World Cup 2006 Group Stage Review – Phase One – Part Two

All 32 teams have played one match each as the World Cup has begun in explosive fashion, but are things going according to plan for the favourites or are the underdogs having a say in proceedings? This is a short round-up of Groups E to H, of the results as they stand after one match.

Group E

1. Czech Republic 3pts, 2. Italy 3pts, 3. Ghana 0pts, 4. USA 0pts

The Czech Republic showed they have real dark horse credentials after sweeping aside the USA. Available at 33/1 to win the tournament outright before kick-off and even money to win their first match, the Czechs look to be a team worth following. They took just five minutes to break the deadlock through Jan Koller, who later went off injured, while new Arsenal signing Tomas Rosicky struck on 36 and 76 to seal an emphatic victory.

Notorious slow starters Italy wasted no time themselves as they beat Ghana 2-0. After waves of Italian pressure, Andrea Pirlo finally netted five minutes before half-time for the 1/2 Azzurri. Substitute Vincenzo Iaquinta added a second seven minutes from time.

Group F

1. Australia 3pts, 2. Brazil 3pts, 3. Croatia 0pts, 4. Japan 0pts

Japan looked set to beat Australia until a spectacular collapse six minutes from time. Shunsuke Nakamura gave Japan the lead after 26 minutes but two goals from Evertons Tim Cahill after 84 and 89 minutes and a stoppage time goal from John Aloisi gifted the 13/10 Socceroos an unlikely victory.

Pre-tournament favourites Brazil looked less than convincing as they beat Croatia 1-0. Kaka scored a spectacular goal a minute before the break but Croatia were guilty of squandering several chances as Carlos Alberto Parreiras side ensured a 2/5 winning bet.

Group G

1. South Korea 3pts, 2. France 1pt, 3. Switzerland 1pt, 4. Togo 0pts

South Korea, semi finalists of four years ago, could have been the victims of an opening match upset as unfancied Togo took the lead through Mohamed after 31 minutes. Lee Chun Soo equalised nine minutes into the second half and Ahn Jung Hwan, who famously dumped Italy out of the 2002 World Learn more here Cup and was then sacked by club employers Perugia, struck the winner on 72 for the 11/10 Koreans.

France continued where they left off four years ago by not scoring any goals as they drew 0-0 with Switzerland. Both sides drew with eachother during qualifying so another stalemate at 9/4 was not a shock result.

Group H

1. Spain 3pts, 2. Saudi Arabia 1pt, 3. Tunisa 1pt, 4. Ukraine 0pts

Spain laughed off their underachiever tag by crushing dark horse choice Ukraine 4-0 to send them top of the group after one match. Xabi Alonso opened the scoring after 13 minutes, David Villa netted his first on 17 and converted a penalty three minutes into the second half. Manchester United target Fernando Torres completed the rout nine minutes before the final whistle for the 4/5 Spaniards.

Saudi Arabia and Tunisia fought out a dramatic 2-2 draw although the result will do neither side any favours. Ziad Jaziri fired the Tunisians in front after 23 minutes but outsiders Saudi hit back through Al Khatani after 57 minutes and veteran Sami Al Jaber on 84. With an unlikely victory on the cards, Bolton defender Rahdi Jaidi thundered in a header two minutes into stoppage time to seal an 11/5 draw.

Go on admit it you love playing bingo. The thrill of the nervous waiting on edge, gasping for the satisfaction of being able to stand up and shout bingo, knowing at that single moment that it will be you alone who stands in the spotlight, graced by the hand of lady luck.

At some stage in our life we will all get a chance to play bingo. Whether as a child on a family holiday as part of the local hotel entertainment, at home via the increasing number of bingo board games available, or on a night out with friends, perhaps before you move on to the more hard core entertainment of drinking and dancing. I imagine also that there isnt a single adult in the modern world who hasnt heard of the game.

