Confuseass say:



Protect 'P'

understand ‘OKE’

forget ‘R’

If you do not understand the dynamics of the game and are focused solely on the prize, everyone will take the P.

 I lived, worked and studied in Las Vegas during the late 80’s, where I gained my Commercial Pilots Licence at 20.

 Although, under age, I used to visit Casino’s to look for tourists who wanted to either fly over the strip to take pictures of the Mirage volcano from above or maybe a trip to the Grand Canyon. Although t.b.h. I would and did take them anywhere in the U.S. 24 hours a day and even at night  as I needed to build up my hours.

 I have also travelled to Las Vegas numerous times over my lifetime and my first Casino was Circus Circus at 15 in 1984. So the comparison below has some depth.

 Well, I inevitably started to gamble. Initially enticed by the Steak dinner for free and as many drinks as you could take. As many of my friends worked in the casino’s I seemed to spend more and more time in Casino’s. Birthdays, anniversaries, family dinners, stag nights etc etc.

 The one thing I never had issues with was games. By games I refer to policy or staff.

Everything was and is about the customer. If there was an issue, they would make sure you not only were compensated, but were made to feel as good as if you hit the second or third top prize. A comp in one of their a la carte restaurants, maybe a room or piece of merchandise.

 Basically, they could see past the $$$$ value of the issue and were focused on the customer and the continued relationship. The quicker they could make you forget the issue, the quicker you could get back to enjoying gambling.

They were smart enough to know that each little issue, would add up, leaving a bad taste in the mouth if not dealt with quickly and efficently. Simples.

 (In comparison, It would appear that Online casino’s have 24 to 48 hours, to seemingly, see what game fit’s the issue. Maybe hide and seek, maybe charades or maybe even scrabble. So prolonging the agony or ‘’ taking the opportunity to kick ‘em when there down’’ instead of taking the opportunity to ‘’earn’’ or reinforce trust.)

 Therefore the games were restricted to the Casino floor. Pit bosses would remember your name and make you feel like a friend, even knowing that, on many occasions I was there to take their customers away for a few hours or so. Granted that the trust was mutual, based on the personal relationship with the Pit Boss and cash spent.

I would still expect the same resolution from online sites, based on the fact that everything can be verified based solely on fact. So where the Pit Boss, trusted the word of the customer, the same trust can be conveyed by the online site in checking the facts within their timeframe for responses. 

Well here we are in 2012. Online casinos do not appear to have the same ethos.

Unfortunately, the games are not restricted to the screen. I assume the overheads would be lower, on a daily basis. But as the reach of online casinos is considerably greater, I assume therefore that turnover would be comparable if not higher. So resources should not be an issue.

 Being an intelligent person, I am aware that of course the casino’s in Vegas are focused on the $$$$. But, they do their utmost not to bring this to the front of your mind. Smart?, common sense?. Whatever the reason, it just makes sense to CREATE an atmosphere of trust and not constantly reminding the customer that Business comes before pleasure. Remember the City of Sin'.

 Where 20 years earlier, in the 60’s, the words ‘’gambling’’ and ‘’trust’’ were very distant cousins indeed. To even imagine the two going together would have been like having incestuous thoughts or something.

 Given that the word ‘TRUST’ is now shoved into our faces via advertising and empty sentiments used at every opportunity. I would liken the use of the word, when used by online casino’s today, to a form of ‘grooming’.

 Las Vegas may be the CITY of SIN’, but the Casino’s leave the games on the Casino floor and online gambling should consider the benefits of earning or conveying ‘trust’ through actions and ‘trust’ through Customer service. Like an aura, not requiring definition or needing constant reference to. Trust would then be like air, assumed and not sought or sold as a commodity to only the highest bidder.

 As online gaming evolves, it would do well to re visit its roots in the hopes that it moves forward in every aspect and not backwards in the basics. After all they are not re-inventing the wheel. They are merely personalising it. So why deliberately devolve Customer Services.

 In Vegas they use expensive Cars, Big shows, scantily clad models to distract your attention from the assault on you wallet. But you know it will be you that has control.

You will not fall over a faulty floor board (or technical issue) and then be repeatedly kicked in the head by the Casino staff, just because the opportunity to do so presented itself.

 Maybe as online gaming is a faceless business, something is being lost? Maybe, it is ok to act inappropriately as you are not looking into the eyes of a person. Therefore, lying to someone’s face, has no meaning as you are not technically lying to their face.

 This is not aimed at any specific online gaming entity, but my observations from playing at 3 of the largest and ‘‘TRUSTED’’ casino’s online and having in the past, played at Casino’s in London and Las Vegas.

