Use of the word “football” in English-speaking countries

The word “football“, when used in reference to a specific game can mean any one of those described above. Because of this, much friendly controversy has occurred over the term football, primarily because it is used in different ways in different parts of the English-speaking world. Most often, the word “football” is used to refer to the code of football that is considered dominant within a particular region.

In some English-speaking countries, the word “football” usually refers to Association football, also known as “soccer” (the name was originally a slang abbreviation of Association). Of the 45 national FIFA affiliates in which English is an official or primary language, only three (Canada, Samoa and the United States) use “soccer” in their name, while the rest use football (although the Samoan Federation actually uses both). New Zealand Soccer changed its name to Football New Zealand in May 2006. [5] In Australia, the governing body’s renaming and increased usage of “football” rather than “soccer” (the name used by most Australians) has caused controversy as the word football has traditionally been used to refer to Australian rules football and rugby league. It should be noted, however, that members of the Australian association football team are still known as the “Socceroos”.

The different codes are listed below and are described more fully in their own articles.

Games descended from the FA rules of 1863

• Association football, also known as football, soccer, footy and footie.
• Indoor varieties of Association football:
  • Five-a-side football – played throughout the world under various rules including:
    • Futsal – the FIFA-approved Five-a-side indoor game.
  • Indoor soccer – the six-a-side indoor game as played in North America.
• Paralympic Football – modified association football for disabled competitors.
  Beach soccer – football played on sand, also known as sand soccer.
  Street football – encompasses a number of informal varieties of football.
  Rush goalie is a variation of football in which the role of the goalkeeper is more flexible than normal.
• Keepie uppie is the art of juggling with a football using feet, knees, chest, shoulders, and head.
  • Footbag is a small bean bag or sand bag used as a ball in a number of keepie uppie variations such as hacky sack.
• Freestyle Football a modern take on Keepie uppie where freestylers are graded for their entertainment value and expression of skill.

Games descended from Rugby School rules

• Rugby football
  • Rugby league – usually known simply as “football” or “footy” in the Australian states of New South Wales and Queensland, and by some followers of the game in England. Also often referred to simply as “league”.
  • Rugby Union
    • Rugby Sevens
  • Touch Rugby – a name used for various forms of rugby union and rugby league which do not feature tackles.
    • Touch football (rugby league) – a non-contact version of rugby league; the best-known and most popular form of touch rugby worldwide. In Australia this code is often referred to as touch football or Touch. In South Africa it is known as six down.
  • Tag Rugby – generic name for non-contact forms of rugby league and rugby union, in which a velcro tag is taken to indicate a tackle.

• American football – called “football” in the United States and Canada, and “gridiron” in Australia and New Zealand.
  • Arena football – an indoor version of American football.
  • Touch football (American) – non-tackle American football.
    • Flag football – non-tackle American football, like touch football, in which a flag that is held by velcro on a belt tied around the waist is pulled by defenders to indicate a tackle.
• Canadian football – called simply “football” in Canada; “football” in Canada can mean either Canadian or American football depending on context.
  • Canadian flag football – non-tackle Canadian football.

Australian and Irish varieties of football

• Australian rules football – usually known simply as “football” by fans; although officially Australian football, and informally as “Aussie rules” or “footy”. In some areas (erroneously) referred to as “AFL”, which is the name of the main organising body and competition.
  • Auskick – a version of Australian rules designed by the AFL for young children.
  • Metro Footy (or Metro rules footy) – a modified version invented by the USAFL, for use on gridiron fields in North American cities (which often lack grounds large enough for conventional Australian rules matches).
  -a-side Footy – a more open, running variety of Australian rules, requiring 18 players in total and a proportionally smaller playing area. (Includes contact and non-contact varieties.)
  • Rec Footy – “Recreational Football”, a modified non-contact touch variation of Australian rules, created by the AFL, which replaces tackles with tags.
  • Samoa Rules – localised version adapted to Samoan conditions, such as the use of rugby fields.
  • Masters Australian Football (Superules) – reduced contact version introduced for competitions limited to players over 30 years of age.
  • Women’s Footy – reduced contact version introduced for women’s competition.
  • Austus – a compromise between Australian rules and American football, invented in Melbourne during World War II.
  • Gaelic football – played almost exclusively in Ireland. Often referred to as “football” or “gaah”.
  • International rules football – a compromise code used for games between Gaelic and Australian Rules players.
  • Universal football – A hybrid of Australian rules and rugby league, trialled at the Sydney Showground in 1933.[6]

  Surviving Mediæval ball games

  • Traditional Shrove Tuesday matches in the UK – annual town- or village-wide football games with their own rules. Alternative names include mob football, Shrovetide football and folk football.
    • Alnwick in Northumberland
      Ashbourne in Derbyshire (known as Royal Shrovetide Football)
      Atherstone in Warwickshire
      Corfe Castle in Dorset – The Shrove Tuesday Football Ceremony of the Purbeck Marblers.
      Haxey in Lincolnshire (the Haxey Hood, actually played on Epiphany)
      Hurling the Silver Ball takes place at St Columb Major in Cornwall
      Sedgefield in County Durham
    • In Scotland the Ba game (“Ball Game”) is still popular around Christmas and Hogmanay at:
      • Duns, Berwickshire
        Scone, Perthshire
        Kirkwall in the Orkney Islands
  • Outside the UK other Mediæval games include:
    • Calcio Fiorentino – a modern revival of Renaissance football from 16th century Florence.

  Other surviving public school games

  • Eton Field Game
    Eton Wall Game
    Harrow Football
    Winchester Football

  More recent inventions and derivations

  • Based on Mediæval football:
    • Murder Ball
  • Based on FA rules:
    • Cubbies
      Three sided football
      Triskelion
    • Keepie uppie is the art of juggling with a football using feet, knees, chest, shoulders, and head.
      • Footbag is a small bean bag or sand bag used as a ball in a number of keepie uppie variations such as hacky sack.
    • Freestyle Football a modern take on Keepie uppie where freestylers are graded for their entertainment value and expression of skill.
  • Based on Rugby:
    • Scuffleball
      Force em’ Backs
  • Hybrid games
    • Speedball (American) – a combination of American football, soccer, and basketball, devised by Elmer D. Mitchell at the University of Michigan in 1912.
    • Wheelchair Rugby – previously known as Murderball. Invented in Canada in 1977 and initially derived from ice hockey and basketball rather than rugby football.
      • Wheelchair power tag rugby
        Wheelchair rugby league

  Tabletop games and other recreations

  • Based on FA rules:
    • Category:Football (soccer) computer and video games
      Subbuteo
      Blow football
      Foosball (also known as table football/soccer, babyfoot, bar football or gettone)
      Fantasy football (soccer)
      Button football (also known as Futebol de Mesa; Jogo de Botões)
  • Based on Rugby:
    • Paper football
  • Based on American Football:
    • Blood Bowl
      Fantasy football (American)
      Madden NFL
  • Based on Australian Football:
    • List of Australian rules football computer games
      • AFL Premiership 2005
    • AFL Dream Team

  This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

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  Posted on: June 30th, 2008

A satellite tournament is either a minor tournament or event on a competitive sporting tour or one of a group of such tournaments that form a series played in the same country or region. The term is most commonly used in reference to minor professional or competitive junior tennis.In professional tennis, satellite tournaments are typically organised by a country’s national tennis association and overseen by the International Tennis Federation. They are played by players who are ranked outside the top few hundred by the Association of Tennis Professionals with a high enough national ranking. Prize money ranges from £1000 – £15000 for winning the tournament. Players successful at this level of pro tennis move on to play ATP Challenger Series or even top-flight ATP Tour events.

A satellite tournament in poker is a qualifying event. Winners of these satellites usually win the buy-in fee to a larger, more prestigious tournament like the World Series of Poker Main Event.

Video poker is a casino game based on five-card draw poker. It is played on a computerized console which is a similar size to a slot machine.

History

Video poker first became commercially viable when it became economical to combine a television-like monitor with a solid state central processing unit. The earliest models appeared at the same time as the first personal computers were produced, in the mid-1970s, although they were rather primitive by today’s standards.

Video poker became more firmly established when SIRCOMA, which stood for Si Redd’s Coin Machines, and which evolved over time to become International Game Technology introduced Draw Poker in 1979. Throughout the 1980s, video poker became increasingly popular in casinos, as people found the devices less intimidating than playing table games. Today, video poker enjoys a prominent place on the gaming floors of many casinos. The game is especially popular with Las Vegas locals, who tend to patronize locals casinos off the Las Vegas Strip. These local casinos often offer lower denomination machines or better odds.

The Game

Game play begins by placing a bet of one or more credits, by inserting money (or in newer machines, a barcoded paper ticket with credit) into the machine, and then pressing a “Deal” button to draw cards. The player is then given an opportunity to keep or discard one or more of the cards in exchange for a new card drawn from the same virtual deck, after which the machine evaluates the hand and offers a payout if the hand matches one of the winning hands in the posted pay schedule.

On a typical video poker machine, payouts start with a minimum hand of a pair of jacks. Pay schedules allocate the payout for hands based partially upon how rare they are, and also based upon the total theoretical return the game operator chooses to offer.

Some machines offer progressive jackpots for the royal flush, (and sometimes for other rare hands as well), thereby spurring players to both play more coins and to play more frequently.

Regulation

Video poker machines operated in state-regulated jurisdictions are programmed to deal random card sequences. A series of cards is generated for each play; five dealt straight to the hand, the other five dealt in order if requested by player. This is based upon a Nevada regulation, adopted by most other states with a gaming authority, which requires dice and cards used in an electronic game to be as random as the real thing, within computational limits set by the gaming authority. Video poker machines are tested to ensure compliance with this requirement before they may be offered to the public. Video poker games in Nevada are required to simulate a 52 card deck (or a 53 card deck if using a joker).

It is unclear whether all video poker machines at Indian gaming establishments are subject to the same Nevada-style regulations, as Indian casinos are located on reservations that are sovereign to the tribe which holds the gaming license.

Newer versions of the software no longer deal out all 10 cards at once. They now deal out the first five cards, and then when the draw button is pressed, they generate a second set of cards based on the remaining 47 cards in the deck. This was done after players found a way to reverse engineer a random number generator’s cycle from sample hands and were able to predict the hidden cards in advance.

Kinds of video poker

Newer video poker machines may employ variants of the basic five-card draw. Typical variations include: Deuces Wild, where a two can serve as a wild card and a jackpot is paid for four deuces or a natural royal; pay schedule modification, where four aces with a five or smaller kicker pays an enhanced amount (these games usually have some adjective in the title such as “bonus”, “double”, or “triple”); and multi-play poker, where the player starts with a base hand of five cards, and each additional played hand draws from a different set of cards with the base hand removed. (Multi-play games are offered in “Triple Play”, “Five Play”, “Ten Play”, “Fifty Play” and even “One Hundred Play” versions.)

In the non-wild games (games which do not have a wild card) a player who plays five or six hundred hands per hour, on average, may receive the rare four-of-a-kind approximately once per hour, while a player may play for many days or weeks before receiving an extremely rare royal flush.

Full pay games

Full pay video poker machines are games which offer the typical maximum payback percentage for that game type. The payback percentage on a full pay game is typically close to and sometimes over 100% when played with perfect strategy. Full pay Jacks or Better, for example, offers a payback percentage of approximately 99.5% when played with perfect strategy.

Casinos often place full pay machines alongside other machines with pay schedules that offer less attractive payback percentages, leaving it up to the player to identify which video poker machines offer full pay schedules.

Most full pay machines are configured with a pay schedule that is only full pay when the maximum amount of credits is bet. (See the pay schedule tables later in this article for details.)

Jacks or Better

“Jacks or Better” is the most common variation of video poker available. Payoffs begin at a pair of jacks or better. Full pay Jacks or Better is also known as 9/6 Jacks or Better; the 9 refers to the payoff for a full house and the 6 refers to the payoff for a flush. Full pay Jacks or Better has a theoretical return of 99.54% when played with perfect strategy.

• *Notice the gap between the payoff for a Natural Royal Flush played with 4 credits vs. one with 5 credits. The payoff schedule for most video poker machines has a gap like this, such that players who do not play with the maximum number of credits at a time are playing with a negative theoretical return.

Deuces Wild

“Deuces Wild” is a variation of video poker in which all two’s are wild. (Wild cards substitute for any other card in the deck in order to make a better poker hand. In Deuces Wild, the payout for a four of a kind makes up approximately 1/3 of the payback percentage of the game, and a four of a kind occurs on average once every 15 hands or so. Deuces Wild can be found with pay schedules that offer a theoretical return as high as 100.762%, when played with perfect strategy. It is also available with other pay schedules that have lesser theoretical returns:

• *Notice the gap between the payoff for a Natural Royal Flush played with 4 credits vs. one with 5 credits. The payoff schedule for most video poker machines has a gap like this, such that players who do not play with the maximum number of credits at a time are playing with a negative theoretical return.

Double Bonus

“Double Bonus” video poker is a variation of Jacks or Better with a bonus payout for four aces. This variation offers up to a theoretical return of 100.1725%, when played with perfect strategy. It is also available with other pay schedules that have lesser theoretical returns:

• *Notice the gap between the payoff for a Royal Flush played with 4 credits vs. one with 5 credits. Players who do not play with the maximum number of credits at a time are playing with a negative theoretical return.

Double Double Bonus

“Double Double Bonus” video poker is a variation of Jacks or Better which offers bonus payoffs for different four of a kinds, as seen in the payout table below. Full pay Double Double Bonus can be found with pay schedules that offer up to a theoretical return of 100.067%, when played with perfect strategy. It is also available with other pay schedules that have lesser theoretical returns:

• *Notice the gap between the payoff for a Royal Flush played with 4 credits vs. one with 5 credits. Players who do not play with the maximum number of credits at a time are playing with a negative theoretical return.