Bingo, whose roots can be traced back as early as 1530, deriving from the Italian lottery of the time, has always been an exciting and popular game. Funpoker88 It has taken many forms over the years, from the early days of playing with beans, to the more sophisticated ball dispensing mechanisms and automated cards. It has evolved initially from being a method that churches used to increase charitable donations, to becoming a popular social activity.

In recent years however, bingo has been seen as a game played mainly by lady pensioners or adults with low income, perhaps because of the opportunity to obtain large sums of money, with little effort and mostly at low cost. Now however, bingo is played by people of all ages, both sexes and from all walks of life. Whether you are a Lawyer, Teacher, Cleaner or Plumber, bingo is now more accessible, more fashionable and more lucrative. However, it is only in the last two or three years that bingo has taken a further step forward, receiving an upturn in the number and type of players joining in the thrill and excitement of the game of bingo.

This upturn and change of demographic is attributed to the ability to now play bingo online. Bingo is a game which has few rules, requires no previous knowledge of the game, requires no in-depth learning of a strategy, and provides players with a quick entertainment fix at minimal cost. The internet is the perfect catalyst for such a game, and being able to play bingo online has allowed many to obtain this fix instantaneously. No longer do players have to wait to organise a group of friends to visit the local bingo hall, and no longer do players have to leave the comfort of their chair to obtain the thrill and excitement of winning at bingo. Bingo has reached the modern age. Internet has made it all possible. Computers have become more popular in homes and broadband has brought technology to our doorsteps. Games are evolving, graphics are improving and prize money is growing.

The age range of online players has widened to 20-55, with the average age being 35. The percentage of male players has increased on some sites to over 30%, from the average of 20% in land-based bingo. Players are spending more money on online bingo too. Though the cards are slightly cheaper, players are averaging 5 per session. The time spent playing online bingo is now around 20 hours per week, as opposed to around 5 hours in land-based bingo. So where are people getting the time to play at home, at work!

In 2003, 77 million people in the US used a computer, with around 33 million in the UK (two thirds of the population). Well, most of us now use a computer in the office or at some point during our working life. Microsofts recent research shows that of working age adults (18-64) 78% use a computer, with 45% of those accessing from work. Of those accessing from work, NetApp, reports that approximately 31% use it for personal entertainment reasons.

Well, if you are one of the many players now accessing bingo while you have a spare moment at work or during your lunch break, but you dont want the boss to know, there are a couple of neat tricks to fool those nearby. www.donsbosspage.com is one of the many sites now offering a free downloadable Panic Button, which floats across your pc enabling you to click from whichever site you are on, whenever the boss or a colleague is nearby. This tools opens up either an excel document, or similar document, fooling those into thinking you are hard at work. This site also offers a sound busy tool which plays the sound of someone typing away on a keyword.

Some sites also offer an alert button which you can keep by your site for when you are not playing. This allows you to keep abreast of all the latest bingo jackpot and promotional offerings, and current numbers of players online.

So bingo is now modern, fashionable, fun and exciting. Even celebrities are joining in the fun, with many claiming to be fans of online bingo sites. It certainly is a quick fix for those with a spare few momentsbut one word of warning, play only when the boss is not looking, that is the boss both at home and at work!!

Poker has one rule that is much more important that any other: every player is to blame for all he or she does with the cards in their hand. It is never about luck, its about them and how they play.

You must not let others influent your gaming style. If you do that you will be at their hand. They can manipulate your game and use your style to win their hands and take your chips or money. Psychology is an important factor and players will attempt to use it against you, this is not because they are rude, but only because this is poker and these things go along with it, they absolutely have to.

Lets consider a possible situation. You are at home, right in the middle of your poker session, having a great hand and a friend comes along to visit. You will make to mistakes. The one has already been made the moment you declared yourself available when in fact you were playing poker online and for this you shouldve saved your full attention and concentration.

So, you are Funpoker88 now just one mistake away from losing money, still you are sitting there, with one eye at the poker table and the other at your friend. Regardless what he came to tell you, he is a distraction right now and he will affect your game.

