The Robin Hood of Poker
Robin Hood, who was known for robbing from rich and giving away to poor is a folk character, however the world knows another Robin Hood too, who is not a folk legend but a living man who earned this title because of his charity and love for the poor.
Barry Greenstein, the Robin Hood of Poker was born on December 30, 1954 in Chicago, Illinois. He did his Computer Science degree from The University of Illinois, and later PhD in mathematics. But he chose to be a professional poker player. Greenstein has been donating his profit from tournament winnings to charities, especially those that involved children.
PERSONAL LIFE:
He started playing poker as a kid, and was encouraged by his parents at a very young age. He spent his childhood in the suburbs of Chicago and during his teenage, he used to make $50 each night from playing poker, but it was still a hobby and he didn’t taken it as a profession. At that time he has no game preference.
Greenstein has always been very ambitious, and one great genius too, He developed his software when he was just 15. Once when he was asked about his unfulfilled wishes he said:
“I have given up on it, but I wanted to get an M.D. and do research on curing diseases”
Greenstein is father of two children of his own and three children from his wife’s previous relationship.
ACHIEVEMENTS:
1. 38 cashes and $3,678,752 in total winnings
2. Four 1st place finishes and 3 WSOP bracelets
3. 6th in the 2008 WSOP Event 45
4. 1st at the 2008 WSOP event 26
5. 4th at the WPT Season 6 North American Poker Championship
6. 3rd at the 2008 WSOP Event 18 No Limit
7. 4th at the 2007 WSOP Event 14 7-Card Stud
8. 1st at the 2005 WSOP Event 19
9. 4th at the 1997 WSOP Event 16
10. 5th at the WPT Season 2 PartyPoker Million
11.1st at the WPT Season 2, The Fifth Annual Jack Binion World Poker Open ($1,278,370)
12.WPT Father and Sons Tournament, 200612.He was Elected in Poker Hall of Fame in 2011, which is believed to be the biggest honor for a poker player to be a part of.
Career
Greenstein started his career as software developer in Computer Industry with Symantec, he has developed a software named Q&A and after its launch, the software was rated as “Product of the year” by many magazines. His software company is rated as one of the best in the software industry. However, he retired from his company in 1991 during his mid-thirties and since then he is active in the world of poker. His total WSOP earnings has been estimated to be around $2,676,821, and his career is full of
PUBLICATION:
Greenstein is the writer of a book titled Ace on the River, which got published in 2005. Tuan Le, a WPT Season 3 champion, claims that book showed him how to succeed on the poker circuit.
CHARITIES OF ROBIN HOOD: Greenstein started his charity in 2000s at a very high scale. He won $770,000 at Larry Flynt’s 1 million Seven-Card Stud event and donated more than 50% to a children charity. In 2006, he made an announcement that he will donate all his earnings going forward.
Learn to Play Poker as a Professional by Playing at Poker Stars
If you want to play poker like a seasoned professional then you can do so if you considered playing at pokerstars.net. The site allows you to play poker with other enthusiasts without feeling that you are making a foolish decision of taking your money to the drain. This is to imply that once you download the Poker Stars software on your computer you will be enjoying entirely free tournaments with other professionals online. The competing spirit is very lofty and it requires you to employ exclusive strategies so that you are able to face the opponents.
The first thing you have to put in your in mind is that the game involves mathematical logic. You must make decisions on where to fold or continue playing the game. Since you will be playing the game online, you will have the benefit of some applications which help you with the computations. However, it is still important that you understand the basics of the game even though the computer will be helping you. With poker, there are two kinds of bad players. The first one will not want to take responsibility even if he/she makes mistake and the second kind of bad player will play wildly which is seen as lack of discipline in the game. If you are the kind of player who will never take charge of the mistakes you do then you will never learn to play classic poker. The wild player will always have irregular winning and losing streaks.
