Gambler's Thread 01 (May 08 - Nov 10)

[kennynah]

confirm....u be the bookie... payout follow singpools...but added incentive is...if i dont strike, rebate $1 or, you sell to me at discounted rate of 40cents per entry...ai mai?

easier...if we just bet on "additional no." lah.... i open book for you...1-15 (small), 16- 30(medium), 31-45(big)...$1 pays out $3 (means 3 :1 odds)... want?

[winston]

Small window of opportunity for you to make some money at Genting or this week-end's Star Cruise trip..

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iPhone not welcome at Las Vegas tables

Las Vegas casino operators are on the lookout for blackjack cheaters using a card-counting iPhone application designed to help players win.

Nevada State gaming control officials have sent warnings to casinos about card-counting software that turns iPhone smart mobile telephones or iPod Touch MP3 players into illegal tools for beating the odds at blackjack tables.

''Once this program is installed on the phone through the iTunes website it can make counting cards easy,'' board member Randall Sayre wrote in a letter to casino operators.

''When the program is used in the 'Stealth Mode' the screen of the phone will remain shut off, and as long as the user knows where the keys are located the program can be run effortlessly without detection.''

Players using the program simply tap a virtual button on the screen each time a card 10 or higher is turned up and tap a different button for lower-value cards.

A mini-software program continually updates a ''true count,'' which with one peek can provide feedback regarding a player's chances of winning by getting cards with total values that are closest to 21 points without exceeding that amount.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

[kennynah]

where do i find this s/w??? hahahaha.....

[iam802]

I see certain traits that is found in traders as well.

And I wonder, if it is correct to say that FA folks are more like Chess players ...requiring more complete information, while TA folks plays with the 'incomplete' information. ???

==========
A Chess Master From Brooklyn Seeks World Poker Immortality

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/03/nyreg ... .html?_r=1

For Ylon Schwartz, poker and, before that, chess were not just games; they were ways to avoid having to work a steady job. He’s scratched out a living for 15 years, but he is about to enter a higher tax bracket than most gamblers dare to dream about — the million-dollar club.

Ylon Schwartz, a chess master, makes his living at poker.

When Mr. Schwartz was starting out, no wager was too small or too far-fetched. Like the day he bet several people on the street that he could throw a lemon across Church Street from Liberty Plaza and onto the roof of a Burger King near the World Trade Center. Unbeknownst to the bettors, he had practiced the night before. He walked away with $340.

Mr. Schwartz, 38, is one of nine finalists in the World Series of Poker Main Event, which is considered the unofficial world championship. He beat out more than 6,800 competitors to get to the final table, which will be held on the weekend in Las Vegas.

First place is $9.1 million, but even last place will take home $900,000. Going into the final table, Mr. Schwartz, who lives in Brooklyn, is in fifth.

Mr. Schwartz, a highly ranked chess master who has played in many tournaments, said that some of the skills needed to succeed at chess are also useful in poker. “Chess players are trained to have excellent memories,” he said. “In poker, you need to remember betting patterns.” And strategic skill is essential in poker as well as chess. For instance, keeping the other poker players from folding when you have a good hand depends on how much you bet early on.

He said that both games had geometrical aspects. In chess, it is the shape and size of the board and positions of the pieces. In poker, it is the positions of the players betting on a hand and the number of chips they have.

Of course there are differences. In poker, players do not know what cards their opponents are holding. In chess an opponent’s plan can be divined. “Poker is a game of incomplete information,” Mr. Schwartz said. “Chess is a game of complete information.”

He said that it had been useful to start out in chess rather than poker. “All the patience I got in chess really helps me out,” he said.

Mr. Schwartz has not always been so disciplined.
He grew up in Manhattan and was, by his own admission, an uninspired student. He flunked out of Borough of Manhattan Community College after a year.

He then worked at a succession of jobs — at a day care center, in a restaurant preparing food, and as a special education assistant in a public school. While there, he started playing chess for a few dollars on the side and that, along with gambling on backgammon, horses and even darts, soon became his full-time avocation.

Mr. Schwartz’s personal life was also unsettled. An only child, he was raised by his mother. She developed cancer and he helped care for her. Mr. Schwartz said, “My 20s was spent in oncologists’ offices watching women getting chemo drips.”

His mother died in 2003.

He said that his father, who left when he was 2, had little contact with him — until he called after Mr. Schwartz made it to the final table of the World Series of Poker. Mr. Schwartz said he wanted nothing to do with him.

While chess was his specialty when he was younger, he also spent a lot of time with backgammon players. One of them, a man he called Fat Nick, taught him the rules to Texas Hold ’Em. Mr. Schwartz said that Nick owned a small poker club and one weekend in 2000 he entered a couple of tournaments there. He won both and walked out with $12,000 and a new career.

There were adjustments. In chess, losing is difficult to accept, but in tournament poker, Mr. Schwartz said, the best players win money only about 15 percent of the time, so they have a different attitude toward money.