Other positive expectation games

Other kinds of video poker only have positive theoretical returns when the progressive jackpot is high enough. Many establishments advertise with a billboard when the progressive jackpot is high enough.

Locating positive expectation games

Although positive expectation and full pay video poker machines are found in many “locals” casinos (located off the Strip) in the Las Vegas market (and in a few Reno casinos), most Strip casinos and casinos in other markets offer less attractive video poker pay schedules.

Players’ clubs

Many casinos offer free memberships in “player’s clubs” or “slot clubs”, which return a small percentage of the amount of money that is bet in the form of “comps” (complementary food, drinks, hotel rooms, or merchandise), or sometimes as cash back (sometimes with a restriction that the cash be redeemed at a later date). These clubs require that players use a card that is inserted into the video poker machine to allow the casino to track the player’s “action” (how much the player bets and for how long), which is often used to establish a level of play that may make a player eligible for additional comps.

Comps or cash back from these clubs can make a significant difference in the theoretical return when playing video poker over a long period of time. In some cases, usage of a club card can even add enough value to the pay schedule of a video poker game with a negative theoretical return to make that same game have a positive theoretical return.

Links and sources

• Euromat – the European Gaming and Amusement Federation represents the amusement machine industry as a leisure industry division at the European level.
• The Wizard of Odds – derivations of the odds and expected return for many casino games, including video poker.
• Video Poker Lessons
• Jeff Lotspiech’s Video Poker Page
• Video Poker 365
• Jazbo’s Video Poker Information
• How To Play Jacks or Better Video Poker Video

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

English public schools

Match at Winchester College around 1840.

The earliest evidence that games resembling football were being played at English public schools — mainly attended by boys from the upper, upper-middle and professional classes — comes from the Vulgaria by William Horman in 1519. Horman had been headmaster at Eton and Winchester Colleges and his Latin textbook includes a translation exercise with the phrase “We wyll playe with a ball full of wynde”.

There is evidence that sophisticated games resembling the modern codes were being played in Britain by the early 17th century. In 1633, David Wedderburn, a teacher from Aberdeen, described one such match: “Let’s pick sides. Those who are on the outside, come over here. Kick off, so that we can begin the match… Pass it here.”[4]

The first specific mention of football at public schools can be found in a Latin poem by Robert Matthew, a Winchester scholar from 1643 to 1647. He describes how “…we may play quoits, or hand-ball, or bat-and-ball, or football; these games are innocent and lawful…”. Nugae Etonenses (1766) by T. Frankland also mentions the “Football Fields” at Eton.

By the early 19th century, (before the Factory Act of 1850), most working class people in Britain had to work six days a week, often for over twelve hours a day. They had neither the time nor the inclination to engage in sport for recreation and, at the time, many children were part of the labour force. Feast day football on the public highway was at an end. Thus the public school boys, who were free from constant toil, became the inventors of organised football games with formal codes of rules. These gradually evolved into the modern football games that we know today.

Football had come to be adopted by a number of public schools as a way of encouraging competitiveness and keeping youths fit. Each school drafted their own rules to suit the dimensions of their playing field. The rules varied widely between different schools and were changed over time with each new intake of pupils. Soon, two schools of thought about how football should be played emerged. Some schools favoured a game in which the ball could be carried (as at Rugby, Marlborough and Cheltenham), whilst others preferred a game where kicking and dribbling the ball was promoted (as at Eton, Harrow, Westminster and Charterhouse). The division into these two camps was partly the result of circumstances in which the games were played. At Charterhouse and Westminster the boys were confined to playing their ball game within the cloisters making the rough and tumble of the handling game difficult.

William Webb Ellis, a pupil at Rugby school, is said to have “showed a fine disregard for the rules of football, as played in his time” by picking up the ball and running to the opponents’ goal in 1823. This act is popularly said to be the beginnings of Rugby football, but the evidence for this bold act does not stand up to close examination and most sports historians believe the story to be apocryphal. Nevertheless, by 1841 (some sources say 1842), running with the ball had become acceptable at Rugby, as long as a player gathered the ball on the full or from a bounce, he was not offside and he did not pass the ball.

The boom in rail transport in Britain during the 1840s meant that people were able to travel further and with less inconvenience than they ever had before. Inter-school sporting competitions became possible. While local rules for athletics could be easily understood by visiting schools, it was nearly impossible for schools to play each other at football, as each school played by its own rules.

During this period, the Rugby school rules appear to have spread at least as far, perhaps further, than the other schools’ games. For example, two clubs which claim to be the world’s first and/or oldest football club, in the sense of one which is not part of a school or university, are both stongholds of rugby football: the Barnes Club, said to have been founded in 1839, and Guy’s Hospital Football Club, reportedly founded in 1843. Neither date nor the variety of football played is well-documented, but such claims nevertheless allude to the popularity of rugby before other modern codes emerged.

In 1845, three boys at Rugby school were tasked with codifying the rules then being used at the school. These were the first set of written rules (or code) for any form of football. This further assisted the spread of the Rugby game.

The Cambridge Rules

In 1848 at Cambridge University, Mr. H. de Winton and Mr. J.C. Thring, who were both formerly at Shrewsbury School, called a meeting at Trinity College, Cambridge with 12 other representatives from Eton, Harrow, Rugby, Winchester and Shrewsbury. An eight-hour meeting produced what amounted to the first set of modern rules, known as the Cambridge Rules. No copy of these rules now exists, but a revised version from circa 1856 is held in the library of Shrewsbury School. The rules clearly favour the kicking game. Handling was only allowed for a player to take a clean catch entitling them to a free kick and there was a primitive offside rule, disallowing players from “loitering” around the opponents’ goal. However, the Cambridge Rules were not widely adopted.

Other developments in the 1850s

The increasing interest and development of the various English football games was shown in 1851, when William Gilbert, a shoemaker from Rugby, exhibited both round and oval-shaped balls at the Great Exhibition in London.

Dublin University Football Club — founded at Trinity College, Dublin in 1854 and later famous as a bastion of the Rugby School game — is arguably the world’s oldest football club in any code.

Sheffield Football Club also has a claim to be the world’s oldest football club, in the sense of a club not attached to a school or university. It was founded by former Harrow School pupils Nathaniel Creswick and William Prest, in 1857. Creswick and Prest devised their own version of football: the Sheffield Rules. There were some similarities to the Cambridge Rules, but players were allowed to push or hit the ball with their hands, and there was no offside rule at all, so that players known as ‘kick throughs’ could be permanently positioned near the opponents’ goal. In 1867 the Sheffield Football Association was formed by a number of clubs in the local area and the Sheffield clubs continued to play by their own rules until they agreed to fall in with the FA rules in 1877.

By the end of the 1850s, many clubs had been formed throughout the English-speaking world, to play various codes of football.

Australian rules football

An Australian rules football match at the Richmond Paddock, Melbourne, in 1866. (A wood engraving by Robert Bruce.)

Tom Wills began to develop Australian football in Melbourne during 1858. Wills had been educated in England, at Rugby School and had played cricket for Cambridge University. The extent to which Wills was directly influenced by British and Irish football games is unknown, but there were similarities between some of them and his game. There were pronounced similarities between Wills’s game and Gaelic football (as it would be codified in 1887). It appears that Australian football also has some similarities to the Indigenous Australian game of Marn Grook (see above).

The Melbourne Football Club was also founded in 1858 and is the oldest surviving Australian football club, but the rules it used during its first season are unknown. The club’s rules of 1859 are the oldest surviving set of laws for Australian Rules. They were drawn up at the Parade Hotel, East Melbourne on 17 May, by Wills, W.J. Hammersley, J.B. Thompson and Thomas Smith (some sources include H.C.A. Harrison). These men had similar backgrounds to Wills and their code also had pronounced similarities to the Sheffield rules, most notably in the absence of an offside rule (although the similarities were probably coincidental). A free kick was awarded for a mark (clean catch). However, running while holding the ball was allowed and although it was not specified in the rules, an oval ball (like those later used in rugby) was used. The club had a strong and long-standing association with the Melbourne Cricket Club and cricket ovals — which vary in size and are much larger than the fields used in other forms of football — became the standard playing field. The 1859 rules did not include some elements which would soon become important to the game, such as the requirement to bounce the ball while running.

Australian rules is sometimes said to be the first form of football to be codified but — as was the case in all kinds of football at the time, there was no official body supporting the rules — and play varied from one club to another. By 1866, however, several other clubs in the Colony of Victoria had agreed to play an updated version of the Melbourne FC rules, which were later known as “Victorian Rules” and/or “Australasian Rules”. The formal name of the code later became Australian rules football (and, more recently, Australian football).

The Football Association

The first football international, Scotland versus England. Once kept by the Rugby Football Union as an early example of rugby football.

During the early 1860s, there were increasing attempts in England to unify and reconcile the various public school games. In 1862, J. C. Thring, who had been one of the driving forces behind the original Cambridge Rules, was a master at Uppingham School and he issued his own rules of what he called “The Simplest Game” (these are also known as the Uppingham Rules). In early October 1863 another new revised version of the Cambridge Rules was drawn up by a seven member committee representing former pupils from Harrow, Shrewsbury, Eton, Rugby, Marlborough and Westminster.

On the evening of October 26, 1863, representatives of several football clubs in the Greater London area met at the Freemason’s Tavern in Great Queen Street. This was the first meeting of The Football Association (FA). It was the world’s first official football body. Charterhouse was the only school which accepted invitations to attend. The first meeting resulted in the issuing of a request for representatives of the public schools to join the association. With the exception of Thring at Uppingham, most schools declined. In total, six meetings of the FA were held between October and December 1863. After the third meeting, a draft set of rules were published by the FA. However, at the beginning of the fourth meeting, attention was drawn to the recently-published Cambridge Rules of 1863. The Cambridge rules differed from the draft FA rules in two significant areas; namely running with (carrying) the ball and hacking (kicking opposing players in the shins). The two contentious FA rules were as follows:

IX. A player shall be entitled to run with the ball towards his adversaries’ goal if he makes a fair catch, or catches the ball on the first bound; but in case of a fair catch, if he makes his mark he shall not run.

X. If any player shall run with the ball towards his adversaries’ goal, any player on the opposite side shall be at liberty to charge, hold, trip or hack him, or to wrest the ball from him, but no player shall be held and hacked at the same time.

At the fifth meeting a motion was proposed that these two rules be removed from the FA rules. Most of the delegates supported this suggestion but F. W. Campbell, the representative from Blackheath and the first FA treasurer, objected strongly. He said, “hacking is the true football”. The motion was carried nonetheless and — at the final meeting — Campbell withdrew his club from the FA. After the final meeting on 8 December the FA published the “Laws of Football”, the first comprehensive set of rules for the game later known as Association football (later known in some countries as soccer).

These first FA rules still contained elements that are no longer part of Association football, but which are still recognisable in other games: for instance, a player could make a fair catch and claim a mark, which entitled him to a free kick, and; if a player touched the ball behind the opponents’ goal line, his side was entitled to a free kick at goal, from 15 yards in front of the goal line.

Rugby football

1871 engraving of the game

In Britain, by 1870, there were about 75 clubs playing variations of the Rugby school game, including Blackheath (founded in 1858 and arguably the world’s oldest surviving, non-university rugby club). There were also “rugby” clubs in Ireland, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. However, there was no generally accepted set of rules for rugby until 1871, when 21 clubs from London came together to form the Rugby Football Union (RFU). (Ironically, Blackheath now lobbied to ban hacking.) The first official RFU rules were adopted in June 1871. These rules allowed passing the ball. They also included the try, where touching the ball over the line allowed an attempt at goal, though drop-goals from marks and general play, and penalty conversions were still the main form of contest.

North American football

As was the case in Britain, by the early 19th century, North American schools and universities played their own local games, between sides made up of students. By the 1820s, a game known as Ballown was being played at the College of New Jersey (later known as Princeton University) and Old Division Football was being played at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire. In 1827, a Harvard University student composed a humorous epic poem called The Battle of the Delta, one of the first accounts of football in American universities.

The first documented football match in Canada was a game played at University College, University of Toronto on November 9, 1861. A football club was formed at the university soon afterwards, although its rules of play at this stage are unclear: it is not known whether they played a kicking or handling game, or both, and its members mostly played against each other.

The first “football club” in the USA was the short-lived Oneida Football Club in Boston, Massachusetts, founded in 1862. It has often been said that this club was the first to play soccer outside Britain. However, the rules that the Oneida club used are also unknown, and it was formed before the FA rules were formulated. The club may have invented the “Boston Game”, a running code which was being played several years later in Massachusetts.

In 1864, at Trinity College, Toronto, F. Barlow Cumberland and Frederick A. Bethune devised rules based on the Rugby school game. However, the first game of “rugby” in Canada is generally said to have taken place in Montreal, in 1865, when British Army officers played local civilians. The game gradually gained a following, and the Montreal Football Club was formed in 1868, the first recorded football club in Canada.

The first match generally said to have occurred under English FA (soccer) rules in the USA was a game between Princeton and Rutgers in 1869. This is also often considered to be the first US game of college football, in the sense of a game between colleges (although the eventual form of American football would come from rugby, not soccer).

Rutgers College Football Team, 1882

Modern American football grew out of a match between McGill University of Montreal, and Harvard University in 1874. At the time, Harvard students are reported to have played the “Boston Game” — a running code — rather than the FA-based kicking games favored by US universities. This made it easy for Harvard to adapt to the rugby-based game played by McGill and the two teams alternated between their respective sets of rules. Within a few years, however, Harvard had both adopted McGill’s rugby rules and had persuaded other US university teams to do the same. In 1876, at the Massasoit Convention, it was agreed by these universities to adopt most of the Rugby Football Union rules. However, a touch-down (as it was also known in rugby football at the time) only counted toward the score if neither side kicked a field goal. The convention decided that, in the US game, four touchdowns would be worth one goal; in the event of a tied score, a goal converted from a touchdown would take precedence over four touch-downs.