Psychology is something else that plays a role with all the poker games including those found at Poker Stars. This involves telling what the other player is holding on their hands. You can determine this by monitoring the reactions of your opponents. For instance, if a player reacts quickly it is a sign that he/she has a strong hand. If one plays slowly then it means he/she has a weak hand or one is not sure of how he/she should handle the game. If you are a player, you will always have the same playing strategies and familiar patterns which can easily be monitored. This is usually an important aspect of the game, after long hours of play you will have the ability to predict what the opponent is about to do and you can use this to counter their moves. If you master a particular player’s pattern then you are able to know what he or she is holding in his/her hands.
When you play a poker game you have to understand the different styles of game and when to employ each of them. The tight players will always fold and will play fewer hands if they are weak, the loose players will always play many hands because they would rather not fold and opt to continue with weaker hands. The tight game is nice but that does not mean you should stick to one style. Change them with the current situation. At the Poker Stars website, you will be learn many things and bearing in mind that it is free, you can use it as a practice platform then move on to real money games on the net. Check the strength of your start hand. Pairs of aces kings and queens mean that you have a strong starting hand with you whereas twos up to seven means you have a weak hand.
Poker Winning Tips – How to Increase Your Chances of Winning
There is no denial to the fact that poker is now among the most played games in many countries around the world. The game is indeed a very interesting one, and if one feels that their chances of winning are higher, there would be an automatic rise in the interest of the player.
However, not everyone is familiar with what poker really is, and even though a large percentage of the Western population is aware of the basics and rule of the game, not everyone knows the essential winning tips of the game. This is especially true for the beginners.
The article written here aims to bring to light some common mistakes that are repeatedly made by new users, since these can sometimes lead to disastrous results. Furthermore, also mentioned are some essential tips that will make the game more interesting and more profitable for you.
Some mistakes to avoid
One of the most important things to avoid is to judge the game. As human beings, we tend to figure out things according to our skill sets. This should be strictly avoided in the game of poker though.
Over confidence in the game could also lead to serious results. Even though if you’ve had quite q wonderful and happening evening at the casino, do not let over-confidence get a hold at you. Stay put on the ground, and enjoy the game.
Poker tips to help you win
The most important psychology that can help you win is to play against those people who are weaker than you in the game. If you’re an experienced player, you can just take a look at the table and know if the people playing are good enough to beat you. However, underestimation of the talents of your opponents might not always be a good idea.
The next, if you are not too experienced in the game, it might be a better idea to keep off the table that have stronger opponents. Not only will these people give you a hard time, but may also be tighter with their money.
The average pot size also plays a significant role in helping you win. Though the game does not depend entirely on this, it still plays an active role in deciding the course of the game.
The aggressiveness of the competition is also of immense importance sometimes, since this is what can broaden or narrow the profit margins.
BigEdgePoker.com is now played extensively, and people of all ages try to test their luck in the game. However, unlike other casino games, poker largely depends on the skills of the player. The chances of winning a poker game rise tremendously in the favor of the player who understands the psychology of the game and also of the other players.
Nowadays, playing poker has also become an easy way of earning money. Therefore, the knowledge of these essential poker winning tips can be of immense help in these cases.
Managing Your Nerves at Casinos
If you have visited a casino often and gambled while playing games like blackjack, poker, or other gambling games, you must have lost some time or the other (unless you have abnormally good luck), sometimes those losses include large amounts of money, thousands of dollars occasionally. Most people, who are not millionaires or billionaires, lose their nerves and start doing irrational actions that might lead them to get in deep trouble, have a bad reputation in casinos, and often lose even more money because of them being unable to control themselves. People might start shouting at a dealer harshly in the middle of a casino when the dealer can do nothing about it, sometimes maybe even damage casino properties, and at other times, when people think that they still have a chance of regaining the money, they continue to play when they are under large amounts of pressure. That could lead to unclear thinking, placing bets randomly, and making stupid choices without any preceding thoughts about the consequences.
