I accept that I am being a little controversial here. There was one golden rule that the company drilled into every new starter in that we were not allowed to discourage nor encourage anyone to gamble. If the punters asked for a betting tip or what horse a punter on a hot streak had bet on unfortunately I could not say. Having a punter turn around and say “I bet on it because he (being me) told me to” was more than my job was worth, which was not much as it happened.

Despite us not encouraging betting, when punters are in a betting shop then they are surrounded by various opportunities and are in a betting environment when the number one topic of conversation is anecdotes by punters on that last bet that went so well for them. How rude it would be for me to point out the brand new interior, new TV screens and all manner of betting slips, pens and even my uniform was paid out of bets that did not go so well.

After being in the shop for so long and seeing the various subliminal tricks used to get people to bet made me realise that the online sportsbooks like bwin.com offer a more ethical service in my view because they do not use any tricks, they simply offer a user-friendly interface to have a bet should the punter have already made the decision to do so. There is no influencing of this decision no matter how indirect. I like that bwin relies on simply giving punters the odds in a pleasant way and allows them to play using easy betting methods. Everything is made easy for the customer not to encourage them to bet, but to facilitate them having a bet if they have decided to do that.

Ultimately I moved on to bigger and better things in my career but I did notice one strange phenomenon. In each and every Horse race there is one horse that when punters read the form they invariably bet on. This is the “gamble” horse that odds shoot in for no apparent reason. This horse does not always win, but there is usually a reliable tip or good information from a trainer that gets around and causes this action. Whilst I would never say that this can be a profitable way to bet, being able to spot this horse in the field does suggest that you are reading the form card in the right way.

What I like about betting online is you can have useful sites like Oddschecker or sporting life on your computer to get up to the minute information. This sort of information is all but stifled in the betting shop environment. Given the choice, I choose bwin because I am in control, not the betting shop.

By Malcolm Clarke

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There is a thought provoking football betting market being offered at leading sports betting bookmaker https://www.bwin.com for the World Cup Finals Special betting. Whilst the players will be concentrating on the preparations for the next match only we, as supporters, can look further ahead.

Bet on Individual Teams to Reach the World Cup Final

The top four teams in the betting market at bwin.com are as follows,

Spain 21/10, Brazil 9/4, Argentina 3/1, England 33/10

In your research look at the World Cup groups and decide which teams may be able to rest certain star players in anticipation for the pressure cooker atmosphere of the knock-out stages of the competition. From that perspective England have an easy group but have a history of just missing out in key moments like penalty shoot-outs. I really hope the experienced England team, likely to be dismantled after this World Cup; can finally fulfil their undoubted potential and go on to win it!

Brazil always seems to do well but they have lots of new young players who need to make a name for themselves in this competition. No doubt many of them will and at 9/4 this is not bad odds for a team that you would be surprised not to make it past the quarter final stage.

Spain are the favourites which is understandable when you look at their team. David Villa, heading to Barcelona and Fernando Torres are brilliant forwards that will put fear into any defence. They won Euro 2008 with room to spare and now that Spain have shed their under-achiever tag they could have a major say in who wins the World Cup this year.

What will the Final look like?

I will definitely be having a bet on this market! This is the match that I am looking forward to more than any other. I think the obvious bet would be for the final to contain two of the following five teams, England, Germany, Brazil, Argentina and Spain. Germany are never fancied but always have a strong team ethic and rarely have bad World Cups. I think that Spain or Brazil will be in the final. Here are the bwin.com odds for all of the combinations of those finals in betting order.

Brazil v Spain 11/1
England v Spain 15/1
Brazil v Argentina 16/1
England v Argentina 20/1
England v Brazil 22/1
Germany v Brazil 22/1
Argentina v Spain 22/1
England v Germany 30/1
Germany v Spain 33/1
Germany v Argentina 40/1

Other teams that could do well are reigning champions Italy, who are 11/2 to make the final and Holland who have odds of 5/1 to make the final.

Get your World Cup football bets on early with bwin.com and snap up early value. The top four in the outright betting market for the team to win the World Cup 2010 are,

Outright Winner – Top Four Teams in the Market

Spain 17/4
Brazil 5/1
Argentina 13/2
England 13/2

By Malcolm Clarke

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Things like image manipulation is not usually covered in a poker school, but check out the bwin poker school for information on how to play each type of poker game and how to improve.

For those advanced Texas Hold ‘em players among you, read on.

