Since the golden age of the Western, poker playing has always been a popular theme in Hollywood. Although many of the Hollywood films that feature poker are not very good and some of them even display poker in a ridiculous manner, watching poker action on the big screen is great fun, especially if you play poker yourself.
Here are the best poker movies that were ever produced in Hollywood. Some of the movies are actually excellent movies regardless to their display of the poker game, while in others the poker games is the feature that makes them worth watching. However, if you are a poker fan, add these movies to your musts list.
The Sting directed by George Roy Hill in 1973
The Sting is less about poker and more about the art of card sharking but it will provide you two hours of sophisticated fun. The 1973 Academy award winner features young Paul Newman as the greatest con artist of them all who mentors young Robert Redford in the art of trickestry. David S. Warn screenplay is based on true con games stories.
The Cincinnati Kid directed by Norman Jewison in 1965
The classic stud poker film known for its climatic final hand and the unforgettable quote: Gets down to what its all about, doesn't it? Making the wrong move at the right time. In short, The Cincinnati Kid is about the battle between Steve Macqueen who plays a young poker player also known as The Kid and the veteran poker gambler known as The Man who is played by Edward G. Robinson during the Great Depression in New Orleans. It may not appear at any other list of best movies, but it certainly has one of the best poker scenes ever seen on the silver screen.
California Split directed by Robert Altman in 1974
California Split may not be the pick of Robert Altmans creation, but is one of the best movies to depict the messy everyday life of two professional gamblers played by George Segal and Elliott Gould. Like in many of Altman films, the narrative is not particularly straight and the end is not necessarily happy, but it does succeed in describing an authentic experience. Additionally, poker trivia fans would be thrilled to learn that poker legend Amarillo Slim plays a small role.
Rounders directed by John Dahl in 1998
It is hard to tell whether the movie pushed to the 21st century poker boom or the rise in the popularity of poker during the last decade made Rounders a cult hit. However, Rounders is one of the best poker films to display the contemporary high stake poker scene. The core of the movie is a long poker marathon in which Mat Damon and Edward Norton are trying to earn money to pay off the latter gambling debts. World Series of Poker champion Johnny Chan plays a featured role.
Maverick directed by Richard Donner in 1994
Although Maverick is not the most brilliant film ever made and some of the poker scenes are kinda silly, it is a fun and lightheaded poker movie. It might even provide you a basic idea on what it was like to be a rambling gambler in the old west card scene with Mel Gibson as a maverick who tries to earn enough money for the big five card draw poker tournament.
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Poker Hands: Best and Worse Starting Hands in Texas Holdem
The basic poker lesson is when to hold and when to fold. Knowing whether your initial deal is worth staying in the game or if you should call it a day, is one of the most important decisions to make at the beginning of the poker game. One of the most common beginner’s mistakes is holding onto the worst pair of hole cards instead of folding and protecting your money.
Therefore, if you are a novice poker player, one of the first things you should memorize is which initial hands are worth holding and which hands leaves you no choice but to fold. Since Texas Holdem is the most popular poker variation, here you can find lists of the best and the worth Holdem poker starting hands.
Best Poker Hands
If you are lucky to be dealt one of these initial hands, you are definitely having an excellent beginning:
Pair of Aces: as known as American Airlines or pocket rockets, it is the best possible Texas Holdem starting hand.
Pair of Kings: not as good as a pair of Aces but still an excellent way to open a game of Texas Holdem.
Pair of Queens: if you want to look at the bright side, you will be beaten only by Kings and Aces.
Ace and King: if they are of the same suit, your condition is even better, since you can form the nut flush at ease.
Pair of Jacks: unless the flop shows either a Queen, King or an Ace, you have decent chances of winning with this promising starting hand.
Ace and Queen: the same as Ace and King, a suited hand would increase your chances of stepping out as a winner.
King and Queen: unless the community cards contain an Ace, you are in a good shape with this starting hand and even better if it is suited
Ace and Jack: even if appears unsuited, this starting hand is still worth holding.
King and Jack: still one of the best Texas Holdem starting hands, but be careful with it, especially when unsuited.
Ace and Ten: the Ace upgrades it to a pretty good hand, although requires a cautious play since it can be beaten by any of the starting hands mentioned above.