All of these are probable results for PKR.it gamblers who cannot manage their nerves after losing or even during playing important games. So, what do you have to do after losing a large amount of money to control you nerves? It is simple, relax. Although relaxing might not give you back all the money you lost (nothing at that moment can), it will surely prevent you from doing any ignorant things that may lead to you losing even more money or bringing unnecessary trouble on yourself. You might think that the dealer was cheating or something, which is rare, if you just go to the person in charge you will be too angry and frustrated to speak logically, you might even utter some words that are not in English. But if you relax and calm yourself down before speaking to the person in charge, then you could go and have a reasonable conversation and you will be able to prove yourself right, or you could find out that you were wrong about the dealer cheating without you getting in trouble.
After all this, how can you relax yourself? There are many simple and uncomplicated ways to relax, you must have already known about the inhaling and exhaling method of relaxation. Initially, sit on a chair in a quiet place alone; start breathing in and out for about thirty seconds. Then, try to slow your breathing a little bit for a minute, this helps you relax. Close your eyes and meditate for about five minutes, think about something you like or a natural place, maybe a beach with a calming water sound or a rainforest with birds singing relaxing melodies. After that listen to some calming classical music, Beethoven or Mozart maybe, and DO NOT listen to Rock and Roll, it just makes you more nervous. Ultimately, smile and laugh because it is proven that it can help you relax in the worst of situations.
Remember, if you continue gambling after a major loss you have got to be perfectly normal otherwise you will just lose money incessantly whilst playing.
Auto Mucking in Internet Poker
In addition to being able to play multiple tables at once on PokerStar, as well as being able to find poker games without leaving home, one of the main advantages to playing online poker is that players provide their opposition with no physical information. Physical tells such as shaking hands, a sweaty brow, or an increase in blink rates cannot be seen when one plays poker on the internet. Because players cannot physically see one another, they have to rely on information like betting patterns. Additionally, players use information like how long it takes a player to act or make a bet in determining how strong or weak their opponent is. Because information is much more limited in internet poker than it is when playing live poker, it makes sense to do everything one can to limit the information that you provide to your opposition.
In internet poker, every room has a feature that allows players to throw their hand in automatically when it is not the winning hand at showdown or when they take the pot down uncontested. This feature is known as auto muck. When an internet poker player turns on the auto mucking feature by checking the auto muck box, their poker cards are not displayed when they do not have to be. Auto mucking reduces the amount of information a poker player shares or reveals to the table. If a player fires a turn bet, causing the rest of the table to fold, the cards are automatically folded when the player rakes in the pot without providing any added information to the table that would reveal what you were firing into the pot with.
When a hand goes to showdown, many Internet poker rooms include the hands that made it to showdown in their hand history file, regardless of whether one mucks or shows the hand. However, by activating auto muck, a player will only have shared his hand with those who have looked at the hand history file. Thus, players who do not look at hand history or have poker-tracking programs running in the background will not be privileged to this information. As a result, they will not be able to utilize this information to their advantage.
Internet poker star players should provide their opposition with as little information about their play as possible. Auto mucking helps players minimize the amount of advertising they do. Internet poker players are wise to activate their auto mucking features so that only those players who review hand history files will be able to see what kind of hands they are showing down.
Casinos: Sudden Wealth or Sudden Bankruptcy?
A casino is the first place someone who wants to gamble thinks of and goes to. Now when you think of a casino, you will straight away think of a large place full of lights, people playing gambling games, and most probably, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, however, was not the birthplace of casinos. If you assume that casinos are as old as the nineteen thirties, maybe even the eighteen hundreds, then you will be shocked to know that the first historical record which involves people gathering at a place and playing games which were based on luck and had to give up things if they lose or take things if they win, which is practically gambling, was written in China in circa twenty-three hundred Before Christ. But historians have seen that gambling or gambling-like activities have existed in every society known to them. Even the Greeks and Romans met at certain places and played gambling games which were based on luck. One of the first casinos that were built and are still running today, is the Casino de Venizia which was built during the sixteen thirties in Venice, Italy. The first casinos in the United States were known as saloons, especially in the Old West.