Princeton, Rutgers and others continued to compete using soccer-based rules for a few years before switching to the rugby-based rules of Harvard and its competitors. US colleges did not generally return to soccer until the early twentieth century.

In 1880, Yale coach Walter Camp, devised a number of major changes to the American game, beginning with the reduction of teams from 15 to

Over the years Canadian football absorbed some developments in American football, but also retained many unique characteristics. One of these was that Canadian football, for many years, did not officially distinguish itself from rugby. For example, the Canadian Rugby Football Union, founded in 1884 was the forerunner of the Canadian Football League, rather than a rugby union body. (The Canadian Rugby Union was not formed until 1965.) American football was also frequently described as “rugby” in the 1880s.

Gaelic football

In the mid-19th century, various traditional football games, referred to collectively as caid, remained popular in Ireland, especially in County Kerry. One observer, Father W. Ferris, described two main forms of caid during this period: the “field game” in which the object was to put the ball through arch-like goals, formed from the boughs of two trees, and; the epic “cross-country game” which took up most of the daylight hours of a Sunday on which it was played, and was won by one team taking the ball across a parish boundary. “Wrestling”, “holding” opposing players, and carrying the ball were all allowed.

By the 1870s, Rugby and Association football had started to become popular in Ireland. Trinity College, Dublin was an early stronghold of Rugby (see the Developments in the 1850s section, above). The rules of the English FA were being distributed widely. Traditional forms of caid had begun to give way to a “rough-and-tumble game” which allowed tripping.

There was no serious attempt to unify and codify Irish varieties of football, until the establishment of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) in 1884. The GAA sought to promote traditional Irish sports, such as hurling and to reject “foreign” (particularly English) imports. The first Gaelic football rules were drawn up by Maurice Davin and published in the United Ireland magazine on February 7, 1887. Davin’s rules showed the influence of games such as hurling and a desire to formalise an Irish code of football distinct from Rugby and Association football. The prime example of this differentiation was the lack of an offside rule (an attribute which, for many years, was shared only by other Irish games like hurling, and by Australian rules football).

The split in rugby football

The International Rugby Football Board (IRFB) was founded in 1886, but rifts were beginning to emerge in the code. Professionalism was beginning to creep into the various codes of football.

In Britain, by the 1890s, a long-standing Rugby Football Union ban on professional players was causing regional tensions within rugby football, as many players in northern England were working class and could not afford to take time off to train, travel, play and recover from injuries. This was not very different from what had occurred ten years earlier in soccer in Northern England but the authourities reacted very differently in the RFU, attempting to alienate the working class support in Northern England. In 1895, following a dispute about a player being paid broken time payments, which replaced wages lost as a result of playing rugby, representatives of the northern clubs met in Huddersfield to form the Northern Rugby Football Union (NRFU). The new body initially permitted only various types of player wage replacements. However, within two years, NRFU players could be paid, but they were required to have a job outside sport.

The demands of a professional league dictated that rugby had to become a better “spectator” sport. Within a few years the NRFU rules had started to diverge from the RFU, most notably with the abolition of the line-out. This was followed by the replacement of the ruck with the “play-the-ball ruck”, which allowed a two-player ruck contest between the tackler at marker and the player tackled. Mauls were stopped once the ball carrier was held, being replaced by a play-the ball-ruck. The separate Lancashire and Yorkshire competitions of the NRFU merged in 1901, forming the Northern Rugby League, the first time the name rugby league was used officially in England.

Over time, the RFU form of rugby, played by clubs which remained members of national federations affiliated to the IRFB, became known as rugby union.

The globalisation of association football

The need for a single body to oversee the worldwide game became apparent at the beginning of the 20th century with the increasing popularity of international fixtures. The Football Association had chaired many discussions on setting up an international body, but was perceived as making no progress. It fell to Football Associations the seven other European countries, France, Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland, to band together to form an international association. The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) was founded in Paris on May 21, 1904 — the French name and acronym persist to this day, even outside French-speaking countries. Its first president was Robert Guérin.

The reform of American football

Both forms of rugby and American football were noted at the time for serious injuries, as well as the deaths of a significant number of players. By the early 20th century in the USA, this had resulted in national controversy and American football was banned by a number of colleges. Consequently, a series of meetings was held by 19 colleges in 1905–06. This occurred reputedly at the behest of President Theodore Roosevelt. He was considered a fancier of the game, but he threatened to ban it unless the rules were modified to reduce the numbers of deaths and disabilities. The meetings are now considered to be the origin of the National Collegiate Athletic Association.

One proposed change was a widening of the playing field. However, Harvard University had just built a concrete stadium and therefore objected to widening, instead proposing legalisation of the forward pass. The report of the meetings introduced many restrictions on tackling and two more divergences from rugby: the banning of mass formation plays, as well as the forward pass. The changes did not immediately have the desired effect, and 33 American football players were killed during 1908 alone. However, the number of deaths and injuries did gradually decline.

The two rugby codes diverge further

Rugby league rules diverged significantly from rugby union in 1906, with the reduction of the team from 15 to 13 players. In 1907, a New Zealand professional rugby team toured Australia and Britain, and as a result the New South Wales Rugby League was formed. However the rules of professional rugby varied from one country to another, and negotiations between various national bodies were required to fix the exact rules for each international match. This situation endured until 1948, when at the instigation of the French league, the Rugby League International Federation (RLIF) was formed at a meeting in Bordeaux.

In the late 20th century, the rules changed further. In 1966, rugby league officials borrowed the American football concept of downs: a team could retain possession of the ball for no more than four tackles. The maximum number of tackles was later increased to six (in 1971), and in rugby league this became known as the six tackle rule.

With the advent of full-time professionals in the early 1990s, and the consequent speeding up of the game, the five metre off-side distance between the two teams became 10 metres, and the replacement rule was superseded by various interchange rules, among other changes.

The rules of rugby union also changed significantly and became very complex and technical during the 20th century. In addition, rucks and mauls became homogenised, and in line-outs players began to be lifted by their teammates to contest their opponents. The advent of professionalism has also helped to complicate rules further.

In 1995, Rugby Union became an “open” game allowing professionalism throughout the affiliate members. Although the original source of dispute between the two codes and despite the fact that ARU officials like John O’Neill have sometimes suggested the idea, the rules of both codes and their culture of football have seemingly diverged so far that such a union does not seem likely to be on the horizon within the foreseeable future.

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

baby

A low-ranked card, usually used in lowball games. Also “spoke” when between ace and five.

backdoor

1. A draw requiring two or more rounds to fill. For example, catching two consecutive cards in two rounds of seven-card stud or Texas hold ‘em to fill a straight or flush.
2. A hand made other than the hand the player intended to make. I started with four hearts hoping for a flush, but I backdoored two more kings and my trips won.

back in

1. To enter a pot by checking and then calling someone else’s open on the first betting round. Usually used in games like Jackpots, meaning to enter without openers.
2. To enter a pot cheaply or for free because of having posted a blind.

back into

To win a pot with a hand that would have folded to any bet. For example, two players enter a pot of draw poker, both drawing to flushes. Both miss, and check after the draw. The player with the ace-high draw “backs into” winning the pot against the player with only a king-high draw. Also to make a backdoor draw, for example, a player who starts a hand with three of a kind, but makes a runner-runner flush, can be said to back into the flush.

bank

Also called the house, the person responsible for distributing chips, keeping track of the buy-ins, and paying winners at the end of the game.

bankroll

The amount of money that a player has to wager for the duration of his or her poker career.

behind

1. Not currently having the best hand. I’m pretty sure my pair of jacks was behind Lou’s kings, but I had other draws, so I kept playing.
2. Describing money in play but not visible as chips in front a player. For example, a player may announce “I’ve got $100 behind” while handing money to a casino employee, meaning that he intends those chips to be in play as soon as they are brought to him.

berry patch

A game with many unskilled or “live” players; a lucrative opportunity for profit.

bet

1. Any money wagered during the play of a hand.
2. More specifically, the opening bet of a betting round.
3. In a fixed limit game, the standard betting amount. There were six bets in the pot when I called.

big bet game

A game played with a no limit or pot limit betting structure.

big blind

See blind.

big blind special

A situation in which (assuming no raising) the player in the big blind is dealt weak hole cards, but ends up making the best hand because he or she was able to see the flop for free, often two pair with unusual cards such as 3-9 or 10-2.

blank

A card, frequently a community card, of no apparent value. I suspected Margaret had a good draw, but the river card was a blank, so I bet again.

blaze

A hand of five face cards that used to outrank a flush.

bleed

To lose small amounts continually, so as to add up to a large loss. I won that large pot with my kings, but then I bled it all off over the next hour.

blind

1. A type of forced bet.
2. In the “dark”.

blind stud

A stud poker game in which all cards are dealt face down. Was popular in California before legal rulings made traditional stud legal there.

blind off, blinded

1. To “ante off”.
2. To have one’s stack reduced by paying ever increasing blinds in tournaments. Ted had to make a move soon or he would be blinded away in three more rounds.

bluff-catcher

On the last betting round, a hand that cannot win if the opponent is making a legitimate value bet, but that might win if the opponent’s bet was a pure bluff. It looked like Jim and I were both drawing for a flush. I missed and he bet, but I figured the pair of nines I caught along the way made a bluff-catcher, so I called.

board

1. The set of community cards in a community card game. If another spade hits the board, I’ll have to fold.
2. The set of face-up cards of a particular player in a stud game. Zack’s board didn’t look too scary, so I bet into him again.
3. The set of all face-up cards in a stud game. I started with a flush draw, but there were already four other diamonds showing on the board, so I folded.

bomb

A “brick”.

bone

A chip, often of small denomination.

both ways

Both halves of a split pot, often declared by a player who thinks he or she will win both low and high.

bottom end

The lowest of several possible straights, especially in a community card game. For example, in Texas hold’em with the cards 5-6-7 on the board, a player holding 3-4 has the bottom end straight, while a player holding 4-8 or 8-9 has a higher straight.

bottom pair, bottom set

In a community card game, a pair (or set) made by matching the lowest-ranking board card with one (or two) in one’s private hand.

box

The chip tray in front of a house dealer, and by extension, the house dealer’s position at the table. You’ve been in the box for an hour now; don’t you get a break?

boxed card

A card encountered face-up in the assembled deck during the deal, as opposed to one overturned in the act of dealing. Most house rules treat a boxed card as if it didn’t exist; that is, it is placed aside and not used. Different rules cover cards exposed during the deal.

break

1. In a draw poker game, to discard cards that make a made hand in the hope of making a much better one. For example, a player with J-J-10-9-8 may wish to break his pair of jacks to draw for the straight, and a lowball player may break his 9-high 9-5-4-2-A to draw for the wheel.
2. To end a session of play. The game broke at about 3:00.

brick

A “blank”, though more often used in the derogatory sense of a card that is undesirable rather than merely inconsequential, such as a card of high rank or one that makes a pair in a low-hand game.

bring in

1. To open a betting round. Alice brought it in for $5, and Bob raised $10.
2. A kind of forced bet. Ted posted the bring-in.

brush

1. A casino employee whose job it is to greet players entering the poker room, maintain the list of persons waiting to play, announce open seats, and various other duties (including brushing off tables to prepare them for new games, hence the name).
2. To recruit players into a game. Dave is brushing up some players for tonight’s game.

bubble

The last finishing position in a poker tournament before entering the payout structure. He was very frustrated after getting eliminated on the bubble. Also can be applied to other situations like if six players will make a televised final table the player finishing seventh will go out on the “TV bubble”.

bullet

1. An ace.
2. A chip.

bully

To bluff repeatedly at all opportunities, or a player who does so. Compare to “run over”.

bum deal

A mis-deal

bump

To raise. Alice bet $5 and Bob bumped it to $20.

busted

1. Not complete, such as four cards to a straight that never gets the fifth card to complete it.
2. Out of chips. To “bust out” is to lose all of one’s chips.

buy-in

The minimum required amount of chips to become involved in a game (or tournament). For example, a $4-$8 fixed limit game might require a player to buy at least $40 worth of chips to play. This is typically far less than an average player would expect to play with for any amount of time, but large enough that the player can play a number of hands without buying more, so the game isn’t slowed down by constant chip-buying.

buy short

To buy into a game for an amount smaller than the normal buy-in. Some casinos allow this under certain circumstances, such as after having lost a full buy-in, or if all players agree to allow it.

buy the button

A rule originating in northern California casinos in games played with blinds, in which a new player sitting down with the button to his right (who would normally be required to sit out a hand as the button passed him, then post to come in) may choose to pay the amount of both blinds for this one hand (the amount of the large blind playing as a live blind, and the amount of the small blind as dead money), play this hand, and then receive the button on the next hand as if he had been playing all along.

buy the pot

Making a bet when no one else is betting so as to force the other players to fold in order to win the pot uncontested.

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

A slot machine (American English), poker machine (Australian English), or fruit machine (British English) is a certain type of casino game. Traditional slot machines are coin-operated machines with three or more reels, which spin when a lever on the side of the machine is pulled. The machines include a currency detector that validates the coin or money inserted to play. (The slot machine is also known informally as a one-armed bandit because of its appearance and its ability to leave the gamer penniless.) The machine typically pays off based on patterns of symbols visible on the front of the machine when it stops. Modern computer technology has resulted in many variations on the slot machine concept. Today, slot machines have become one of the most popular attractions in casinos.

Addiction

• Slot machines, like other gambling devices and games, can be addictive to some individuals.

