Gambling.Now!

With only a few days left until the holidays. Here are some [tag]last minute[/tag] [tag]gifts for gamblers[/tag]. [tag]Books[/tag], [tag]cuff links[/tag] and [tag]dice[/tag].

Not sure it’s of interest, but here you go!  www.b2bfulcrum.com

Hmmm…  let’s set what they find on the blogosphere!

As I continue to review and understand this blog stuff, here are the top 100 tags from our friends at technorati

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What is it?

Pinochle (sometimes [tag]Pinocle[/tag] or [tag]Penuchle[/tag]), is a trick-taking game typically for two, three or four players and played with a 48 card deck. Derived from the card game Bezique, players score points by trick-taking and also by forming combinations of cards into melds. Each hand is played in three phases: bidding, melds, and tricks.

A Pinochle deck consists of two copies of each of the 9, 10, jack, queen, king, and ace cards of all four suits. Aces are always considered high. Pinochle follows the standard card ordering with the exception of the 10 being second highest. The complete ordering from highest to lowest is A, 10, K, Q, J, 9.

Variants of Pinochle can be played with three, five, six, eight or more players. These larger variations can combine two Pinochle decks called a “double deck”.

In some areas of the United States, such as Oklahoma and Texas, thumb wrestling is often referred to as “pinochle”. The two games, however, are not related.

The game is played with one Pinochle deck of 48 cards; one player is the dealer.

In Pinochle, after the shuffle, the dealer distributes the cards. All the cards are dealt in partnership Pinochle. In other variations a widow’ (or called the “kitty”, “talon”, or “stock”) of cards remain. Traditionally, this is done clockwise, three cards at a time, starting with the player to the left and ending with the dealer. The deal rotates clockwise, so the dealer’s left-hand opponent will deal next.

Some house rules allow a player with a hand of 6 nines or 5 nines and no meld to throw it in, making the deal null and void and demanding a redeal.^{[citation needed]} The player with this poor hand must declare this instead of bidding during an auction. Sometimes there is a limit of three deals for this reason, requiring the third deal to be played.

The Bid

In auction Pinochle, players bid for the points they predict their hand could earn. The highest bidder earns the right to declare the [tag]trump[/tag] suit. One of the players, usually the player to the left of the dealer, or the dealer themself, is obligated to open with a first bid. The minimum opening bid is usually an agreed upon value between players like 100 or 250. When a player has the turn to bid, the player may do either of the following:

1. make a new bid, or
2. pass.

Each bid must be greater than the previous one, and be a multiple of 10. When a player passes, they can no longer bid. The auction ends when subsequent players in rotation have passed after the last bid. The last bid becomes the contract. The player that made this final bid will then declare trump in the suit that is desired. In some house rules, trump cannot be declared in any suit not containing a run, marriage or dix meld.

In order to win the hand, the combined total of melding and trick points must be equal to or greater than the winning bid. Thus bidding involves anticipating the points that will be accumulated from melds and from the points acumulated from winning tricks. If the combined score is lower than the bid, then the bidding team or player has been set. This means that the total bid amount is subtracted from the total game score, often accompanied by losing the points scored in meld for that hand as well. This can result in a negative score.

[tag]Meld[/tag] – Not [tag]Melt[/tag]

Melding consists of displaying specific combinations of cards to all players. Typically this is done by placing the combination of cards face up on the playing surface until all players have had the opportunity to examine them. All players meld after the bid winner shows meld first. The types of melds include arounds, marriages, flushes and pinochles.

The rank melds containing four of the same face cards — ace, king, queen or jack — must include one card from each of the different suits . They are scored as follows:

• “100 Aces” or “Aces around” – 4 aces of different suits – 100 points
• “80 Kings” or “Kings around” – 4 kings of different suits – 80 points
• “60 Queens” or “Queens around” – 4 queens of different suits – 60 points
• “40 Jacks” or “Jacks around” – 4 jacks of different suits – 40 points

A player holding all eight aces, kings, queens or jacks is called a double around (or double aces, double kings, etc). This hand is worth 10 times the value of a single around. For instance, a kings double around is worth 800 points.

The marriages, flush and dix are the suit melds.

• “Trump Marriage” – king and queen of trump suit – 40 points
• “Marriage” – king and queen of a suit other than trump – 20 points
• “Flush”, “Family”, “Rope” or “Run” – A 10 K Q J of trump suit only – 150 points. Similar to what is done with Aces, Kings Around, etc. A double run, or two runs in trump in the same hand, is worth 1500 points.
• “[tag]Dix[/tag]” – nine of trump – 10 points

A marriage in each suit is worth 240 total points. As a shortcut, this is called a “roundtable”, “marriages around”, “[tag]Round House[/tag]“, or a “Round Robin”. This is nothing more than the sum of the marriages, plus kings around and queens around.

