Top Rated Poker Casinos

If you casino gamble, you probably know about comps. If you play craps, you probably know that your game affords the casino a very small advantage – only about 1% on some bets. If you take full advantage of the comps the casino offers, you can make more money in comps than in winnings! Sometimes, you can even triple your comps in relationship to the initial money wagered! In order to maximize your comps you need to choose the proper casino, have good money management, and develop a systematic business plan to execute it all.

Choosing a Casino

A casino that will maximize both your profits and your entertainment expectations is extremely important.

If you play craps for profit, you need to carefully choose a resort that will maximize your comps while offering favorable playing conditions. For example, some casinos offer 100X odds while others offer only 2X odds. And, some casinos offer comp credit for your spread rather than for individual bets. Both of these are terrific advantages for the craps player.

However, after you have finished playing for the required amount of time and get your ‘free’ meal or show; you might find that this is not exactly what you wanted.

For example, say you visit a particular casino such as the one on FullTiltPoker that offers 100X odds but they have standard rooms, no major show, and there is only one mediocre restaurant. Even though this casino offered superior playing conditions, you’re bound to get tired of going there several times a year.

Another casino offers only 2X odds; however, they offer a superior show, five different restaurants, and a Jacuzzi suite. Although this casino’s craps policies are less favorable than the first one, you might end up getting more value for your money in the long run.

Before you gamble, you should call a casino on their 800 number and ask to speak to a casino host. Tell him (or her) that you would like to try their casino out. Ask about the different restaurants, shows, and rooms that they offer. Ask if they base comps on individual bet or spread. Ask about the minimum bets and time required to get a free room. Write down the answers and call the other casinos you’re interested in, so you can make an accurate comparison. The ideal casino is different for every crapshooter.

Choose your casino on what YOU want – not what they want you to have!

Money Management

Many people will walk up to a craps table and then just keep on playing until they lose all of their money. These people have no win goal.

The reason you need a win goal is that tables fluctuate. You can be $100 up one moment and $100 down the next. How do you know when to stop and still leave with a profit?

Your win goal on FullTilt should be based on your individual session money, and should be 30% of your buy in. For example, if you buy in with $100 and are $30 ahead you should quit. Leave the table and go to your room, or have lunch. Then an hour or so later, buy in with your $130 and quit when you’ve won $39. Be precise. Be disciplined. Follow the plan! Set a win goal and stick to it!

The opposite of a win goal is a loss limit, and it’s also 30% – very easy to remember! If you buy in for $100, you leave when you win or lose $30. If you buy in for $500, you leave when you win or lose $150.

One of the cardinal rules of craps is to increase your bets while winning but decrease them while losing. But when many people start losing, they keep on playing as if nothing was different, or worse, they keep increasing their bets.

Don’t do it! You need a loss limit, and you need to stick to it.

So, stick to your guns. Set a win goal and a loss limit. Over the long run, you’ll win more and lose less.

Business Plan

First, you should be a rated player and get a comp card. If your favorite casino has a separate card for slot play, get one of those, too. This way, whenever your favorite casino has any promotions of any kind, you will get mailings from them–free offers! Sometimes it is even possible to combine the promotions of the slot and table games offers.

You should also apply for casino credit at FullTilt.com. You can call the cage and ask how to do this. Your potential credit is based on your checking account balance, so the higher your balance, the higher your credit. Not only is casino credit more convenient, but in many cases you can withdraw your credit and use it free for 30 days. You�ll also have a higher comp rating and be an established player in the eyes of the casino.

When you begin playing, just give the friendly dealer your comp card and ask for your buy in. He will check your rating and give it to you in a minute or two. For example you might say �a thousand please� and he might say �in blacks or greens.� He will then count out your chips on the table and set them aside while they check their computer.

Once you have the chips, you can play with the full amount, or not. For example, you can play with $500 worth and put the other $500 in your pocket and use it later or cash it in and use it in another casino if you like. When you leave the table, you may be asked if you want to pay off your marker. Don�t be intimidated by this request and just say no. Most casinos require that you pay back your markers in 30 days or it will adversely affect your credit with them in the future.

It is to your benefit to buy in with a larger amount than you will play with.

Your comps are calculated by three criteria – (1) your buy in, (2) your first bet and (3) your average bet. So, if your buy in and first bet are larger than normal, your comps will be bumped up a little.