Trivia

• The first Liberty Bell slot machine can be found at the Liberty Belle Saloon & Restaurant on 4250 S. Virginia, Reno, Nevada. Brothers Marshall and Frank Fey opened the restaurant Nov. 20, 1958. The Fey’s grandfather, Charles Fey, invented the first three-wheeled slot machine, and the restaurant has a collection of more than 200 antique machines. The Liberty Belle closed on March 17, 2006 and the location was recently purchased by the Reno-Sparks Convention Center which is located nearby.

On July 8, 2006, the Liberty Belle’s slot machine collection will be auctioned off at the Reno-Sparks Convention Center.

• The first MegaJackpot system was introduced by International Game Technology in 1986. It is known as a Wide Area Progressive system.

Bibliography

• Brisman, Andrew. The American Mensa Guide to Casino Gambling: Winning Ways (Stirling, 1999) ISBN 080694837X
• Grochowski, John. The Slot Machine Answer Book: How They Work, How They’ve Changed, and How to Overcome the House Advantage (Bonus Books, 2005) ISBN 1566252350
• Legato, Frank. How to Win Millions Playing Slot Machines! …Or Lose Trying (Bonus Books, 2004) ISBN 1566252164

Links

• HowStuffWorks: Slot Machines
• How Slot Machines Work
• Learn to Play Slot Machines
• Are Slot Machines Honest?
• Slot Machines de-mystified
• Slot Machines explained
• Slot Machine Fan

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

The Cox Pavillion is a 2,472-seat indoor arena built in 2001 on the canpus of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. It is used for small events and its main tenants are the UNLV’s women’s basketball and volleyball programs.

The House Financial Services Committee voted down a bill, H.R. 5767, that would have prevented federal agencies from issuing rules implementing the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA). Lawmakers failed to agree on setting a clear definition of illegal Internet gambling.

Alabama Republican Rep. Spencer Bachus says that “Today’s vote was a victory for young people because illegal Internet gambling brings the casino into their bedrooms and dorm rooms, sometimes with tragic consequences.”

But the tie vote, 32-32, meant the legislation failed under committee rules. The original bill proposed by Rep. Barney Frank and Rep. Ron Paul was defeated in a voice vote.

“The financial institutions are in the position of being told not process bets, but it’s not clear what is legal and what is illegal,” said Rep. Barney Frank, the committee’s chairman.

Rep. Peter King says that this “was a banking issue, not a gambling issue” and that the banking industry shouldn’t be in the position of determining what is legal and illegal.

“The PPA is surprised that the Financial Services Committee today failed to clarify what constitutes ‘unlawful Internet gambling’ under the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA),” said Alfonse D’Amato, chairman of the Poker Players Alliance.

A-B-C, A-B-C-D

1. A sequence of the lowest cards in a lowball game. For example, the hand 8-6-3-2-A might be called an eight-six-a-b-c.
2. Uncreative or predictable play. He’s an a-b-c player.

ace-to-five, ace-to-six

Methods of evaluating low hands.

act

To make a play (bet, call, raise, or fold) at the required time. It is Ted’s turn to act. Compare to “in turn”.

action

1. A player’s turn to act. The action is on you.
2. A willingness to gamble. I’ll give you action or There’s plenty of action in this game
3. A bet, along with all the calls of that bet. For example, if one player makes a $5 bet and three other players call, he is said to have $5 “in action”, and to have received $15 worth of action on his bet. Usually this term comes into play when figuring side pots when one or more players is all in.

action button

A marker similar to a kill button, on which a player places an extra forced bet. In a seven-card stud high-low game, the action button is awarded to the winner of a scoop pot above a certain size, signifying that in the next pot, they player will be required to post an amount representing a completion of the bring-in to a full bet. For example, in a stud game with $2 and $4 betting limits and a $1 bring-in, a player with the action button must post $2; after the cards are dealt, the player with the low card must still pay the $1 bring-in, then when the betting reaches the player who posted the $2, he is required to leave it in as a raise of the bring-in (and has the option to raise further). Players in between the bring-in and the action button can just call the bring-in, but they know ahead of time that they will be raised by the action button.

action only

In many cardrooms, with respect to an all-in bet, only a full (or half) bet can be reraised. Anything less than a full (or half) bet is considered to be action only, that is, other players can call the bet but not raise it. For example, Alice bets $100. Bob calls. Carol goes all in for $119. When the action returns to Alice and Bob, they may only to call the extra $19; they cannot raise it. Carol’s raise is called action only.

add-on

In a live game, to buy more chips before you have busted. In tournament play, a single rebuy for which all players are eligible regardless of their stack size. This is usually allowed only once, at the end of the rebuy period.

advertising

To make an obvious play or expose cards in such a way as to deliberately convey an impression to your opponents about your style of play. For example, to make a bad play or bluff to give the impression that you bluff frequently (hoping opponents will then call your legitimate bets) or to show only good hands to give the impression that you rarely bluff (hoping opponents will then fold when you do).

air

In a lowball game, “giving air” is letting an opponent who might otherwise fold know that you intend to draw one or more cards to induce him to call.

all day

The total current posted bet. Used to indicate that the speaker is referring to the total bet, versus the difference the acting player would need to post. Action is on Alice; twenty all day.

altogether

The total current posted bet. Used to indicate that the speaker is referring to the total bet, versus the difference the acting player would need to post. Action is on Alice; twenty dollars altogether.

ammo, ammunition

Chips in play. I’m going to need more ammo for this game.

angle

A technically legal, but borderline unethical, play. For example, deliberately miscalling one’s own hand to induce a fold, or placing odd amounts of chips in the pot to confuse opponents about whether you mean to call or raise. A player employing such tactics is called an “angle shooter”.

ante off

In tournament play, to force an absent player to continue paying antes, blinds, bring-ins, or other forced bets so that the contest remains fair to the other players. Go ahead and take that phone call. We’ll ante you off until you get back.

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

Eichel (acorn)	Grün (green)	Rot (red)	Schellen (bells)
Club	Spade	Heart	Diamond

Sheepshead is a card game related to the Skat family of games, originating in Central Europe in the late 1700′s under the German name Schafkopf. Although Schafkopf literally means “sheepshead”, the term is actually derived from Middle High German and referred to playing cards on an overturned barrel (from kopfen, meaning playing cards, and Schaffen, meaning a barrel).

Sheepshead is played by two to five players, where the variant with five players is the most common, by far. The German cards, which are generally used for playing in southern Germany, are listed below in the order of value for the trumps. Poker or French cards (Clubs, Spades, etc.) have direct equivalents with German cards.

How to play

Preparation

Remove the jokers and all sixes, fives, fours, threes, and twos from the pack. Sheepshead is played with all the cards 7-8-9-10-J-Q-K-A, i.e. a total of 32 cards.

Play Variations

There are a number of different play variations for Sheepshead. These include the number of players (from two to five), differences in scoring, differences when no partners are named (leasters/doublers), and differences in the way partners are chosen (Pick Partner/Jack of Diamonds partner).

The article will describe how to play “Five Handed, Leasters, Pick Partner”, but will try to touch on the other variations.

Card Order

Card order in Sheepshead is unique and one of the most difficult things for some beginners to grasp.

There are 14 trump cards, including all the Queens, Jacks, and Diamonds, listed here in order of strength to take tricks:

• Q♣ – Q♠ – Q♥ – Q♦
• J♣ – J♠ – J♥- J♦
• A♦ – 10♦ – K♦ – 9♦, 8♦, 7♦

Also, there are 6 of each “fail” suit. (18 total)

• A, 10, K, 9, 8, 7 of ♣ (clubs)
• A, 10, K, 9, 8, 7 of ♠ (spades)
• A, 10, K, 9, 8, 7 of ♥ (hearts)

Clubs, Spades, and Hearts take no precedence over other fail suits. Trump always take fail. The lead suit must be followed if possible.

Card Point Values

Point scoring will also take some getting used to. You should make a chart for yourself the first time you play.

• Queens – 3 points
• Jacks – 2 points
• Aces – 11 points
• Tens – 10 points
• Kings – 4 points
• 9,8,7 – 0 points

Note that the strongest cards (Queens and Jacks) are not worth the most points. This gives Sheepshead some of its unique character.

There is a total of 120 points in the deck.

Keeping Score

Be careful not to confuse the points that the cards are worth, and the total point score. Points are given/taken on a zero-sum basis. If you are the picker, your goal is to take 61 points. If picker gets 60, that’s a tie and picker loses.

Here is a chart to make it easier. Look up the picker’s point total in the chart below.

• Once you reach 31 points, that means you have schneider.
• There are 120 points in the deck. It’s possible to take a trick that is worth zero points, which why the distinction of “All Tricks” and “No Tricks” is necessary.
• Every opponent gains or loses the amount listed.

The Deal

Cut the deck. The dealer deals 3 cards at a time to each person, starting with the player to dealer’s left. After dealing everyone 3 cards, 2 cards are put face down in a separate pile (the “blind”). Then deal the rest of the cards, 3 at a time around the table again.

When done, each person should have 6 cards with 2 cards in the blind.

The Blind

The player to the left of the dealer gets first choice to take the blind. If he passes, the option is given to the next player (in clockwise order).

If the blind goes all the way around to the dealer, and the dealer declines to play, a leaster is played. (If you are playing doublers instead of leasters, the points are doubled, the deal moves one to the left, and a new hand is dealt.)

Whoever decides to take the blind is called the “picker”. The picker adds the 2 cards to his hand, then must choose two cards to lay down, or “bury”. The buried cards are automatically added to the picker’s score.

Now, the picker must choose: He can either play alone (picker against 4 opponents) or can choose a partner (picker/partner against 3 opponents).

Variation of play: One variation of play at this point is that, when a player picks up the blind, any player (who is not the pickers partner) who was not given the opportunity to pick up the blind may ‘knock’ or ‘crack’ by knocking the table with their fist. This automatically doubles the point values in the table above for determining the score when the game ends. In addition, you may also allow that, after a player cracks, the picker has the option to ‘recrack’, which redoubles it again, or to 4 times the values at the end of the game.

In another variation, after a crack the partner may ‘crack-around-the-corner’ and double the game, but revealing his or her relation to the picker if the game is being played with the jack of diamonds as partner.

Another variation allows players to double further by ‘blitzing’ as well as cracking. A player may blitz by revealing either the two black queens, the two red queens, or the two black jacks from his or her hand. A blitz can only be initiated after a crack has occurred. A combination of these variations follows.

Example:

• Player 1: Passes
• Player 2: Picks
• Player 3: has two black jacks
• Player 4: is partner, has two red queens
• Player 5: has nothing significant to illustration

In this scenario Player 3 blitz’s by showing his jacks. Player 4 responds with a blitz-crack-around-the-corner by revealing her queens and jack of diamonds. Player 1 also decides to ‘recrack’. The score is doubled four times as a result of the four maneuvers. This game will be worth 16 times the original amount. Blitzing can lead to large point escalation and, thus, is not used often.

Getting a Partner

One of the more intriguing aspects of Sheepshead is that you have different teams with each hand. Generally you will not know who your partner is until specific cards are played.

Called ace

If you pick the blind and decide that your hand isn’t good enough to “go it alone”, you must select a called ace suit. Some notes about choosing the called suit:

Basically, when the picker calls a suit, whoever has the Ace of that suit is the partner.

• Called suit must be a fail suit (clubs, spades or hearts).
• Picker must have at least one of the fail suit in his/her hand. (Special case: an unknown can be played if a player has no fail suits–i.e. all trump–see below)
• Picker cannot call a suit for which he has the Ace.
• If the picker has all 3 fail Aces (it happens occasionally), he can “call a 10″ instead of the Ace. The picker is obligated to hold the Ace of that suit in their hand. When the called suit is led, the picker must play the Ace. In addition, the person with the 10 takes the trick if it is not trumped.
• Unknown. If the picker has no fail suit to use for the called suit, he can pick a card to “act as the called suit”. Example: picker has all trump or the Ace in all their fail suits. Picker can take a low diamond (9♦ lets say) and lay it face down on the table, and call (for example) Spades. That 9♦ stays face down until Spades is lead (or until nothing else can be laid down). That particular 9♦, since it was designated an “unknown”, has no power to take tricks but the points associated with that card still count at the end of the game. No one besides the player who took the ace trick is allowed to look at the unknown card.

Examples of picker hands

{Taking the blind, burying, and selecting partner…)

Hand 1: Q♥, A♦, A♣, 10♣, 7♣, 7♥

• You probably shouldn’t take the blind. With only 2 trump it’s not really worth it.

Hand 2: J♣, J♦, A♦, 8♦, A♠, A♥

• Don’t take the blind. You have 4 trump, but they are mostly little. If you have a chronic picking problem you may pick on this.
• If you pass on the blind, you have a very good chance of ending up partner, since you have 2 of the 3 fail aces.
• This is a decent partner hand, with the trump and lots of point to “schmear” to your partner.

Hand 3: Q♠, Q♥, J♦, K♦, 10♥, 10♣

• With 20 points to bury, this wouldn’t be a bad hand to pick on.
• A rule of thumb: If you can forsee schneider, pick.
• – In Blind: 8♦, 7♣
• The blind wasn’t that good, so you definitely want to pick a partner.
• You could bury both 10s for the sure points, and then you would have to call clubs. The problem with this is that the called Ace has little chance of walking. There would be only 3 more clubs out there
• It is recommended to bury both 7♣ and 10♣ and calling hearts. This is a tough case, and if you aren’t feeling that lucky maybe burying both 10s (and therefore guaranteeing yourself 20 points) would be the best idea.