Lets say you continue to play and at some point your friends starts to tell you what he thinks about your hands. Without even realizing it, you follow his inexperienced lead and start losing everything youve made that evening. Finally, when left with nothing you and your friend decide together that poker is not for you and you should forget all about it.

The second mistake occurred somewhere along the way as I am sure you all noticed. Letting someone else to evaluate your hands is the greatest mistake of all. Only you are allowed to do that, because you are the only one really involved.

However this presented case is just a minor situation. Because of the lack of attention, in an official tournament one player named Uli Gerloff lost nearly $9000 or more. Here is in short what happened.

He had a winning hand, clearly. But, when the last card was placed on the table, his opponent trembled with joy and acted like he is clearly the winner. Everything happened in a splash second. The next thing was that the dealer pushed the chips to the opponent and everyone, including Uli was convinced that the other player won. And he did eventually win because of the lack of attention Uli manifested. Uli realized only later that his hand was the winning one, but the casino stuff and the experts blamed him for being lightheaded and he was never given credit for that hand.

You and only you are responsible for your hand. No one else will tell you if you have the winning cards, you have to see at least that at the end of each hand. Dont let others influent you in any way and trust only yourself and the cards in a game of poker.

The bingo game is one of the most popular games in the world today. Most people are familiar with bingo games in town halls. Now there is a relatively new trend the online bingo game.

Have you ever wondered where it all started?

The modern day bingo game was originally a form of lottery. When Italy was united in 1530, the government instituted the Italian National Lottery. The Lottery has been held almost every week since then. Today the Lottery is absolutely indispensable to the Italian government – earning more than $75 million yearly!

In 1778 Lotto caught the attention of the intellectuals. The classic Lotto game consisted out of a card that was divided into three horizontal and nine vertical rows. Each horizontal row had five numbered and four blank squares in a random arrangement. The vertical rows contained numbers from 1 to 10, the second numbers from 11 to 20, continuing up to 90. All the Lotto cards were unique. Players would be dealt a single lotto card, whilst someone would draw chips, marked from 1 to 90, from a bag and read the number aloud. Players covered the numbers on their cards if it were read. The first player to cover a complete horizontal row was the winner. In the 1800s educational games became popular. Lotto games were adapted to teach children spelling, multiplication tables, animals and history. Even today, in the very competitive toy and game market, similar games are popular.

One evening in December 1929, Fun88poker toy salesman Edwin S. Lowe stopped at a carnival a few miles outside Jacksonville. Everything was closed except for one booth. The booth was packed with people. Someone would draw numbers from a bag and read it aloud. The players would all check their cards to see whether they got the number. The winner was the first person who filled a horizontal, vertical or diagonal row of numbers and yelled Beano. The winner would than receive a small Kewpie doll as price. As you can guess, this game was called Beano.

Lowe, who has owned his own toy store for about a year, saw the potential of the game immediately. Back home he bought some card and a rubber number stamp and produced his own beano game. Testing it on his friends he soon realized that the game was almost addictive and lots of fun. When one of his friends yelled Bingo instead of beano he knew he had found the name of his new game!

The first Lowe bingo game had two variations a 12 card set for one dollar and a 24 card set for two dollar. The game was an instant success and soon became popular. Of course he was not the only one to recognize the potential of the bingo game. Many imitators soon tried to market the game. Lowe could not patent the game, but offered to pay his competitors $1 if they would call it Bingo.

A few months later Lowe was approached by a priest from a small parish. Someone in his parish suggested that they use the bingo game as a fundraiser to help the church out of its financial trouble. The priest bought a few sets of Lowes bingo game, but unfortunately always had six or more winners.

Lowe immediately saw the potential expansion of the game, but also knew that a huge variation of numbers for the bingo cards will have to be developed. He asked an elderly mathematics professor at Columbia University, Carl Leffler, to devise 6,000 new cards with non-repeating numbers. The professor agreed for a fee for each new card. But, as the professor continued, he found that it became increasingly difficult to produce new bingo cards. Lowe was impatient and at the end he paid Leffler more than $100 per new bingo card. Finally the task was completed, but rumor had it that the professor lost his sanity!