The pinochle is the unique combination that shares the name of the game.

• “Pinochle” – jack of diamonds and queen of spades – 40 points.
• “Double pinochle” – both jacks of diamonds and both queens of spades – 300 points.

Each card may be used in at most one meld of each type. Thus, a queen card can be used in one marriage with one king, regardless if the player has the other king of the same suit. However, a queen can be used to score a marriage and a pinochle if the player also has the correct jack.

After the melds are displayed, the points are counted and the teams total their individual meld scores to form a team score.

Playing tricks

The high bidder makes the first lead, which can be any card in their hand. (Some people play with a rule that the first card led must be a trump. ) Each player must follow suit if possible. If they can follow suit, and can play a card higher than any played so far, they must do so. If a player cannot follow suit, but has trump, they must play trump. Again, if they can play a card higher than any played so far, they must do so. If they cannot fulfill any of the previous conditions, then they can play any card in their hand. Finally, if two identical cards are played, the first one outranks the second. (One variation does not require playing a higher trump card if trump wasn’t led.)

After the first trick, the winner of each trick leads to the next.

Scoring tricks

Points are scored based on the tricks won in the hand. There are several ways to count up the points for play, but they always add up to 250 points. The last trick is always worth 10 points. The classic counting system of Pinochle is where aces are worth 11, tens are worth 10, kings are worth 4, queens are worth 3, jacks are worth 2, and nines are worth zero. This method takes longer to count the score at the end of each hand. A simpler method is to count aces and tens for 10 points, kings and queens for 5 points, and jacks and nines are worth zero.

An even simpler method that reduces strategy in trick-taking has aces, tens, and kings worth 10 (and known as “counters”), and everything else zero (“garbage”). Since all points are multiples of ten in the third method, some players drop the redundant zero. Aces, tens, and kings won in tricks are worth one point. The meld scoring can also avoid the zero in the tenth place. Melds like [tag]100 aces[/tag] are thus worth 10. The terms “100 aces”, “80 kings” and so on are still used, even though the point values are one-tenth.

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I know you need to rationalize the effort, but could be considered [tag]spam[/tag]. Interesting product though [tag]culinaryprep[/tag].

Go SA!

Types of bets

Aside from simple wagers–betting a friend that one’s favorite baseball team will win its division, for instance, or buying a football “square” for the Super Bowl–sports betting is commonly done through a bookmaker. Legal sports bookmakers exist throughout the world (perhaps most notably in Las Vegas). In areas where sports betting is illegal, bettors usually make their sports wagers with illicit bookmakers (known colloquially as “bookies”) and on the Internet, where thousands of online bookmakers accept wagers on sporting events around the world. (In the United States, the legality of Internet wagering is ambiguous, due to the fact that online bookmakers generally operate outside of the U.S. Some online bookmakers do not accept wagers from the U.S. due to these unresolved legal questions.) The bookmaker earns a commission or “vigorish” by regarding the money at risk as less than the size of the bet placed. A common line is a $110 bet on a fair coin which pays $210 to win and $0 to lose. On this line, it costs $220 to bet both sides of the same coin simultaneously, but the combined bet always pays $210. The $10 loss constitutes the vig. There are opposing positions on whether the winner or loser can be construed as paying the vig, but this debate is not especially meaningful. If you view $110 to win $210 on a fair coin as $100 at risk, then it will appear as if the loser pays the vig; if you view the same line as $110 at risk, then it will appear as if the winner pays the vig. It happens that standard practice among bookies is to adjust odds so the amount at risk remains constant from the winning side of the proposition, hence the common perception that the loser pays the vig. Vigs expressed as percentages suffer from the same perceptual bias. On the line as given in this example, for a fair coin, the bookie has an expectation of making $5 for each $110 bet placed, which is often divided out and expressed as 4.5% Odds on teams or opponents are quoted in terms of the favorite (the team that is expected to win, thus requiring a riskier wager) and the underdog.

Bookmakers generally offer two types of wagers on the winner of a sporting event: a straight-up or money line bet, or a point spread wager. Moneylines and straight-up prices are used to set odds on sports such as soccer, baseball and hockey (the scoring nature of which renders point spreads impractical) as well as individual vs. individual matches, like boxing. For these sports, bookmakers in Europe and Asia generally use straight-up odds, which are quoted based on a payout for a single bet unit; for example, a 2-1 favorite would be listed at a price of 1.50, whereas an underdog returning twice the amount wagered would be listed at a price of 3.00.

American bookmakers generally use moneylines, which are quoted in terms of the amount required to win $100 on a favorite, or the amount paid for a $100 bet on an underdog. The amount “won” in a bet is the net amount over and above the initial bet. If a person wins $200 on a bet of $100, the bookmaker actually pays the winner $300 (i.e. $200 plus the initial bet of $100).