Citing one of the best-known poker players, Mr. Schwartz said, “Doyle Brunson said you have to have a disdain for money.”

Even so, Mr. Schwartz said he had not been prepared for a losing streak that haunted him for two years. He was living with a girlfriend in a moldy basement apartment and he said that he developed allergies that affected his play and his mood.

“Every day, I would lose two to four thousand dollars and then I would go home and say, ‘Baby, let’s go out,’ and we’d spend like a thousand dollars on a dinner,” he said.

The relationship eventually deteriorated and they broke up several years ago, on Christmas Day. “She won’t talk to me any more,” he said. “And she shouldn’t.”

He started seeing a therapist and said he came to realize that he lacked empathy. He vowed to turn his life around.

“When you get to the bottom, you realize you want to get off this rock,” Mr. Schwartz said.

His new sensitivity to others helped him start winning again, he said.

“Empathy is the most important thing in poker,” he said. “You have to really be aware of what your opponents think. The best thing about poker is that it exposes all your weaknesses.”

If he wins the top prize, Mr. Schwartz said, he plans to take it easier. Referring to Mr. Brunson’s credo about money, Mr. Schwartz said, “For me, I value it more than most others.”

Maybe he’ll even play more chess, which he has never given up.

“Chess is a purer game,” he said. “It is my passion. I love poker, too, but I don’t know who gets together to play poker for fun. There is always something on the line.”

[kennynah]

imo.... ta chaps....lazy buggers, like me.... look at charts n try to figure out... easier than pouring thru financial ratios...

[winston]

It's Fun to Know: What Are the Odds?

No longer content with the odds (tens of millions to one) of winning the lottery, more and more Americans are buying fewer lottery tickets. Sales of lotto games and scratch-offs are down 5 percent in California, 7 percent in Florida, and 10 percent in Indiana.

Industry watchers contend that spending on the lottery has fallen due to the recession, along with dips in other types of discretionary spending. But the states aren't sitting back and taking it. They are actively recruiting new vendors and extending discounts to customers, including buy-one / get-one-free coupons.

(Source: USA Today)

[winston]

Slot-mad punter feels sore after HK$53m losing streak by NickkitaLau, Standard HK

A self-proclaimed billionaire from Zhejiang province, who claims she lost more than HK$53 million at Wynn Macau, is threatening to sue the casino for preventing her from playing 20 slot machines at the same time.

According to The Standard's sister magazine East Week, the businesswoman has been playing the slot machines at Wynn since 2007.

She said a woman employee recommended she play a "lucky" machine which proved to be the opposite. After feeding money into it for three days she lost HK$13 million.

She returned to the casino for the Lunar New Year with her friends and their families and kept losing but persisted, staying at the casino and only going home to renew her visa.

After three months in front of the same machine, she lost a further HK$40 million but noticed most payouts were on small bets.

She claims she made a fuss and was escorted to her room by two members of staff who told her to try her luck later.

The next morning she returned to the slot machines with friends and a new approach, playing 20 machines in quick succession, believing she could recover her losses if any one of them hit the jackpot.

After 20 minutes a manager turned up, insisting she could play no more than two machines at a time, adding that the women and her friends were not welcome.

The woman demanded an apology from the casino, appropriate compensation and her betting and payout records to prove her losses, but says Wynn only provided the payout records.

The woman says she is prepared to pay whatever it costs to get what she says is justice and called on the Macau government to assist her in investigating the incident.

Wynn has so far not responded to questions from East Week.

[winston]

Grandrake, this one is for your toto. If you strike, I want a commission ..

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How to Win the Lottery by Dr. Laura De Giorgio

“I never won anything until I changed my mind about winning”

Some time ago at a party, I met a guy, Alberto, who developed a habit of winning the lottery jackpots. First he won $816,000, then about six months later he won $2.2 million, then a year later he won another $6.1 million - all playing lottery. When I met him, he already traveled twice around the globe and was packing bags for his third adventure around the world.

Alberto used to work as a street car driver, without much hope of experiencing financial freedom through his employment. Now, he is free, loaded with cash and he enjoys all the extra attention he gets. Alberto was always a friendly and a caring kind of guy, helping people around him and this extra money gave him the opportunity to get more out of life and be able to do more for people he loves and cares for. With his knack for foreign languages he is having a blast traveling around the world, exploring and sharing in the richness of life, the abundance of natural beauties, the wealth that different countries and cultures have to offer.

Perhaps like Alberto used to be, you are in a dead-end job and the way you see it, the only way out is through winning the lottery. Perhaps you are doing the best you can to improve your life and you are already managing your finances well, saving and investing money, but you know that winning the lottery could help you to get the things that only money can buy - maybe you like to spend more quality time with your family, or get some expensive toys, get out of debt, have more time to learn new things and better the overall quality of your life, or simply live it up and indulge in sweet luxuries and give to your family, friends and all the people you love more than you were able to give before.

