Microgaming is the leading software provider for the online gambling industry. Over the past several years, Microgaming has launched two or more slot machine games every month, including a number of classic 3-reel slots. Each of these slot games has its own unique theme, ranging from witchcraft to Mardi Gras to the Chinese New Year. 3-reel slots are perfect games for the beginning player, because of their easy and straightforward format. This article summarizes 6 of Microgaming’s newest 3-reel slot machines, including Happy New Year, Legacy, Mardi Gras, Off the Hook, Sonic Boom, and Spellbound.
Happy New Year is a 3-reel, 5 payline slot machine with a Chinese New Year theme. It was released in January, 2008 just in time to celebrate the Year of the Rat. Happy New Year accepts coins from $1.00 to $25.00. The maximum jackpot is 2,400 coins.
Legacy is a 3-reel, 5 payline slot machine with the theme of class and sophistication. The betting range is $1.00 to an amazing $25.00 per payline, and you can bet up to 5 coins per spin. With a maximum bet of $125.00, you could win a possible jackpot of $60,000 (2,400 coins).
Mardi Gras (French for Fat Tuesday) is a 3-reel, single payline slot machine with a carnival theme. The betting range is 25 cents to $5.00, and you can bet up to 3 coins per spin. The maximum jackpot is 5,000 coins.
Off the Hook is a 3-reel, single payline slot machine with an oceanic fishing theme. The coin range is 25 cents to $5.00. There are 24 winning combinations of symbols, and the Fish symbol is the most important one of all. For example, if you play with 1 coin and hit 3 Fish symbols on the payline, you will win $2,000. If you play with 2 coins and hit 3 Fish symbols on the payline, you will win $4,000. If you play with 3 coins and hit 3 Fish symbols on the payline, you will win the maximum payout of $8,000.
Sonic Boom is a 3-reel, single payline slot machine with an aviation theme. The coin range is 5 cents to $5.00, and the maximum number of coins that you can play per spin is 2. If you play 1 coin and hit 3 Sonic Boom symbols on the payline, you will win $1,200. If you play 2 coins and hit 3 Sonic Boom symbols on the payline, you will win the maximum jackpot of $2,500.
Spellbound is a 3-reel, 3-payline slot machine with a witchcraft theme. The coin range is 25 cents to $5.00. There are 7 possible winning combinations of symbols, and the Enchantress symbol is the most important one of all. For example, if you hit any 3 Bar symbols on the payline, you will win $5. If you hit 3 Amulet symbols on the payline, you will win $300. If you hit 3 Owl symbols on the payline, you will win $500. If you hit 3 Enchantress symbols on payline 3, you will win the maximum jackpot of $6,000.
Whether you play slots online or blackjack in Vegas, remember to only gamble with the money that you can afford to lose. Decide beforehand how much you wish to spend, and never gamble when you are tired or irritable. Finally, have fun and quit while you are ahead. By following these simple rules of gambling, your casino experience will be more fun-filled and enjoyable.
Gregory DeVictor is a consultant and has been developing and marketing web sites since 1999. You can learn more about slot machines at: http://www.Slot-Machines.name
Microgaming is the leading software provider for the online gambling industry. Over the past three years, Microgaming has launched over 100 new slot machine games, including a number of classic 3-reel slot machines. Each of these 3-reel slots has its own unique theme, ranging from oceanic fishing to witchcraft to adventure. Classic 3-reel slots are perfect casino games for the beginning player, because of their easy and straightforward format. This article reviews 5 of these new 3-reel slots, including Bar Bar Black Sheep, Bulls Eye, Frost Bite, Jingle Bells, and Jungle 7’s.
Bar Bar Black Sheep is a 3-reel, single pay-line slot machine based on the popular children’s nursery rhyme. The coin range is 20 cents to $1.00. There are 27 winning combinations of symbols, and the Bar Bar Black Sheep symbol is the most important one of all. One or more Bar Bar Black Sheep symbols on the pay-line create winning combinations. One symbol pays out $500, two symbols pay out $1,000, and all three Bar Bar Black Sheep symbols pay out $1,600.
Bulls Eye is a 3-reel, single pay-line slot machine based on the game of darts. The only coin size available is a $1.00 coin. There are 24 winning combinations of symbols, and the Dart Man symbol is the most important one of all. For example, if you play 1 coin and hit 3 Dart Man symbols on the pay-line, you will win $1,000. If you play 3 coins and hit 3 Dart Man symbols on the pay-line, you will win the maximum of payout of $5,000.
Frost Bite is a 3-reel, single pay-line slot machine with an Arctic theme. Frost Bite accepts coins from 25 cents to $5.00, and the maximum number of coins that you can play per spin is 2. One Frost Bite symbol doubles your payout and 2 Frost Bite symbols quadruple your payout. If you hit all three Frost Bite symbols on the pay-line, you will win the maximum jackpot of $1,600.
Jingle Bells is a 3-reel, 5 pay-line slot machine with a festive Christmas theme. The coin range is 25 cents to $5.00, and you can play up to 1 coin per pay-line per spin. With a maximum bet of $25.00 ($5.00 x 1 coin per pay-line x 5 pay-lines), you could win a possible jackpot of $30,000 (6,000 coins).
Embark on a treacherous adventure along the Inca trail. Jungle 7’s is a 3-reel, single pay-line slot machine with an exploration and adventure theme. The coin range is 25 cents to $5.00 and you can bet up to 3 coins per pay-line per spin. With a maximum bet of $15.00, you could win a possible jackpot of $75,000 (15,000 coins).
So there you have it, five 3-reel slot machines from Microgaming. Whether you play slot machines online or blackjack in Vegas, remember to only gamble with the money that you can afford to lose. Don’t exceed your spending limit should you lose, and never gamble when you are tired or irritable. By following these simple rules of gambling, your casino experience - online or at a land-based casino - will be more enjoyable.
Gregory DeVictor is a consultant and has been developing and marketing web sites since 1999. You can learn more about slot machines at: http://www.Slot-Machines.name
I have played nearly every kind of card game in nearly every part of the world. Always I have played for money, and sometimes for a lot of money. I have had a chance to observe, in action, nearly every type of card player.
Some of these have studied their favorite games for a long time and know a lot about them, and yet they lose. Why? Usually it is because of just a few habitual mistakes that they make over and over. Yet they could correct these mistakes quite easily if they knew what they were.
I have tried to analyze the mistakes that the average good player makes most often and finds most costly. Usually a player can easily avoid such mistakes if he knows the few basic and generally simple principles that govern them. Pay attention to these principles and you will speedily change into a consistent winner.
TEN THINGS EVERY WINNING BRIDGE PLAYER MUST KNOW
1. It pays to bid a vulnerable game when the odds are 8 to 5 against you; when not vulnerable you need a 50-50 chance.
2. It pays to go down 400 or 500 (depending on vulnerability) to prevent an opposing game.
3. It is worth going down as much as 200 to prevent an opposing part score.
4. To bid a little slam you need a 50-50 chance; to bid a grand slam you need at least 2 to 1 in your favor.
5. An opening major-suit bid should show at least a five-card suit or a strong four-card suit.
6. Bid your strength whenever possible the suit you want to have led.
7. Don’t overcall at the two level unless your trump suit is at least five cards long and very strong.
8. Don’t make a light third-hand bid if you can’t stand a lead in the suit.
9. Bid more cautiously when you suspect a misfit
10. Take a moderate set rather than risk having a big contract made against you it’s insurance.
The advice I give you will follow the theories I follow myself.To begin with, however, I must make it clear where I stand on the most discussed and most disputed points of the day.
Point-Count Valuation All the point-count systems, Goren or any other, in nine out of ten cases will arrive at the same result So will mine. However, I believe it to be slightly simpler and in some cases more accurate.
My high-card count is the same one you are undoubtedly using: Ace 4, King 3, Queen 2, Jack 1.
Add 1 point for a fifth trump, and an additional 1 point for each trump over five.
Add 1 point for a four-card side suit or 2 points for a five-card side suit, but do not count more than one side suit in the same hand.
You will note that this gives a value of only 1 distributional point to the 4-4-4-1 hand pattern, whereas Goren gives it 2 points. It gives only 2 points to the 5-4-4-0 pattern, whereas Goren gives it 3 points. I don’t fhfafr these hands deserve any higher valuation than I give them until your partner has responded. They are hands that can lead to serious misfits, if your partner has nothing but a long suit and it coincides with your singleton or void Slightly undervaluing such hands at the start guards you against making some dangerous borderline 12- and 13-point bids.
Every point-count system has to have a slightly different schedule of points for raises and for revaluation of a hand that has raised. I have gone over the various suggestions and my conclusion is that they are all about 90% correct and in the other 10% will result in some degree of overvaluation or undervaluation.
In my experience it is a mistake to try for 100% accuracy in Bridge valuation; in the effort a writer has to make so many exceptions to his basic point count that it confuses the student, and by the time he gets through there are still numerous hands that the system doesn’t quite fit. I am content to take any one of the popular methods and rely on the law of averages to make it fit most hands, and on intelligence to recognize the hands that it doesn’t fit.
Opening One-Bids In recent years bidding has become more competitive than it used to be, with both sides bidding and with many more pre-emptive bids. Therefore, the trend is to sound opening bids, for your partner must often depend on you to have sound values and not the very light hands experts were opening seven or eight years ago.
Rather than the opening-bid requirements that are usually published, I recommend the following:
13 points may be opened;
14 points should be opened, but it is not obligatory; 12 points may be opened only on rare occasions.
Follow these tips and you will find you are far more successful at Bridge!
Malcolm Blake has done extensive research into the field of games of all genres including modern games on Zune.
There are so many different forms of Poker that no one could even count them all. And each of them would justify a book all by itself!
Generally speaking, you can divide all the more popular forms of Poker into four main types: Draw Poker, which to most American players means the game formerly known as Jackpots; Stud Poker, which usually means Five-Card Stud; its popular variation, Seven-Card Stud; and Low Poker, or Lowball, which is a form of Draw Poker in which the lowest hand, not the highest, wins. But all of these are played in combinations and variations. There are High-Low Poker; Blind-Opening Poker; hundreds of games that use wild cards and extra cards and special hands and odd numbers of cards. Bach variation affects the proper play, and sometimes changes it completely as in High-Low Seven-Card Stud, when you play with low combinations and drop with high ones.
Almost every bit of Poker advice must depend also on the particular rules, stakes, players, and conditions. Still, there are some principles that apply to nearly any form of Poker. I am first going to give some of those principles, and then I will take up special points that apply to the most popular variations of Poker.
GENERAL PRINCIPLES IN POKER
First I would say that a winning Poker player must have a combination of two qualities. They are knowledge and courage. The knowledge part is what you can read about in books. Whichever form of Poker you are playing, you have to know what constitutes a good hand in that game; you have to know the odds against having the winning hand, and compare them with the odds offered by the pot; you have to know something of betting tactics,
psychology, and characteristics of the other players in the game.
The factor of courage cannot be taught; but you can’t win without it When you get into a Poker game, you aren’t there to keep from losing. You’re there to win. And to do that you must back your good hands to the limit, and risk your money when you think you’re right.
This lack of courage is the reason so many Poker players are at a disadvantage once they start losing. Every time another player bets aggressively, their first reaction is one of fear. They check when they should bet, and drop when they should call, thus winning too little on their good hands and losing on too many of their fair hands.
I have known men who were formerly good Poker players but who lost their courage, either through a reduced financial position, or family responsibilities, or even a seemingly interminable losing streak. They promptly changed from good players to poor ones. If the amount of money at stake is frightening to you, I can only recommend that you appropriate a certain amount of money that you are able to lose and play that money as though it were an unlimited supply. If you lose it all, quit the game. While you’re playing you’ll have a chance to win.
The Advantage of the Top Man Here is the first rule of Poker: Don’t try to beat the other fellow; let him try to beat you. That isn’t just an introductory paragraph. It is probably more important than everything else in this section. Do yourself a favor by reading it again.
The man who has the best hand going in (in Draw Poker) or the highest-ranking combination in the first two or three cards (in Stud Poker) will show a profit in the long run; anyone with a lower hand will show a loss. Even the man with the second-highest hand figures to lose unless there are at least six players in the pot altogether, in which case he will only break even.
Poker can’t be played as a sure-thing game. That is losing practice too. Your decision is based on two factors besides the strength of your hand. One is the nature of the game you are playing in. The second is the odds you are offered by the pot. The Other Players You must make your style of play conform to the type of game you are in.
If the other players are conservative, you must be conservative. They will not play unless they have good hands; neither must you, or you will lose consistently.
If the game is a liberal one, in which most of the other players would rather play doubtful hands than be bored, you must play more liberally for two reasons. If you are too cautious, they won’t like you and won’t play with you. And the more liberal the game, the more players there are in the average pot, and the better odds you will get for your bets.