For example, a baseball game between the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs might have a moneyline on St. Louis (the favorite) at -200 and Chicago (the underdog) at +180. A bettor looking to take St. Louis must risk $200 for every $100 he wishes to win over and above the initial $200 bet. A person wagering on Chicago will win $180 for every $100 he bets.

The +180 moneyline on Chicago includes a 20 cent “dime line”. Bookmakers generally use a “dime line” with moneylines to calculate the vigorish they receive on losing wagers. Without the 20 cent dimeline in the example above, the Chicago moneyline would be +200.

For favorites of -120 to -150, the difference between the favorite and underdog is 10 cents; i.e., the underdog to a -120 favorite is priced at +110. The discrepancy between prices rises for favorites of -160 or higher.

Unlike point spread bets, a moneyline wager requires only that the team wagered upon win the match. In sports such as baseball, where certain teams can be heavy favorites against weaker opponents (sometimes as much as -350 or higher), the moneyline system requires that a hefty sum be risked on the favorite, while enticing underdog players with a higher payout.

In sports such as basketball or American football, betting on the point spread is more popular, although money line odds are usually offered as well. A point spread wager typically requires a bettor to risk $110 to win $100, the extra $10 being the bookmaker’s vigorish if the wager loses. However, bettors backing the favorite collect only if their team wins by more than a specific victory margin, which is set at the time of the wager. This is called “covering the spread”. Similarly, underdog bettors can collect even when their team loses, as long as they win against the point spread by losing by fewer points than were quoted by the bookmaker. For example, suppose that a college football game between Kansas State and Kansas had K-State as a 27 point favorite (quoted as K-State -27, or Kansas +27):

• If Kansas State defeats Kansas by more than 27 points, they have covered the spread and bettors on K-State would receive $100 on a $110 bet. Kansas bettors lose the $110 they wagered.
• If Kansas defeats K-State, bettors on Kansas would receive $100 on a $110 bet. K-State bettors lose the $110 they wagered.
• If Kansas loses by less than 27 points, they have won against the spread. Bettors on both sides are then treated exactly as if Kansas had won the game.
• If K-State wins by exactly 27 points, the wager is called a “push”, and neither side wins. Standard practice by U.S. bookmakers is to return the stakes of all bettors on the game in full. To prevent pushes and ensure that they receive their commission on losing wagers, bookmakers often set point spreads that include a half-point.

Another common wager available for sporting events involves predicting the combined total score between the competing teams in a game. Such wagers are known as “totals” or “over/unders.” For example, the K-State/Kansas football game described above might have a total of 55 points. A bettor could wager that both teams will combine for over 55 points, and play the “over.” Or, she could predict that the score will fall under this amount, and play the “under.” As with point spreads, bookmakers frequently set the totals at a number involving a half-point (i.e., 55.5), to reduce the occurrence of pushes.

In the United Kingdom, each-way golf betting is serviced by twenty or more bookmakers, some of which, including the larger UK and Irish bookmakers, bet in running. Before the tournament starts, bookies pay out on a quarter for the first five places, but the each way terms lesson throughout each and every five day tournament, with win-only markets usually available during the final round. Dead heats pay out a proportion of the win or each-way return.

Many bookmakers offer several alternative bets, including the following:

• Proposition bets. These are wagers made on a very specific outcome of a match. Examples include guessing the number of goals each team scores in a soccer match, betting whether a wide receiver in a football game will net more or less than a set amount of total yardage, or wagering that a baseball player on one team will accumulate more hits than another player on the opposing team.
• Parlays. A parlay involves multiple bets (usually up to 12) and rewards successful bettors with a large payout. For example, a bettor could include four different wagers in a four-team parlay, whereby he is wagering that all four bets will win. If any of the four bets fails to cover, the bettor loses the parlay, but if all four bets win, the bettor receives a substantially higher payout (usually 10-1 in the case of a four-teamer) than if he made the four wagers separately.
• Run line, puck line or goal line bets. These are wagers offered as alternatives to straight-up/moneyline prices in baseball, hockey or soccer, respectively. These bets feature a fixed point spread that offers a higher payout for the favorite and a lower one for the underdog. For example, the above-described Cardinals/Cubs baseball game might offer a run line of St. Louis -1.5 (+100) and Chicago +1.5 (-120). A bettor taking St. Louis on the run line can avoid risking $200 to win $100 on the moneyline, but will collect only if the Cardinals win by 2 runs or more. Similarly, a run line wager on the Cubs will pay if Chicago loses by no more than a run, but it requires the bettor to risk $120 to win $100.
• Future wagers. This bet predicts a future accomplishment by a team or player. One example is a bet that a certain NFL team will win the Super Bowl for the upcoming season. Odds for such a bet generally are expressed in a ratio of units paid to unit wagered. The team wagered upon might be 50-1 to win the Super Bowl, which means that the bet will pay 50 times the amount wagered if the team does so