Hand 4: Q♣, Q♦, A♦, 10♦, A♥, K♥

• This is a very good hand to pick on.
• There are 15 points to bury (A♥ and K♥) and that’s basically half way to schneider (31 points)
• – In Blind: J♣, 9♦
• (Special note: If this player had gotten another Queen in the blind, (s)he could surely go alone)
• Player should keep the two additional trump, then bury the A♥ and K♥
• Hand is now: Q♣, Q♥, J♣, A♦, 10♦, 9♦ (all trump)
• Picker now has the option of getting a partner (or not). This is a very good hand and might be a winner if attempted “alone”
• If the picker wants a partner, he has to call an “unknown” since he has nothing but trump. He can take his 9♦, place it face down on the table, then call it any suit he wants (besides Hearts, since he just buried the Ace of Hearts). Let’s just say “clubs”. Now, that an unknown was called, that 9♦ cannot be used on any trick except the called suit. (Or on the last trick if the called suit was never lead during the game)
• This hand is good enough that he might get a “Thanks for the ride” from his partner. This usually means that you could have gone it alone.

Hand 5: Q♠, Q♥, J♦, 10♦, 7♦, K♥

• Five trump, with 2 Queens and 1 Jack. This is definitely a picking hand.
• – In Blind: Q♣, J♠
• The big queen and a good Jack — a near perfect hand.
• Hand is now: Q♣, Q♠, Q♥, J♠, J♦, 10♦
• With the 3 big queens, buried trump and other very good cards, this hand is a good choice to go alone on.
• You will get at least 3 tricks, and have a very good chance of taking them all.

Jack of Diamonds

Instead of choosing a partner, some play that the Jack of Diamonds is automatically partner.

In general you can pick on weaker hands when playing J♦ partner because you are always guaranteed that your partner will have at least one trump (the J♦ – there is no such guarantee playing Called Ace). Some suggestions:

• Bare aces are nearly as good as trump. Unless your hand is really bad and you want to guarantee points, keep bare aces.
• If you can bury 20 points, you only need one more good trick to make Schneider, the minimum you want. It is a judgement call you have to make, deciding between getting the points (burying them) or keeping the cards to use in play.
• You can always go it alone, but don’t do it unless you have a really good hand. If you got all 4 queens, of course then you could go alone.
• If the picker has the J♦ in his hand, there are two possible rules:
  • Picker plays alone (possibly with a poor hand)
  • Picker can select J♥ partner instead

Playing the Cards

Always remember the goal of Sheepshead is to get as many points as possible. You can take 4 out of 6 tricks and still lose point-wise. Always aim first for schneider (31 pts for picker, 30 otherwise).

At this point, there are basically 3 possibilities of play.

1. Leasters
2. Playing Alone
3. With Partner

Leasters

In leasters, you must take at least one trick to win. Each person plays for him/herself. At the end of the hand the person with the lowest score (and at least one trick) wins 1 point from each of the other players (4 total).

What do you do with the blind? Generally the blind is included with the very last trick played. Alternatively, the dealer (before play begins) calls out the number of the trick that will include the blind.

With Partner: Playing the first card

The player to the left of the dealer leads first. Here are some guidelines, but no rule is 100% accurate all the time. Use your judgment. This is the most common hand (picker+partner vs. 3 opponents) that you will play.

If you are the first one to play and are …

• on the opposing team with the called Ace suit – lead the called ace suit. (i.e. if called suit is spades, lead a spade if you can)
• on the opposing team without called Ace suit – don’t lead trump. You are in a good position to trump the called suit if one of your partners can lead that suit. Lead some other (non-trump) suit if you can.
• the partner – lead trump if at all possible. You want to try to bleed trump out of the opposing team’s hands so that the called Ace trick is more likely to walk. At this point, leading trump will demonstrate to people that you are probably the partner.
• the partner – with no trump. Don’t lead the called suit. Hold that until later in the game. Lead some other suit, preferable a suit that has not been led before and you are not long on (your short suit). You want to give the picker the best chance taking the trick and that will happen if all your opponents have this fail suit and the picker can trump it.
• the picker – usually lead with trump. The goal is to get everyone to play out their trump so the called suit doesn’t get taken.

Following Suit

• Players must follow suit if possible. Note that Queens and Jacks are considered trump, and are not a “suit” as such. Example, 7♥ is lead. You have a Q♥ and a 10♥. Since the Queen is not technically a heart (it’s trump) you must play the Ten.
• A player who cannot follow suit may play any card he wants. (A picker or partner cannot play the called ace or his last card of the called suit (unless it is the last trick)).
• If you do not lead, and are an opponent with the called suit and the big queen, lay the big queen and take the trick. Then lead the called suit and hopefully the your team can trump it.

Continuing the hand

Whoever takes a trick gets to lead the next one. Play continues in this manner until the last trick is played.

Play is over. Count the cards.

When all tricks have been played, the picker can count his cards and then either receives points or gives up points. See above under “Keeping Score” for a chart.

• If the picker went alone and took all the tricks, he/she gets 3 points from all 4 opponents.
• If the picker chose a partner and took all the tricks, pickers gets 3 points from 2 opponents, partner gets 3 points from 1 opponent.
• If the opponents took at least a trick, but didn’t make schneider, the payout is 2 points.
• If the opponents made schneider, but didn’t win, the payout is 1 point.
• If the opponents win and the picker made schneider, each opponent gets 1 point
• If the opponents win and the picker didn’t make schneider, each opponent gets 2 points
• If the opponents take all the tricks, each opponent gets 3 points.

Some Sheepshead players have a rule that if the picker doesn’t win, he (and partner) must pay double. (Known as “double on the bump”)

Note that all scoring has a zero sum total. This means that at any point you can add all 5 player scores together and the total should be zero.

Strategy

• Picker and partner should try to bleed the opponents of their trump before leading out the called Ace suit. This gives the called Ace a much better chance of walking.
• In a Called-Ace variant, the opponent should lead out the called suit if possible. It is a rare circumstance where the picker/partner should lead out the called suit.
• Card counting is a very valuable skill to have when playing Sheepshead. Many good sheepshead players can tell you how many points you have without even having to count! If you don’t have a photographic memory, you can start off by keeping track of which Queens and Jacks were played. Just doing that much is better than not counting cards at all. This is a learned skill, so keep practicing. If you are the picker, you should at the very least keep count of the 14 trump cards so you know when your opponents are out of trump.
• The order of play is a very important consideration. There is a distinct benefit to “being on the end”, and if you are partner with the picker on the end, that should affect the card you play.
  • Scenario: First player is one of the opponents and lead with an 8♣. You are partner and have a 10♣ and K♣. Since you are long (more than one) in clubs, you would expect someone to trump this trick. You are next, with 2 oppenents after you and the picker is on the end. Since the picker is on the end, you generally would throw the 10♣ (10 points) rather than the K♣ (4 points). Assume the picker will be able to trump the trick. In other words, when in doubt, schmear.
• Leaster strategy: Keep in mind a player has to win at least one trick to qualify for the win. Oftentimes, a player will be so worried about accumulating points that he/she will fail to pick up a single trick.

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

The Las Vegas Strip (also known as The Strip) is 4 mi (6.7 km) of Las Vegas Boulevard South partly in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States, that has been designated an All-American Road. Many of the largest hotel, casino and resort properties in the world are located on The Strip. Over the years, Las Vegas Boulevard South has been called Arrowhead Highway, Salt Lake Highway, U.S. Highway 91, and Los Angeles Highway. The Strip was reportedly named by police officer Guy McAfee, after his hometown’s Sunset Strip, in Los Angeles.

The Strip runs from the Stratosphere at the northern end, to the Mandalay Bay on the southern end. Of the 4 miles, nearly 3.5 miles of it is located in the township of Paradise, Clark County, only a small portion is within the city limits of Las Vegas. McCarran Airport is located at the southern end of The Strip, along with the famous Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign.

In addition to the large hotels, casinos and resorts, The Strip is home to a few smaller casinos, motels, and other attractions, such as M&M World, Adventure Dome and the Fashion Show Mall. Starting in the mid 1990s, The Strip became a popular New Year’s Eve celebration destination.

History

The first casino to be built on Highway 91 was the Pair-o-Dice Club in 1931.

The first hotel to be built on what is today’s Strip was the El Rancho Vegas, opening on April 3, 1941 with 63 rooms and standing for almost 20 years before being destroyed by fire in 1960. Its success spawned a second hotel on what will become The Strip, the Hotel Last Frontier, in 1942. The Flamingo opened a few years later, on December 26, 1946.

In 1968, Kirk Kerkorian purchased the Flamingo and hired Sahara Hotels Vice President Alex Shoofey as President. Alex Shoofey brought along 33 of Sahara’s top executives. The Flamingo was used to train future employees of the International Hotel, which was under construction. Opening in 1969, the International Hotel with 1,512 rooms, would become the largest hotel in the world, and begin the era of mega-resorts. The International is known as the Las Vegas Hilton today.

1973 added a new resort to The Strip. The (original) MGM Grand Hotel and Casino, also a Kerkorian property, opened with 2,084 rooms, ranking as the number one hotel in the world by number of rooms at that time. On November 21, 1980, the MGM Grand suffered the worst resort fire in the history of Las Vegas, killing 87 people (84 in the fire and three more due to injuries) as a result of electrical problems. It reopened eight months later.

In 1986, Kerkorian sold the MGM Grand to Bally Manufacturing and it was renamed Bally’s.

The opening of The Mirage in 1989 set a new level to the Las Vegas experience, as smaller hotels and casinos made way for the larger mega-resorts. These huge facilities offer entertainment and dining options, as well as gambling and lodging. This change impacted the smaller, well-known and now historic hotels and casinos, like The Dunes and The Sands.

In an effort to attract families, resorts offered more attractions geared toward youth, but had limited success. The (current) MGM Grand opened in 1993 with Grand Adventures amusement park, but it closed in 2000 due to lack of interest. Similarly, in 2003 Treasure Island closed its own video arcade and abandoned the previous pirate theme, adopting the new ti name.

Downtown Las Vegas hotels and casinos suffered heavily from the Strip’s boom. They have funneled money into remodeling the facades of casinos, adding additional security and new attractions, like the Fremont Street Experience and Neonopolis (complete with movie theaters).

Wet and Wild water park, located next to the Sahara hotel, closed permanently at the end of the 2004 season.

Announced in 2004 was Project City Center on the Las Vegas Strip. This 66 acre (600,000 m²), $6 billion, project on the site of the Boardwalk hotel and adjoining land is planned as a multi use project. It is the largest such project announced in the United States. It will consist of hotel, casino, condo, retail and other uses on the site. The first elements of this project are expected to be available in 2009.

On July 8, 2005, news reports (, 2) said that film actors George Clooney, Matt Damon, and Brad Pitt will be working with actress/model Cindy Crawford’s husband Rande Gerber to design and build a new casino hotel in Las Vegas just off the Strip. Gerber is the man behind Green Valley Ranch resort and spa’s Whiskey Sky, so he is already involved in the Las Vegas entertainment market. Groundbreaking is expected to begin in January 2006. Clooney filmed Ocean’s Eleven at the Bellagio, and spends vacation time at the Green Valley Ranch resort and spa. The official announcement came on August 29, 2005. The hotel, condo, and casino property will be called Las Ramblas, and will be built on Harmon Avenue next to the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino.

Getting around

Las Vegas Strip at night with the Aladdin and Paris hotels

While not on The Strip itself, the Las Vegas Monorail runs on the east side of The Strip from Tropicana Avenue to Sahara Road.

Cat Bus provides both a standard route (stops at each resort, 24 hours a day) and an express route (only stops 8-9 times total in 7 miles, 12 hours a day, 5 days a week) bus service on the Strip.

A tourist trolley service travels up and down The Strip and stops at various, but not all, Strip hotels, along with a stop at the Fashion Show Mall. The fare is $1.75 per ride, exact change required. Trolleys are scheduled to arrive every 15 minutes.

Two small light-rail services, referred to as trams, operate on the Strip. One runs between Treasure Island and The Mirage. The other provides service to Mandalay Bay, Luxor, and Excalibur.

Compared to major roadways in other cities, the Las Vegas Strip is becoming pedestrian-friendly. New casinos design their facades to attract walk-up customers and many of these entrances have become attractions themselves – the Fountains at Bellagio, the volcano at The Mirage, and the Treasure Island (TI) Pirate Show are the most well-known. People gather on the sidewalks in front of the casinos to watch these shows.

To alleviate traffic issues at popular intersections, footbridges have been installed to help pedestrians more safely cross the roads. The Tropicana – Las Vegas Boulevard footbridges were the first to be installed, and based on the success of this project additional footbridges have been built on Las Vegas Boulevard at the Flamingo Road intersection; between The Mirage/Treasure Island and The Venetian; and the latest ones at the Las Vegas Boulevard-Spring Mountain and Sands Avenue intersection connecting the Wynn with the Fashion Show Mall.

Free Shuttles

Between Harrah’s Las Vegas and the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino. Approximately every 30 minutes.
Between Caesars Palace and the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino. Approximately every 30 minutes.
Between Paris/Bally’s and the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino. Approximately every 30 minutes.
Between Barbary Coast and The Orleans. Approximately every 15 minutes.
Between Barbary Coast and Gold Coast. Approximately every 15 minutes.
Between Hard Rock Hotel and Casino and the MGM Grand and the Harley-Davidson Cafe (next to the Aladdin). Leaves the Hard Rock on the hour.
Between Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, Fashion Show Mall and the Forum Shops at Caesars Palace. Leaves the Hard Rock on the hour.

Major hotels, casinos and resorts on The Strip

Listed from north to south:

Major shopping attractions on The Strip

Golf courses

In recent years, all the on-Strip golf courses, except the Desert Inn Golf Course, fell prey to the mega-resorts need for land and were closed. Developer Steve Wynn, founder of previously owned Mirage Resorts, purchased the Desert Inn and golf course for his new company Wynn Resorts. In 2005, he opened Wynn Las Vegas, complete with remodeled golf course providing tee times to hotel guests only.

In 2000, a new public golf course opened just south of Mandalay Bay on the Strip. Catering to a high-end golf enthusiast, the Bali Hai Golf Club is easly seen by drivers on I-15.

Demolished Strip hotels

Desert Inn (and golf course): Demolished, now the Wynn Las Vegas.
The Dunes (and golf course): Demolished, rebuilt as Bellagio
El Rancho Vegas: Burned down in 1960. The Hilton Grand Vacation Club timeshare now exists on the south edge of the site where the resort once stood.
El Rancho (formerly Thunderbird/Silverbird): Demolished, now Turnberry Place condominium complex.
Glass Pool Inn was called Mirage Motel until 1988 when forced to change name due to The Mirage opening down The Strip in 1989.
Hacienda: Demolished, now Mandalay Bay
Marina (hotel and casino): Westward pointing tower (known as the West Wing) of the MGM Grand
The Sands: Demolished, now The Venetian
Vegas World: demolished and rebuilt as the Stratosphere; parts of the old Vegas World still remains.

Links

• Virtual Tours of the Las Vegas Strip and Hotels
• Las Vegas Strip Photo Gallery
• History of the Las Vegas Strip
• Michael Pead :: Photos of Las Vegas

Sources

• Yahoo! Maps listing distance from Stratosphere to Mandalay Bay.

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

Throughout the history of mankind the urge to kick at stones and other such objects is thought to have led to many early activities involving kicking and/or running with a ball. Football-like games predate recorded history in all parts of the world, though the earliest forms of football are not known.

Ancient games

Documented evidence of what is possibly the oldest organized activity resembling football can be found in a Chinese military manual written during the Han Dynasty in about 2nd century BC.

It describes a practice known as cuju (Traditional Chinese: 蹴鞠; Simplified Chinese: 蹴踘; Pinyin: cù jū) which involved kicking a leather ball through a hole in a piece of silk cloth strung between two 30 foot poles. Another Asian ball-kicking game, which may have been influenced by cuju, is kemari. This is known to have been played within the Japanese imperial court in Kyoto from about 600 AD. In kemari several individuals stand in a circle and kick a ball to each other, trying not to let the ball drop to the ground (much like keepie uppie). The game survived through many years but appears to have died out sometime before the mid 19th century. In 1903 in a bid to restore ancient traditions the game was revived and it can now be seen played for the benefit of tourists at a number of festivals.

The Greeks and Romans are known to have played many ball games some of which involved the use of the feet. The Roman writer Cicero describes the case of a man who was killed whilst having a shave when a ball was kicked into a barbers shop. The Roman game of Harpastum is believed to have been adapted from a team game known as “επισκυρος” (episkyros) or pheninda that is mentioned by Greek playwright, Antiphanes (388-311BC) and later referred to by Clement of Alexandria. The game appears to have vaguely resembled rugby.

There are a number of less well-documented references to prehistoric, ancient or traditional ball games, played by indigenous peoples all around the world. For example, William Strachey of the Jamestown settlement is the first to record a game played by the Native Americans called Pahsaheman, in 1610. In Victoria, Australia, Indigenous Australians played a game called Marn Grook. An 1878 book by Robert Brough-Smyth, The Aborigines of Victoria, quotes a man called Richard Thomas as saying, in about 1841, that he had witnessed Aboriginal people playing the game: “Mr Thomas describes how the foremost player will drop kick a ball made from the skin of a possum and how other players leap into the air in order to catch it.” It is widely believed that Marn Grook had an influence on the development of Australian Rules Football (see below). In northern Canada and/or Alaska, the Inuit (Eskimos) played a game on ice called Aqsaqtuk. Each match began with two teams facing each other in parallel lines, before attempting to kick the ball through each other team’s line and then at a goal. The ancient Aztec game of ollamalitzli also involved kicking a ball, but it generally had more similarities to basketball.

These games and others may well far back into antiquity and have influenced football over the centuries. However, the route towards the development of modern football games appears to lie in Western Europe and particularly England.

Mediæval football

The Middle Ages saw a huge rise in popularity of annual Shrovetide football matches throughout Europe, particularly in England. The game played in England at this time may have arrived with the Roman occupation, but there is little evidence to indicate this. Reports of a game played in Brittany, Normandy and Picardy, known as Choule or Soule, suggest that some of these football games could have arrived in England as a result of the Norman Conquest.

These archaic forms of football would be played between neighbouring towns and villages, involving an unlimited number of players on opposing teams, who would clash in a heaving mass of people struggling to drag an inflated pig’s bladder by any means possible to markers at each end of a town (sometimes instead of markers, the teams would attempt to kick the bladder into the balcony of the opponents’ church). A legend that these games in England evolved from a more ancient and bloody ritual of kicking the “Dane’s head” is unlikely to be true. Shrovetide games survive in a number of English towns (see below).

The first description of football in England was given by William FitzStephen (c. 1174-1183). He described the activities of London youths during the annual festival of Shrove Tuesday.

After lunch all the youth of the city go out into the fields to take part in a ball game. The students of each school have their own ball; the workers from each city craft are also carrying their balls. Older citizens, fathers, and wealthy citizens come on horseback to watch their juniors competing, and to relive their own youth vicariously: you can see their inner passions aroused as they watch the action and get caught up in the fun being had by the carefree adolescents.[1]

Most of the early references to the game speak simply of “ball play” or “playing at ball”. This reinforces the idea that the games played at the time did not necessarily involve a ball being kicked. The first clear reference to football was not recorded until 1409, when King Henry IV of England issued an edict to ban it. In 1424, King James I of Scotland also attempted to ban the playing of “fute-ball”. However, the first clear reference to a ball being used did not occur until 1486.[2]

The first reference to football in Ireland occurs in the Statute of Galway of 1527, which allowed the playing of football and archery but banned “hokie’ — the hurling of a little ball with sticks or staves” as well as other sports. (The earliest recorded football match in Ireland was one between Louth and Meath, at Slane, in 1712.)

Calcio Fiorentino

In the 16th century, the city of Florence celebrated the period between Epiphany and Lent by playing a game known as “o Calcio storico” (“kickball in costume”) in the Piazza della Novere or the Piazza Santa Croce. The young aristocrats of the city would dress up in fine silk costumes and embroil themselves in a violent form of football. For example, calcio players could punch, shoulder charge, and kick opponents. Blows below the belt were allowed. The game is said to have originated as a military training exercise. The most famous match took place on February 17, 1530. While the troops of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor were besieging Florence, a game of calcio was organised as a show of defiance. In 1580, Count Giovanni de’ Bardi di Vernio wrote Discorso sopra ‘l giuoco del Calcio Fiorentino. This is sometimes credited as the earliest known published rules of any football game. The game was not played between January 1739 and May 1930, when it was revived to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the match mentioned above. Calcio is still played, mostly as a tourist attraction.

Official disapproval and attempts to ban football

Numerous attempts have been made to ban football games, particularly the most rowdy and disruptive forms. This was especially the case in England and in other parts of Europe, during the Middle Ages and early modern period. Between 1324 and 1667, football was banned in England alone by more than 30 royal and local laws. The need to repeatedly proclaim such laws demonstrated the difficulty in enforcing bans on popular games.

King Edward II was so troubled by the unruliness of football in London that on April 13, 1314 he issued a proclamation banning it: “Forasmuch as there is great noise in the city caused by hustling over large balls from which many evils may arise which God forbid; we command and forbid, on behalf of the King, on pain of imprisonment, such game to be used in the city in the future.”

The reasons for the ban by Edward III, on June 12, 1349, were explicit: football and other recreations distracted the populace from practicing archery, which was necessary for war.

By 1608, the local authorities in Manchester were complaining that: “With the ffotebale…[there] hath beene greate disorder in our towne of Manchester we are told, and glasse windowes broken yearlye and spoyled by a companie of lewd and disordered persons …”[3] That same year, the word “football” was used disapprovingly by William Shakespeare. Shakespeare’s play King Lear contains the line: “Nor tripped neither, you base football player” (Act I Scene 4). Shakespeare also mentions the game in A Comedy of Errors (Act II Scene 1):

Am I so round with you as you with me,

That like a football you do spurn me thus?

You spurn me hence, and he will spurn me hither:

If I last in this service, you must case me in leather.

“Spurn” literally means to kick away, thus implying that the game involved kicking a ball between players.

However the game of hurling (where players use a curved wooden stick to play a small ball) played in Ireland, was considered so violent that the Galway City authorities would rather the people played football. In 1527 they stated “At no time to use ne occupy ye hurling of ye litill balle with the hookie sticks or staves, nor use no hand balle to play without the walls, but only the great foot balle.”

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

Roulette is a casino and gambling game (Roulette is a French word meaning “small wheel”). A croupier turns a round roulette wheel which has 37 or 38 separately numbered pockets in which a ball must land. The main pockets are numbered from 1 to 36 and alternate between red and black, with number 1 being red. There is also a green pocket numbered 0. In most roulette wheels in the United States but not in Europe, there is a second zero compartment marked 00, also colored green.If a player bets on a single number and wins, the payout is 35 to 1. The bet itself is returned, so in total it is multiplied by 36. (In a lottery one would say ‘the prize is 36 times the cost of the ticket’, because in a lottery the cost of the ticket is not returned additionally.)

A player can bet on numbers, combinations, ranges, odds/evens, and colors.

History of Roulette

Early roulette table, ca. 1800

The first form of roulette was first devised in 17th century France, by the mathematician Blaise Pascal, who was supposedly inspired by his fascination with perpetual motion devices. In 1842, fellow Frenchmen François and Louis Blanc added the “0″ to the roulette wheel in order to increase house odds. Roulette was brought into the U.S. in the early 1800s, and again in order to increase house odds a second zero, “00″, was introduced – although in some forms of early American roulette the double-zero was replaced by an American Eagle. In the 1800s, roulette spread all over both Europe and the U.S., becoming one of the most famous and most popular casino games. Some call roulette the “King of Casino Games”, probably because it was associated with the glamour of the casinos in Monte Carlo. (François Blanc actually established the first casinos there).

A legend tells about François Blanc, who supposedly bargained with the devil to obtain the secrets of roulette. The legend is based on the fact that if you add up all the numbers on the roulette wheel (from 1 to 36), the resulting total is “666″, which is the “Number of the Beast” and represents the devil.

Types of Roulette

There are two types of roulette, American roulette and European roulette. The difference between the two types is the number of 0′s on the wheel. American roulette wheels have two “0′s”, zero and double-zero, which increases the house advantage to 5.3%. In European roulette there is only one zero, giving the house an advantage of 2.7%.

The two versions also use chips differently. American roulette uses so-called “non-value” chips, meaning that all chips belonging to the same player are of the same value determined at the time of the purchase, and the player cashes in the chips at the roulette table. European roulette uses standard casino chips of differing values as bets, which can make the game more confusing for both the croupier and the players.

A traditional European roulette table is also much larger than an American roulette table, and the croupier uses a long tool called a rake to clear out the chips and to distribute winnings. In American roulette the croupier collects and distributes chips by hand.

There is actually a third type of roulette wheel in use. It is a hybrid of the two versions described above, and is the only kind of wheel that is legal in the United Kingdom. This wheel has an American (English language) layout and a single zero. When a single-zero wheel is used in the United States, it is almost always this type.

Board depiction (American Roulette)

Bet odds table (American Roulette)

(in addition to the mentioned payout the bet is returned)

Note also that 0 and 00 are neither odd nor even in this game.

House Edge

The house average or house edge is the amount the player loses relative to a bet, on average. If a player bets on a single number in the American game there is a probability of 1/38 that the player receives 36 times the bet (35 times the bet plus the return of the bet itself), so the player ends up, on average, losing 5.26% on each bet:

( (probability * payout) / bet ) – 1 = expected value as fraction of bet

For example, betting $10 on a single number on an American wheel:

( ((1/38) * 360) / 10 ) – 1 = -0.0526

The house has the same edge on all of the other kinds of bets, except for the five number bet where the house edge is considerably higher (7.89% on an American wheel).

The house edge should not be confused with the hold. The hold is the total amount that the house wins from a player. While the house might have an edge of 5.26%, if a player keeps playing until his or her bankroll is exhausted, the house will enjoy a hold of 100%.

Called Bets

Traditional roulette wheel sectors

There are a number of series in roulette that have special names attached to them. These are placed by betting a set amount per series (or multiples of that amount). They are based on the way in which certain numbers lie next to each other on the roulette wheel. Not all casinos offer these bets.

Voisins (“Neighbors”)

This is a name for the numbers which lie between 22 and 25 on the wheel including 22 and 25 themselves. The series is 22,18,29,7,28,12,35,3,26,0,32,15,19,4,21,2,25 (on a single zero wheel).

9 chips or multiples thereof are bet.

Tiers (“The third”)

This is the name for the numbers which lie on the opposite side of the wheel between 27 and 33 including 27 and 33 themselves. The series is 27,13,26,11,30,8,23,20,5,24,16,33 (on a single zero wheel).

6 chips or multipes thereof are bet.

Orphelins (“Orphans”)

These numbers make up the two slices of the wheel outside the Tiers and Voisins. They contain a total of eight numbers, the Orphans comprising 17,34,6 and the Orphelins being 1,20,14,31,9.

8 chips or multiples thereof are bet.

Links

• History of Roulette
• Briton bets it all on roulette spin, and wins
• Roulette Signatures – Part 1
• Roulette Simulator: See Roulette Odds In Action and Test Roulette Systems

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

Notable natives and residents of Las Vegas, Nevada.

Natives

Adam Seward – football player
Andre Agassi – professional tennis player
Barry Zito – baseball player
Charisma Carpenter – actress
Daveigh Chase – actress
Greg Anthony – professional basketball player
Jack Kramer – tennis player
James Ronald Whitney – film and television director
Jenna Jameson – porn star
The Killers – Alternative rock band
Brandon Flowers
Mark Stoermer
Ronnie Vannucci
Kurt Busch – professional race car driver (NASCAR)
Lance Mazmanian – writer
Mikalah Gordon – American Idol contestant
Ricky Davis – professional basketball player
Stephanie Louden – professional golfer (LPGA)
Stephanie Romanov – actress

Non-natives

This is a list of people who played a notable role in the history of Las Vegas, Nevada.

Anthony Spilotro – mafia enforcer
Benny Binion – owner of the Horseshoe casino
Bob Stupak – developer of Stratosphere, controversial former owner of Vegas World
Bobby Baldwin – poker player and casino executive
Bugsy Siegel – developer of Flamingo.
Carl Icahn – owner of Stratosphere and Arizona Charlies
Céline Dion – singer
Clint Holmes – singer, songwriter
Corinna Harney Jones – actress and former Playboy playmate.
Danny Gans – entertainer
David Brenner – professional comedian.
Debbie Reynolds – entertainer
Del Webb – developer
Elvis Presley – legendary singer
Frank Rosenthal – sports handicapper, casino manager.
Gladys Knight – singer, entertainer and actress
Hank Greenspun – newspaper publisher and land developer.
Howard Hughes – billionaire casino owner and land developer.
Jay Sarno – developer of Caesars Palace and Circus Circus.
Jerry Lewis – entertainer
Jerry Tarkanian – former UNLV Men’s Basketball Head Coach
John C. Fremont – explorer
Jon Lindquist – radio announcer
Kevin Sorbo – actor
King Lizzard – entertainer
Kirk Kerkorian – developer of International Hotel and MGM Grand.
Larry Johnson – professional basketball player in the NBA.
Liberace – entertainer
Meyer Lansky – mob financier
Mike Tyson – professional boxer
Moe Dalitz – casino owner/executive (Desert Inn), developer
Oscar Goodman – defense attorney for mafia figures, Mayor of Las Vegas.
Paige O’Hara – actress
Pat Morita – actor
Randall Cunningham – professional football player.
The Rat Pack:
Dean Martin – singer and entertainer
Frank Sinatra – singer
Joey Bishop
Peter Lawford
Sammy Davis, Jr. – singer and entertainer
Robin Leach – writer, TV show host
Sam Boyd – casino owner
Siegfried & Roy – entertainers.
Roy Uwe Ludwig Horn
Siegfried Fischbacher
Steve Wynn – developer of The Mirage, Treasure Island, Bellagio and Wynn Las Vegas.
Toni Basil – choreographer, musician, one hit wonder
Tony Curtis – actor
Wayne Newton – professional singer

Football is the name given to a number of different, but related, team sports. By far the most popular of these worldwide is Association football, which also goes by the name of soccer. The English language word football is also applied to Rugby football (Rugby union and Rugby league), North American football (American and Canadian), Australian rules football, and Gaelic football. Some of the many different codes of football.

While it is widely believed that the word football, or “foot ball”, originated in reference to the action of a foot kicking a ball, there is a rival explanation, which has it that football originally referred to a variety of games in medieval Europe, which were played on foot.[1] These games were usually played by peasants, as opposed to the horse-riding sports often played by aristocrats. While there is no conclusive evidence for this explanation, the word football has always implied a variety of games played on foot, not just those that involved kicking a ball. In some cases, the word football has been applied to games which have specifically outlawed kicking the ball.

All football games involve scoring with a spherical or ellipsoidal ball (itself called a football), by moving the ball into, onto, or over a goal area or line defended by the opposing team. Many of the modern games have their origins in England, but many peoples around the world have played games which involved kicking and/or carrying a ball since ancient times.

The object of all football games is to advance the ball by kicking, running with, or passing and catching, either to the opponent’s end of the field where points or goals can be scored by, depending on the game, putting the ball across the goal line between posts and under a crossbar, putting the ball between upright posts (and possibly over a crossbar), or advancing the ball across the opponent’s goal line while maintaining possession of the ball.

In all football games, the winning team is the one that has the most points or goals when a specified length of time has elapsed.

References

• Mandelbaum, Michael (2004); The Meaning of Sports; Public Affairs, ISBN 1586482521
• Green, Geoffrey (1953); The History of the Football Association; Naldrett Press, London
• Williams, Graham (1994); The Code War; Yore Publications, ISBN 1874427658

1. Professional Football Researchers Association Origins of Football
2. Rugby chronology. Museum of Rugby. Retrieved on April 24, 2006.

Links

• Wilfried Gerhardt, “The colourful history of a fascinating game” (from the FIFA website)

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

HTML clipboardOnline poker is the game of poker played over the Internet. It has been partly responsible for a dramatic increase in the number of poker players worldwide. For the year of 2005, revenues from online poker were estimated at US$200 million per month.

Online poker adverts on the London Underground

Overview

Traditional (or “brick and mortar”, B&M) venues for playing poker, such as casinos and poker rooms, may be intimidating for novice players and are located in geographically disparate locations. Brick and mortar casinos are also reluctant to promote poker because it is very difficult for them to profit from it. Though the rake, or time charge, of traditional casinos is often very high, the opportunity costs of running a poker room are even higher. Brick and mortar casinos often make much more money by removing poker rooms and adding more slot machines.

Online venues, by contrast, are dramatically cheaper because they have much smaller overhead costs. For example, adding another table does not take up valuable space like it would for a brick and mortar casino. Online poker rooms tend to be viewed as more player-friendly. For example, the software may prompt the player when it is his or her turn to act. Online poker rooms also allow the players to play for very low stakes (as low as 1¢) and often offer poker freerolls (where there is no entry fee), attracting beginners.

Online venues may be more vulnerable to certain types of fraud, especially collusion between players. However, they also have collusion detection abilities that do not exist in brick and mortar casinos. For example, online poker room security employees can look at the “hand history” of the cards previously played by any player on the site, making patterns of behavior easier to detect than in a casino where colluding players can simply fold their hands without anyone ever knowing the strength of their holding. Online poker rooms also check player’s IP addresses in order to prevent players at the same household or at known open proxy servers from playing on the same tables.

The major online poker sites offer varying features to entice new players. One common feature is to offer tournaments called satellites by which the winners gain entry to real-life poker tournaments. It was through one such tournament that Chris Moneymaker won his entry to the 2003 World Series of Poker. He went on to win the main event causing shock in the poker world. The 2004 World Series featured triple the number of players over the 2003 turnout. At least four players in the WSOP final table won their entry through an online cardroom. Like Moneymaker, 2004 winner Greg “Fossilman” Raymer also won his entry at the PokerStars online cardroom.

In October 2004, Sportingbet Plc, at the time the world’s largest publicly traded online gaming company (SBT.L), announced the acquisition of ParadisePoker.com, one of the online poker industry’s first and largest cardrooms. The $340 million dollar acquisition marked the first time an online cardroom was owned by a public company. Since then, several other cardroom parent companies have gone public.

In June 2005, PartyGaming, the parent company of the largest online cardroom, PartyPoker, went public on the London Stock Exchange, achieving an initial public offering market value in excess of $8 billion dollars. At the time of the IPO, ninety-two percent of Party Gaming’s income came from poker operations.

In early 2006, PartyGaming moved to acquire EmpirePoker.com from Empire Online. UltimateBet’s parent company also listed on the London Stock Exchange and other poker rooms such as PokerStars & Poker.com are rumored to be exploring initial public offerings.

Legality

From a legal perspective, online poker may differ in some ways from online casino gambling, but many of the same issues do apply. For a discussion of the legality of online gambling in general.

Online poker is legal and regulated in many countries including several nations in and around the Caribbean Sea, and most notably the United Kingdom.

In February 2005 the North Dakota House of Representatives passed a bill to legalize and regulate online poker and online poker cardroom operators in the state. The legislation required that online poker operations would have to physically locate their entire operations in the state. Testifying before the state Senate Judiciary committee, Nigel Payne, CEO of Sportingbet, the owner of Paradise Poker, pledged to relocate to the state if the bill became law.

The measure, however, was defeated by the State Senate in March 2005 after the U. S. Department of Justice sent a letter to North Dakota attorney general Wayne Stenehjem stating that online gaming “may” be illegal, and that the pending legislation “might” violate the federal Wire Act. However, many legal experts dispute the DOJ’s claim.

North Dakota Rep. Jim Kasper (R-Fargo), the author of the legalization bill, has vowed to continue his efforts, stating that he is “not putting away the idea of getting into Internet gaming licenses in North Dakota” and that the “revenue we missed is too great to pass up.” Kasper has also stated that he will introduce the legislation in the 2007 session of the North Dakota legislature.

In response to this and other claims by the DOJ regarding the legality of online poker, many of the major online poker sites stopped advertising their “dot-com” sites in American media. Instead, they created “dot-net” sites that are virtually identical but offer no real money wagering. The ads feature words to the effect of “this is not a gambling website”. Televised ads still feature the dot-net conceit but print ads have been trending back toward advertising the dot-coms directly.

HTML clipboardIn July 2006, United States federal agents, citing the Wire Act, arrested BetOnSports CEO David Carruthers in Dallas, Texas while he was changing planes. He was traveling between Costa Rica and the United Kingdom; in both jurisdictions online gaming and poker are legal and regulated.

Later in the year a similar event happened in France, where Norbert Teufelberger and Manfred Bodner, the CEO’s of bwin, were giving a press conference. The arrest was made due to offenses against the French gambling laws.

Since many banks and credit card companies will not allow direct money transfers to online poker sites, electronic money transfer businesses provide online “e-wallets” that players can load from a bank account, then transfer the funds directly to the poker site. The advantage of these services is that it makes it easy for people to transfer money between different poker sites without the money going back to their bank accounts. Prepaid debit cards and virtual credit cards (cards issued for online use, as a card number, expiration date and CVC code) have also emerged as a method of payment for poker sites. These function much in the same way as an “e-wallet” since money deposited into the card account is not connected to the user’s bank account.

On October 13, 2006, President Bush officially signed into law the Safe Port Act, a bill aimed at enhancing security at U.S. ports. Attached to the Safe Port Act was a provision known as the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA). According to the UIGEA, “unlawful internet gambling” means to place, receive, or otherwise knowingly transmit a bet or wager by means of the internet where such bet is unlawful under any law in the State in which the bet is initiated, received, or otherwise made. Thus, the UIGEA prohibits online gambling sites from performing transactions with American financial institutions. As a result of the bill, several large publicly traded poker gaming sites such as PartyPoker.com, PacificPoker.com and bwin closed down their US facing operations. Some operations have not closed and it is still possible for some American players to play online for real money and even sign up for new accounts. The UIGEA has had a devastating effect on the stock value of these companies.

Following passage of UIGEA, former U.S. Senator Al D’Amato joined the Poker Players Alliance (PPA). Part of the PPA’s mission is to protect and to advocate for the right of poker players to play online. Sen. D’Amato’s responsibilities include Congressional lobbying. The PPA has over 900,000 members as of March 2008.

On April 26, 2007, Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) introduced HR 2046, the Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act (IGREA). IGREA would modify the UIGEA by providing a provision for licensing of Internet gambling facilities by the Director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. On June 8, 2007, the House Financial Services Committee, chaired by Rep. Frank, held a hearing entitled, “Can Internet Gambling Be Effectively Regulated to Protect Consumers and the Payments System?”. Details of the meeting, including the archived webcast, are available on the House Financial Services Committee website. Expert witnesses at the hearing testified that Internet gambling can be effectively regulated for age verification, money laundering issues, facilitation of state and federal tax collection, and for issues relating to compulsive gambling. As of March 2008, IGREA has 47 cosponsors.

On May 3, 2007 Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-NV) introduced HR 2140, the Internet Gambling Study Act. This bill “provide(s) for a study by the National Academy of Sciences to identify the proper response of the United States to the growth of Internet gambling.” As of December 2007, IGSA has 68 cosponsors.

On June 7, 2007, Rep. Robert Wexler (D-FL) introduced HR 2610, the Skill Game Protection Act. This act would legalize Internet poker, bridge, chess, and other games of skill. Also on June 7, 2007, Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA) introduced H.R. 2607, the Internet Gambling Tax Act. The IGTA would legislate Internet gambling tax collection requirements.

Integrity and fairness

As with other forms of online gambling, many critics question whether the operators of such games – especially those located in jurisdictions separate from most of their players – might be engaging in fraud themselves.

Internet discussion forums are rife with unproven allegations of non-random card dealing, possibly to favour house-employed players or “bots” (poker playing software disguised as a human opponent), or to give multiple players good hands thus increasing the bets and the rake, or simply to prevent new players from losing so quickly that they become discouraged. However, there is little more than anecdotal evidence to support such claims, and others argue that the rake is sufficiently large that such abuses would be unnecessary and foolish. Many claim to see lots of “bad beats” with large hands pitted against others all too often at a rate that seems to be a lot more common than in live games. This might actually be caused by the fact that online cardrooms deal more hands per hour: online players get to see more hands, so their likelihood of seeing more improbable bad beats or randomly large pots is also increased.

However, to date there has been at least one site, ProPoker.com, that has been found to use serverside bots that play with the knowledge of players’ cards and the cards yet to be dealt. It has since been shut down, with many players losing the funds they had on the site.

Many online poker sites are certified by bodies such as the Kahnawake Gaming Commission, and major auditing firms like PricewaterhouseCoopers review the fairness of the random_number_generator[5], shuffle, and payouts for some sites.

Differences with conventional poker

There are substantial differences between online poker gaming and conventional, in-person gaming.

One obvious difference is that players do not sit right across from each other, removing any ability to observe others’ reactions and body language. Instead, online poker players learn to focus more keenly on betting patterns, reaction time and other behavior tells that are not physical in nature. Since poker is a game that requires adaptability, successful online players learn to master the new frontiers of their surroundings.