Many poker casinos in the world require gamblers to be over the age of twenty-one, some casinos require them to be over eighteen, and a few casinos allow people over the age of sixteen to gamble. There are many gambling games in casinos; the most-played games are classified into two divisions: chance games and skill games. Slot machines, craps, and roulette all fall in the chance games division because there really isn’t much a gambler could do to win except depend on his luck. The other division, skill games, includes games such as poker and blackjack.
Casinos can be a source of instant wealth. If someone plays regularly with logic, and knows when to quit, then he or she could make a lot of money in an instant. However, only saying that casinos can be a source of money is in fact too good to be true. If it was real, then casinos would be overcrowded since people have nothing to lose and only gain. The reason we do not see the whole world in casinos is because of the negative consequences that are just as probable to happen as the positive consequences. People might bet so much and win a lot, they get too confident so they start betting with enormous amounts of money and then all of a sudden, swoosh, and it is all taken by a breeze wind when they lose.
Casinos are places of pure luck. If you get lucky very often in a casino, remember that this might only be a streak of good luck, and some time or the other, the streak will end, so do not get overconfident at any cost. If you were not lucky and you have lost a lot of money, well, you cannot do anything about it except being more careful the next time.
Never Get Outplayed by another Poker Player Again
There is nothing more confidence shaking than sitting down to play a game of poker and getting horribly outplayed. The experience can be enough to make you seriously consider never playing poker again. The first thing you have to remember is that just because you have had one bad experience does not mean you should give up the game completely. The other thing you need to remember is that every poker player gets outplayed at some point in their life and the better a poker player you are, the more the experience stings.
The one good thing about getting horribly outplayed is that it can actually make you a better poker player. Since the experience is something that you never want to go through again, it can make you go home and take a hard look at your abilities. You should want to do everything you can to improve your game and ability to read people. For some people getting overplayed is the best thing that can happen to them, it is the push they need to go from being a slightly better than average poker player to one who is winning all the major tournaments.
The first thing you need to think about is the position you place yourself at the table. When people first start playing poker they tend to just plop down. What they don’t understand is that this is putting them in a perfect position to get outplayed by a more experienced player. The player wants to seat themselves in a place that allows them to exert the most control over the table. In addition to know the best place to sit, the great player also knows how to control the game no matter what their position The best way to learn seating strategies is to play lots of poker, at lots of different tables, and in lots of different positions Keep notes on how the different positions change your game.
Learn to be adaptable. Even though poker is a game of constants, there are always unexpected surprises. The better you are about rolling with the punches, the harder it is going to be for someone to knock you off your stride and potentially outplay you.
There are going to be times when things just don’t go your way. These are the days when it seems like no matter what you do, the exact opposite thing that you want always happens. You should reach a point when you can recognize the signs of such a game, at this point you need to cut your losses and walk away from the table. Give poker playing a rest for a while, when you return to the tables you luck will have changed and you will be able to work at winning some of your money back.
One of the great things about getting outplayed is that now that you know how bad it feels, you can make sure that you never put someone through a similar ordeal. When you are beating someone you need to handle the situation as graciously as possible and not go out of your way to show off your superior poker skills
Trying Your Luck: A Bit about Casinos
Upon hearing the word “casino”, the first things that come to mind for most people are Las Vegas, flashing lights, and lots of money to be made. While these images certainly have undeniable glamour and appeal, this is certainly not the whole picture. In recent years casinos have gained popularity in an entirely different form due to the influence of the internet.
It is unclear exactly which online casino opened first. Among the earliest was a website known as Internet Casinos, Inc., introduced in 1995 and offering 18 different games to choose from. Also established in 1995 and still operating today, The Gaming Club is also one of the first to become available. Throughout the mid-nineties, a handful of others became accessible on the Internet. Their popularity was boosted by their high payout rates and reputation for being reliable and fair, as well as the novelty of being able to gamble online from home. However, strict regulations in the United States toward any form of gambling soon led many of these businesses to begin operating from Europe or the Caribbean Islands where the laws were not only much more lenient but governments often encouraged and helped fund gambling, seeing it as a profitable business.
