In the High Low system the 2 to 6 cards are given a value of +1 and the 10 through Ace cards -1. The 7, 8, 9 cards are zero and can be ignored for counting purposes. Now the idea behind this system is that low cards benefit the dealer so the fewer of those LEFT in the deck, the better for the player.  Now, here’s where online free play comes in. One of the first steps to learning to count using this system, or any of the others, is to learn to do the math with speed and without being obvious. Casinos won’t let you carry a calculator onto the floor and they’ll notice if you’re keeping score on your cocktail napkin.  The old fashion way of practicing the count is to just use a deck of cards.  But why not login to your favorite online casino in free play mode and head over to the virtual blackjack table.  If you don’t have favorite casino yet, check out usaonlinecasinosite.com for some top recommendations.

Now, you won’t see exactly the same results you do with a live table since there are no decks in an online blackjack game so no limit of to the number of low or high cards.  But you can still practice tracking card values and mentally doing that plus one / minus one math as the cards are flipped.  You can even practice different counting systems to see which one you feel will work best for you. There are plenty out there and some are more complex than others.

I’ll have to admit that I can gamble online without breaking my monthly budget. After all, I can make a small deposit, even take advantage of their deposit bonuses. Check out this spot to see how easy it is  http://gamblingon-line.org/top-10-online-casinos/. But right now I can’t make it to Las Vegas because that would require air fare and a hotel room, even before I managed to figure out how much I could spend in the casinos. Oh, and food unless I could gamble enough to get that comped by the casino. Though in Las Vegas, food is probably your least concern. They want to keep you fed, boozed up and gambling.

And in March the bad news for Las Vegas was that they also kept them winning. Yeah, see, part of the reason that the profits were down in March was that more people won than usual. Which really could be used as a marketing tool to tempt more people to come to Vegas.  But Las Vegas is also pointing out another reason for the drop in revenue over last year. They say that last year Vegas hosted a big convention in March, which pushed numbers up over the average. So that means this year isn’t down as much as it might seem.

But the news still indicates that we haven’t recovered from our economic downturn. People still don’t have the money to travel to Vegas, even though indications are that interest in online gambling is growing. Which should encourage Vegas casinos to get in on the online trend. They can’t just sit and wait for us to go to the mountain. It’s time to move the mountain gang.

And suddenly New Jersey was announcing that they’d have online gambling in place by the end of the year. And even more than that, they’d be willing to offer it in other states.  So, what changed?  Well, from my point of view, nothing really changed. Oh, Christie seems to be waffling on whether or not he’ll sign the bill but that’s not new, it’s politics as usual.

So, here’s the run down on how politics are jerking Atlantic City around like a child’s yoyo.  Atlantic City has been suffering since the economic downturn and casinos are quickly running out of cost saving measures and could really use something to bring money in. Since the online gambling legislation being considered would require any online gambling businesses to be located in Atlantic City, it would give those casinos a chance to move into the online casino market. Look, this isn’t something that’s “going to come.” It’s something that’s already here.  Sites like thebestcasinoguide.com list plenty of online casinos you can play at, even if you don’t live in New Jersey.  And New Jersey is hardly likely to follow Utah’s example and specifically outlaw online gambling. So, it only makes sense to give the casinos a chance to get into the market.

But then there are the politics and the upcoming presidential election. See, Chris Christie is a Republican and viewed as a strong possibility for the 2012 GOP ticket as a VP.  But Republicans lately are all about conservative values and gambling doesn’t fall into that.  Well, except that one of their top donors owns a Vegas casino. Did I mention that donor is against online gambling? Yeah, so if Christie backs online gambling, then it could upset a top donor and potentially lose him a VP spot. Or if he back online gambling and gets the VP spot, it could lose the GOP a donor.

Meanwhile the real loser – Atlantic City.

So, why is an online poker giant interested in the earthquake state? (I can’t remember what California’s tagline is supposed to be, but the news leads me to believe it must have something to do with earthquakes, forest fires or mudslides.) Well, California is the largest state in the US when you look at size and population. Yeah, despite the earthquakes, forest fires and mud slides. Alaska and Texas are bigger in terms of pure land mass but not as highly populated. Also, Bwin.Party believes that there are a lot of poker players in California. Unlike Iowa, which dropped its efforts to legalize online poker because there just weren’t enough people interested to move the legislation forward. So, California wins in terms of poker playing population.