Maybe you've never played the lottery before and maybe you've been playing it for a while, but have never won anything. And maybe you would like to know what exactly did Alberto do to win a lottery jackpot, not once, not twice, but three times already.

Some people will tell you that you gotta be lucky to win. My friend, Vittorio, who won $45,000 playing Lotto 6/49 believes that you gotta be lucky to win and that lottery is the only way out. Vittorio often wins several hundred dollars on instant lottery tickets and he often finds $50, $100 or even few hundred dollars on the street - money that some unlucky person dropped and left, long before Vittorio came along. Vittorio uses NO system for winning the lottery. He knows nothing about the law of attraction or about using his mind power intentionally - he has merely conditioned his mind through winning, through finding money and through expecting to find money or win it. Vittorio is a gambler at heart.

Alberto played more sensibly - yes, he believed to be lucky, he expected to win, and he did all he could to maximize his chances of winning. You, too, can maximize your chances of winning by covering as many possibilities as you can. You can decide how you want to play and how much money would make a difference in your life.

Like many other people who eventually mastered the art and science of winning, I used to play games of chance and I won nothing UNTIL I changed my mind about winning - instead of just hoping to win, I decided to win - and so can you. I didn't just rely on luck - I chose to create my luck, and so can you. When I learned the secret and kept on applying it, I kept on winning, and so can you. And by the way "the secret" was never secret, nor was it hidden - it's just that most people didn't care to look for it.

In one of his books, Joseph Murphy tells of a man who lost all the money he had - about $250,000 gambling in Las Vegas. He didn't even have enough money to go back home. He had to phone his family to wire him the money so that he could buy a ticket and return home. The man was desperate and he asked Joseph Murphy what to do. Joseph Murphy gave him few suggestions, which this man dutifully kept on applying every day for six months. Remember that the secret of success is in applying yourself UNTIL you achieve your goal - whatever time it takes - where few days, few weeks, few months or years.

After six months of daily application of mental suggestion, the man had a dream and in a dream he dreamt that he was in a Las Vegas casino, playing at a blackjack table, where he won over $250,000. it just happened that there are no coincidences and that the man's company transferred him to Las Vegas. He went to the casino from his dream and there in the casino was a table and a dealer from his dream and he won over $250,000.

On his Personal Power CDs, Tony Robbins tells a story about a couple who were present at his Goal-Setting workshop. During the goal-setting workshop he mentioned a woman who absolutely needed to get $100,000 for her business venture, within a couple of months. The woman never made more than $30,000 a year and he thought that perhaps her goal was a bit unrealistic, but decided that it's not his place to stand in her way. The woman appeared few months later on his next Goal-Setting workshop and said how she won those $100,000 playing the lottery, just before the deadline she has set for herself.

This time she set a goal to get $200,000. It wasn't that urgent, so she gave herself a deadline of six months. And just near the end of her deadline, she again won the lottery - and she won exactly $200,000 that she needed.

A couple that were present at that workshop wondered why did she settle for so little, why not go for $1,000,000 (it's only a matter of zeroes). They decided to put into practice what they have learned. They embraced their inner power and the vision of themselves as lottery jackpot winners. They drove everyone around the mb crazy. They didn't win the first time they played, or the second, but the third time they hit it big and they won over $1,000,000.

You too can strike it rich using the power of your mind, and to play it safe, it would be wise to first practice developing your ability to win and play for fun, until you develop the ability to pick winning numbers consistently, before you play with real money. Winning the lottery should never be your primary financial strategy, but rather something you explore with your spare money.

http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/How_ ... ttery.html

[kennynah]

heng ah....today wanted to buy a 4D.... but seng ki lai.... never open also.... i "won"....wahahaha...

[winston]

Flu-hit jackpot winner gets good news late

A 25-year-old Spanish woman who won a record 126 million euros (HK$1.3 billion) in a lottery only learned of her good luck days later after spending the weekend bedridden with the flu, officials said.

The unnamed woman from the island of Majorca discovered that she had won the Euro Millions jackpot awarded on Friday when lottery officials finally tracked her down on Monday, online lottery seller Serviapuestas said.

''I was still sick on Monday so I decided to go to work out of fear of losing my job given the economic crisis we are going through,'' the seller quoted her as saying.

She won the huge jackpot drawn in Paris on a ticket she bought through Serviapuestas.

She said when the company first contacted her ''I thought they were pulling my leg.... I thought it was some publicity.''

She now plans to buy a country house in Majorca and raise horses.

The jackpot is enough to buy two Airbus A-320 jets.

The previous record in the lottery, run by nine European countries, had been held since July 2005 by Dolores McNamara of Ireland who took home over 115 million euros.

Friday's winner beat odds of 76 million to one to win the equivalent of four years' salary of David Beckham, the world's best paid footballer.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE