As you know from our previous segment, the dealer must qualify for you to be paid on your raise wagers. Antes are always paid even money. Here’s a handy listing of what raise wagers are paid when the dealer’s hand rank is an Ace-King or better.

One Pair: paid even money. Ex: $10 is paid $10.
Two Pair: paid 2x your raise. Ex: $10 is paid $20.
Three of a Kind: paid 3x your raise. Ex: $10 is paid $30.
Straight: paid 4x your raise. Ex: $10 is paid $40.
Flush: paid 5x your raise. Ex: $10 is paid $50.
Full House: paid 7x your raise. Ex: $10 is paid $70.
Four of a Kind: paid 20x your raise. Ex: $10 is paid $200.
Straight Flush: paid 50x your raise. Ex: $10 is paid $500.
Royal Flush: paid 100x your raise. Ex: $10 is paid $1,000.

Here’s an important note. These payouts are not globally applied. Each casino may have different payouts. For instance, I once saw an online casino that paid 200x on the Royal Flush and 6x on a Full House. Shop around. That’s vital for the progressives.

The real money in Caribbean Stud Poker is won via the progressives. These payouts vary from casino to casino, so shop around to find the best deal. Some will pay less on a Royal Flush, but a lot more on a Four of a Kind. Also keep in mind that these payouts are always made regardless of the dealer’s hand. It’s $1 per hand to get locked into the progressives.

Here’s an example setup for a Caribbean Stud Poker progressive:

Flush: Payout of $50 – $100.
Full House: Payout of $75 – $250.
Four of a Kind: Payout of $100 – $500 (see, shop around).
Straight Flush: 10% of the current progressive jackpot amount. Ex: progressive is $50,000 so the payout would be $5,000.
Royal Flush: The big boy. It pays the whole progressive.

If you read any decent book on casino gambling, it will probably tell you that the progressive is a bad wager. But, they obviously haven’t been sitting at a Caribbean Stud Table and received a Four of a Kind only to see the dealer not qualify. To me, it’s a small price to pay for insurance.

Money Management

Itís amazing how many people gamble and donít think, for even one second, about money management. You wouldnít go on a trip without thinking about what you want to do right? Then why gamble without a goal? When you go on a trip, is your goal to simply go on a trip? Of course itís not. You at least decide on a destination, time of stay and so forth.

Before you gamble, you should have some goals in mind. Hereís a quick list of a couple goals you want to define.

1.What is your total bankroll for the gambling session?
2.If I am ahead $X, I will leave.
3.If I lose X% of my bankroll, I will leave or I will leave once my bankroll is gone.
4.I will devote most of my time to playing [ insert game ].
5.While playing [ insert game ], my average bet will be around $x.

Defining these five goals will help you keep organized and focused.

Value

The sharp gambler stay way from bets that are for suckers. He or she is only concerned with getting good value. Hereís a list of key bets and activities to stay away from.

1.Slot Machines ñ The payback percentage is poor.
2.Roulette ñ Huge house advantage.
3.Proposition bets in Craps.
4.Parlay cards in sports betting that contain a large amount of selections.
5.The insurance bet in Blackjack.
6.The tie bet in Baccarat.
7.Caribbean Stud Poker, which has a large house advantage.
8.Bingo

Thereís no law against playing the above items from time to time, but you have to do it in moderation and not make these items part of your main betting activities.

Frozen Assets can be played in one of five denominations. The machine will take nickels, quarters, fifty cents, dollars and five dollars. I was a little sad to see pennies weren’t an option. I like playing pennies when I want to unwind or test out a new casino game.

So, you have your typical three reels here. The idea is to build a snowman. He looks like Frosty the snowman. Every time you get a snowflake on the payline-with max coins played-you’ll fill up your snowman with snow a little more.

As you get snowflakes and build your personal snowman, your snowflake meter will increase. It’s located just below the snowman on the paytable display. Once your snowman is built and your snowflake meter is at or above 200, you win the snowman bonus.

However, Frozen Assets isn’t all positive. The reels also contain sun icons. When you receive a sun icon-again playing max credits-you’ll lose one point from the number above the snowman. You still will get a credit to your snowman bonus meter, so it’s not a complete loss.