Soon the bingo game was one of the most popular games in North America, and it remains so until today. Many associate it with fundraising, but today Bingo is much more than a fundraiser in church halls.

About ten years ago the online bingo game was developed. Within five years it became even more popular than going to the movies or concerts! Many would agree that online bingo games are the best thing since sliced bread.

Of course online bingo is much more than just a game. It is a place to be with friends and to relax. Who would have guessed that one of the best games ever had such a long history?

It is very reckless to plan your strategy on communicate only. You must perceive each tell as a portion of information. With the help of a complex of such fragments you may size a pretty evident picture of your adversary’ behaviour.

If you thoroughly want to use say effectively, you must not rely on them completely. You need to make your strength of will captivating into explanation other important factors, for paragon, the way an opponent is gaming, what type of a player he/she is, what emotional state-owned is and the history of their show business.

The most popular tells are the resulting. Pay interest to the particulars on how you can use them.

Chip Loading

It is when a participant has established his greetings card and then, quickness down at his chip smokestack. If a entertainer does that, he is liable to have a good hand and is on offer to bet in the nearest time. He is cunning how much it is necessary to bet in order to gain the most profit from his hand.

In most indictment after storage area a chip, a always raises the pot. Observing this, you may deduction what holdings he has. The only thing you do is to get to know what his liking in imminent are and slender down his card oath. It is also valuable to look at your opponent’s play on the flop. If you questionable him to have hit a draw, look at him carefully when the supplier go round the card for the turn or river. As the card is turned he might immediately squint down at his money, as if to bet. If he does so, funpoker88 you can safely fold your hand.

Betting Patterns

Watch how your antagonist bet, how fast they do that, and how much they bet. Many performers promotion starting hands in not the same ways. When they show down a hand they had higher pre-flop, always try to bring to mind how much they on it.

Look Away

Sometimes during a big hand you may communication that a beauty away, as if he/she were not interested in the hand. These players are quite dangerous to play with. They want you to think they are unprincipled, weak enemy. But in fact it isn’t so at all. If you perform a actor avoid looking at you or act timid during a hand, be suspicious not to get ensnared.

Staring at You

If a team member stares immediately at you, it is nobody else but trick. By that, he’s trying to coerce you into collapsible. Don’t let yourself be confused by such . You might want to call if you have a proper hand for this persistence.

Posture

It can tell you many things if you guard circumspectly when and how your rival cash their inactive place. When players do not have coming, they generally sit back in their seating. As the job vagaries and they get a hand they care going on for they will immediately sit up in chair or tap their feet or portion. Leaned back posture with crossed arms means that a contestant is not interested in the current hand. When he wants to get out of the pot, he commonly sits up quickly or establish emotional around.

We have the fact that the MVP Award is announced and decided before the NBA playoffs are over. It is decided on before the first round is even over! Whats the result? It was announced Wednesday that Steve Nash will win his second straight MVP Award.

Now I am not arguing that Nash is not worthy of his second MVP. Actually Nash supporters are going to say that he had a better statistical year this season than last season, when he was the clear choice for MVP. Sure, Nash upped his points from 15.5 per game last year to 18.8 per this year, but last year was last year. More importantly, Kobe Bryant and Lebron James were not in the playoffs last year and did not come even close to the caliber of seasons they each had this year. What I am arguing is that other players are just more deserving of the award.

On Wednesday night, Nash got posterized like no one has ever seen before. Who was the player that abused Nash so horribly, you ask? Oh it was Kobe Bryant, another top candidate for MVP and someone more worthy of the honor than Nash. More than just making Nash look like a fool on national television, Bryants dunk in the fourth quarter sealed the victory for the Lakers over the Suns. This now leads us back to our issue funpoker88 at hand.