 To date I play via 2/3 of the sites. Having said that, if I were truly as smart a man as I think I am, based solely on real life personal experiences of issue resolution, I should not be playing online at all.

 Where my focus should be on winning, instead a very small part of my mind is hoping that I do not experience any technical issues requiring contact with Customer Services. I have even gone so far as to not report issues as I had enough things going on in my life at the time. Un-reported, but not forgotten!

Which ultimately leads me to question why I gamble online in the first place………

                         as I stick another virtual coin in the virtual slot

TRUST is not something that is taken for granted anymore. We have learnt that the hard way from BANKers. "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet"

Having said the above, I must say that I find the fact that 888 have a forum, both admirable and if I am honest, slightly confusing. Not being able to fully explain why and being a man of few words, I will leave it there.

Is it software?

Is it unexplored bad play by YOU?

 OR

 Is it Bad play by your opponent/s?

 OR

 Is it just a pre-determined hand you were dealt

 The hand is pre programmed into the software

 There is no such thing as a random number generator, because this in itself had to be written by a human. Unfortunately, man cannot control or claim to have produced software that is Random. Based on the true definition of RANDOM, which was written before the word computer was even dreamt up.

 So the hand that you were dealt was pre written to be your hand

 (IF YOU START TO FEEL THAT YOU ARE BEING TARGETED BY 888, THEN MY FRIEND THIS IS CALLED PARANOIA and is a symptom you can talk to your GP about, or any other Poker player).

 Therefore, the only unknown is how you play it and more importantly in a bad beat it is how the other person plays their hand

 Unfortunately, this is probably the only random part of online poker. Also the most frustrating as no matter how well you play or what help you use, you have absolutely no control over your opponent/s. Either who they are or how they play.

Although, you know how they should have played, which usually ends with a win for youreslf. But, they did not or we wouldn't be here talking about it..

 You must also admit that sometimes even you loose control over your own actions when sat at a table, well sometimes at least, your only human.

 So to determine how bad a bad beat is, is usually not down to the cards you were dealt, solely.

 It is down to when the bad beat happened (bubble etc) and the buy-in or money in the middle, which you just lost.

 These two factors really determine how bad a Bad Beat is.

 Yet we always return back to blaming the cards and software.

 If you choose to play online poker, you can be sure of the following:

 You will see many more hands…..

You will come across every possible scenario imaginable, because unlike Lady Luck, the hands are already pre written……….

 A tournament in my experience of playing the same tournaments for a year is as follows:

 Based on number of players, I know when the tourney will hit the bubble (end of second session), when it will end (fourth session), when to be cautious of playing the nuts out of position with a short stack (end of second session onwards).

 AND you must admit, when you inadvertently (wink wink) do the above to someone else, doesn’t it feel good…………

 Go on admit it, you usually jump up in the air and quietly pass wind………

I had a structure and point when writing this...........then it all went pete tong...

Hud’s and sharkscope effect on a Poker players sixth sense – THE ABILITY TO READ

 1.         Should new people to poker use hud’s, tools and notes straight away and become dependant on them – like a drug or should you become familiar with your sixth sense first.

 Like how a child becomes familiar with touch, smell, taste, sight and hearing

2.         Hand stats are only really useful if you can calculate them in your head. It may take time. Even learning how to calculate basic odds is better than relying on hud’s.

If you rely on hud’s, you are at an immediate disadvantage in a live game or when the hud is not available..

 3.         When you take away one sense, you enhance another. If you cannot see, then your hearing becomes better.

 If you use all the flags, notes and hud’s from day one, then are you not ultimately depriving yourself of the opportunity to evolve and enhance your reading capabilities

 4.         If ‘READING’ were a sixth sense……….

 Would it not be, more beneficial to you as a new player in the long term and to your overall game, if you loose your stack/s, acknowledging the fact that you mis-read a player based on a wrong read…..  rather than just re-writing your notes and/or putting it down to ‘bots’ or site ‘rigging’ as ‘sharkscope, your notes and the hud’ could not all be wrong…………

 5.         3d, cam tables, avatars, huds, sharkscope, rigging and bots have become words that are common in the Poker World. But these words belong to Internet entertainment sites and not Poker….

What is a company who writes the software for hud’s actually saying to the Poker Community?

Is their mission to enhance the game of Poker or is it for their financial gain?

Are they looking to make you a better Poker player or a software dependant junkie?

Are the top players who play millions a day, using the software?

Or is it more likely that they own the company that writes the software?