Games Selection Tips for the Family

Games Selection Tips for the Family
Are you planning to have quality time together with your children during school vacation? Are you confused on what type of games or activities to play together with your children? If so, you can consider several outdoor or indoor games with your children.
Playing with your children is not only fun family activity, but it is also a great way of spending quality time with your children. With the busy and hectic schedules you and your children have during school days, seldom can you find time together. Aside from dining out, having picnic or watching movies together, you can spend quality time by playing with your favorite games.
It is important for you to give your children time to play because it is vital
to their physical, cognitive, social and emotional development. Despite the significance of play to parents and children, seldom can they have free time together due to hurried lifestyle, hectic schedules and changes in their family structure. Playing games with your children not only increase closeness between parents and children, but it also create happy memories and help children develop their problem-solving, social and mathematical skills. It can also improve their logical deductive skills, imagination, self confidence, social skills and physical fitness.
No matter how long or how short the free moments you have with your children, you should be spend wisely. Make it a point to choose an activity where you can relax, can have fun and can forget about school and work-related worries. If you have limited budget, you can enjoy by playing games with your children. There are numerous games found in the market, where fathers, mothers, sisters and brothers can participate.
Suitable games where all members of the family can enjoy and can participate:


Board Games - There are numerous board games available in stores, such as Monopoly, Millionaire's Game, Pictionary, Trivial Pursuit or Snake and Ladders. In Scrabble, you can teach children about spelling and word formation, while in Monopoly or Millionaire's Game, you can teach children the basics of money.

Indoor Games - Indoor games are popular not because they are played indoors, but because they are usually played during stormy or rainy days. There are many indoor games for you to enjoy aside from the board games and card games, but you can also play Name game, Story Line, Quick on the Draw and many more. These games will not only stave off boredom, but it also get the family together.

Outdoor Games - These games keep you physically active because of the running, jumping, catching and swinging. Outdoor games include volleyball, croquet, badminton, Frisbee and sardines.

Card Games - There are several card games where you can enjoy with your children, such as Blackjack, Bridge, Gin Rummy, Crazy Eights and many more.


These games are fun not only for children, but for every member of the family. Some of them make you sweat a lot due to the physical activities associated with it, while others enhance the problem solving and thinking skills of players. Playing with your children is one bonding activity that you can enjoy despite your busy and fast-paced lifestyle.

Read More

The Value In Having a Poker Coach

The Value In Having a Poker Coach
Millions of poker players around the country, indeed, around the world, want to make more money by playing poker. However, the majority of these players are not really giving themselves a fair chance to do so. Do you think a pro golfer players on the PGA tour without a swing coach? Baseball players have hitting instructors, pitching coaches, etc. Boxers have trainers. If you want to improve your poker game quickly and dramatically, one of the best things you can do is hire a poker coach.
Think about it. Would you take any other activity and flounder around throwing money at it without getting some one to show you the basics first? Even if you know the basics and then some (and most poker players think that they do!) it never hurts to have a non-biased third party analyzing your game. This is what a good poker coach will do.
A poker coach will watch you play, probably take notes or put your statistics into a software to find weak points, or what is called 'leaks' in your game. These problems, like a hitch in your golf swing, can be difficult if not impossible to find on your own. You need someone subjectively looking at the plays you make while you are making them.
Jeff Sluman in his nice final table run 2 years ago at the WSOP Main Event hired Phil Hellmuth as well as others to help him work on his game prior to the final table being played. Jeff didn't end up winning but moving up to finish higher in the prize money like he did made his decision to seek out coaching look pretty smart.
It is hard to honestly self-evaluate your poker game. It is easy to blame bad beats, the other (stupid) players, being card dead, etc. This is why you need to spend time with a coach.
The other reason is that many times coaches will have suggestions and changes in strategy that you can make to take your game to the next level. There are plays that you can make in certain situations that you may have not thought of on your own and a coach implementing these changes at the right times can make a huge difference. It can turn a losing day of poker into a profitable one.
The biggest drawback to finding a poker coach is that they tend to be expensive. The reason for this is simple: if they are any good, they can make more money playing poker than they can teaching someone else to play poker! Many coaches charge $250-$300 per hour of coaching. However, there are coaches out there that offer packages to fit the budgets of smaller dollar level players. It takes some looking, but you can find them and you can benefit from their teachings.
A good coach will usually conduct a brief interview of some sort before getting started and before you buy any coaching to determine your goals in playing poker and whether or not that particular coach is well suited to help your particular game. This is important because you don't want a coach who specializes in cash games if your goal is to play in big multi table tournaments.
It is also a good idea to check references of a coach and see what his body of work entails: who has he coached? has he written a book on the subject? what are his coaching methods? All these things are very important in choosing someone to make your poker game profitable.
Overall, poker coaching is probably something everyone who plays poker or who wants to play poker seriously, should have. It requires listening to some hard truths about your game sometimes, but if you want to make money playing poker, isn't it worth it?