The conservative player stays in only about once in four hands that he gets. In the conservative game the average pot has only two players in it, though what actually happens, of course, is that most of the pots are uncontested, and some of them have three, four, or five players.
In the liberal game slightly more than half the players are in every pot say four players in a seven-handed game.
Whatever the game, don’t play against a single opponent unless you are pretty sure you have a better hand. Don’t play against two or three opponents unless there is a chance that you have the best hand, And with four or five opponents you should be pretty sure that you have at least the second-best hand going in, or that you will surely win (as with a straight or flush) if you improve.
In any game, serious or casual, there are a few matters of Poker etiquette that are necessary to the smooth operation of the game. Never throw away your hand or announce that you are dropping until your turn comes; it may help one of the preceding players at the expense of another. Don’t put money in the pot without keeping it separate long enough for other players to see you are putting in the right amount. These are some of the main points of etiquette that should be oberserved.
Malcolm Blake has conducted extensive research into all kinds of games including modern games such as games on Zune.
High-low seven-card stud is regular Seven-Card Stud in which the high and low hands split the pot However, the same hand may win both ways, using different five-card combinations from the full seven cards. In most games, no declarations are required as to whether the player is trying for high or for low.
Of all the high-low games this is the most appealing and the most exciting. There are two-card, five-card and six-card High-Low Stud games, and a new kind of six-card High-Low Stud called Symington, that are all quite popular; but none of them offers the over-all excitement that the seven-card game does.
One of the great thrills in Poker is to win a pot both ways in a high-low game. This happens more often in the seven-card game than in any other, simply because you have more cards dealt to you from which to pick out both a win- ning high hand and a winning low hand.
Every High-Low Poker player’s dream is to hold something like this:
Down cards: 4* 6 A 4 A 2 Upcards: A 5 OK S? 7 A3
The upcards make it appear that you might have a good low, but the hand looks quite harmless for high. Actually you have a straight flush for high and a “perfect low”: 7-5-4-3-2 for low. In this game the Ace counts high only.
This hand leads me to the subject of the winning strategy in this game: Generally play for low. Sometimes your low combinations will turn into straights and flushes and you win win high instead, or may win both ways.
The aim of all Poker players is to have a sure thing on the last round of betting. This can often happen to a player going for low almost never to a player going for high. Let’s say you have an A-K flush made and no pairs are showing on the board at the end of the hand. This fine hand can easily lose to a completely concealed full house.
I differ with most experts on the type of hand that is worth playing at the start Many experts advise playing only with three low cards or three of a kind. I believe in playing on quite a few different combinations. The time to drop is after you receive your next card, when you have two up and two down. However, if you are the kind of player who once you start in a pot can’t stop, the advice I am going to give you may get you into some trouble.
Playing for High Any high pair or better is worth playing once, but drop immediately if you don’t get three of a kind or two pair on the next card. Here is a very important word of warning: I just wish I had the money I have seen lost on two pair in Seven-Card High-Low Stud. So be prepared to drop even your two pair if you don’t improve to a full house in the next card or so, or if the betting gets too high. Almost any three-card flush or straight should be given one chance, but drop immediately if there is no improvement on the next card.
Playing for Low All authorities say any three cards headed by an Eight are worth playing. I say play any three cards headed by a Nine, but drop if you get a pair or draw a Ten or higher on the next card. Play once on a low pair and a low card. This is quite contrary to all other authorities. If you draw another low card or three of a kind, stay in for another card. Otherwise, drop. I would even play on this three-card holding: Q 9? 5 V2. But I drop next time unless I draw a fourth heart or a card below a Nine that does not pair me. In a liberal game I would play once more even if I drew a Nine.
The determining factor on borderline hands is: What do I have to gain? If a questionable hand might turn into a two-way winner, it is worth while taking some risk. Another time to take a chance is when the element of surprise might give you a big pot. An example is when you hold what looks like a low hand and you actually have a concealed full house.
Here is the kind of hand on which you might call even a large bet and stay in for the last card, because you have so much to gain:
Down cards: 5 07
Upcards: OA *4 OQ 42
If you draw the right low card, you will get low. If you draw any Diamond you will probably win high. And if you draw a very low Diamond you might easily win both ways.
Change just one card make either the five or the seven of Diamonds in the hole some other suit and I wouldn’t dream of calling a big bet, in spite of my chance for low.
Malcolm Blake has researched into entertainment and many types of games including modern Zune games.