1.
Poker Player
–
Poker Player, formerly Total Gambler, is a monthly British poker magazine. The magazine is published by People Like You Publishing, who acquired the title in February 2013 and it was launched by the owner of Maxim magazine, Dennis Publishing, in August 2005. To capitalise on the recent surge in popularity for online gambling, the company created Total Gambler alongside another magazine, The Sportsman, the goal of Total Gambler is to provide an introduction to gambling for 18- to 40-year-old men. With an initial print run of 650,000, the magazine was Britains most widely circulated monthly mens magazine when it launched. The magazine is given free with Maxim and other magazines published by Dennis Publishing aimed at young men, such as Bizarre, Computer Shopper. The magazine employs less than a dozen staff, before the magazine launched, Downey predicted, Total Gambler will bring gambling news and strategy to a mass audience in a light, 28-page entry-level magazine. Calling Total Gambler Denniss ghastly low-rent bandwagon, Methven commented, Inside Edge is a high-quality gambling publication, the magazines first issue contained 28 pages
Poker Player
Poker Player
Poker Player
2.
Card game
–
A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific. Countless card games exist, including families of related games, a small number of card games played with traditional decks have formally standardized rules, but most are folk games whose rules vary by region, culture, and person. Many games that are not generally placed in the family of games do in fact use cards for some aspect of their gameplay. Similarly, some games that are placed in the game genre involve a board. Given the association of card games and gambling, the pope, Benedict XIV, a card game is played with a deck or pack of playing cards which are identical in size and shape. Each card has two sides, the face and the back, normally the backs of the cards are indistinguishable. The faces of the cards may all be unique, or there can be duplicates, the composition of a deck is known to each player. In some cases several decks are shuffled together to form a pack or shoe. The first playing cards appeared in the century during Tang dynasty China. The Song dynasty statesman and historian Ouyang Xiu has noted that playing cards arose in connection to an earlier development in the book format from scrolls to pages. During the Ming dynasty, characters from novels such as the Water Margin were widely featured on the faces of playing cards. A precise description of Chinese money playing cards survived from the 15th century, mahjong tiles are a 19th-century invention based on three-suited money playing card decks, similar to the way in which Rummikub tiles were derived recently from modern Western playing cards. The same kind of games can also be played with tiles made of wood, plastic, bone, the most notable examples of such tile sets are dominoes, mahjong tiles and Rummikub tiles. Chinese dominoes are also available as playing cards and it is not clear whether Emperor Muzong of Liao really played with domino cards as early as 969, though. Legend dates the invention of dominoes in the year 1112,500 years later domino cards were reported as a new invention. Playing cards first appeared in Europe in the last quarter of the 14th century, the 1430s in Italy saw the invention of the tarot deck, a full Latin-suited deck augmented by suitless cards with painted motifs that played a special role as trumps. Tarot card games are played with these decks in parts of Central Europe. A full tarot deck contains 14 cards in suit, low cards labeled 1–10, and court cards Valet, Chevalier, Dame, and Roi, plus the Fool or Excuse card
Card game
–
The Card Players, 17th-century painting by
Theodoor Rombouts
Card game
–
Three Spanish playing cards, c.1500
Card game
–
A
Chinese playing card dated c. 1400 AD,
Ming Dynasty
Card game
–
Mamluk playing card (king of cups), c.15th century
3.
Gambling
–
Gambling is the wagering of money or something of value on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning money and/or material goods. Gambling thus requires three elements be present, consideration, chance and prize, the term gaming in this context typically refers to instances in which the activity has been specifically permitted by law. However, this distinction is not universally observed in the English-speaking world, for instance, in the United Kingdom, the regulator of gambling activities is called the Gambling Commission. Gambling is also an international commercial activity, with the legal gambling market totaling an estimated $335 billion in 2009. In other forms, gambling can be conducted with materials which have a value, many popular games played in modern casinos originate from Europe and China. Games such as craps, baccarat, roulette, and blackjack originate from different areas of Europe, a version of keno, an ancient Chinese lottery game, is played in casinos around the world. In addition, pai gow poker, a hybrid between pai gow and poker is also played, many jurisdictions, local as well as national, either ban gambling or heavily control it by licensing the vendors. Such regulation generally leads to gambling tourism and illegal gambling in the areas where it is not allowed, there is generally legislation requiring that the odds in gaming devices are statistically random, to prevent manufacturers from making some high-payoff results impossible. Since these high-payoffs have very low probability, a bias can quite easily be missed unless the odds are checked carefully. Most jurisdictions that allow gambling require participants to be above a certain age, in some jurisdictions, the gambling age differs depending on the type of gambling. For example, in many American states one must be over 21 to enter a casino, E. g. Nonetheless, both insurance and gambling contracts are typically considered aleatory contracts under most legal systems, though they are subject to different types of regulation. Under common law, particularly English Law, a contract may not give a casino bona fide purchaser status. For case law on recovery of gambling losses where the loser had stolen the funds see Rights of owner of money as against one who won it in gambling transaction from thief. This was a plot point in a Perry Mason novel, The Case of the Singing Skirt. Religious perspectives on gambling have been mixed, ancient Hindu poems like the Gamblers Lament and the Mahabharata testify to the popularity of gambling among ancient Indians. However, the text Arthashastra recommends taxation and control of gambling, ancient Jewish authorities frowned on gambling, even disqualifying professional gamblers from testifying in court. For these social and religious reasons, most legal jurisdictions limit gambling, in at least one case, the same bishop opposing a casino has sold land to be used for its construction. Although different interpretations of law exist in the Muslim world
Gambling
–
Caravaggio,
The Cardsharps, c. 1594
Gambling
–
Gamblers in the
Ship of Fools, 1494
Gambling
–
Bag with 65 Inlaid Gambling Sticks, Tsimshian (Native American), 19th century,
Brooklyn Museum
Gambling
–
The
Caesars Palace main fountain. The statue is a copy of the ancient
Winged Victory of Samothrace.
4.