The Suns might not make it out of the first round of the playoffs. After the Lakers 93-90 victory Wednesday night, the series is even at one game a piece. Now, the Lakers are heading back to Los Angeles with home-court advantage and control of the series. By the way the Lakers are 27-14 at home this year and we all know Kobe is going to turn it up a notch for the home crowd. If this round is the last stop for the Suns, where does that leave Nash? At home with his MVP trophy, even after he couldnt beat the seventh-seeded Lakers in the opening round. Remember way back when Charles Barkley was actually one of the first MVPs not to win the NBA Championship? That was in 1993 and seems like ages ago now. Back then the MVP committee got things right, and even more ironic is that Barkley won the award while playing for the Suns, Nashs current team.

More over, if the Suns do in fact lose to the Lakers in the first round, the case grows even stronger that Kobe is the MVP. Do I have to read the laundry list of accomplishments to you? The man scored 35 points per game during the regular season, not to mention getting an overachieving Lakers team back into the playoffs with a record of 45-37. And now he might get them into the second round as a seventh seed. Without Kobe, this team would already be planning for the Draft Lottery.

And what about Lebron James? The Cleveland Cavs are the fourth seed in the East. Let me repeat, the Cleveland Cavs are the fourth seed in the East. Dont forget that the Cavs also won 50 games this year. This is an achievement in itself. Lets not forget Lebrons playoff debut; he only scored a triple double against the Wizards. This is exactly why the playoffs have to count toward the MVP voting, because the playoffs are where legends are made.

Dont get me wrong, Nash is a nice player who had a nice season. But arent MVPs supposed to be spectacular players who have spectacular seasons. Before you answer that question, answer this one. If you take Kobe away from the Lakers and Nash away from the Suns, which team suffers more? The answer to that is your 2006 MVP. Ill give you a little hint. Its not Steve Nash.

If you are like most gamblers, you play many different casino games. Sure, you probably have your favorite, but you most likely sample other games. Knowing how to play a casino game is only the first step in the winning equation. To have a shot at hitting it big or winning over time, you need to know some tricks to the game. In this article, you will learn some solid tips for various casino gamesBlackjack, Craps, Roulette and Texas Holdem Poker.

Blackjack Tips

Tip One: Doubling Down on 11

Youve probably heard it before, Always double down on 11. If the total of your first two cards is 11, you should consider doubling down. However, it should not be an automatic move. If the dealers up card is a ten, you might want to reconsider that move. Its usually best to simply hit when the dealer has a ten or face card showing.

Tip Two: Taking Insurance

If theres only one thing you remember from this article, let it be this; never ever take insurance. Insurance is a suckers bet. Some very conservative players will take out insurance if they have a twenty. However, if you are this tight with your money, the casino is the last place you should be at. Dont take insuranceperiod.

Craps Tips

Tip One: Dont place prop bets

The area in the center of the Craps table is the proposition area and thats where the casino makes it money from Craps. All proposition wagers are suckers bets. Sure, it can be fun to hit them, just understand that you are being cheated out of value and the probability of hitting these bets is very low.

Tip Two: The Field is not your friend

When you walk up to a craps table, the field bet might be one of the first areas on the layout you notice. It is very large and has all sorts of lovely numbers in it. The field is a one-roll wager and you lose when on a roll of 5,6,7 or 8. Conveniently, these are the numbers with the most combinations. The house has a huge advantage on the field, and only pays you Link Alternatif Funpoker88 even-money when you winsome house pay extra on the 2 and 12.

Roulette Tips

Tip One: Play European Roulette

The game of Roulette has two main versions: European and American. The European version of Roulette is far superior, because the house advantage is only 2.70%. The American version added an extra zero spot to the wheel00. The result is the house advantage growing by almost 100%. If you are stuck with the American version, thats fine, but if the European version is available, play it instead.