It’s just that they currently have no legal online poker.  But Bwin.Party believes that a move in that direction is inevitable. And they are probably right. After all, Nevada and New Jersey are already working on online gambling regulations. But more than that, Iowa and Hawaii have already passed laws banning online gambling. See, I think that if they weren’t seeing a strong possibility toward online gambling, they wouldn’t be worried about banning it.

So, if you want to play poker online, your best bet right now is Nevada, which is already issuing licenses. Or New Jersey, which plans to have them by the end of the year. Pick California only if you’re patient and willing to wait. Don’t move to Utah, Hawaii or Washington State because it’s illegal. And remember that if you move to Iowa, you’ll have trouble finding other players to join you in a game.

Now, the online casino that invited me to play was trying to head me in the direction of their slot games, which are interesting. But I wanted to give the place a more thorough look, so I decided to try a couple of video poker games. Now, video poker is one of my favorite games and unlike slots, it can be played with a strategy that should pay off long term. That’s if I don’t go bust short term. But it also a game that I’ve played on many online casinos so I know what to expect when I hit a new casino’s video poker games. Slots are more free flowing and sometimes hard to rate between casinos since not all casinos offer the same slot games. Video poker should be the same. Or very close.

Which is how I quickly spotted an issue on this casino. Oh, it wasn’t anything unfair or rigged. In fact, it was right there where any player could easily spot it, if they knew what to look for. The problem was in the payout chart. Now the odds in video poker are determined by the 52 card deck (53 in games with a joker), so they can’t be changed from casino to casino. But the payout chart can be changed. In video poker, the 9/6 payout chart is considered the best payout. That’s a payout of 9 to 1 for a Full House and 6 to 1 for a Flush. So, that’s the first thing you look for when playing video poker. But the other aspect of video poker is that for a maximum bet of 5 coins, the Royal Flush is expected to be the jackpot and can pay out as many as 4000 coins to the 5 coin bet. That’s the win that makes it all worthwhile.

And this casino didn’t have the jackpot for the Royal Flush. Oh, there was still a payout that was consistent with the other payout rates. But the casino simply didn’t offer the jackpot win. Since the odds on video poker are calculated based on the jackpot, they essentially made the game less beneficial for the player. Since they’d given me money to play with, I did play. And I hit a royal flush. Which is where the change in the paytable made a massive difference to the overall outcome of my bankroll. Had the casino been offering a jackpot amount similar to other casinos, I would have won more than enough money to meet the play through requirements for the free money and still have money left over. Since they didn’t offer a jackpot, all that happened was that I won back about the same amount I started with.  That took all the fun out of the game.

So, remember, when you sit down to play at an online casino or even a live casino, check the pay tables and make sure you’re going to be happy with them before you deposit any money.

But casinos do have a problem because my poker playing friend isn’t the only one a bit wary of the craps table.  Craps seems to be one of those games created with the idea that players would be spending a lot of time in the casino and would be pretty dedicated to learning the table games. But it’s also a very social game, which increases the play. But a lot of casino players are more casual players these days. It’s not the day of the rat pack when the tables at Las Vegas were filled with men who gambled hard and gambled regularly.  It’s the era of the casual vacationer who wants to have fun even if he’s never stepped in a casino before. So it isn’t surprising that someone would want to come up with a simpler version of Craps.

Las Vegas has been trying out a new game called Scossa, which is based on the same idea behind craps but with a much, much simpler table layout. They’ve done away with the pass/don’t pass line and the point. In Scossa the basic concept is just to bet on the outcome of a roll. One player rolls the dice but other players can bet on a particular number, a series of numbers or even a specific configuration of the dice. This new layout is more like that of a roulette table and brings the game more in line with that game. Will it attract the hard core craps player? Probably not. But Vegas is betting it’ll bring in the more casual player and give them a new game to enjoy.