Body Language

You can manipulate your body language to be either positive or negative but be careful! Actors talk about “leaving their characters at work” when they finish filming for the day and thinking and appearing negatively can start to make you feed bad if you do it too much. Looking strong when you are weak and weak when you are strong is not an advanced strategy, but some players still fall for it, particularly newer players.

I always recommend players having a confident air at the table because a raise because of opponents sensing unease is still a raise!

Table Talk

Using table talk (or chat box online) is a good way of appearing on tilt or under control. Many players hit the chat box online and are often banned for illegal uses of it by using swear words or abuse. They look on tilt and vulnerable. Players doing this will usually dislike being raised or beaten in a hand. You can appear to be tilting although this is a superficial part of playing poker. Don’t use all of your energy and forget to concentrate on the play!

I find putting in a little comment or joke or sign gives out signs to your opponents. What they do with those signs and how they interpret them may present you with an opportunity further down the line in the cash game or poker tournament.

Self Deprecation

If you are an unknown player you might like to create an image that you are new to the game and are unsure about what you are doing. A little like a pool hustler not looking too good in practise you can create an air of vulnerability that can push opponents into making marginal plays that you can exploit.

Image in poker is how you are perceived by others. Subtly giving out false signals (but not overselling) will disguise the natural tells we all give out, even those of us who make statues look wobbly! These types of ideas should not dominate your thinking there are plenty more important things to think about during a cash game or tournament situation but if you are aware of your image and how this image may be being perceived by your opponents there may be a situation crop up where you can take advantage of this and win a pot that you may otherwise have lost.

By Malcolm Clarke

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John Higgins is currently under investigation for the various allegations he faces and is under suspension by World Snooker whilst these investigations take place. I have received a number of emails regarding the safety of online sports betting from people who follow my online betting tips, which have in the past involved snooker tips.

It is certainly a sad day for any snooker fan. Barry Hearn, the chairman of World Snooker, is fighting a battle to rid the “cancer” from the game as was described by Steve Davis, the six times World Champion. Despite all of the bad press I do believe that it is safe to bet on games of snooker using a bookmaker like bwin.com. I still believe that most results play out the way you would expect them to and with some knowledge of technique, momentum and snooker skills you can still spot a good bet. It would be a shame if the actions of one or two players tarnished this fun way to place sports bets.

I enjoy a bet on Snooker. I bet on a match between Liang Wenbo and Peter Ebdon where there were allegedly suspect betting patterns for a 5-0 win for Liang. I bet on the outright win for Liang because I knew that Ebdon had practised with Liang and that Liang would be comfortable playing against him with plenty of belief he could win this match. Ebdon had too much respect for this player; whilst Wenbo is immensely talented he was much further down the rankings than Peter. I think in this match Ebdon knew what Liang was capable of and knew he was good enough to win 5-0. There may or may not have been something going on in terms of cheating, but I still picked out the right result and won the bet. My belief is that other bettors had similar knowledge to me and this match was not a match that involved any wrongdoing.

Let’s assume for a moment that there is an inherent match-fixing problem in snooker. Would any player feel comfortable doing anything untoward at this point? Probably not as the risks are too high and everyone is watching for sports betting manipulation very closely. It is a big risk to take to cheat when the minimum ban by precedent is eight years. I continue to enjoy betting on snooker and sincerely hope that these allegations are limited to a small number of players who will quickly be dealt with. My bigger hope is that there was never any cheating, but there are too many allegations for everything to be legitimate. There is a lot of smoke for there to be no fire unfortunately.

Bwin.com offer snooker bets on all of the major championships with frame betting and other special betting like century breaks in a match and who will win the next frame. You can rely on bwin to carefully monitor betting patterns and if there are any suspicious matches you hear about simply do not bet on them. In truth these sorts of allegations are rare in terms of the thousands of matches played each season you can bet on. Unfortunately where money is concerned there is always the danger someone gets greedy.

I have faith that the majority of snooker matches can still be bet on safely and snooker betting can still be enjoyed by all. I am looking forward to the new season.

By Malcolm Clarke

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You may call me naïve, but I believe that John Higgins might be an honest player. Regardless of whether John is guilty of match fixing or not it is highly likely he will face a lengthy ban, possibly of one season or even two. If you believe his story that he played along with the match fixing discussions because of fears for his personal safety in a foreign country then the question is what the snooker authorities do as a result of his failure to report the approach. He should have made an excuse and reported immediately to Barry Hearn and say that he intended to play along and then get out of the meeting and return home as soon as he could, having covered his back if his co-operation was exposed. He chose not to follow this path and regardless of his overall guilt there is likely to be some consequences to this bad judgement call.