In case you’re wondering, the snowman bonus starts off at 500. You’ll build up that nice bonus pot from there. Once you win it, the snowman bonus defaults back to 500.

Frozen Assets also has a wild symbol. It’s the penguin. The penguin icon can count as any symbol on the payline except for the snowflake and sun icons.

As you might expect, to win the big payday on Frozen Assets, you need to score three 7′s on the payline.

Playing this game is easy. It’s not an advanced slot machine. It’s just above your normal slot machine, because of the added bonus game involved. If you don’t want an advanced video slot machine, but don’t want the traditional one-armed bandit, Frozen Assets will fit the bill.

Like I said, the game is easy to play. After selecting your denomination, you select the number of credits to play. Frozen Assets has one payline that’s straight across the center of the screen. That’s another reason why I graded this game just above the traditional slot machine. There aren’t 30+ paylines involved.

Remember to always play max coins. If you don’t, why are you playing? You can’t unlock the special snowman game or the big jackpot if you play anything less than max coins. And unlike some other slot machines, this one only takes three credits to max out.

That is when the world of live online poker can be a danger for many people. There are more people every year that get addicted to gambling. They can become addicted to offline gambling or it can be online gambling that they become addicted to. Whichever one it is they can be looking at a tough time.

Itís not too hard to see why people can become addicted to gambling either. This is due to the fact that most people find an adrenaline rush when they play. The tentacles of live online poker do not discriminate. You could be a professional at the game or just a newbie; however since we are human we are prone to weaknesses. And once you have tasted the forbidden fruit of online poker you might find that you are hooked.

The addiction creeps up on you once you have won a game or two. Regardless of the amount, you might find that you want more and more. That is when people should be aware that the live online poker rush has gone from being a simple game into a serious addiction. The reality, however, is that when you are addicted, you are often in serious denial. Then it only takes something serious like ending up in financial distress to actually make you realize that you have the addiction devil on your shoulder.

The main problem for people who play live online poker is that they will see the flashing signs on the websites and get drawn in that way. Like moths to a flame. The human eye is prone to the lure of something new and interesting. The worse part for most people is that they see the promise of huge cash payouts, slogans that say ìWe will pay out $10,000 to the winner of our tournament.î These kinds of banners and advertisements can pull an addict further in to the world of online poker. Then the big cash payout promises become merely you forking out more money from your pocket and ending up with a mountain of debt.

However, it isnít all doom and gloom for live online poker players, many people that have signed up for the online poker websites have had a very good time. They havenít become addicted and they are only online playing occasionally just to kill some time. The main reason that these kinds of people donít get addicted to live online poker, is because they donít play for real money. There are websites that will let you play for real money whereas others are just for fake poker chips.

But if you think that you could be addicted then the best thing is to seek help. The best telltale signs of online poker addiction are debt and lack of social interaction. If you look at your bank statements and the bills piling up in the corner, then there is something wrong. Get the addiction problem solved before it further erodes your life.

Overall online poker is a great game to play, but you have to make the decision if you would like to play some serious poker and bet real money. Or if you would like to just play for fun. Many online poker websites will offer you money when you sign up that you can use for gambling. The choice is entirely yours, but the main thing to remember is to have fun.

The American Roulette wheel has 38 slots in it. First, there are the numbers one through thirty-six. Finally, there are the 0 and 00 slots. American Roulette has a 5.26% house advantage over the player.

European Roulette

The European Roulette wheel has 37 slots in it. Like the American wheel, there are the numbers one through thirty-six. The European wheel also has a single 0 slot. The lack of the 00 slot makes the European version better to play. The house advantage drops down to 2.70%. There have been many systems devised for Roulette. The origins of these systems were really devised for the European version of the game.

Betting Types

Following are some common types of betting in Roulette. If you are playing in a live game and have any trouble, just ask the dealer. He or she will be happy to assist you.

Column Bet: The column bet is on the outside of the Roulette layout. It pays 2-1.

Dozens: Players can bet on the first, second or third set of 12 numbers. It pays 2-1.

Low or High: This bet pays even money. Players can bet on the winning number being 1-18 or 19-36.

Odd or Even: Another even money bet. Players bet on the winning number being odd or even.