Now another rumor has emerged – one that PokerStars is in negotiations with the US Department of Justice on a possible takeover of Full Tilt that would involve paying back everyone. I’d like this rumor to be true because that means players would get their money back, which would be good. And there is that odd little bit of news about Full Tilt advertising for support staff in Dublin where they currently don’t have offices.  Could the PokerStars rumor be true? Well, some are reading very positive signs into the announcement by PokerStars that said they couldn’t discuss the possibility that they were looking at Full Tilt because any such negotiations would need to be confidential. After all, it would seem that they could easily announce “no, don’t be silly. Why would we want Full Tilt?” if they weren’t looking at it.  There aren’t any requirements of confidentiality around having no negotiations in progress regarding Full Tilt Poker. I can say confidently that I have no intention of buying Full Tilt Poker. You can probably say the same (assuming you aren’t PokerStars) and no one is going to show up and object. So, plenty is being read into the fact that PokerStars didn’t say that.

But I can say one thing with absolutely certainty. Full Tilt Poker will continue to be a great source of news, rumors and debates for months to come. Stop back now and then, I’ll probably be discussing them.

IGT has spent $500 million to acquire Double Down Interactive, the company that developed the Double Down Casino on Facebook.  This raised some question as to whether IGT – International Gaming Technology – planned to move into the online casino sphere.  The answer from the company has been that they have no plans to operate a “for money” online casino. However, like many companies, they are exploring the benefit of connecting with clients and customers through social media. And when you’re a company that develops casino games, what better way to connect than to let customers sample your product online.

Those with a Facebook account can now play IGT’s American Idol slots game on the Double Down Casino Facebook App. The slot game is played with Facebook credits, which are granted to players when they visit the casino.  If a player runs out of coins, they can collect a bonus the next day or use a credit card to purchase more coins. But despite the purchase option, these only Facebook don’t count as online gambling to the government because players can’t win real money. So, using your credit card to pay for coins isn’t a game of chance. It’s simply a purchase.

Now, while true gamblers may be interested in the IGT news, they’ll prefer to play their slot games an online casinos where they can win real money. For those interested in free slots, most of these same online casinos will also let you play for free with practice coins. And if you run out of practice coins, they’ll give you more. They don’t expect you to pay real money unless you have a chance to win real money.

Have you ever wondered what’s happened to the world when spending money on a game of chance becomes more sensible than just giving money away to play pretend?

Well, it seems the tumble isn’t from the social media aspect but the acquisitions the company plans to make to get there. One acquisition in particular. Playtech wants to spend about 95 million to acquire the 48 percent shares that founder Teddy Sagi holds. That’s a lot of money. In return, Sagi would become a company advisor. (It would seem that right now he’s advising them to give him $95 million). Oh, and Playtech would spend another 10 million or so on a new building that Sagi has interest in. All in all, it’s a great deal. For Sagi.  Stockholders aren’t so sure if it goes beyond that to be a good deal for the company.

If you’re interested in following the Playtech stock news, did you know that you can use Google.com to set up an alert for news related to Playtech?  It’s an easy process and Google will then deliver a summary of news stories directly to your inbox. If you have a Playtech investment or what to invest, I recommend it. And if you’re interested in investing with Playtech, I believe their stock price is still down a bit. It could be a good time to buy.

Though what that means is still pretty much anyone’s guess and we’re all guessing. After all, it’s not like those in the US think we’ll ever be able to play on Full Tilt Poker again. Or that we’d trust them if we could, because we also doubt we’ll ever see the money they owe us. That’s about $300 million to US players and the agreements that Full Tilt has to fulfill to get back up and running may not include paying back US players. So, all we can do is guess. And we don’t have to be kind.

So, Bernard Tapie has finally registered as an owner for Full Tilt or New Full Tilt, depending on the forms. I’m checking bbc.co.uk for news that doesn’t have a US slant. On our side of the pond, the news isn’t likely to be positive.  Does this start the poker room back up again? Not yet. Now Tapie has to find away to get a registration somewhere that will allow the poker room to operate since their license with Alderney Gambling is still suspended. Alderney is going to want to see Full Tilt paying out on player accounts. But that may not include US players. Tapie has indicated that since the US authorities took action against Full Tilt, the question of paying back players rests with the Department of Justice. Now he just has to convince Alderney of that. Will Alderney agree and let Full Tilt come back into operation, though fully half the problems that shut them down were their own money management issues, not the DOJ action.  And if Full Tilt gets its license reinstated by Alderney or finds a license elsewhere,