Worst Poker Hands
These hands would suit you well if you play some of the lowball variations, but if you play traditional Texas Holdem poker, the best advice would be to fold.
2 and 7: if you are dealt this hand, especially unsuited, you cannot even make a straight. Even if suited you should be so lucky to form a low flush or the lowest pair. In one word: fold.
2 and 8: same as the previous hand; pair of 8s is still a low pair.
3 and 7: although it can beat the previous hands, it still a worthless pair of cards
3 and 8: again, hardly even a low straight.
2 and 6: only if the community cards will feature 3, 4 and 5, you will have a chance of forming a straight. However, do not count on it, especially if there are more than 3 attendances in the game.
2 and 9: thanks to the presence of the 9 you are in better shape than with the former hands, still you cannot form a straight and even a pair of 9s would be beaten by pairs of 10s, Jacks, Queens, etc.
3 and 9: the same thing: higher than 8 lower than almost any other hand.
4 and 9: as mentioned above; foldem.
2 and 10: even though Doyle Brunson had won two WSOP bracelets with this starting hand, unless you have the talent and experience of Brunson, do not hold this hand.
5 and 9: also known as Dolly Parton, this hand would get you nowhere near the final table.
Therefore, if you are a novice poker player, one of the first things you should memorize is which initial hands are worth holding and which hands leaves you no choice but to fold. Since Texas Holdem is the most popular poker variation, here you can find lists of the best and the worth Holdem poker starting hands.
Best Poker Hands
If you are lucky to be dealt one of these initial hands, you are definitely having an excellent beginning:
Pair of Aces: as known as American Airlines or pocket rockets, it is the best possible Texas Holdem starting hand.
Pair of Kings: not as good as a pair of Aces but still an excellent way to open a game of Texas Holdem.
Pair of Queens: if you want to look at the bright side, you will be beaten only by Kings and Aces.
Ace and King: if they are of the same suit, your condition is even better, since you can form the nut flush at ease.
Pair of Jacks: unless the flop shows either a Queen, King or an Ace, you have decent chances of winning with this promising starting hand.
Ace and Queen: the same as Ace and King, a suited hand would increase your chances of stepping out as a winner.
King and Queen: unless the community cards contain an Ace, you are in a good shape with this starting hand and even better if it is suited
Ace and Jack: even if appears unsuited, this starting hand is still worth holding.
King and Jack: still one of the best Texas Holdem starting hands, but be careful with it, especially when unsuited.
Ace and Ten: the Ace upgrades it to a pretty good hand, although requires a cautious play since it can be beaten by any of the starting hands mentioned above.
Worst Poker Hands
These hands would suit you well if you play some of the lowball variations, but if you play traditional Texas Holdem poker, the best advice would be to fold.
2 and 7: if you are dealt this hand, especially unsuited, you cannot even make a straight. Even if suited you should be so lucky to form a low flush or the lowest pair. In one word: fold.
2 and 8: same as the previous hand; pair of 8s is still a low pair.
3 and 7: although it can beat the previous hands, it still a worthless pair of cards
3 and 8: again, hardly even a low straight.
2 and 6: only if the community cards will feature 3, 4 and 5, you will have a chance of forming a straight. However, do not count on it, especially if there are more than 3 attendances in the game.
2 and 9: thanks to the presence of the 9 you are in better shape than with the former hands, still you cannot form a straight and even a pair of 9s would be beaten by pairs of 10s, Jacks, Queens, etc.
3 and 9: the same thing: higher than 8 lower than almost any other hand.
4 and 9: as mentioned above; foldem.
2 and 10: even though Doyle Brunson had won two WSOP bracelets with this starting hand, unless you have the talent and experience of Brunson, do not hold this hand.
5 and 9: also known as Dolly Parton, this hand would get you nowhere near the final table.
Blackjack: Myth, Origins and Objective
Not many know about how blackjack was invented and there have been many rumours and suppositions about this game but here you will be able to read about all of them.
It is believed by many that it started in France and was called vingt-et-un which means 20 and 1 in French. Like most of the casino games we play today, the true origins may never be known.
The objective in Blackjack is to get a hand that totals or is as close to 21 as possible without going over 21. The dealer gives each player 2 cards. Then each player gets a turn to request more cards one at a time till the layer thinks that is the best hand they can get without going over 21.