Read More

The One Secret Poker Strategy You NEED to Know

The One Secret Poker Strategy You NEED to Know
Although there are plenty of books, poker tips, guides and videos that proclaim they can teach you secret strategies to winning at poker, there is one BIG secret that most of them fail to impart. You could spend years learning poker strategy, jumping from book to book to gain insight and experience from professional players, however, the one big secret you will never see in these books is about to be revealed to you.
If you have the basic knowledge of poker, and a complete understanding of how the game is played, then the one thing you are missing is what many professionals today are turning toward. That one thing is confidence in your decision-making process! In a nutshell, after you have spent hours and hours learning the game, reading poker strategy books and practicing at your online poker or live game, the only poker tool you need to propel your game is self-confidence.
Do you have a tendency to freeze up?
As you already know, Poker is a game of skill that requires you making the right decision at the right time. However, many times we get stumped and hesitate as to what decision we should make and how to proceed. Is this what causes many of your anxieties in the game?
Do you ever have regrets about not taking action?
Have you ever folded a hand, even when your instinct told you to play, only to find out that you would have won it? Why did you fold? Lack of self-confidence, fear of losing or that little voice told you it's the right thing to do?
Does your mind draw a blank when you have to react quickly?
In Poker, you have to make decisions quickly, and they HAVE to be the right decision! You need self confidence in decision making to know that you made the right decision, to plunge forward and win at poker. The way to get this boost of confidence is to become self assured and build your level of confidence in the game. Many professional poker players use the services of life coaching, zen masters, mindset coaches and mind power to excel their game.
Does your self-confidence lack when you need to make decisions?
As a matter of fact players such as Gavin Smith and Antonio Esfandairi utilized life coaching this past year and their games improved dramatically. In fact, Gavin won his first ever gold bracelet in the 2010 WSOP event #44. After Gavin won his bracelet he said,
"I'm just an older guy from Guelph, Ontario, who used to drive a taxi and cut greens. Now I play poker for a living, and I just won hundreds of thousands of dollars. There is nothing in my life that can be considered a curse. Every single minute of it is a blessing."
Take the message from many professional poker players and improve your game with the one big secret that is helping poker players improve their careers. Build your self confidence, get your mindset right and get rid of those moments of indecision and fear that will kill your poker game.

Read More

How to Qualify For Big Poker Tournaments

How to Qualify For Big Poker Tournaments
Here is how you can play your way in to big money online poker tournaments for free or at very little cost. All the big poker rooms run what are known as satellite qualifiers for their major tournaments with a number of seats in the next round available. Quite often satellites are free to enter. If you adopt the right strategy you can be playing in big money finals without it costing you anything at all.
First - what is a satellite poker tournament? Very simply is it a tournament which offers a given number of seats in to a larger tournament and the entry is often free or a very small stake. For example you enter a satellite with say 10 seats on offer to the final or so many seats per number of entries then all you have to do is finish in those positions to progress.
If you can progress then you are closer to playing for a bigger prize. To make your way from satellites to tournament finals you need to apply the right strategic approach which is different to that which you might adopt in regular tournaments. The reason for this is that your goal if when playing in a satellite poker tournament is simply to secure progression.
In the early stages of the tournament play tight to preserve your chip stack and only get involved when you have a premium starting hand or are an overwhelming favourite to win the hand. Throwing chips away by getting involved in too many hands too early ca hurt you badly so be careful in these initial stages and look for only the best opportunities to accumulate chips. Whilst you are doing this your opponents will be getting eliminated which is exactly what you want.
As the blinds increase in the middle stages of the tournament look at the size of your stack and the stack sizes of your opponents as well as your cards before deciding who to tangle with. Pick your fights carefully. By this I mean if you have a large chip stack why tangle with a player with another large stack. If you do and lose the hand you could be on your way out. Remember that your objective is to make it in to the next round by finishing high enough to qualify. So pick your fights carefully depending on your chip stack, cards and table position. Try to pick up pots uncontested by zeroing in on people with a much smaller chip stack. Of course if you have a dwindling stack yourself you will have to pick your moment and push all in.
If you have made it to the late stages of the satellite keep playing sensibly and be aware of what position you are and where the cut off is. Keep playing your best game. If you are unfortunate enough to still be pitching with a small stack you may have to go for a hail mary and hope for the best. If it is time to push try to do it against other small stacked players. If you have a comfortable enough stack size to fold and survive until you have secured a progression position then do just that.
Once you have won yourself that seat in the next round or the final then give yourself a huge slap on the back and congratulate yourself as you are one step closer to a shot at a bigger money tournament - and you deserve it.
Sensible poker satellite strategy can pay off for you and I hoe this article has given you a taste of the opportunities on offer out there.

Read More

Poker Strategy - Watch Out For The Kicker!