Banning him for two years would mean he would have to qualify again for the main tour, having lost all of his ranking points. At his age you wonder whether he would choose to start from scratch and rebuild his career or simply walk away. Assuming John was doing something he shouldn’t, which is unproven at the moment, we can also assume (again hypothetically) that other players have been approached in a similar way. If this is the case the future of sports betting in snooker would be in severe doubt as bettors want to bet in a fair environment and any fear in betting that this was not the case would see them leave well alone and bet on other sports.

I will continue to offer snooker tips because I believe match fixing is not rife in Snooker and the bringing to light of Higgins’s alleged behaviour will make it very unlikely other players will risk an eight year ban or lifetime ban for a short term gain even if they are secretly open to the idea. Most snooker matches are played as they should be with two players engaged in a race to a pre-determined amount of frames and may the best man win. The increased prize money injected into the sport with more ranking events means that players have more reason to play for the legal rewards of good performance.

Neil Robertson and Graeme Dott are contesting what is proving to be an entertaining if a little slow World Snooker final. Their achievement of winning the event, whoever eventually prospers, will unfortunately be tainted by the recent revelations concerning the number one player in the world. What is important is that the right decision is made either on trusting John, who has an exemplary record as a player in the sport and was previously very highly respected, or make a judgement that he was acting inappropriately and serve the requisite ban for his mistake.

Providing the action is decisive and it is made clear exactly what is punished and why I have no problems with it. I continue to have faith that snooker will recover from its damaged image. Betting on snooker is fun and most matches are survival of the fittest with extremely talented artists playing closely fought honest matches.

And long may that be the case.

By Malcolm Clarke

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It seems that the powers that be in respective governments around the world are hoping to at least heavily restrict the freedom poker players have to engage in online poker games and this article may not be too far from the mark. When I first saw a game of online poker on UB way back in 2000 I remember thinking what a strange way to spend your time. Because I had never heard of the game before I thought it was just another way of a games company getting your money, in the same way online slots and Bingo seems to do.

Fast forward ten years and I am a converted man. Realising that poker is a skill game laced with luck I play online poker most evenings, definitely one in two evenings for a couple of hours and I can legitimately improve rather than just getting lucky. I enjoy it and whilst I relax whilst I play I try to take on board as much of my own advice as possible and play as hard as I can. If I could not play online poker and if it did not exist, my life would certainly be a lot different.

It is my view that online poker has allowed the mainstream culture to adopt the game. Football is a massive game in the UK because anybody with a football can kick a ball around and there are lots of clubs, Saturday afternoon games with friends and 5-a-side leagues to join. It is accessible. Contrast that with Ice Hockey where you need a rink, lots of expensive safety equipment and the ability to ice skate well to be able to play. The viewing figures for that game are a lot smaller and this is no co-incidence. When people watch poker on TV, even if they live a long way from a casino they can log onto the Internet and play at a cash game or tournament table within seconds. Online poker could be one of the most accessible things available.

If online poker did not exist we would be forced to visit the casino for poker tournaments and cash games. Personally I find cash games more daunting in a live setting; it just looks like people know what they are doing more than online. Tournaments are fun, but last a long time. You also have to pick yourself up and drive to a casino, or take the bus if you want a drink, and there are going to be occasions where you decide to stay indoors and not make the effort. Accessing online poker is far easier, but if it did not exist we would have to work far harder to play. For those who want to enjoy free poker through a social network or their phone, there are different alternatives as Facebook Poker, iPhone poker, poker for Android, all of them free and fun to play, against your friends or poker players from all over the world!

Thankfully online poker exists in today’s world. I play most of my hands on bwin.com and get to use tracking software like pokertracker to help improve my game at a far higher rate than would be possible live. Bwin.com has a cool interface which is dark and sophisticated looking and that is easy on the eye, particularly when you play more than one table. You can play a variety of poker tournaments and real money cash games so download their software and have a go at beating the many poker players that call bwin.com their poker home.

I hope to see you at the tables and we can celebrate being able to play online poker together in some big pots!