The English name Blackjack was given to the game because in the French version of the game. If a player drew a jack of spades and an Ace of spades the player got an extra bonus. To get this bonus the jack of spades needed to be drawn first and the name blackjack was born from players screaming their desire for the Black Jack.
In the 1880s Blackjack made its appearance in America, and it grew very fast in popularity. It was not long before players realized the ease in which the odds of blackjack could be manipulated and that rules needed to be put in place to regulate these games. Instead of that all gambling was made illegal in 1910 and all gambling went underground. This is how the core of todays gangsters was formed.
Eventually because of the lawlessness and gangster activities the government decided it was smarter to legalize it and tightly control gambling.
At this point blackjack became by far the most popular gambling game of any casino. Many books were written by mathematicians on the subject of how to improve your odds at blackjack.
It got to the point where the casinos had to change the way the game was played because too many people thought they knew how to manipulate the odds into their favor and the casinos did not want that, but the real fact was that the mathematicians who came up with these techniques for beating the odds wrote them in a manner that only they and other math nerds could understand and most people who thought they understood the theories continued to lose money at the blackjack tables, and helped to build the world of legalized casino gambling what it is today.
The casinos came up with the idea of adding a second and third deck to the game to make card counting harder and totally change the odds back into their favor and lose the holes in the game that allowed them to change the odds in the first place.
Today people can play Blackjack in a legal casino or in one of the many online casinos that have popped into existence in recent years. Because people are still trying to find the method of winning blackjack easily, people are still writing books on how to win at blackjack, but unlike the mathematicians that were writing these books in the 50s and 60s todays books are being written by some people who just claim to have a system. Unfortunately today that is all you need to sell a book. Many people are paying tons of money for a blackjack system that is a book that tells you nothing and maybe a video showing you how to play blackjack. If you are looking to get rich and make enough to retire from Blackjack, do not opt for this game. Chances are the system you have is garbage and will lose you all your money.
It is believed by many that it started in France and was called vingt-et-un which means 20 and 1 in French. Like most of the casino games we play today, the true origins may never be known.
The objective in Blackjack is to get a hand that totals or is as close to 21 as possible without going over 21. The dealer gives each player 2 cards. Then each player gets a turn to request more cards one at a time till the layer thinks that is the best hand they can get without going over 21.
The English name Blackjack was given to the game because in the French version of the game. If a player drew a jack of spades and an Ace of spades the player got an extra bonus. To get this bonus the jack of spades needed to be drawn first and the name blackjack was born from players screaming their desire for the Black Jack.
In the 1880s Blackjack made its appearance in America, and it grew very fast in popularity. It was not long before players realized the ease in which the odds of blackjack could be manipulated and that rules needed to be put in place to regulate these games. Instead of that all gambling was made illegal in 1910 and all gambling went underground. This is how the core of todays gangsters was formed.
Eventually because of the lawlessness and gangster activities the government decided it was smarter to legalize it and tightly control gambling.
At this point blackjack became by far the most popular gambling game of any casino. Many books were written by mathematicians on the subject of how to improve your odds at blackjack.
It got to the point where the casinos had to change the way the game was played because too many people thought they knew how to manipulate the odds into their favor and the casinos did not want that, but the real fact was that the mathematicians who came up with these techniques for beating the odds wrote them in a manner that only they and other math nerds could understand and most people who thought they understood the theories continued to lose money at the blackjack tables, and helped to build the world of legalized casino gambling what it is today.
The casinos came up with the idea of adding a second and third deck to the game to make card counting harder and totally change the odds back into their favor and lose the holes in the game that allowed them to change the odds in the first place.
Today people can play Blackjack in a legal casino or in one of the many online casinos that have popped into existence in recent years. Because people are still trying to find the method of winning blackjack easily, people are still writing books on how to win at blackjack, but unlike the mathematicians that were writing these books in the 50s and 60s todays books are being written by some people who just claim to have a system. Unfortunately today that is all you need to sell a book. Many people are paying tons of money for a blackjack system that is a book that tells you nothing and maybe a video showing you how to play blackjack. If you are looking to get rich and make enough to retire from Blackjack, do not opt for this game. Chances are the system you have is garbage and will lose you all your money.
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