Texas HoldEm Poker Tips

Tip One: Always Raise with Top hands

Theres almost no point in playing passiveespecially if you are a newer player. When you are dealt AA, KK or AK, you need to raise the pot. If another player has raised already, re-raise the pot. Your raise should be at least three times the blind. As you grow up in the poker world, you will figure out your own raise amounts, but three times the blind is a good guide for initial raises.

The next time you play one of these games, keep these tips in mind. Remember, anyone can play a casino game, but not everyone can win. Increase your chances of going home a winner by following these tips and playing well.

If you ever see an angry poker player carrying on and throwing a fit about a hand, you can generally assume this player has taken a bad beat. Bad beat is a poker term referring to having a strong dominating hand lose to a much weaker hand held by another player.

If youve read my previous uplifting article about bad beat jackpots, you might be excited about the possibility of experiencing a large bad beat in a brick-and-mortar casino, but most players hope they can defy the laws of the universe and never have to experience bad beat poker.

It doesnt matter whether youre playing online poker or brick-and-mortar poker, players are constantly getting frustrated and complaining about bad beats. If I had a dollar for every bad beat story Ive heard in my life, I wouldnt be sitting here playing a $20 online multi-table tournament; Id be vacationing at the beach.

Generally its the better and more experienced players who are amazed at losing to large underdog hands. Newer players often dont realize the odds of a bad beat poker hand like pushing all in with AdJc and miraculously beating AsKs by spiking a Jack on the river.

Experienced and educated poker players need to take a step back and Link Alternatif Funpoker88 realize that bad beats will always happen when playing poker. Most decent poker players always talk about how amazed they are when they experience a bad beat, and they try to claim that it always happens to them. One thing that experienced players dont realize is that if they are constantly playing with weaker opponents and experiencing bad beats, its because they always have the dominating hand.

You hardly ever see an advanced poker player lay down a bad beat on a much weaker player, especially in a no-limit game. The reasoning behind this is because as the better player, he generally has the better hand going into an all-in situation, so it seems like weaker players never experience bad beats. Players have to learn to take pride in generally making the correct play with the better hand and simply brush it off when they finally experience a horrifying bad beat.

Another common topic arises when talking about bad beats: how bad beats seem to happen far more often while playing online poker than when playing in a casino. For years players have spread myths and rumors that online poker is rigged. These players accuse the online card rooms of creating large action hands for the players involved in a game to drive up the size of the pot, which spikes up the casino rake. These myths and rumors are exactly that: all fake. All online poker rooms experience rigorous pattern testing and verification to provide completely random hands for all games at all times.

The truth of the matter is, when playing online poker, you see far more hands than when you are playing in an actual casino. Playing brick-and-mortar poker, you might be dealt around 30 hands an hour, depending on the game, the dealer, and the other players at the table. However, while playing online poker, you are probably seeing 50 hands an hour. You might be experiencing double the number of hands as compared to casino poker, which might make it seem like bad beats are dealt more often, when actually their occurrence is generally about the same. If you are playing two tables at once in an online poker room, you are easily seeing 40-50 more hands per hour than if you were playing one table in a brick-and-mortar casino.

One last fact about online poker and bad beats is that the majority of players are more hesitant about calling large all-in situations when playing in actual casinos with actual money chips in front of them. Often online players, especially newer players, dont have a problem pressing the Call button on their monitor, even in situations where they shouldnt be calling. After all, it only takes one click of a mouse. If the same player were forced to push out $85 in chips in a $1/$2 brick-and-mortar casino no-limit game, he might think twice about his hand strength before throwing his money away.

So, all in all, no player can truly avoid receiving or giving bad beats in poker. Taking a hard bad beat sticks out in your head much longer than laying a bad beat down on another player. To keep your game sharp, you must learn to simply blow off bad beats, remain focused, dont get frustrated, and understand that other players making bad calls is exactly what you really want. These are the players who keep you in the money and make you a winning poker player.

As I finish this article, I am dropped from my multi-table tournament, 6 spots before the money, when my pre-flop all-in with AK gets called by KQ, and my opponent turns a Queen. It happens, thats poker, next tournament please.