Everyone in gambling talks about it but it remains an obscure muddled subject. The topic is further muddled by those who confuse money management with sure-fire betting systems almost all of which lead to a precarious crossroad where more and more money is risked in the misguided hope of recovering that which is already lost. In the long history of gambling, from the earliest recorded history to the modern era, there has yet to surface a single betting system that is a proven winner. Like the medieval quest to turn lead into gold and water to wine, all attempts have failed. These systems have exotic names like Martingale, Grand Martingale, Fibonacci, D'Alembert but don't be fooled. The most logical money management system is simple but effective: bet less when losing and more when you are winning. Casinos understand that if you are losing, the chances increase you might "chase" your losses with even larger bets to get even. The worst time to start throwing larger bets out is when you are losing. You are probably not thinking clearly and would do better to change tables, lower your bet, or stop altogether.If you find that you are winning steadily, try betting a little more. Even betteradvice is to leave when you have won. If your initial buy-in was for $100 andyou have doubled your money, you could do a lot worse than leave. You might thinkyou are giving up potential losses but the odds are with the casino that thelonger you stay and play, the better chance you have of losing it. In the gamblingworld, there is nothing worse than winning some money, then losing it and more.

There are four different situations or possibilities in an original or two-card blackjack hand. The strategies for dealing with each comes from more than 40 years of research done by mathematicians, probability experts, and professional gamblers. Julian Braun, Dr. Edward Thorp, Lawrence Revere, Stanford Wong, Arnold Snyder, Peter Griffin, and Don Schlesinger, represent some of the most important theorists and innovators of blackjack over the last half-century, and their legacy provides the foundation and framework for current blackjack philosophy and practice. On the ground floor of the blackjack high rise, are those who play the game, but don't put any effort into learning much about it, so they guess or go by hunches or "feelings." This player can only rely on the luck of the draw hoping for a chance to win.The next level of player cares about learning the game enough so that he or sheis willing to absorb what is termed a "basic strategy." By learning basic strategy,the player elevates his or her level of play and greatly enhances the possibilityof winning,The third level of player assigns numerical values to each card in an attemptto separate the cards that have been played in an attempt to determine the remainingcards along with the mathematical odds of winning all remaining hands. This procedureis called card counting and there are numerous methods to consider. All of the strategies listed begin with two separate factors: your two cards compared to the dealer's single exposed card. Those three cards represent the known values in the equation to figure the possibilities. How you react is directly related to those two dynamics. One note: the basic strategies discussed and noted here are for multiple decks, rather that single or double as there are many more of the former than the latter group. It is quite frustrating to sit at a blackjack table knowing you are playing Basic Strategy to the letter and are losing while other players are making foolish decisions and winning. The math of the game states you are playing at a .05 disadvantage given a reasonable set of rules. That is one-half of one percent, as close to 50-50 as you'll find, and about the best set of odds in the modern casino. Yet there are no guarantees you'll get "good" cards. Probability theory views events from a long-term basis, rather than isolated cases. That is why the game favors disciplined players who have patience. If you play long enough, you will encounter sessions where you know you did the right thing but lost hand after hand. The only satisfaction you can take home is the knowledge that things will turn the other way, sooner or later. Those who are winning by playing foolishly may smile, but it will be a temporary situation and one which can get them into deep trouble.

The game of craps is the most popular dice game in the United States at the moment there are a few different theories about its origin. Dice games can be traced back to the roman times with shaved pigs knuckles being used as the dice. Craps however was based on the game hazard, which was popular in the 17th and 18th century in England. The name craps is believed to have derived from the English crabs which was the name for the throw of aces or ace-deuce. The game moved over to the United States when the French moved to New Orleans and the French pronounced the game craps and in there version of the game the player throws against the house and not another player like the English version of the game. The game was very popular on the Mississippi river boats and it was a simplified version of modern day craps that was spread about the United States. There are two modern day versions of craps played today. Street craps has more in common with the riverboat game than Bank craps and it is so named as it can be played on the street. A shooter establishes a point, then tries to make that point. Bettors either bet with the shooter or against the shooter. Someone must cover the bet for the shooter in order for the game to progress. Bank craps is the form played in the casinos and has a more complicated form of betting with the house covering the bets.

The website for English Harbour appears very comprehensive especially on security and banking issues which is encouraging. It does stress that it is only compatible with Windows systems however. Two different downloads are offered depending on the number of games that you want to play which we think is a useful feature, especially for those of you with slow download capability.

Unfortunately, we don't think that the casino itself lives up to the expectation caused by the website. English Harbour are no longer with Microgaming and have opted for Odds-On as their software provider. We are not aware of the reasons for the move but can only assume it was for cost concerns as the new playing interface is far less impressive than the standard Microgaming interface, in our opinion. The slots are simple and dull and only offer one 5-Reel machine. The lack of bonus features becomes tedious very quickly. The triple slots function is novel and allows you to play three slots of your choice simultaneously. They are still dull however and we could not get excited by it.

The email support is non-existent in our experience. Having asked specific questions of the support team, we received a non-relevant auto-responder and some months later, still haven't received answers to our specific questions.

It is not however, all negative. If you can put up with the average playing interface, English Harbour do offer some great competitions and prize draws. These would typically include holidays to Vegas, a sports car and various cash prizes.