Betting (poker)
–
In the game of poker, the play largely centers on the act of betting, and as such, a protocol has been developed to speed up play, lessen confusion, and increase security while playing. Players in a poker game act in turn, in clockwise rotation, until the first bet is made each player in turn may check, which is to not place a bet, or open, which is to make the first bet. A player may fold by surrendering her cards, a player may check by tapping the table or making any similar motion. All other bets are made by placing chips in front of the player, in general, the person to the left of the dealer acts first and action proceeds in a clockwise fashion. If any player has folded earlier, action proceeds to next player, in games with blinds, the first round of betting begins with the player to the left of the blinds. In stud games action begins with the showing the strongest cards and proceeds clockwise. If there is a bring-in, the first round of betting begins with the player obliged to post the bring-in. If no one has yet opened the round, a player may pass or check. In games played with blinds, players may not check on the round because the blinds are live bets. A player who has posted the big blind has the right to raise on the first round, called the option, if no player has raised. If all players check, the round is over with no additional money placed in the pot. A common way to signify checking is to tap the table, either with a fist, knuckles, some poker variations have special rules about opening a round that may not apply to other bets. For example, a game may have a structure that specifies different allowable amounts for opening than for other bets. Normally, a player makes a bet by placing the chips they wish to wager into the pot, to raise is to increase the size of an existing bet in the same betting round. A player making the second or subsequent raise of a round is said to re-raise. A player making a raise after previously checking in the betting round is said to check-raise. A bluff is when a player bets or raises when it is likely they do not have the best hand, it is often done in hopes that opponent will fold mediocre yet stronger hands. When a player bets or raises with a hand that has a chance of improvement on a later betting round
Betting (poker)
–
Poker positions at a 10 handed table.
5.
Betting in poker
–
In the game of poker, the play largely centers on the act of betting, and as such, a protocol has been developed to speed up play, lessen confusion, and increase security while playing. Players in a poker game act in turn, in clockwise rotation, until the first bet is made each player in turn may check, which is to not place a bet, or open, which is to make the first bet. A player may fold by surrendering her cards, a player may check by tapping the table or making any similar motion. All other bets are made by placing chips in front of the player, in general, the person to the left of the dealer acts first and action proceeds in a clockwise fashion. If any player has folded earlier, action proceeds to next player, in games with blinds, the first round of betting begins with the player to the left of the blinds. In stud games action begins with the showing the strongest cards and proceeds clockwise. If there is a bring-in, the first round of betting begins with the player obliged to post the bring-in. If no one has yet opened the round, a player may pass or check. In games played with blinds, players may not check on the round because the blinds are live bets. A player who has posted the big blind has the right to raise on the first round, called the option, if no player has raised. If all players check, the round is over with no additional money placed in the pot. A common way to signify checking is to tap the table, either with a fist, knuckles, some poker variations have special rules about opening a round that may not apply to other bets. For example, a game may have a structure that specifies different allowable amounts for opening than for other bets. Normally, a player makes a bet by placing the chips they wish to wager into the pot, to raise is to increase the size of an existing bet in the same betting round. A player making the second or subsequent raise of a round is said to re-raise. A player making a raise after previously checking in the betting round is said to check-raise. A bluff is when a player bets or raises when it is likely they do not have the best hand, it is often done in hopes that opponent will fold mediocre yet stronger hands. When a player bets or raises with a hand that has a chance of improvement on a later betting round
Betting in poker
–
Poker positions at a 10 handed table.
6.
Expected value
–
In probability theory, the expected value of a random variable, intuitively, is the long-run average value of repetitions of the experiment it represents. For example, the value in rolling a six-sided die is 3.5. Less roughly, the law of large states that the arithmetic mean of the values almost surely converges to the expected value as the number of repetitions approaches infinity. The expected value is known as the expectation, mathematical expectation, EV, average, mean value, mean. More practically, the value of a discrete random variable is the probability-weighted average of all possible values. In other words, each value the random variable can assume is multiplied by its probability of occurring. The same principle applies to a random variable, except that an integral of the variable with respect to its probability density replaces the sum. The expected value does not exist for random variables having some distributions with large tails, for random variables such as these, the long-tails of the distribution prevent the sum/integral from converging. The expected value is a key aspect of how one characterizes a probability distribution, by contrast, the variance is a measure of dispersion of the possible values of the random variable around the expected value. The variance itself is defined in terms of two expectations, it is the value of the squared deviation of the variables value from the variables expected value. The expected value plays important roles in a variety of contexts, in regression analysis, one desires a formula in terms of observed data that will give a good estimate of the parameter giving the effect of some explanatory variable upon a dependent variable. The formula will give different estimates using different samples of data, a formula is typically considered good in this context if it is an unbiased estimator—that is, if the expected value of the estimate can be shown to equal the true value of the desired parameter. In decision theory, and in particular in choice under uncertainty, one example of using expected value in reaching optimal decisions is the Gordon–Loeb model of information security investment. According to the model, one can conclude that the amount a firm spends to protect information should generally be only a fraction of the expected loss. Suppose random variable X can take value x1 with probability p1, value x2 with probability p2, then the expectation of this random variable X is defined as E = x 1 p 1 + x 2 p 2 + ⋯ + x k p k. If all outcomes xi are equally likely, then the weighted average turns into the simple average and this is intuitive, the expected value of a random variable is the average of all values it can take, thus the expected value is what one expects to happen on average. If the outcomes xi are not equally probable, then the simple average must be replaced with the weighted average, the intuition however remains the same, the expected value of X is what one expects to happen on average. Let X represent the outcome of a roll of a fair six-sided die, more specifically, X will be the number of pips showing on the top face of the die after the toss
Expected value
–
An illustration of the convergence of sequence averages of rolls of a
die to the expected value of 3.5 as the number of rolls (trials) grows.
7.
Bluff (poker)
–
In poker, a bluff is a bet or raise made with a hand which is not thought to be the best hand. To bluff is to such a bet. The objective of a bluff is to induce a fold by at least one opponent who holds a better hand, the size and frequency of a bluff determines its profitability to the bluffer. A pure bluff, or stone-cold bluff, is a bet or raise with a hand that has little or no chance of improving. A player making a pure bluff believes he can win the pot only if all opponents fold, the pot odds for a bluff are the ratio of the size of the bluff to the pot. A pure bluff has a positive expectation when the probability of being called by an opponent is lower than the pot odds for the bluff. For example, suppose that all the cards are out. If the player bets the size of the pot on a pure bluff, note, however, that the opponent may also consider the pot odds when deciding whether to call. In this example, the opponent will be facing 2-to-1 pot odds for the call, the opponent will have a positive expectation for calling the bluff if the opponent believes the probability the player is bluffing is at least 33%. In games with multiple betting rounds, to bluff on one round with an inferior or drawing hand that might improve in a round is called a semi-bluff. A player making a semi-bluff can win the pot two different ways, by all opponents folding immediately or by catching a card to improve the players hand. In some cases a player may be on a draw but with strong enough that he is favored to win the hand. In this case his bet is not classified as a semi-bluff even though his bet may force opponents to fold hands with better current strength. For example, a player in a poker game with four spade-suited cards showing on the penultimate round might raise. If his bluff fails and he is called, he still might be dealt a spade on the final card, bluffing may be more effective in some circumstances than others. Bluffs have a higher expectation when the probability of being called decreases, several game circumstances may decrease the probability of being called, Fewer opponents who must fold to the bluff. The bluff provides less favorable pot odds to opponents for a call, a scare card comes that increases the number of superior hands that the player may be perceived to have. The players betting pattern in the hand has been consistent with the hand they are representing with the bluff
Bluff (poker)
–
A game of
Texas hold 'em in progress. "Hold 'em" is a popular form of poker.
Bluff (poker)
–
In this 1904 cartoon by
E. A. Bushnell, the
Russian Empire (represented by a bear) and the
Empire of Japan (represented by a fox) play poker, with their respective arsenals as stakes. Both wonder if the other is bluffing. The
Russo-Japanese War began 17 days later.
8.
Probability
–
Probability is the measure of the likelihood that an event will occur. Probability is quantified as a number between 0 and 1, the higher the probability of an event, the more certain that the event will occur. A simple example is the tossing of a fair coin, since the coin is unbiased, the two outcomes are both equally probable, the probability of head equals the probability of tail. Since no other outcomes are possible, the probability is 1/2 and this type of probability is also called a priori probability. Probability theory is used to describe the underlying mechanics and regularities of complex systems. For example, tossing a coin twice will yield head-head, head-tail, tail-head. The probability of getting an outcome of head-head is 1 out of 4 outcomes or 1/4 or 0.25 and this interpretation considers probability to be the relative frequency in the long run of outcomes. A modification of this is propensity probability, which interprets probability as the tendency of some experiment to yield a certain outcome, subjectivists assign numbers per subjective probability, i. e. as a degree of belief. The degree of belief has been interpreted as, the price at which you would buy or sell a bet that pays 1 unit of utility if E,0 if not E. The most popular version of subjective probability is Bayesian probability, which includes expert knowledge as well as data to produce probabilities. The expert knowledge is represented by some prior probability distribution and these data are incorporated in a likelihood function. The product of the prior and the likelihood, normalized, results in a probability distribution that incorporates all the information known to date. The scientific study of probability is a development of mathematics. Gambling shows that there has been an interest in quantifying the ideas of probability for millennia, there are reasons of course, for the slow development of the mathematics of probability. Whereas games of chance provided the impetus for the study of probability. According to Richard Jeffrey, Before the middle of the century, the term probable meant approvable. A probable action or opinion was one such as people would undertake or hold. However, in legal contexts especially, probable could also apply to propositions for which there was good evidence, the sixteenth century Italian polymath Gerolamo Cardano demonstrated the efficacy of defining odds as the ratio of favourable to unfavourable outcomes
Probability
–
Christiaan Huygens probably published the first book on probability
Probability
–
Gerolamo Cardano
Probability
–
Carl Friedrich Gauss
9.
Psychology
–
Psychology is the science of behavior and mind, embracing all aspects of conscious and unconscious experience as well as thought. It is a discipline and a social science which seeks to understand individuals and groups by establishing general principles. In this field, a professional practitioner or researcher is called a psychologist and can be classified as a social, behavioral, Psychologists explore behavior and mental processes, including perception, cognition, attention, emotion, intelligence, phenomenology, motivation, brain functioning, and personality. This extends to interaction between people, such as relationships, including psychological resilience, family resilience, and other areas. Psychologists of diverse orientations also consider the unconscious mind, Psychologists employ empirical methods to infer causal and correlational relationships between psychosocial variables. Psychology has been described as a hub science, with psychological findings linking to research and perspectives from the sciences, natural sciences, medicine, humanities. By many accounts psychology ultimately aims to benefit society, the majority of psychologists are involved in some kind of therapeutic role, practicing in clinical, counseling, or school settings. Many do scientific research on a range of topics related to mental processes and behavior. The word psychology derives from Greek roots meaning study of the psyche, the Latin word psychologia was first used by the Croatian humanist and Latinist Marko Marulić in his book, Psichiologia de ratione animae humanae in the late 15th century or early 16th century. In 1890, William James defined psychology as the science of mental life and this definition enjoyed widespread currency for decades. Also since James defined it, the more strongly connotes techniques of scientific experimentation. Folk psychology refers to the understanding of people, as contrasted with that of psychology professionals. The ancient civilizations of Egypt, Greece, China, India, historians note that Greek philosophers, including Thales, Plato, and Aristotle, addressed the workings of the mind. As early as the 4th century BC, Greek physician Hippocrates theorized that mental disorders had physical rather than supernatural causes, in China, psychological understanding grew from the philosophical works of Laozi and Confucius, and later from the doctrines of Buddhism. This body of knowledge involves insights drawn from introspection and observation and it frames the universe as a division of, and interaction between, physical reality and mental reality, with an emphasis on purifying the mind in order to increase virtue and power. Chinese scholarship focused on the advanced in the Qing Dynasty with the work of Western-educated Fang Yizhi, Liu Zhi. Distinctions in types of awareness appear in the ancient thought of India, a central idea of the Upanishads is the distinction between a persons transient mundane self and their eternal unchanging soul. Divergent Hindu doctrines, and Buddhism, have challenged this hierarchy of selves, yoga is a range of techniques used in pursuit of this goal
Psychology
–
Wilhelm Wundt (seated) with colleagues in his psychological laboratory, the first of its kind.
Psychology
–
MRI depicting the human brain. The arrow indicates the position of the
hypothalamus.
Psychology
–
Skinner's
teaching machine, a mechanical invention to automate the task of
programmed instruction
Psychology
–
Social psychology studies the nature and causes of social behavior.
10.
Game theory
–
Game theory is the study of mathematical models of conflict and cooperation between intelligent rational decision-makers. Game theory is used in economics, political science, and psychology, as well as logic, computer science. Originally, it addressed zero-sum games, in one persons gains result in losses for the other participants. Today, game theory applies to a range of behavioral relations, and is now an umbrella term for the science of logical decision making in humans, animals. Modern game theory began with the idea regarding the existence of equilibria in two-person zero-sum games. Von Neumanns original proof used Brouwer fixed-point theorem on continuous mappings into compact convex sets and his paper was followed by the 1944 book Theory of Games and Economic Behavior, co-written with Oskar Morgenstern, which considered cooperative games of several players. The second edition of this provided an axiomatic theory of expected utility. This theory was developed extensively in the 1950s by many scholars, Game theory was later explicitly applied to biology in the 1970s, although similar developments go back at least as far as the 1930s. Game theory has been recognized as an important tool in many fields. With the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences going to game theorist Jean Tirole in 2014, John Maynard Smith was awarded the Crafoord Prize for his application of game theory to biology. Early discussions of examples of two-person games occurred long before the rise of modern, the first known discussion of game theory occurred in a letter written by Charles Waldegrave, an active Jacobite, and uncle to James Waldegrave, a British diplomat, in 1713. In this letter, Waldegrave provides a mixed strategy solution to a two-person version of the card game le Her. James Madison made what we now recognize as an analysis of the ways states can be expected to behave under different systems of taxation. In 1913 Ernst Zermelo published Über eine Anwendung der Mengenlehre auf die Theorie des Schachspiels and it proved that the optimal chess strategy is strictly determined. This paved the way for more general theorems, the Danish mathematician Zeuthen proved that the mathematical model had a winning strategy by using Brouwers fixed point theorem. In his 1938 book Applications aux Jeux de Hasard and earlier notes, Borel conjectured that non-existence of mixed-strategy equilibria in two-person zero-sum games would occur, a conjecture that was proved false. Game theory did not really exist as a field until John von Neumann published a paper in 1928. Von Neumanns original proof used Brouwers fixed-point theorem on continuous mappings into compact convex sets and his paper was followed by his 1944 book Theory of Games and Economic Behavior co-authored with Oskar Morgenstern
Game theory
–
An extensive form game
11.
History of poker
–
Poker is a family of card games that combine gambling, strategy, and skill. Poker games vary in the number of cards dealt, the number of shared or community cards, the number of cards that remain hidden, and the betting procedures. In most modern games, the first round of betting begins with one or more of the players making some form of a forced bet. In standard poker, each player bets according to the rank they believe their hand is worth as compared to the other players. The action then proceeds clockwise as each player in turn must either match, or call, a player who matches a bet may also raise, or increase the bet. The betting round ends when all players have called the last bet or folded. If all but one player folds on any round, the player collects the pot without being required to reveal their hand. If more than one remains in contention after the final betting round, a showdown takes place where the hands are revealed. By the 1990s some gaming historians including David Parlett started to challenge the notion that poker is a derivative of As-Nas. There is evidence that a game called poque, a French game similar to poker, was played around the region where poker is said to have originated. The name of the game likely descended from the Irish Poca or even the French poque, yet it is not clear whether the origins of poker itself lie with the games bearing those names. It is commonly regarded as sharing ancestry with the Renaissance game of primero, the English game brag clearly descended from brelan and incorporated bluffing. It is quite possible that all of these earlier games influenced the development of poker as it exists now, the unique features of poker have to do with the betting, and do not appear in any known older game. In this view poker originated much later, in the early or mid-18th century and it was played in a variety of forms, with 52 cards, and included both straight poker and stud. 20 card poker was a variant for two players, the development of poker is linked to the historical movement that also saw the invention of commercial gambling. English actor Joseph Crowell reported that the game was played in New Orleans in 1829, with a deck of 20 cards, and four players betting on which players hand was the most valuable. As it spread north along the Mississippi River and to the West during the gold rush, soon after this spread, the full 52-card French deck was used and the flush was introduced. The draw was added prior to 1850, during the American Civil War, many additions were made including stud poker, and the straight
History of poker
–
Officers of the
114th Pennsylvania Infantry playing cards in front of tents.
Petersburg, Virginia, August 1864
History of poker
–
Poker Room at the
Trump Taj Mahal,
Atlantic City, New Jersey
12.
Button (poker)
–
In poker, the buck or dealer button is a marker used to indicate the player who is dealing or, in casino games with a house dealer, the player who acts last on that deal. The term button is used for a variety of plastic discs, or lammers. Because the dealer has the greatest opportunity to cheat, the players would take turns in this role, to avoid arguments about whose turn it was to deal, the person who was next due to deal would be given a marker. This marker moves clockwise around the table after each hand, a knife was commonly used as a marker, and the marker became generally known as a buck, as an abbreviated reference to the bucks horn that formed the handle of many knives at that time. When the dealer had finished dealing the cards he passed the buck, according to Martin, the earliest use of the phrase in print is in the July 1865 edition of Weekly New Mexican, They draw at the commissary, and at poker after they have passed the buck. The phrase then appears frequently in many sources so it probably originated at about this time, however, Mark Twain cited it as common slang in Virginia City when he was a reporter there in 1862. Passing the buck soon became a metaphor for dodging responsibility, U. S. President Harry S. Truman was noted for a sign in his office reading The buck stops here. It was a gift from Fred Canfil, who found a sign in the wardens office at the Federal Reformatory at El Reno. The use of small disks as such markers led to the alternative term button. Silver dollars were used as markers and it has been suggested that this is the origin of buck as a slang term for dollar. The marker is also referred to as the hat, the origin of this term is believed to stem from the wearing of a hat having been used to denote dealership. Today, a button is typically a white plastic disc with the word Dealer on each side. While in home games the player holding the dealer deals the cards, in casino poker. At the World Series of Poker in 2005 Harrahs Entertainment utilized space on the button for advertising by featuring the logo for Degree antiperspirant, the term button is often used to refer to the dealer position, which is the position whose turn to bet comes last. Being on the button is therefore the most advantageous and most profitable position in poker, in casino and card room cash games, the dealers well may contain an assortment of laminated discs that the dealer may place in front of a players seat under certain conditions. Properly called lammers, but also referred to as buttons, they are separate from, the following table lists the most common lammers and their significance, Poker jargon Martin, Garry. Pass the buck, The Phrase Finder Retrieved May 13,2005
Button (poker)
–
Dealer button & playing cards
13.