Something else you can do to increase your comps is to tip the dealers. Tipping will also get the dealers on your side so you can set the dice easier. The dealers will also notice your playing patterns and help you however they can – including bumping up your comps. The dealers would rather have you, a good tipper back in their casino, than an inexperienced player who doesn�t tip.

Finally, you should notice the dealer�s name tags and call them by name. Be friendly with them. If they remember your first name and use it when you leave the table, you�ve done a good job – and they�ll be doing everything they can to get you back!

Conclusion

To minimize your losses by maximizing your comps you should:

1. Call a casino host and discuss your needs with him.

2. Choose a casino based on benefits, not features.

3. Have a realistic win goal and loss limit.

4. Increase your bets when winning, decrease them when losing.

5. Get a comp card and play only with casino credit.

6. Maximize your first bet and your buy in.

7. Tip the dealers and call them by name.

8. Find out which comps you want and what levels they require.

9. Adjust your bankroll, comp wants, or play with a partner.

10. And, as always, good luck at the casinos!

There’s a lot more to online gambling than casino games. Anyone who has followed the Worlds Series of Poker for the past few years knows that slowly but surely online poker players have started to creep in from anonymity and take center stage. They’ve even had the audacity to win the main event for two years running.
But online gambling isn’t just poker, either. It’s everything. Every form of gambling you can imagine (and more than a few that you can’t) from progressive slot machines to bingo halls, international lottery drawings and sportsbetting. There are even more than a few sites where you can bet on the winners of reality television shows or what the last digit will be at the closing bell of the Dow Jones.

The point is, that before you even dare to venture into the cyberspace void in search of new gambling adventures, you’d best know what you’re looking for and how to find it.

Getting Started: Finding the Best Sites

Although becoming a successful enough to play poker online involves many steps, the most crucial one is also the most obvious finding a place to play. Or rather, finding a good place to play. Despite the Internet so often being likened to the ‘Wild West’, online gambling itself is a far cry from those wicked saloons of old. The increased competition, a higher level of player awareness, and the
development of ‘watchdog sites’ that patrol the online gambling industry has made it a relatively safe medium.
However, just because it’s safer that does not mean it’s devoid of risk. Nor does it mean that all sites are created equally. Sometimes, even the most well intentioned site may not be quite up to par, resulting at best in an unsatisfactory experience and at worst a complete fiasco.
Luckily, avoiding such problems is relatively easy–it just takes a little effort and a little bit of homework.
Below are some of the basic steps you need to follow when looking for a new online gambling site:

Make sure that the site is reputable. Always find out everything you can about a site before depositing a cent. Read site poker room reviews in respected gambling magazines, visit gambling portals and check out what’s being said about the different sites.

You might also consider visiting online gambling forums or chat room (available on many gambling portals) where players meet to discuss gambling topics including how to play blackjack.
There you’ll find first-hand accounts of player experiences that may help steer you towards or away from a particular site.
Ask yourself: Does this site fit my needs? Although choosing an online gambling site requires a lot of objectivity, it is also a matter of personal taste. It doesn’t matter if the site is praised on every forum and in every magazine if it doesn’t have what you’re looking for it’s pretty much useless.
For example, if you’re the sort of gambler who likes to mix it up, playing a little online black jack then maybe a couple of pulls on the slots while waiting for the results of the Yankee game, you need a site that caters to both casino gamblers and Sports Gamble.
On the other hand, if bingo is your only love, you’ll need to refine your search to include only sites that
offer it.

See for yourself. Once you have narrowed down your selections to a manageable level, begin visiting the sites and examining them. Really study them. Are the graphics top quality? Did the designers put some thought into the site’s development or does it have that ‘thrown together’ look?
Does anything about the site make you feel uncomfortable or wary? Your answers to these questions will help to determine if the site is a worthwhile contender for your business or just some fly-by-night operation.

For a little extra insight, consider calling the site’s customer services department with some basic questions to see what kind of a response you get.
If the associate is hesitant or unable to answer your questions, seems uninterested, or is just plain rude, consider that this might be the type of service that you’re likely to receive should a real crisis arise.

Now that you have found a place worthy of your attention, the next step is getting down to the business at hand: becoming an online gambler.

Becoming a Player
In days past when the number of online casino and online poker rooms could easily be counted on a single hand, getting online, downloading the software and establishing an player account was a tedious series of events that made the trip to the local casino more than worth it. But as technology advanced, so too did the entire process and what we’re left with is the streamlined progeny of those early pioneers.
In Part 2, we’ll discuss the technical side of online gambling including computer requirements and software options as well as how to open and fund your player account.