By Malcolm Clarke

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A quirk of online poker is that you can make a bluff, contort into a variety of shapes shouting at the screen for your opponent to fold and not give anything away whilst the hand is in progress because your opponent cannot see you. I must admit I have done this many times. This is possible thanks to the anonymity of online poker. Top professional Allen Cunningham admitted in an interview recently he is very animated and emotional when playing online poker which is completely the opposite of how he is known at the live tables. My new concept was to use a video peer-to-peer platform like Skype to personalise the players and make it possible for tells to be practised whilst playing online poker and to integrate live poker concepts into the online poker game.

The positives of such an idea would be the ability to watch opponents whilst at the table thus giving you more time to practise not giving out tells but also spotting tells which would suit the skilled player. I imagined logging into a site like bwin.com, activating your webcam and starting to play with your poker sunglasses on! For larger buy-in online tournaments it would be an innovation I think would be welcomed by players. Unfortunately my attempts to change the world of online poker have a few obstacles.

In dreams, we can fly around without wings like birds but the constraints of real life make that impossible (unfortunately). My poker idea suffers such constraints as well. Whilst players would probably embrace the concept in one off special tournaments there would not be much use in using a camera against a player that is playing twelve to fourteen tables at once! How would you know the tell is for table one where you are or for their table ten?

Other problems would occur in players not fully exposing their face, using funky lighting to hide their emotions and not fully embracing the reason why the interpersonal webcam was used. This would be the death knell for my idea I feel. I do think that rather than use the cam purely for the gameplay, it would be fun that instead of an avatar you could use your web cam on specific tables where you could chat and talk to players interactively. That would be fun and I think profitable because people would enjoy talking to others and forget to play properly!

Perhaps I have stumbled upon the next cool idea for online poker. Perhaps it has already been thought of and discounted by the leading poker rooms like bwin.com. I would love to see this innovation added to the online poker experiences we all enjoy. Innovation is important because it keeps things fresh and we all wonder how the increased capability of technology will impact on the game as time moves forward.

I would love to hear reader’s ideas on what innovations you would like to see in poker rooms aside from the aesthetic improvements that sites like bwin.com regularly update anyway. Full Tilt introduced the Rush tables, which are interesting but not necessarily universally received; surely there will be more to follow as other sites look to differentiate their product and attract new players. It would be an interesting discussion to hear what big changes you think you could make to improve the online poker experience. Can you beat my idea of Live from home poker?

By Malcolm Clarke

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Football betting fans were told to proceed with caution even by me at the beginning of the season with odds no higher than 7/4 available for Newcastle winning the Championship. Newcastle stand at the top of the league six points clear with a game in hand with their rival clubs needing to catch them within the eleven league matches remaining for this season.

Middlesbrough 8/5 Draw 11/5 Newcastle 7/5

Newcastle’s weekend match is the Tyne-Tees derby away to Middlesbrough. Some of the gloss of these fixtures is removed from the fact that the stadium will be partially empty due not only to the local economy hit by the mothballing of the local steelworks but also general apathy towards the football club. Newcastle has a great chance at winning this match in my opinion as Middlesbrough are struggling for form and are only safe from relegation trouble after a strong start to the season. At 7/5 I would back Newcastle. Peter Lovenkrands, Kevin Nolan and Andy Carroll are in glittering form this season for the Toon Army. The draw also represents good value as unfortunately recent encounters between the two clubs has resulted in a few terrible matches where neither side deserved to win. A “bore draw” was an accurate description of the game.

West Brom and Nottingham Forest are the other two clubs that seem to be destined for promotion. Providing Newcastle are promoted as Champions, one of these clubs will need to negotiate the play-offs.

West Brom 1/2 Draw 13/5 Blackpool 5/1

West Brom are 1/2 at home to Blackpool who are seventh in the league. West Brom, Newcastle and Forest have been too good for everyone else this season, however, and I would be happy to back West Brom to win at home in this match. West Brom left it late before beating Sheffield Wednesday last week and they need to stamp their authority on the league to remain on course for automatic promotion.

Preston 8/5 Draw 43/20 Nottm Forest 29/20

Nottingham Forest are playing away this weekend to fourteenth place Preston. Preston only managed a 1-1 draw against fellow mid-table strugglers Doncaster after Billy Sharp missed a penalty for Doncaster. They must do better. Darren Ferguson is taking time to settle into his new job as Preston manager and Forest will expect they have a real chance to win here. Skipper Paul McKenna is still absent through injury and although manager Billy Davies said he wanted a loaned player to join the squad nobody has arrived as yet for Forest. Away from home I think they have a chance but they have lost their last four away games. A draw looks a possibility here. This gives West Brom a great chance to consolidate their second position in the league by beating Blackpool.