Another less obvious difference is the rate of play. In brick and mortar casinos the dealer has to collect the cards, then shuffle and deal them after every hand. Due to this and other delays common in offline casinos, the average rate of play is around thirty hands per hour. Online casinos, however, do not have these delays; the dealing and shuffling are instant, there are no delays relating to counting chips (for a split pot), and on average the play is faster due to “auto-action” buttons (where the player selects his action before his turn). It is not uncommon for an online poker table to average sixty to eighty hands per hour.

This large difference in rate of play has created another effect among online poker players. In the brick and mortar casino, the only real way to increase your earnings is to increase your limit. In the online world players have another option, play more tables. Unlike a physical casino where it would be nearly impossible to play multiple tables at once, most online poker rooms allow this. Depending on the site, a player might play from 4 to 10 tables at the same time, viewing them each in a separate window on the computer display. For example, a player may make around $10 per 100 hands at a lower limit game. In a casino, this would earn them under $4 an hour, which minus dealer tips would probably barely break even. In an online poker room, the same player with the same win rate could play four tables at once, which at 60 hands per hour each would result in an earning of $24/hour, which is a modest salary for somebody playing online poker. Some online players even play eight or more tables at once, in an effort to increase their winnings.

Another important change results from the fact that online poker rooms, in some cases, offer online poker schools that teach the basics and significantly speed up the learning curve for novices. Many online poker rooms also provide free money play so that players may practice these skills in various poker games and limits without the risk of losing real money. People who previously had no way to learn and improve because they had no one to play with now have the ability to learn the game much more quickly and gain invaluable experience from free money play.

Tracking play

Tracking poker play in a B&M casino is very difficult. You can easily monitor your winnings, but tracking any detailed statistics about your game requires a player to take notes after each hand, which is cumbersome and distracting.

Conversely, tracking poker play online is easy. Most online poker rooms support “Hand Histories” text files which track every action both you and your opponents made during each hand. The ability to specifically track every single played hand has many advantages. Many third-party software applications process hand history files and return detailed summaries of poker play. These not only include exact tallies of rake and winnings, which are useful for tax purposes, but also offer detailed statistics about the person’s poker play. Serious players use these statistics to check for weaknesses or “leaks” (mistakes that leak money from their winnings) in their game. Such detailed analysis of poker play was never available in the past, but with the growth of online poker play, it is now commonplace among nearly all serious and professional online poker players.

Bonuses

While the practice of comping players with free meals, hotel rooms, and merchandise is quite common in B&M casinos, online poker rooms have needed to develop new ways to reward faithful customers. The most common way of doing this is through deposit bonuses, where the player is given a bonus code to enter when placing money into an account. The bonus code adds either a percentage, or a set amount of chips to the value of the deposit. Besides this, several online cardrooms employ VIP Managers to develop VIP programs to reward regular players.

Compatibility

Most online poker rooms offer downloadable Microsoft Windows programs that require an emulator program to run on Apple Macintosh or Linux computers. However, several rooms do have clients that run natively on Mac or Linux.

Online poker portal

An online poker portal is a website offering poker-related content. Examples of such content could be news, tournament results, strategy articles or reviews of online poker cardrooms.

Some portals have a considerable amount of content, while others attempt to act as mere conduits to other sites, normally where actual gambling games are offered.

Links

• Open Directory Project’s online cardroom listings and poker strategy sites
• Yahoo’s directory of Poker sites
• Statutory gambling laws for each US state

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is held each January in Las Vegas, Nevada, and is sponsored by the Consumer Electronics Association. At the show, many previews of products are introduced, or new products are announced.

The first CES was held in June, 1967 in New York City. From 1978 to 1994, CES was held twice each year: once in January in Las Vegas known as Winter Consumer Electronics Show (WCES) and once in June in Chicago, Illinois known as Summer Consumer Electronics Show (SCES).

CES is now considered one of the major technology-related trade shows, with the cancellation of Comdex.

2005

The 2005 exhibit was from 6 to January 9 in Las Vegas. The event started off with a twist when the main keynote address by Microsoft chairman Bill Gates went wrong as a device that was being demonstrated failed, much to the amusement of the onlookers.

Samsung showed off a 102-inch plasma television.

2006

The 2006 International CES took place on January 5, 2006 to January 8, 2006 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, the Sands Convention Center, the Alexis Park Hotel and the Las Vegas Hilton Hotel. HDTV was a central theme in the Bill Gates keynote as well as many of the other manufacturer’s speeches. The standards competition between HD DVD and Blu-ray was conspicuous, with some of the first HD movie releases and first HD players being announced at the show. Philips showed a rollable display prototype whose screen can retain an image for several months without electricity.

Attendance was over 150,000 individuals in 1.67 million net square feet of space making it the largest electronics event in the United States.

2007

In a break from recent tradition, the 2007 CES event did not begin on a Thursday, nor span a weekend. It ran from Monday January 8, 2007 to Thursday January 11, 2007. The venues also changed slightly with the high-performance audio and home theater expo moving from the Alexis Park venue to The Venetian. The remaining venues were the same as previous years: the Las Vegas Convention Center was the center of events, with the adjacent Las Vegas Hilton, and the Sands Expo and Convention Center hosting satellite exhibitions.

The location for the main keynotes was the other major change for 2007. Previously held at the Las Vegas Hilton’s Main Theater, they staged for the first time at The Palazzo Ballroom in The Venetian. Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, gave his ninth pre-show keynote address on the Sunday evening. The opening keynote was presented by Gary Shapiro (President/CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association, which hosts the event), with Ed Zander, Chairman/CEO of Motorola. Other keynote speakers scheduled included Robert Iger from The Walt Disney Company, Michael Dell, founder of Dell Inc., and Leslie Moonves of CBS.

Finally, Industry Insider presentations moved to the Las Vegas Hilton, with contributions from Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, CEO of Nokia and John Chambers, CEO of Cisco.

In the gaming section for Windows Vista and DirectX 10, there were two games shown: Age of Conan and Crysis.

2008

The 2008 exhibition was from January 7, 2008 through January 10, 2008 in Las Vegas. One of the highlights was Bill Gates’ keynote speech in which he formally announced his retirement from his day-to-day duties at Microsoft. Along with the announcement, he presented a lengthy comedy skit on how his last day with Microsoft would be like, complete with cameos including Jay Z, Jon Stewart, Brian Williams, Steven Spielberg, Bono, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, George Clooney and Matthew McConaughey. The skit was believed to be written by WGA members before the writers’ strike.

Panasonic attracted much attention in 2008 by releasing a 150″ Plasma TV, as well as a 50″ as thin as an iPhone.

2009

The 2009 exhibition returns to the previous Thursday – Sunday schedule; January 8 through January 11, 2009. The Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions will be taped during the exhibition.

Notable product introductions

Products and technologies introduced at CES include (in reverse chronological order):

Microsoft Xbox, 2001
Digital Video Recorder (DVR), 1999
HDTV, 1998
DVD, 1996
Virtual Boy, 1995
CD-i, 1991
Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), 1985
Commodore 64, 1982
Compact Disc (CD) player, 1981
Camcorder, 1981
Pong home console by Atari, 1975
Laserdisc player, 1974
Video Cassette Recorder (VCR), 1970

Links

• CES Official Site
• Tips for attending the show at livedigitally.com
• Video Coverage of CES at Digitaltrends.com
• Live Coverage of CES at Engadget
• Video coverage of CES 2007 at video-blog.eu
• CES schedule Keynoters
• CES Video Podcast Center

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

In gambling, a Bank Job is a term for putting all of your money on a particular betting option, for instance “Yankees to beat the Kansas City Royals is a Bank Job”

It is often mocked by statements claiming people have “Multiple Banks” on a particular bet, for instance “I have 4 Banks on Chelsea to win the English Premier League”

The card game of poker has many variations, most of them created in the United States in the mid-1900s. The standard order of play applies to most of these games, but to fully specify a poker game requires details about which hand values are used, the number of betting rounds, and exactly what cards are dealt and what other actions are taken between rounds.

Popular poker variants

The most populate poker variants can be divided into the following groups:

• Draw poker: Games in which players are dealt a complete hand, hidden, and then improve it by replacing cards. The most common of these is Five-card draw.
• Stud poker: Games in which each player receives a combination of face-up cards and face-down cards in multiple betting rounds. The most common of these are Seven-card stud and Five-card stud.
• Community card poker: Games in which each player’s incomplete hidden hand is combined with shared face-up cards. The most common of these are Texas hold ‘em and Omaha hold’em.

Other poker variants

Some poker games just don’t fit neatly into the above categories, and some have features of more than one of these categories.

Stud Horse poker

Stud Horse poker is mentioned in the California law books as one of the gambling games prohibited in California’s card rooms. There is no definition for it under the law, however. It appears not to be Stud poker, which is not prohibited and is offered in several variations in California card rooms.

Oxford stud

Though called “stud”, this is a combination stud/community card game that was popular at MIT in the 1960s, in which players receive individual downcards, individual upcards, and community cards. Many variations on this are possible by changing what kinds of cards and how many are dealt in various rounds.

One difficulty with such a combination is deciding the betting order: in stud games, the player with the best upcards showing bets first in each round (except sometimes the first, where the worst upcard is forced to begin the betting with a Bring-in). In community card games, each betting round begins with the same player (because there generally are no upcards), making it more positional. Oxford stud chooses to use the players’ individual upcards for determining order, which makes it play more like stud.

First, each player is dealt two downcards and one upcard as in seven-card stud, followed by a first betting round. Like stud, the game is usually played with a Bring-in, the lowest upcard being forced to pay it, and betting follows after that. After the first round is complete, two community cards are dealt to the table, followed by a second betting round, beginning with the player with the highest-ranking incomplete poker hand (as in stud) made from his upcard plus the two community cards. For example, if one player has a K upcard, and a second player has a upcard, and the community cards are T-7 (T = 10), the second player bets first (since he has a pair of s, and the other player only has K-high). Then a second upcard is dealt to each player, followed by a third betting round, again beginning with the player who can make the best partial hand with his two upcards and the board. Finally, a third community card is dealt to table, followed by a fourth betting round and showdown. Note that as with Mississippi stud, each player has five cards of his hand exposed at this point (two of his own plus three on the board), so it is possible for a flush or straight to be the high hand for the purpose of first bet. At showdown each player makes the best five-card hand he can from the four cards he is dealt plus the three community cards, in any combination. This game is usually played High-low split.

Billabong (and Shanghai)

Just as Oxford stud is a mixed stud/community card version of Texas hold ‘em, Billabong is a mixed version of Manila. Each player is dealt two downcards and one upcard. Low upcard starts the betting with a Bring-in if you are playing with one, otherwise high card starts the betting. Next, two community cards are dealt, followed by a second betting round, beginning with the player with the best exposed partial poker hand (counting the community cards, as in Oxford stud). Then a third community card is dealt, followed by a third betting round. Finally a fourth community card is dealt, followed by a fourth betting round and showdown. Each player plays the best five-card hand he can make from the three in his hand plus the four on the board in any combination.

Shanghai is the same game with an extra hole card, but no more than two hole cards play. That is, the game begins with each player being dealt three downcards and one upcard; each player must discard one of his hole cards at some point during the game as determined ahead of time. The most common variation is to discard immediately as in Pineapple; the second most common is to discard just before showdown as in Tahoe.

Guts

Rather than the customary rounds of betting followed by a single showdown, guts features multiple rounds, each of which consist of the decision to be “in” or “out”, and each of which contains a showdown. Only the players who stay “in” participate in the showdown. In the most common version, the player who stays in with the best hand receives the current pot, while all other players who stayed in must match the pot to form the next pot. For example, if the pot is $5 and three people stay in, then one player will receive the $5 pot and two players will be forced to add $5 each to the next pot, escalating the size of the pot for the next deal. Then the hand is re-dealt, and all players (even those who were “out” in the last round) can participate again. The game ends when only a single player has the guts to stay “in”, and thus the pot is taken without replenishment.

Each player’s hand usually consists of a reduced poker hand of either 2 or 3 cards. The cards are ranked as in regular 5-card poker, but in some variations straights and flushes count and in some they do not.

Another variation is for three-card guts. The hands are ranked as follows: Three of a kind, straight flush, straight, flush, pair. Each player receives two cards face down. In turn, each player declares whether they’re in or out. If they’re in, they receive their third card face up. The dealer declares last; if no other player has stayed in, then the dealer must have a pair or better to win the pot. Another variation is for the other players to have another chance to declare and challenge the dealer. With this variation, there is no requirement for the dealer’s hand; if no one challenges him, the dealer wins.

Declaring “in” or “out” is similar to declaring high or low in high-low games. Each player takes a chip, places their hands under the table, and either places the chip in one fist or not. Each player then holds their closed fist above the table, and the players simultaneously open their hands to reveal their decision (a chip represents “in”, an empty hand represents “out”).

Because the pot can double (or more) each round, the stakes can grow exponentially, and pots of 50 or 100 times the original ante are possible.

There are many variations. Sometimes only the single player with the worst hand (who stayed in) must add to the pot, but they must double the pot rather than match it. In an especially vicious variation, nobody wins the pot unless nobody else stays in. This can degenerate quickly, when one player must add a large amount to the pot, and decides to stay in until he wins it back. Thus the game continues indefinitely, with one player continually adding larger and larger amounts to the pot. The pot may grow so big that no player has enough cash to match it, leading to arguments about how to end the game. (This variation is not recommended when playing among friends. Often this variation is abandoned after the first really big pot leads to conflict.)

One solution to the exponentially growing pots is to cap them at 50x or 100x the ante. That is, if there are 5 players with an ante of $1, the pot started at $5. If there were 3 doublings, the pot is now at $40. Suppose the “cap the pot at $50″ rule were in force. Then, if another doubling occurred, each loser would pay $40, but the pot would now be at $50 and the extra $30 would be set aside as the ante once there’s a hand with a winner and no loser.

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.