When online casinos first came into the scene they had to think on a marketing idea that would attract more players. Online gambling was new and many players were unsure if they should deposit funds in what seemed like an unknown entity. The marketing ploy that most online casinos chose and is still being aggressively used today is the cash bonus.

Nothing charms a future client more than free cash, and online casino bonuses are just that. The most popular form of a bonus is the sign up or welcome bonus. The size of the bonus differs between the different casinos but it usually revolves between 100%-400% of the initial deposit. There is usually some kind of limit to the bonus so you can’t just deposit 100,000$ and hope to triple it up.

Naturally, as more and more casinos started offering cash bonuses a different kind of client emerged. A client whose sole interest was in the bonus itself and his goal was to cash out the bonus as soon as possible and than simply leave. This led up to the online casinos toughening their wagering requirements before allowing a withdrawal of the bonus.

The wagering requirement is a total amount you have the bet in order to be able to withdraw the bonus. The actual number varies from casino to casino but a typical number could be between 10x – 20x the amount of the bonus, so if you deposit 500$ and receive 500$ as a cash bonus your total betting must be above 5000$ to cash out the bonus. This may seem like a big amount but remember that if you are playing a game like blackjack using 5$ bets, you will win many hands (as well as losing) so the requirements can usually be cleared in matter of several hours.
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The great thing about Texas Holdem Poker is that it is easy to learn. Even a beginner can quickly develop into a winning player. By following a sound strategy and playing the best starting hands a Texas Holdem Poker newbie can dramatically shorten the learning curve. So what are the best hands that a beginner should play?

The best hands for a beginner to play are Ace-Ace, King-King, Queen-Queen, Jack-Jack, Ace-King suited (example – Ace of clubs & King of clubs).

I strongly recommend that you only play these starting hands as a beginner. In other words, if you are dealt a hand other than one of the above then fold!

Folding is one of the most difficult decisions for a Texas Holdem Poker beginner to do. The mindset of most Texas Holdem Poker beginners is to hang around and see the flop in the hopes of hitting it just right and improving a hand.

While a beginner will hit the flop and improve their hand occasionally, more often than not they will miss it. The Texas Holdem Poker beginner player that plays poor starting hands will end up throwing more money away than they will win.

When you are dealt one of the best starting hands I recommend raising the pot which will serve two purposes. First, it will force players with weak hands to fold instead of allowing them to stay in the game and see the flop for free.

Secondly, by seeing who raises and calls you get to see who feels that they have a good hand and who may be trying to hang in for the flop.

When the flop is dealt you should look carefully to see if you have improved your hand. Even if you have not improved your hand, because you started out with one of the better hands you may still have the best hand. This is especially true if your starting hand was a pair of aces or kings.
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Calculating outs (the number of cards that could improve your hand) and pot odds (ratio of the money in the pot versus the amount required to make your next call) is often used as a basis for a Texas Holdem Poker player on whether to draw and try to make their hand.

However this in my opinion should not be the sole basis of your decision on whether you should draw for another card.

You also have to decide on whether the hand that you are trying to hit will win you the pot or not.

How to calculate pot odds:
In this example, if the current pot contains $80, and the amount required at the next call is $20, the pot is laying you odds of $80 to $20 or 4 to 1.

As long as your odds of making the best hand are 4 to 1 or better than making the call is the right move. A hand that is 4 to 1 means that you will hit once in every 5 tries. You will hit the draw 20 percent of the time.

This next example takes into account calculating pot odds and outs.

Assume that your hole cards are a six and a seven (for this example suits do not matter) and the flop came down 8-9-3.

In order to complete your hand you need a 5 or 10. You have eight outs – 4-5’s and 4-10’s. Multiply your outs (8) by 4 and you get 32. You have a 32 percent chance of making your hand. If there was only one card left to draw you would multiply by two.

A 32 percent chance of making your hand means you have a 68 percent chance of NOT making your hand. This is roughly 2 to 1 that you won’t make the hand. So, as long as the pot contains $2 for every $1 that you have to call, it is worth going after your straight.
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The four-day Cheltenham Festival dominates the March programme, but there’s also a busy programme of racing throughout the month including the ever-popular Imperial Cup day at Sandown plus the thrills and spills of the Midlands Grand National day at Uttoxeter. Flat fans, meanwhile, will need no reminding that the new turf season kicks off with the William Hill Lincoln at Redcar on March 25.

March begins with the newly-established Vodafone Gold Cup at Newbury on the 4th over two and a half miles. It’s something of a surprise to find such a valuable race staged so close to the Cheltenham Festival, and many trainers face the dilemma of deciding whether to run here or in either the Ryanair Chase or Racing Post Plate over similar distances at the Cheltenham Festival.

Twelve months ago a solid handicapper in the shape of Supreme Prince held on to land the valuable prize while in its inaugural year, the classy Isio was a well-backed winner. Absent since that season, Nicky Henderson’s gelding may well reappear in this race and would be an interesting contender.

On the same day Doncaster’s Grimthorpe Chase, a staying handicap over three and a quarter miles, has been transferred to Lingfield and may well be the chosen target of A Glass In Thyne, who won the Skybet Chase that had also been switched from Doncaster to Southwell in January. Maybe the changing fixture pattern will repeat itself again for Ben Pollock’s improving young chaser.

Champion trainer Martin Pipe has endured a stop-start season but plenty of punters will still be scouring the list of runners for the Imperial Cup at Sandown on March 11 in the hope of unearthing another Pipe hotpot for one of the season’s most keenly-contested handicap hurdles.

Pipe has won the race five times overall and has landed the prize three times in recent seasons. His mass of entries should be studied with the utmost care and may well include progressive sorts such as Buena Vista, Acambo and Desert Air.

The punishing combination of a fiercely-run race and a stamina-sapping finish up the demanding Sandown hill has often meant that lightly-weighted horses have held an advantage over their higher-weighted rivals, while waiting tactics have also proved successful for several of the recent winners. Making all in a race as competitive as this isn’t easy.

The Irish won this race with shock outsider Regency Rake, trained by Arthur Moore in 1999, and any runners from across the Irish Sea should be accorded the greatest respect. Jessica Harrington’s Studmaster, an easy winner of his last two races might take in this contest or wait for the County Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival.

On the same day at Sandown make a note also of the EBF Novices’ Hurdle Final, a race that often produces a star of the future. Plenty of classy young hurdlers will have this contest in their sights including the Lambourn-trained duo Mr Pointment, and Wogan while the NickGifford team intends to field Dusky Lord.

In recent years the Irish have held the Champion Hurdle on March 14, the opening day of the Cheltenham Festival, in a vice-like grip, winning five of the last seven renewals and looking at the somewhat weakened field for this year’s renewal it’s hard not to envisage the hurdling crown being whisked away once more across the Irish Sea.

Reigning title-holders boast a superb record in the Champion, but recent dual winner Hardy Eustace will have to banish a bout of the blues on his latest and disappointing effort in the AIG Europe Champion Hurdle at Leopradstown. At the age of nine many think his time may have passed.

Plenty of horses that have been placed in the race previously have put that beneficial experience to good use by returning again the next year to run well. Ireland’s formidable trio of Brave Inca, Macs Joy and Al Eile, who finished third, fifth and seventh respectively in last year’s race will all be fancying their chances of winning this race a second time around.
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