Poker Strategy - Watch Out For The Kicker!
In a Texas Hold' Em poker game, the kicker is the weaker of your two initial cards that you get dealt in your starting hand.  It tends to apply most if your stronger card is an Ace.
For example, If you're dealt A-9 then your starting hand is Ace high with 9 kicker.  If you're staring down at a miserable 7-2 then it's 7 high with 2 kicker, and so on.
Over the years I've played poker, I think one of the most common mistakes I've noticed is players (including myself) ignoring the kicker, or at least not giving it enough thought.
On a 10 seat table there is a reasonable chance of more than one player being dealt an Ace.  So if you're dealt an A-6, chances are another player is holding an Ace and it's probable that he has a stronger kicker than a 6.  A lot of players overlook the kicker, perhaps raise, then get excited when the flop produces another Ace, giving them top pair.  Remember, your opponent will also have top pair and with a probable stronger kicker and is therefore ahead.  You are depending on catching an unlikely card on the turn or river to win the hand.
I'm not saying never play your Ace-low kicker.  Like most situations in poker it very much depends on the particular situation.  If there's 10 players at the table and you are first to act, you might consider a check or fold.  If there's only 2 or 3 opponents then it's still a strong starting hand, as statistically you're likely to be the only one with an Ace.
Top players frequently have the discipline to fold Ace-rag, as it's known for very good reason!
Good luck at the tables.
Mark

Read More

Poker Strategy - The Perils of Over Playing

Poker Strategy - The Perils of Over Playing
This is so unbelievably simple, but it works for me every time I hit a losing streak at the tables.
I just stop playing poker for a few days. It can take some self-discipline - online poker can be very addictive and is easily accessible - but if you can take some time off from poker, your game will improve when you return.
I seem to be going along nicely, consistently cashing in STTs and making a firm profit. Then bam! Loss after loss after loss. Particularly hard to take is being knocked out on the bubble, therefore just missing out on the cash. The natural reaction to this is to jump straight back in and go to the next poker game immediately. This is fine most times as it helps you just forget about the last game. But if you get dumped out again before the prizes - especially if it's due to a bad beat or on the bubble again - then it can start to affect you mentally.
Time to take a short break from poker and mentally recharge. This has many benefits, mainly that you will get over any bad feelings about that bad beat you took from the fish at the table. Also, it just means that when you do return next time to the tables, you will feel refreshed and ready psychologically to get in amongst it again. You know what? You'll probably win your first game back after a short break.
Another big benefit of a poker free period, is that it gives you time to think about your game strategy, maybe reflecting on where your weaknesses were in the last few games you played, and how you can improve on that when you return to the big bad poker world. Having a break means you can think about these things calmly and with a clear head, rather than when you're Mr Angry after you've just been dumped out on your backside by some idiot with 3-7 off suit!
For me, I find that a few days off from poker does the trick, maybe a week maximum. Oh, and perhaps shouting at my wife and kids makes me feel better too! A�Then my mind is back together again and ready to play poker again.
Hope this helps, and good luck at the poker tables!
Mark

Read More

What Is Keno?

Keno is a common lottery game that is played in many casinos, restaurants, bars, and other open establishments. It is a stimulating game that instigated from china thousands of years ago, and was brought to the U.S. during the 1800's and developed into the modern game of keno. Keno is played live and with video varieties of the game. If you want to learn how to play keno it is quite simple. Keno is a game of chance with some easy rules.
A customary live casino keno game uses a spherical glass enclosure called a "bubble" containing 80 balls which determine the ball draw product. Each ball is embossed with a number 1 through 80. During the ball draw, a blower pushes air into the bubble and mixes the balls. The Caller presses the lever opening a tube-shaped like a "v" and is called rabbit ears. The 20 balls are then lifted out of the tube one at a time. The caller and a verifier log each of the 20 balls pulled, and the electronic keno system computes all wagers based on the numbers drawn.
When playing keno, you choose your numbers with a maximum of 10, based on the numbers between 1 and 80. You can select a maximum of 10 numbers but having a larger selection doesn't always make it easier to match the numbers selected. Each number that you select is called a keno spot, so however many numbers you play is how many keno spots you have. Once the numbers come out of the rabbit ears you can then determine if your keno spots match the numbers selected. If you have the corresponding numbers then you may win.
Keno is a game of chance, unplanned and unpredictable. So there is no real strategy to playing. You may come up with a method for selecting your numbers, but the numbers are all selected randomly. It is important to know how your winnings will payout. Keno is a enjoyable game to play and should be just that, a game for entertaining the risk taker.
If you are considering a game of Keno, perhaps you should read additional articles online. There are many Keno specialists who have tested and evaluated the Keno game from many points of view. If you live in the United States and may be having trouble finding a suitable place to play Keno, you can search for a directory where all online casinos accepting Visa and MasterCard.

Read More