The late 1990s saw the development of the first multiplayer games in online casinos. Previously, play was only against the computer software. Among the first to allow this option were Planet Poker, which still exists but no longer allows dealing in real cash, and Paradise Poker, whose software improvements greatly aided in game play and connectivity quality over dial up connections, further expanding the venue’s popularity.
Today there are approximately 450 online casinos in operation, such as FullTilt.com, all varying from each other just as much as traditional brick-and-mortar casino buildings. However, today’s online casinos can fundamentally be broken down into two types. Web-based casinos offer games that run strictly through the internet using applications like Adobe Flash. This enables players to participate in online games without downloading any software to their home computers. Download-based casinos are the exact opposite, forcing players to download certain software to their computer in order to play. While the former is more secure, the latter offers the advantage of being faster and more reliable.
Of course, online casinos are not immune to fraud and cheating. While there is always the possible risk of a website not paying out, it is more common that operators may design software so that odds can be adjusted by the company at any time, including during the game. This can be used to highly reduce the chances of someone actually winning, or increase the chances of winning when only playing for pretend cash in order to convince people to sign up with real money.
Even with their problems, online casinos have still retained high popularity due to their convenience and slightly higher odds on average than physical casinos. While there will always be those that prefer the atmosphere and experience of a traditional casino, online casinos remain a lucrative option for those who want something a little different.
Of Apples and Avalon
Avalon, the name comes from the word “aballo” which means “Apple“ and is also called Avalun, is an old and mystical location, best known from the Tale of King Arthur. It is also known as “Ynis Avalach” which means “Apple Island”. Supposedly, Avalon was where King Arthur fled after being injured.
Avalon is described as a location hidden in fog in Britain. The arrival to Avalon is only for those who are worthy of it and who have the power to call the holy bark to find their way through the fog. All others who are not given that power reach the Glastonbury Abbey. The Glastonbury Abbey is considered a passage to Avalon and the city of Glastonbury therefore sees itself as Avalon. As ‘proof’ they even have the grave of King Arthur and his wife Guinevere there as well as the graves of other holy men.
In Croatia a slate was found with the name of “Lucius Artorius Castus” found upon it. Upon it one could read the doings of a “King of Britain” and those doings have a certain correlation with the portfolio of King Arthur as well.
There are also transcripts from other cultures that describe an island in the Atlantic Ocean. For example the Celts and Gauls believed their ancestors came from a continent that had sunken into the western ocean, although there is no proof of this belief in any transcripts from the past. The Welsh call a place that is an island on a sea “Avallonia” or “Avallach”. In the scriptures of the Indians, Purunes and Mahabharata, a “white island” named “Attala” is mentioned, a continent in the western Ocean. Even the Aztec believed to originated from an island they called “Aztlán”, an island in the eastern Ocean.
So many of these scriptures hint towards a sunken Atlantis, that, according to Platon, had sunken in “one horrible day and in one horrible night” and its ruins are impossible to find due to the masses of mud that washed upon the ruins.
Avalon (roman “Abalus”), is an old Celtic/Germanic shrine in the North Sea. It was a red and white boulder and was well known amongst seafaring nations in the North. The Angle-Saxons knew it as well and one could imagine that, as the Angle-Saxons began to expand their influence towards the west after the fall of the Roman Empire, that the shrine was passed by many and was a stopover towards Britain. In the development of civilization movements throughout Europe and Christianization the knowledge of Abalus was lost and it became mystified by British people. Just as a roman mayor in Britain called Artorius became “King Arthur”.
Abalus, as described by Plinius the Elder and Pytheas of Marseille, was well known amongst seafaring nations since the Bronze Age and was a supplying island of Copper and Bernstein. The name of the formerly large island, now known as Heligoland, is in the territory of Germany.