This blog focuses on Poker but we also like to offer other gambling tips such as ones for the popular game craps.

At the craps table itself, there is only one person who is seated and that person is the boxman.
He (or she) takes care of things, for both the table and the players.
He keeps an eye on the payoffs, the bets, and more importantly, the average bets of all the players who want to be rated.
I’ve found that if you tip the dealers, the boxman takes it upon himself to bump up your average bet a little. He has an obvious personal interest in this, as all of the dealers split the tips. He would rather have tippers return to his casino than non-tippers.

Similar to blackjack rules there are strict rules you need to follow while playing craps. The boxman also handles player disputes and is charge of the table’s chip bank, which is directly in front of him, by the middle of the table. The boxman is the most experienced casino employee at the table. Occasionally an inexperienced dealer might make an unpopular decision and the boxman can overrule it.

The man with the stick is called the stickman. He technically is one of the three dealers, and they all rotate around the table, so each dealer takes turns with the stick. The stickman retrieves the dice and pushes them to the shooter, taking care not to display the dreadful seven that, of course, is bad luck.
The stickman also takes care of the proposition bets, and helps the other two dealers, who are on the opposite side of the table (next to the boxman) and handling all of the players bets.

Behind the craps tables is an area called the pit. Players are not allowed walk through this area.
In the pit are floor persons, who are one step above the boxmen. Their primary functions are to watch out for cheaters and to keep track of rated players. When you first check in and ask for a marker, or when you leave and ask for a comp, or if you switch tables, this will all be handled by a floor person. There are many place to play both craps and internet blackjack for free, including bodog.net and TitanPoker.

Supervising all of this is the pit boss. He is in charge of the casino personnel at all of the tables. You will rarely see him. If you have a dispute regarding ratings or table play you will be speaking with a floor person, not the pit boss.

So, lets say something strange happens during your play and the dealer closest to you disagrees with what you want. For example, lets say that you have a $10 hard six and the shooter throws wildly. The dice bounce around all over the table and somehow end up sitting on top of each other. If they were separated on the table it would show your hard six, but the dealer suddenly calls out no roll!

Your first appeal would be to the boxman, who could overrule the dealer. If he doesn’t, you can yell, Stop Play, I want to talk to the pit boss! They really will stop play and a floor person will come over and see if he can resolve the situation first by talking to the boxman. If he cant, hell call over a pit boss.

Usually, it wont get that far. The boxman knows that it is more important to keep the players at his table in his casino, than it is to pay off a few hundred disputed dollars. Casinos are very competitive these days and they will do a lot to keep you as a regular patron. This includes Blackjack Online and craps online casinos.

Now that we know the casino personnel, lets take a quick look at the craps table itself, and learn some things that many players often overlook.

There are signs on both sides of the craps table announcing what the minimum and maximum bets are. For example, one sign might say $10 to $1,000, 2X odds. This means that the minimum flat bet is $10, the maximum flat bet is $1,000 and the casino offers two times odds. There are usually several tables in the pit area, with different stated limits. It is not uncommon to see four tables, each with different minimums
$1, $5, $10 and $25. Usually on weekdays, the minimums are lower, and on weekend evenings, the minimums are as high as the traffic will allow. In the evenings, when all the tables are in use, the house usually raises all of the minimum bets. If you are a $1 player, it is easier to find a low minimum table in the daytime.

Those minimum and maximum bets apply to flat bets only, not proposition bets. If you want to bet higher than usual on the 2, 3, 11, 12 or hardways you better ask the dealer what the upper limits are as they are never posted. Sometimes its as low as $50.

On the table itself, there are grooved chip holders in the sides to hold your chips. You can also use one of these racks to track the table. Just use a red chip for pass-line winners and a white one for dont pass winners. This way you can see which way the table is going. For example if you have four red chips and only one white, you’ve got a hot table, and you might want to increase your bets and odds. If you have more white chips than red ones, you might want to switch to the don’t side.

The blackjack and craps dealers will never make hand-to-hand contact with you, your money or your chips. If you want your cash turned into chips, drop it on the table and say change. He will take your money, convert it into chips, and push the chips back to you. Even when you win a bet, he will either place your winnings next to your bet, or push them toward you. Never try to hand anything directly to a dealer.

Finally, remember to have fun while you’re playing. Talk to the other players and dealers. Try to make some friends. Tip the dealers if they help you and use your chip racks to keep track of the table direction.