Those studying Online Casino note how the turn is often the make-or-break part of a hand; where you decide to make the continuation bet with a strong hand, or where you fold to a firm re-raise.

Players will often bring out the big guns on the turn, having made it relatively cheap for players to call on the flop. By the time the turn comes around, players will be less likely to give you any breathing space with a cheap call, so the raises tend to shoot up.

Aggression is the key to handling the turn. Never let players draw for free. You want to be giving your opponents the tough decisions to make, rather than them giving you the head-scratchers.

If you are drawing to a straight or a flush, you should be willing to carry through on a turn bet with a river bet, even if you don’t hit your draw.

This is because a bet on the turn, followed by a check on the river looks so weak it will almost always be found out. So, if you are unwilling to fire two barrels – one on the turn, one on the river – don’t bother with one.

With marginal hands, it is a fine line between calling or folding on the turn when faced with a raise. Different situations call for different strategies of course, so always make your decision based on table knowledge and your opponent’s style of play.

Meanwhile, make sure you check out the latest New Casino Promotions, there are some excellent ones this week!

The story was about a New Haven lawyer named Marcy Kossar who is getting back into competitive backgammon playing.

Good for her.

Kossar, we understand, is an avid backgammon player.

But for her, it’s more than a hobby.

She travels to competitions throughout the country where top players battle for money and pride.

Part of the reason she can do this is that her kids are in college.

She’s always played competitively, but now she’s really getting back into it.

“I’ve always been a games and puzzles person,” said Kossar, the director of development at New Haven Legal Assistance and in charge of raising funds for the organization.

She told the Law Journal, “I needed something else in my life [after her three children went to college], and this was like second nature,” she added.

Over the Fourth of July weekend, Kossar traveled to a 64-player tournament in Detroit where she ended up netting $1,000 after paying her travel expenses.

She plans to participate in six more competitions between October and next March, including the prestigious national tournament in Las Vegas in November.

“When you win, you feel really lucky and it’s a lot of fun,” Kossar told the Journal. “Plus, you get to meet people that you’d never meet in your life.”

Kossar started playing the game competitively when she was living in Washington, D.C., in the early 1980s.

Back then, clubs and bars held weekly backgammon nights and the local games were played with $5 and $10 at stake.

She stopped playing for nearly 20 years to raise her children, and when she re-entered the competitive backgammon world two years ago, she noticed a significant change.

“The ability of the players had increased dramatically,” she said, because of the ability to play online against computers and other people around the world. “There are now computer programs available that analyze all of these moves in a game and tell you whether there was a better move you could make.”

Now it’s a lot more fun for someone with her intellectual capacity.

Now, she can analyze her own moves.

Ain’t that cool?

Watch for her at a tournament near you.

It is about the billionaire Andy Beal and his attempt in 2004 to beat the best poker players in the world in the largest cash games ever witnessed. It’s worth a read, trust me.

The Corporation consisted of 16 professional poker players, including Doyle Brunson, Phil Ivey, Howard Lederer, Jennifer Harman, Barry Greenstein and Gus Hansen. The group, which was put together by Brunson, was chock full of talent. Each player put in at least $500,000 with profits and losses shared out in equal measure.

Beal had played pros before 2004, but this time was different. The blinds were set at $100,000 – $200,000 with each player sitting at the table with at least $10,000,000. Beal thought that these astronomical stakes would knock the pros off their game and he was confident that he could bully them. On May 12 2004 at 3.40pm, Andy Beal and Todd Brunson began the richest poker game of all time. At one point, Beal was ahead by $7,000,000 but Brunson managed to win it back, ending the session up $1,100,000, a small victory in the eyes of the pros!

Chip Reese was the next pro to sit in the hot seat. He lost $8,000,000 to Beal. It was the biggest winning session in the history of poker against one of the greatest players of all time. No mean feat. It was the turn of Gus Hansen next. He lost $2,000,000. Jennifer Harman was seriously ill at the time, but she was adamant she could play. She sat down with Beal an hour before he was due to leave Vegas. She started brilliantly, making $5,000,000 quickly. But yet again Beal had the last laugh and out-played her, ending the session up $1,500,000. He had won $11,700,000 that day.

If you want to find out more about this incredible story, get a copy of Michael Craig’s fantastic book, ‘The Professor, The Banker and the Suicide King.’

Martin Smith

The term “bots” has gotten an ill-reputation for itself. Perhaps it is mainly due to the fact that humans tend to take advantage of these bots and use them to gain an unfair edge over other human players. However, bots are not necessarily evil. If you think about it, automated trainers for backgammon (and other games for that matter) are also bots. We use them for a good purpose and they are not considered “evil” then.

That is exactly what Martin Smith had in mind when he created his family of bots – ProBot, RookieBot, AmateurBot, and BeginnerBot. This family of software is the brainchild of Smith, who constantly develops the programs and releases them to the public. Anyone who wants to test his skills and talents against Smith’s bots are welcome to do so.

For those who have the skill AND the money, stakes can go up as high as ₤1,000. For those who merely wish to hone their skills without losing a penny, it is also possible with one of the bots. The Financial Times recently featured Smith and his creations and had this to say:

These disembodied opponents are good teachers because they play well both strategically and tactically, unlike a good human player who, in backgammon for example, will tend to deviate from best play in order to ¬punish a lesser opponent’s mistakes. If you go online to play backgammon, you can take on other human players who are also online or you can challenge one of Smith’s programs. And if you choose that latter option, you will be at the coalface of artificial intelligence in the commercial world.

These are contests that take place on constantly shifting terrain. Smith releases his latest version of a program: it wins for a couple of weeks, then the humans figure out how to beat it and they win for a couple of weeks while Smith goes away and works on his software – algorithms, probability calculations, search techniques – and scratches his head. Then he comes back with a new version of the program that wins for a couple of weeks, while the humans go away and think about it. “We have this ratcheting up,” Smith says. “It’s a very intellectually rewarding thing.”

Indeed, the mere challenge of beating a machine – which is supposed to be faster and more logical than a human opponent – is enough for some people. Money need not even be part of the equation. But of course, if you can win ₤1,000 while you’re having fun, why not?

Uli Koch is sitting on the left

Ever heard of Uli Koch?  If you followed the proceedings at the London Open Champion, you would know who he is.  He has been called my many the King of Backgammon.  How so?

From May 30 to May 31, the tournament was held at Doggett’s Coat and Badge at Blackfriars Bridge in Southwark, sponsored by The CasinoRip.com.  Roundabouts a hundred contestants joined the fray to enjoy the games AND hopefully emerge as the champion.  But it was a German player who reigned supreme.

Online Casino Reports has the story:

It was the talented German player Uli Koch who scored a magnificent triumph over his competition as he recorded yet another stunning victory to add to his ever-growing list of wins. Koch outplayed Julian Fetterlein in what many considered an exceptionally tense final game. However the victory didn’t come as much of a surprise to those following Koch’s performances. Over the years the German has notched up an impressive series of high-level victories.

For almost 40 years Uli Koch has been fine-tuning his craft and on Sunday 31 May, he nailed the big prize to cap off a successful tournament for the organizers. In total some £12,000 in prizes were awarded. But it was the finale that many aficionados of the game were most excited about. Koch and Fetterlein went head to head with the former emerging victorious to thunderous applause.

As you can see, Koch is not new to the game and all his efforts have paid off.  I bet that we’re going to hear more of him soon.