette went on a rampage cashing in an impressive seven events - it felt as if one could not watch a final table during the 2006 WSOP without seeing the familiar bubbly blonde all over the television screens. Unfortunately she was not able to claim a bracelet that year, but she did manage to wrap one of the coveted bracelets over her wrist after winning the 2004 WSOP $2,000 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo Split.



Annette Obrestad



Last but not least on our list is the young Norwegian poker phenomenon Annette Obrestad. Obrestad began playing poker online at the age of 15 and quickly caught on to the finer points of the game. To date, she is the youngest person ever to win a WSOP bracelet and is also considered to be one of the best online multi-table tournament players in the world. She has earned the bulk of her money on Pokerstars as well as UltimateBet and her nickname “Annette15” is one of the most feared on these sites. On September 17th 2007 Obrestad made poker history when she won the inaugural World Series of Poker Europe Main Event the day before she turned 19. Her winnings totaled one million-pound sterling or US $2.1 million. In the short years since this incredible young woman began playing poker she has accumulated a more than impressive $2,481,868. One day soon Annette Obrestad may very well go down as the greatest professional female poker player of all time.



Although these women have showed the world that women can play cards just as well as any man, there is still a long way before women reach an equal status with their male peers. Despite the fact that the growth of women in the game is now higher than men, the image of women in the poker world is unacceptable. The sexualization of the female body is a travesty in the poker world. Part III of Women and Poker will examine the way in which the female form is constantly exploited for its sexual appeal in the poker world.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/online-gambling-articles/women-and-poker-ii-345269.html

About the Author:
This article was published courtesy of RakeBreak.com.
RakeBreak.com is a newly re-launched rakeback and bonus code hub for online poker players. Players who meet monthly quotas in VIP points also receive invitations to freeroll tournaments and complimentary memberships to other sites like StoxPoker.