Surrender
If, after viewing your original two cards and the dealer's up card, you feel that your chances of winning the hand are not good, you will have the option to "surrender" the hand. If you choose to surrender, you will automatically lose half of your original wager; the other half will be returned to you. Play of the hand will cease, and the deck will be reshuffled.
NOTE: If the dealer was dealt a Blackjack, the "surrender" option will not be available.
Double Down If, after viewing your original two cards and the dealer's up card, you feel that your chances of winning the hand are good you can choose to double the amount of your original wager. You will be dealt exactly one additional card and play will pass to the dealer.
Split
If you are dealt two cards of the same value (8-8, A-A, 10-K, etc.), you may choose to split the cards into two separate hands. An additional wager equal to your original wager will be placed next to the additional hand.
A second card will be dealt to the first of the split hands. This hand will be played out, with all the normal options available (surrender, double down, etc.) When you have finished playing the first hand, the other split hand will then be dealt a second card and played out as usual.
NOTES: Only one split is allowed per deal.
NOTES: A split-hand Blackjack will pay off at 1:1 instead of 3:2
Insurance
Whenever the dealer's up card is an ace, the insurance option will be available. When you buy insurance, you are insuring yourself against the possibility that the dealer has a blackjack. Insurance is an additional wager equal to half of your original bet.
If the dealer has a Blackjack, the insurance will pay off at 2:1. Your original bet will be lost, unless you also have a Blackjack, in which case the hand will push.
If the dealer does not have a Blackjack, you will lose the insurance wager and the hand will be played out as usual.
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Choosing An Online Casino
Source : Max Drayman (www.winneronline.com)
You'd think that picking a casino site would be a pretty simple affair: where do I win the most? Or maybe: who's got the highest stakes? These are certainly relevant questions and do keep them in mind when surfing around to make your choice. But there are other things to consider, not all of which may be immediately obviousBiggest Payouts This is pretty difficult to determine because everyone wants to be in the list of "top 10" or whatever. The best thing to do is visit player resource sites, like this one for example, and read reviews.Another helpful source, though by no means fool-proof, is to check out the winner lists at your favourite casino site. All the better sites have these lists. If they're an IGC (Interactive Gaming Council) member then they're supposed to be truthful in their advertising, which gives you a little more confidence in their reported payouts.Look First, Download Later Nobody wants to spend 30-120 minutes downloading software without having some idea of what you're going to get. Better casino sites have a "Preview" section that shows you snapshots of what their games look like, maybe even provide you with a description of how to play. The software you download can get pretty annoying if you don't like its appearance or play action, so look for the "Preview" section and take a few minutes to check it out.How quickly can you receive your winnings? Believe it or not, there are sites that only make their payouts on the last Friday of the month, for example. Or they may require that you send them email expressly requesting your winnings. Or maybe your withdrawal transactions have to be pre-approved and the site advises that that can take up to two weeks. These are examples of actual casino sites! The last Friday of the month?! Are they for real?Support All the better online casinos have a support page at their website. They'll list the ways that you can reach them. Almost everybody offers an email address that you can mail to for assistance. Is that good enough? Not for my money it isn't. I want service numbers I can call, hopefully 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. And toll-free too, please and thank you. Better yet, give me two toll free numbers, just in case. Can you assume that your casino provides this? Certainly not! Go look, check the details. Hell, I'd even call the toll free number just to make sure it's not an answering machine that's got so many messages on it that it can't accept yours. Sound outlandish? Not a chance! Been there, seen that. It's your money, so you decide how much this matters.Licensing Etc This is a pretty slippery issue but it boils down to this: online casino regulation is a "voluntary compliance" issue. In other words, the casino plays fair if it wants to play fair. A license in Antigua costs a site $100,000, for example, and then they can say they are "licensed". There is no follow-up required and no compliance issues to obey. If they advertise that they are audited, that's nice, but they don't have to do this.
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There are three distinct kinds of roulette games available online. Each have their own unique characteristics, benefits, and drawbacks. Here we take a look at each so you can quickly find the style that suits you best. Downloadable roulette games
There exists a small selection of downloadable roulette games which are not playable for real money. These games allow you to play on your home computer for fun and entertainment, and may offer helpful things such as bankroll tracking across sessions. You'll probably want one of these if you don't spend much time online and wish to be able to play roulette on your computer without being on the Internet. In browser roulette games
Fast becoming the most common type around, in-browser roulette games are ones which you access via a web page, and are played while you are online. They often require a browser plug-in, such as shockwave or flash. The range in quality on these types of games is rather broad. You will likely come across some which don't even follow the game rules properly. Others include bonus features such as bankroll tracking and chat. Roulette-Info.net features a game with a bankroll that lasts from session to session, and built in chat so you can discuss your strategies with fellow players. Real money roulette games
The phenomenon of Internet gaming is not slowing down any time soon, and real money roulette games are available from a variety of operators. Real money games are often accompanied by a free-play version, similar to the downloadable roulette games mentioned earlier. Bankrolls are acquired either through standard credit card transactions, or through third party banking operations such as Paypal, Firepay, or Western Union.
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Standard roulette game rules and playing methodology:
The players begin by making their bets, placing chips on the spaces of the layout in the manner permitted by the applicable rules for the area/state/country etc. The dealer spins the wheel in a counterclockwise direction then flips the ball on the bowl's back track so that it travels clockwise. Players may continue placing bets while wheel and ball are still in motion until the dealer yells (says) "No More Bets!". He does this as the ball slows down and is about to drop off the back track. Bets placed on the layout after this announcement are not valid and must be returned to the player(s) When the ball falls and comes to rest between any two metal partitions of the wheel, it marks the winning number, a zero or double zero, the winning color and any other permitted bet that pertains to a winning number or symbol. The dealer immediately announces the winning number and its color, and he points with his index finger to the corresponding number on the layout. Some dealers place a plastic peg on the winning number so all can see clearly. He then collects all losing bets, not disturbing the chips resting on winning spaces, and pays off the winner or winners with the correct amount of chips due each winning bet. The signs 0 and 00 win for the bank all bets except those placed in 0 and 00. On the first spin, the dealer has no fixed point from which to spin the wheel or ball. Thereafter he must spin both from the winning pocket into which the ball dropped. The croupier dealing the wheel is obliged to spin the ball with the hand nearest the wheel. Some casinos give the player the privilege of being able to ask the inspector or casino operator to substitute another dealer, and this may be done provided one or more of the other players at the table do not object. No such substitution may take place after the dealer has thrown the ball five times.
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Nobody knows where the game of poker originated and there are lots of theories. The game played in the United States was made from several other card games. The Chinese played cards in 900AD and the Persian game of 'as nas' was a game of 25 cards and five suits. Most of the dictionaries and game historians say that it comes from an eighteenth-century French game, poque. This was stated to be using the first deck consisting of suits made from spades, diamonds, clubs, and hearts. the true origins of the game still remains shrouded in mystery. The history of the game in the United States is a much easier story to follow it seems to have originated from New Orleans and spread along the riverboats that travelled the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. By 1835 poker had become the number one cheating game on the riverboats though it was still quite a different game from the modern day version. During the civil war modifications such as stud poker, the draw, and the straight became popular. Poker was very popular about this time and it was more like the game we have today. During the Wild West period of United States history, a saloon with a Poker table could be found in just about every town. Unlike other casino card games, poker is a game in which players play against each other and not against the house. Poker has many variations, although the rules of play and strategy differ, the hierarchy of winning hands remains the same. Today Poker is the most played card game in the world and has grown into a major sporting event with tournaments taking place constantly throughout the year and large prizes available as Poker grows in popularity and strength.
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