Casino
–
A casino is a facility which houses and accommodates certain types of gambling activities. The industry that deals in casinos is called the gaming industry, casinos are most commonly built near or combined with hotels, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships or other tourist attractions. There is much debate whether or not the social and economic consequences of casino gambling outweigh the initial revenue that may be generated. Some casinos are also known for hosting live entertainment events, such as comedy, concerts. The term casino is a confusing linguistic false friend for translators, Casino is of Italian origin, the root casa originally meant a small country villa, summerhouse, or social club. In modern-day Italian, the term designates a bordello, while the gambling house is spelled casinò with an accent. Not all casinos were used for gaming, the Copenhagen Casino was a theatre, known for the mass public meetings often held in its hall during the 1848 Revolution, which made Denmark a constitutional monarchy. Until 1937, it was a well-known Danish theatre, the Hanko Casino in Hanko, Finland—one of that towns most conspicuous landmarks—was never used for gambling. Rather, it was a hall for the Russian nobility which frequented this spa resort in the late 19th century and is now used as a restaurant. In military and non-military usage in German and Spanish, a casino or kasino is an officers mess, in Italian—the source-language of the word—a casino is either a brothel, a mess, or a noisy environment, while a gaming house is called a casinò. The precise origin of gambling is unknown and it is generally believed that gambling in some form or another has been seen in almost every society in history. From the Ancient Greeks and Romans to Napoleons France and Elizabethan England and it was closed in 1774 as the city government felt it was impoverishing the local gentry. In American history, early gambling establishments were known as saloons, the creation and importance of saloons was greatly influenced by four major cities, New Orleans, St. Louis, Chicago and San Francisco. It was in the saloons that travelers could find people to talk to, drink with, during the early 20th century in America, gambling became outlawed and banned by state legislation and social reformers of the time. However, in 1931, gambling was legalized throughout the state of Nevada, Americas first legalized casinos were set up in those places. In 1976 New Jersey allowed gambling in Atlantic City, now Americas second largest gambling city, most jurisdictions worldwide have a minimum gambling age. Customers gamble by playing games of chance, in cases with an element of skill, such as craps, roulette, baccarat, blackjack. Most games played have mathematically determined odds that ensure the house has at all times an overall advantage over the players and this can be expressed more precisely by the notion of expected value, which is uniformly negative
Casino
–
Slot machines in Atlantic City. Slot machines are a standard attraction of casinos
Casino
–
The
Marina Bay Sands
Casino
–
The Venetian Macao
Casino
–
A sign at the
Thousand Islands Casino
14.
Playing card
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Playing cards are typically palm-sized for convenient handling. A complete set of cards is called a pack, deck or set, a pack of cards may be used for playing a variety of card games, with varying elements of skill and chance, some of which are played for money. Playing cards are used for illusions, cardistry, building card structures, cartomancy. The front of each card carries markings that distinguish it from the cards in the pack. The back of each card is identical for all cards in any particular pack to create an imperfect information scenario, usually every card will be smooth, however, some packs have braille to allow blind people to read the card number and suit. Dedicated deck card games have sets that are used only for a specific game, the cards described in this article are used for many games and share a common origin stemming from the standards set in Mamluk Egypt. These sets divide their cards into four suits each consisting of three cards and numbered or pip cards. The scholarly consensus is that playing cards were invented in Imperial China and they first appeared as early as 9th century Tang China. The first known book on the game was called the Yezi Gexi and was allegedly written by a Tang woman. However, Ouyang claimed the leaves were pages of a book for a game played with dice. In any case, Ouyang asserted that the rules for the game were lost by 1067 and it may be that the first deck of cards ever printed was a 32-card Chinese domino pack, in whose cards all 21 combinations of a pair of dice are depicted. According to the Gui Tian Lu, an 11th-century Chinese text redacted, domino cards were printed during the Tang dynasty, there is difficulty distinguishing paper cards and gaming tiles in many early sources as the Chinese word pái is used to describe both. Playing cards are paper pái while tiles are called bone pái, paper playing cards and the woodblocks to print them are unambiguously attested in 1294. William Henry Wilkinson suggests that the first cards may have been actual paper currency which were both the tools of gaming and the stakes being played for, as in trading card games. As using paper money was inconvenient and risky, they were substituted by play money known as money-suited cards, one of the earliest games of which we know the rules is Madiao, a trick-taking game, which dates to the Ming Dynasty. 15th century scholar Lu Rong described it is as being played with 38 money-suited cards divided into four suits,9 in coins,9 in strings of coins,9 in myriads, and 11 in tens of myriads. The two latter suits had Water Margin characters instead of pips on them with Chinese ideograms to mark their rank, the pips were copied directly from Chinese banknotes such as the Songs Jiaozi or the Yuans Chao currencies. The suit of coins is in order with 9 of coins being the lowest going up to 1 of coins as the high card
Playing card
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US Navy sailors playing cards.
Playing card
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A Chinese
printed playing card dated c. 1400 AD,
Ming Dynasty, found near
Turpan, measuring 9.5 by 3.5 cm.
Playing card
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Persian Ganjifeh cards
Playing card
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A Mamluk playing card,
Six of Coins
15.
Poker table
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A poker table or card table is a table specifically designed for playing card games. The card table arose around 1700 AD as card games became popular in Europe. The manufacture of card tables as fine home furniture lasted to the middle of the 1800s, card tables made in this era often had a folding top, which enabled them to serve as pier tables, console tables, or end tables when not in use. Styles ranged from simple to elaborate, with card tables featuring inlaid wood or stone, extensive delicate carvings. Some even had indentations carved into the surface to hold playing tokens. Semicircular tables 36 inches in diameter were the most popular card table in both North America and Europe, typical American card tables from the late colonial and early American periods feature simple, straight lines, an ovolo corner, and square-tapered legs. The modern poker table is a form of card table which is covered with baize or speed cloth to help the cards slide easily across the surface. It is either a table or a fold-out tabletop surface. Those used in televised poker feature pocketcams which can view a players pocket. Such tables are usually fairly oval-shaped, with the players sitting around a curve of the table with a dealer facing them in an area of the table made specifically for the dealer. In amateur poker, tables are often oval, round or octagonal, the edge of the table is usually padded and raised slightly for the players to rest their arms, and this section is called the rail. There is often a section of wood between the rail and the surface, this is called the race track and often features cup holders as well. The center of the table often features an image, usually the name or logo of the casino or house where the game is being played, the Best of Fine Woodworking, Traditional Furniture Projects. Texas Furniture, The Cabinetmakers and Their Work, 1840-1880, zimmerman, Philip D. Butler, Tom, Hutchins, Catherine E. American Federal Furniture and Decorative Arts from the Watson Collection
Poker table
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Poker Table at the 2004
World Poker Tour 5 Diamond
Bellagio
16.
Shuffle
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Shuffling is a procedure used to randomize a deck of playing cards to provide an element of chance in card games. Shuffling is often followed by a cut, to ensure that the shuffler has not manipulated the outcome. One of the easiest shuffles to accomplish, the overhand or stripping shuffle is essentially a series of cuts. A group of cards on the bottom of the deck grasped between the thumb on one side and fingers on the other, lifted out of the deck. This process is repeated multiple times with random selections of cards in order to randomize them, the overhand shuffle offers sufficient opportunity for sleight of hand techniques to be used to affect the ordering of cards, creating a stacked deck. While this method is difficult, it is often used in casinos because it minimizes the risk of exposing cards during the shuffle. There are two types of perfect riffle shuffles, if the top card moves to be second from the top then it is an in shuffle, also known as the Indian, Kattar, Kenchi or Kutti Shuffle. The deck is held face down, with the finger on one long edge. The other hand draws off a packet from the top of the deck and this packet is allowed to drop into the palm. The maneuver is repeated over and over, with newly drawn packets dropping onto previous ones and this is the most common shuffling technique in Asia and other parts of the world, while the overhand shuffle is primarily used in Western countries. Cards are simply dealt out into a number of piles, then the piles are stacked on top of each other, though this is deterministic and does not randomize the cards at all, it ensures that cards that were next to each other are now separated. Some variations on the pile shuffle attempt to make it slightly random by dealing to the piles in a random order each circuit, then the cards are moved into one pile so that they begin to intertwine and are then arranged back into a stack. This method is useful for beginners and small children or if one is inept at shuffling cards, however, the beginner shuffle requires a large surface for spreading out the cards and takes longer than the other methods. The Mongean shuffle, or Monges shuffle, is performed as follows, Start with the deck in the left hand. For a deck of given size, the number of Mongean shuffles that it takes to return a deck to starting position, is known, twelve perfect Mongean shuffles restore a 52-card deck. Weaving is the procedure of pushing the ends of two halves of a deck against each other in such a way that they naturally intertwine. Sometimes the deck is split into halves of 26 cards which are then pushed together in a certain way so as to make them perfectly interweave. This is known as a Faro Shuffle, the faro shuffle is performed by cutting the deck into two, preferably equal, packs in both hands as follows, The cards are held from above in the right and from below in the left hand
Shuffle
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A riffle shuffle
17.
2006 World Series of Poker
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All events were held at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, which marked the first time that a casino other than Binions Horseshoe hosted the final table of the main event. Six days reserved for the first two rounds of play for the event were established by Harrahs Entertainment, which has run the annual event since its purchase from the Binion family in 2004. The first prize in the event was $12 million, at that time the richest prize for the winner of any sports or television event in history. The top 12 players became millionaires, the record prize was surpassed at the 2012 WSOP, when the winner of the $1 million buy-in Big One for One Drop, Antonio Esfandiari, received a first-place prize $18.3 million. The 2006 World Series featured a much-anticipated HORSE tournament with a $50,000 buy-in, humberto Brenes, Phil Hellmuth, Chris Ferguson, and Alex Jacob tied for the most number of cashes during the WSOP, with eight cashes each. Jeff Madsen, who won two events and made two final tables, was named the 2006 WSOP Player of the Year. He barely edged Hellmuth, who made four final tables. The 2006 Main Event remains the largest tournament in history by prize pool with a total prize pool of $82,512,162. The tournament, like every WSOP Main Event, is a $10,000 No-Limit Texas Holdem event, due to the 8, 773-player field, there were 4 separate starting days, each playing down to 800 people. They were later combined into one set of separate days before becoming one whole group. The field was whittled down to 9 players on August 8, the final table of the Main Event was offered live on Pay-Per-View, but unlike ESPN telecasts, viewers at home could not see the hole cards of the players unless the player turned their cards over. Along with the usual $10,000 chip stacks, a new feature to the WSOP was the All-In button, Tournament directors have informed the participants that the coin could be used in lieu of pushing all of one’s chips into the pot. The beige $50,000 chips that were used in 2005 were not used in 2006, instead, tangerine and yellow $25,000 chips, in the design of the current $25 chips, were used. And for the first time in World Series of Poker History, the chips were mint green with black edge spots in the design of the current yellow/black $1,000 chip. NB, This list is restricted to top 30 finishers with an existing Wikipedia entry, day 1, Dan Harrington, Phil Hellmuth Jr. Both Davis and Erna finished in the money, coming in 579th and 713th places respectively, unknowingly, the rest of the players assumed that this stack was someone elses who was late and blinded off the stack. Eventually a player noticed that the stack was Mirza Nagjis chips, players estimate that out of the extra 120,000 in chips that were put into play, around 10, 000–11,000 in chips had already been blinded off from the empty stack. Many poker players who entered into the HORSE event discovered that the cards they were playing with were marked or easily markable
2006 World Series of Poker
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The 2006
WSOP Championship bracelet
18.
Primero
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Primero, is a 16th-century gambling card game of which the earliest reference dates back to 1526. Primero is closely related to the game of primo visto, if not the same and it still seems uncertain whether the game of primero is of Spanish or Italian origin. His work entitled Capitolo del Gioco della Primiera, published in Rome in 1526, according to David Parlett, the games card-point system is found in other Italian games but nowhere else. The game is very much played in central Europe and Spain with Italian-suited cards, under the name of goffo or bambara. This old game of cards was called prime in France, primera in Spain, all names derived from the Latin primarius, first. In English literature, besides the use of the foreign names. Primero is actually a Spanish word, meaning first or chief, according to Stephen Skinner, primero and prima-vista are one and the same game. As for John Minshew, primero and prima-vista, are two different games of cards, so, as the Italian writer Berni said, The game is played differently in different places. The cards used are marked as at present, although they differ from those of modern times for being narrower and longer. Eight of the lie on the table with the blank side uppermost, for the cards at that time had blank backs. A particular in this painting is one of the players is seen showing his cards, which are, the jack of hearts. This particular shows that the then used were at least sometimes obtained from France. The money on the table, together with considerable heaps of gold and silver, appears to be coins of Edward VI, a passage in an old play by Robert Greene has been quoted by several writers as evidence that primero was a gambling game. But a person who objects to cards, might make such a remark with respect to any card game, judging from the partial descriptions of the game which remain to us, it might seem that primero was played for either large or small stakes, as agreed upon. John Florio describes primero played by two persons for one shilling stake and three rest, in Minsheus Spanish Dialogues, four play, the stake is two shillings and the rest, eight. The text is self-explanatory, explaining also the meaning of the name primero. Already during the reign of Henry VII, notices of money issued several times for the Kings losses at cards appear in the Remembrances Office, dated December the 26th, in the ninth year of his reign. There, an entry is made of one hundred shillings paid at one time to him for the purpose of playing at cards, the private expenses of Princess Mary, Henry VIIIs daughter and later Queen, also contain numerous items of money for the playe at cardes
Primero
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The Card Players (1508-1510) by
Lucas van Leyden
Primero
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Four Gentlemen of High Rank Playing Primero, now attributed to the Master of the Countess of Warwick or his circle.
Primero
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It is assumed that the subject of this painting may not be the obvious three card players, but in fact it may refer to a secret political alliance between Spain and England against Francis I of France. The figure on the left would be Charles V and on the right Cardinal Wolsey, both entering into a secret agreement. The woman in the centre would be Margaret of Austria, sister of Charles V and regent of the Netherlands.
19.
Three-card brag
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Three-card brag is a 16th-century British card game, and the British national representative of the vying or bluffing family of gambling games. Brag is a descendant of the Elizabethan game of Primero and one of the several ancestors to poker, just varying in betting style. A variant of the game is popular in Trinidad, India, Bangladesh and Nepal. At large gatherings and especially during festival times, it is the game of choice since many people of different skills can play together and have fun. It is also a popular game among British fairground showmen. Everyone antes, and players are dealt three cards face down. There is a round of betting, with action starting to the left of the dealer. Each player has the option of betting or folding, if there was a previous bet, the player must contribute at least that much more to the pot. This betting continues until there are two players left, at which point either player may double the previous bet to see his opponent. At this point, the two hands are revealed, and the player with the hand takes the entire pot. If there is a tie, the player who is seeing loses, for example, with four players A, B, C and D, this situation could occur, Player A bets 2 chips, B folds, C bets 2 chips and D bets 2 chips. In order to stay in, A would have to bet another 2 chips, four-card brag, Players are dealt four cards, and must then choose which card to throw away in order to create the best combination. The game is played in the same way as three-card brag. Seven-card brag, Seven cards are dealt, players must choose three cards to play from their hands, or make two hands, with only a successful winning of both winning the pot. Nine-card brag, Nine cards are dealt, players sort these into three sets, four antes are played, one for each set, and a main pot. Each set is played out, usually without further betting. The winner of each set takes one lot of antes, if a player wins all three sets they receive the main pot as well, otherwise it remains for the next hand, Players must always play the next best available set they have made. Thirteen-card brag, Thirteen cards are dealt, from which players must choose three cards to play, another variation involves making four hands from the thirteen cards
Three-card brag
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Three card brag
20.
American Revolutionary War
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From about 1765 the American Revolution had led to increasing philosophical and political differences between Great Britain and its American colonies. The war represented a culmination of these differences in armed conflict between Patriots and the authority which they increasingly resisted. This resistance became particularly widespread in the New England Colonies, especially in the Province of Massachusetts Bay. On December 16,1773, Massachusetts members of the Patriot group Sons of Liberty destroyed a shipment of tea in Boston Harbor in an event that became known as the Boston Tea Party. Named the Coercive Acts by Parliament, these became known as the Intolerable Acts in America. The Massachusetts colonists responded with the Suffolk Resolves, establishing a government that removed control of the province from the Crown outside of Boston. Twelve colonies formed a Continental Congress to coordinate their resistance, and established committees, British attempts to seize the munitions of Massachusetts colonists in April 1775 led to the first open combat between Crown forces and Massachusetts militia, the Battles of Lexington and Concord. Militia forces proceeded to besiege the British forces in Boston, forcing them to evacuate the city in March 1776, the Continental Congress appointed George Washington to take command of the militia. Concurrent to the Boston campaign, an American attempt to invade Quebec, on July 2,1776, the Continental Congress formally voted for independence, issuing its Declaration on July 4. Sir William Howe began a British counterattack, focussing on recapturing New York City, Howe outmaneuvered and defeated Washington, leaving American confidence at a low ebb. Washington captured a Hessian force at Trenton and drove the British out of New Jersey, in 1777 the British sent a new army under John Burgoyne to move south from Canada and to isolate the New England colonies. However, instead of assisting Burgoyne, Howe took his army on a campaign against the revolutionary capital of Philadelphia. Burgoyne outran his supplies, was surrounded and surrendered at Saratoga in October 1777, the British defeat in the Saratoga Campaign had drastic consequences. Giving up on the North, the British decided to salvage their former colonies in the South, British forces under Lieutenant-General Charles Cornwallis seized Georgia and South Carolina, capturing an American army at Charleston, South Carolina. British strategy depended upon an uprising of large numbers of armed Loyalists, in 1779 Spain joined the war as an ally of France under the Pacte de Famille, intending to capture Gibraltar and British colonies in the Caribbean. Britain declared war on the Dutch Republic in December 1780, in 1781, after the British and their allies had suffered two decisive defeats at Kings Mountain and Cowpens, Cornwallis retreated to Virginia, intending on evacuation. A decisive French naval victory in September deprived the British of an escape route, a joint Franco-American army led by Count Rochambeau and Washington, laid siege to the British forces at Yorktown. With no sign of relief and the situation untenable, Cornwallis surrendered in October 1781, Whigs in Britain had long opposed the pro-war Tory majority in Parliament, but the defeat at Yorktown gave the Whigs the upper hand
American Revolutionary War
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Clockwise from top left:
Surrender of Lord Cornwallis after the
Siege of Yorktown,
Battle of Trenton,
The Death of General Warren at the
Battle of Bunker Hill,
Battle of Long Island,
Battle of Guilford Court House
American Revolutionary War
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Notice of Stamp Act of 1765 in newspaper
American Revolutionary War
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This iconic 1846 lithograph by
Nathaniel Currier was entitled "The Destruction of Tea at Boston Harbor"; the phrase "Boston Tea Party" had not yet become standard. Contrary to Currier's depiction, few of the men dumping the tea were actually disguised as Indians.
American Revolutionary War
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The British marching to
Concord in April 1775
21.
Five-card draw
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Five-card draw is a poker variant that is considered the simplest variant of poker, and is the basis for video poker. As a result, it is often the first variant learned by new players and it is commonly played in home games but rarely played in casino and tournament play. The variant is offered by some online venues, although it is not as popular as other variants such as Seven-card stud. In casino play the first betting round begins with the player to the left of the big blind, and subsequent rounds begin with the player to the dealers left. Home games typically use an ante, the first betting round begins with the player to the left. Play begins with each player being dealt five cards, one at a time, the remaining deck is placed aside, often protected by placing a chip or other marker on it. Players pick up the cards and hold them in their hands, being careful to keep them concealed from the other players, if more than one player remains after the first round, the draw phase begins. Each player specifies how many of their cards they wish to replace, the deck is retrieved, and each player is dealt in turn from the deck the same number of cards they discarded so that each player again has five cards. A second after the betting round occurs beginning with the player to the dealers left or else beginning with the player who opened the first round. This is followed by a showdown, if more than one player remains, players must pay attention to how many cards other players change, but should not take too much for granted in this phase. Psychology is a factor when drawing cards. For instance it is not always advisable to draw three new cards when holding a pair, although this is statistically the best way to improve the rank of the hand, the reason is that the other players quite easily can read the hand. A player may choose to one or two cards instead in order to make other players believe that the hand is better than it really is. The opposite can also be used, if a player has three of a kind and several other players have drawn new cards, one strategy is to draw only one card. Other players may underestimate the hand, believing the player has two pairs or lacks a card for a straight or flush, in games with a full card deck and four or more players, two pairs can often be the winning hand. Its also imperative to vary both the way to draw the numbers of new cards in equal situations and how to bet both before and after the draw, if a player is easy to read he very seldom will win large pots even when holding a very good hand. The most common error is to throw good money after bad, very few true bluffs really work in the long run, the bluffer usually has some kind of strength to his or her hand, but plays the hand as if it were higher than it really is. For instance, a player may bluff by playing a pair of aces as if it were a straight, flush, or full house
Five-card draw
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For the Doctor Who short story, see
Five Card Draw (Doctor Who).
22.
Community card poker
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Community card poker refers to any game of poker that uses community cards, which are cards dealt face up in the center of the table and shared by all players. In these games, each player is dealt privately an incomplete hand, the set of community cards is called the board, and may be dealt in a simple line or arranged in a special pattern. Rules of each game determine how they may be combined with each players private hand, the most popular community card game today is Texas hold em, originating sometime in the 1920s. In home games, it is typical to use antes, while casinos typically use only blinds for these games, no limit and Fixed limit games are most common, while spread limit and pot limit games are less common. The betting format and stakes can vary by region as well as time of year, later betting rounds often have a higher limit than earlier betting rounds. Each betting round begins with the player to the dealers left, when played high-low split, there is generally a minimum qualifying hand for low, and it is played cards speak. Integral to community card games is the community card. Often, several community cards are dealt to the table, shared by all players, and subject to rules about how many. Such a set of community cards is called a board or window. The board is dealt in a simple line, but some games may have elaborate layouts of community cards with special rules about what combinations can be used. In Omaha holdem, game rules restrict players to using three of the five community cards, combined with exactly two of the four cards dealt to each player, to make a hand. In Tic-tac-toe, the board is a 3x3 array of nine cards and this is the most popular community card game today. Each player is dealt two hole cards, after which there is a betting round. Then three community cards are face up to form the flop, followed by a second betting round. A fourth community card is followed by a betting round. And finally the community card is followed by the final betting round. At showdown, each plays the best five-card hand he can make using any five cards among the two in his hand and the five on the board. This is the key difference from Omaha hold em, the player may use both, one, or none of his cards in the final hand
Community card poker
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Texas hold 'em deals community cards
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