Now that the action is hotting up stay tuned to the betting odds from bwin.

Can Newcastle hold on and if so, which of West Brom and Nottingham Forest will get the second spot? There is also the chance that Swansea or Leicester could go on a run and pressure them. Do not miss the Championship run in, things are getting very interesting.

By Malcolm Clarke

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Pot control is achieved by taking into account some significant factors in the hand and then implementing the right moves to achieve your desired goal. Let us look at each in turn.

Considerations

Stack Size – If you are very deep in terms of your stack in a cash game then pot control is of paramount importance as a big pot could mean a lot of chips. You only want to build a pot with a very strong hand. Remember the key concept, small hand small pot, large hand large pot.

Opponent Range – Knowing how your opponent plays their hands and their betting patterns helps you work out their potential range. This pulls you as close as possible to the fundamental part of winning poker which is….fold when you are beat. In a specific situation you can assess what hands your opponent may have and whether your hand ranks well against them. If it does not, get out of the hand quickly!

Opponent Style – Getting into a hand that you would prefer to keep the pot small knowing he is aggressive and bets every street is unwise because you know what will happen. Other players are more passive and you can engage with them knowing showdown is possible. Against this opponent you could play a wider range of hands and expect to reach the river for fewer chips than playing an aggressive opponent.

Implementation

Pot control must be implemented, which means the decision to bet, call, check, raise or fold must be correct no matter how well you consider the above factors whilst deciding what to do.

Increasing the pot size when you believe your opponent is on a draw is a good idea. This aggressive “anti-draw” strategy can be seen in many high stakes cash games on the videos you can view online.

I have received responses to these types of article in the past saying that playing aggressive opponents does not give you the opportunity to execute pot control. This is untrue. Aggressive players will rarely show up on the river with less than top pair. Ultra aggressive players are rare. To an intermediate player it can look like a tight aggressive player just bets all of the time but they usually have something and will fold many hands. You can play small hands against this type of player. Remember to have a hand when you play these players!

All of the techniques used in pot control must coincide with you understanding your own hands value and strength relative to the action. If you simply make plays to make your opponent fold you will not succeed because your opponents will force to you go to showdown. This keeps you honest as a poker player! Think about the pot size in relation to your own hand strength as this is a good way to step away from the hand and realise you are in too deep when the action says fold. Sometimes you just have to give up a hand and not think of creative ways to win.

By Malcolm Clarke

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The truth is that it is very difficult to catch poker bot users because the programs themselves can be hard to detect and easily masked as something else running on the player’s computer. The bots also click different pixels of the fold, check or raise buttons which looks human and some of the more sophisticated bots can even type in “nh” for “nice hand” into the chat box if they lose a large pot with a strong hand.

Wherever there is money involved in anything there are people prepared to go to extreme lengths to get it, whether that means breaking the rules or not. Poker bots remove the human emotion element and given the circumstances it faces it will always make the optimum response, providing it is programmed well enough. Any player prone to tilt has a major problem facing a bot who will always mean its best poker. On the other hand I have read poker articles where players were aware they were playing a bot, yet the bot was so bad they did not mind. Only when the poker bot owner saw the losses incurred would they realise their bot was outplayed, but by then it would be too late.

Poker rooms will act if a player plays over four tables for three full days solid or if players report suspicious activity. Many poker bots are discovered through the illogical action of their owner rather than their own failings when they let the bot play for so long a human could not manage that length of poker session thus their cover is blown. Some players have accused poker rooms of not caring providing rake is being generated but this is unfair as that implies they do not care about their players.

There is also the problem of proving that a bot is being used, which is virtually impossible unless the poker bot is flawed in some way. Confiscating players bankrolls on the back of random accusations by players emailing the poker room support is a dangerous situation to get into as once investigations are complete players will cash out and the poker room may lose a regular player. It is a tough balance between being seen to be actively policing their own site to trusting their regular players. I would not like to be in their shoes.

If you suspect you are playing against a bot you should email customer support and give them the reasons why you believe this is the case. Ask for them to get back in touch with their findings and if they believe you may be right. Make sure you have good reason for doing this as another player may believe the same of you and any investigation can be stressful and inconvenient, particularly if you are innocent. Some players are constantly reporting others and losing one session against a player is not a reason to think they may be a bot. They may just be better at poker than you are.

I play poker at bwin.com where I have not read of a single instance of bot related activity and their site is not listed on any of the bot sites as a playable room. That is good enough for me.

By Malcolm Clarke

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