Hollywood Dave Stann: A Poker Showman
Sure, he’s now part of UltimateBet’s team of elite tournament and online poker players, but the path that Cleveland, Ohio’s Dave Stann took getting there has more twists and turns than a snake who’s gotten into a bag of magic mushrooms. His childhood and adolescence was fairly typical. He was a bright kid who did well in school and was attracted to the theater at a young age and began performing in productions in his middle and high school days. The call of the stage was strong enough for him to seek out a BFA in theater from Kent State University, and he moved to LA to follow his dream.
So, what happened? How did the MENSA member and actor end up trading blackjack lessons for poker tips from Annie Duke and becoming one of the game’s most popular figures? “The original reason i started counting cards and making a living playing blackjack professionally is because i was sick of waiting tables and tending bar, but needed a flexible job that could pay my bills while i was paying my dues as a young actor,” Dave said in an interview. “I figured i was smart enough & had a natural affinity for games of skill (you don’t want to play me in chess or gin rummy), so I was gonna figure out this card counting thing.”
For several years, Dave was part of an elite group of blackjack players who counted cards like a human betting odds calculator and won big, even as he tried out for roles and took whatever gigs in LA he could find. His bigger-than-life personality and devil-may-care attitude made him a TV natural, and he became known as the go-to guy for televised blackjack coverage. He caught the attention of WSOP champ and poker icon Annie Duke, who traded him lessons at blackjack for poker training. Learning about things like spred betting to advance your game is a good idea for players at all levels.
Since then, Dave has blazed a path with two of the most popular card games in the world. He’s appeared at the World Series of Blackjack and the World Series of Poker as well as innumerable programs devoted to both games and is working on multiple projects as well as his own “boygirl productions” company. He’s stated that while he loves the games that keep him bankrolled, his true love is on stage and screen. That’s probably not surprising, considering that his senior honors thesis in college was on “Directing Postmodern Ibsen.”
Make Free Casino Games a Family Affair
I have a story that’s a bit funny, but could really help others of you out there. I live a state away from the nearest casino, but I love to play casino games. It’s not very often I can get out there with work and everything, and when it came to family vacations, my family always wanted to head somewhere that made a trip to the casino even farther.
Now, my wife was never into gambling, she didn’t like the risk. So, I got to thinking one day, I wonder if she would like the free casino games sites. After all, she plays the newspaper games all the time and I knew that those types of word games were offered by online casinos. So, one day I ran it by here that if she wanted some more word game challenges, there were some free casino games she could play that were pretty similar.
She thought it was a good idea and started playing. A few weeks later she was asking me how to join a real money online casino. Turns out she was doing so well with the free casino games, she thought maybe she could make some money.
To make a long story short, I got her logged on and from there she’s become a full fledged online gambler, and a profitable one! Thanks to free casino games introducing her to the fun of gambling, it’s not hard to plan our vacations around sites with a casino nearby. Now were enjoying ourselves and making money on vacation!
Girls Just Want to Have Fun Casino Games
I was really surprised to read an article a little while ago that said, according to recent online gaming research, women are the largest group on online gamers. That’s right, women.
Now, as a long time casino gambler, I found that hard to swallow. Sure, I’ve run across plenty of women at the tables, but nowhere close to the number of online male gamblers. However, the article goes on to show that the types of games women are playing are not the card games most of us think about with online gaming, but lesser known puzzle, arcade and slot games. The article stated that women enjoy games with easy to grasp concepts that don’t require much study. In other words, the girls just want to have fun.
Now, if you’re involved with internet gambling like me, think for a second. Have you been noticing the casino games popping up more and more like keno, bingo, and lots of slots? I have, and I could never figure out who was playing these. I think this article explains it. Online casinos are always looking for new ways to bring in players and this must be their outreach to our better halves. For me, I’m all for it. My wife is always doing puzzle games in the papers and now I can’t wait to talk to her about puzzle games online. I figure, with as good as she is, there might just be a potential for turning her annoying newspaper games into some real money!
Backgammon 101 for Beginners
Backgammon is agreat game that combines skill and luck and should be easy for just aboutanyone to learn. Here are thebasics to understand how to play the game. A good player should be able to anticipate how theiropponents will behave in just about any match situation and the consistentlysuccessful backgammon player should also have a good head for figures. Theability to read a certain situation on the board and to make the maximumutilization of the possible moves made according to each throw of the dicewill help any player succeed at backgammon.
Even the most inexperiencedof backgammon players should know that novice each of the six dice facesare equally likely to land face up after the throw, meaning there are 36 equallylikely combinations. Of these 36 combinations there is only one whose sum is 2,1-1, making the percentage chance of rolling a two at 3% or 1in 36. Throwing a3, 1-2 and 2-1 carries a 6% chance or 2 in 36 and so on.
Any craps player may wellhave learned the hard way that 7 is the most likely possibility, with thepermutations 1-6, 6-1, 2-5, 5-2, 4-3, 3-4 meaning a 18% probability or 6-36.According to whatever dice is thrown the experienced backgammon playersmake their decisions to move forward to win or to wait for a good opportunitybefore making a move.
Termed asthe backgame, this tactic is a long running defensive form ofbackgammon strategy. The backgame strategy is distinctively composedof a defensive formation utilizing two or more anchors allowing the player tohold points as long as necessary allowing the opponent to bear off /in hit adelayed shot and hold the blot. Anchors such as 1-2, 2-3, 1-3, 2-4 although statistically hard to findare crucial to a backgammon player in a backgame situation.
Bysucceeding in holding these anchors in a backgame the successfulbackgammon player will be able to turn a bad situation around and go on to winthe match by being able to interpret quickly and correctly which moves he makesaccording to the dice that is thrown. A general assumption: when the anchorsare not as close, one of which will be lost and the game continues as a closeanchor game or a holding game; when the anchors are quite advanced, one ofwhich is usually lost and the game continues as a one-anchor holding game.
The importance of beingable to study the backgammon board at this event before making a shot isthe sign of an experienced and consistently successful player. Backgammonrequires strategy that novices should study and practice well.
