The success of Zynga and “social” poker has seen a great many poker operators sit up and take notice. This is social poker where the play pays for virtual chips of predetermined value; so is it is definitely not cash prizes players win. Of course this works brilliantly in the US where the availability of real-money poker games is limited to the big sites daring enough to offer these games – which is not strictly speaking, legal in the US. Zynga offers their social poker product through social networking sites such as Facebook and recently held their first annual summit in the US with Annie Duke as a speaker.

Chilipoker is a pay for play poker site and they are looking to cash in on social poker which has become nothing short of a phenomenon for Zynga. What they have done, they are calling a “ground-breaking innovation” and this offers an integrated toolbar with their current poker client, to essentially enhance the players’ online playing experience. They call it “Chiliconnect” and it is this toolbar which allows players to integrate with Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites to see what their friends are playing or doing and join in on the fun and games.

The toolbar was devised by their own in-house games developers and it also publishes game statistics, allows players’ to swap tournament winnings as well as challenge opponents to games at the felt. Chilipoker players may also transfer funds between one-another.

Alexandre Dreyfus – the founder of Chilipoker, says this site has always been close to its fan-base’s needs. They identify strongly with customer care and listen closely to the requirements of their players. While listening is one thing, the ability to respond is another, and the recent European live tour event was also as a result of their listening to what players want. Their members wanted the live event because they wanted live social interaction which works hand-in-hand with playing poker, so, the Chilipoker DeepStack Open was borne.

More than ever before – Chilipoker intends to “Spice Up Your Game!” They will be adding more features to the toolbar during the next few weeks, and this means more challenges, more social tools and basically more new ways to enjoy playing poker online. They may not be the “biggest” online poker operators but they certainly have the intention of trying to be the most innovative. This takes some doing against sites such as Pokerstars; but they are willing to give it a try.

Chilipoker enjoys a largely European audience and currently no US players are allowed to download their software. However, if things start looking up in the USA with regard to allowing online poker – this site may be well aligned to move forward with this. They were quick off the mark to get licensed in France last year with the deregulation of the online poker industry. Dreyfus says he will be happy if their new innovation leads to Chilipoker becoming the favourite “alternative” site for online poker lovers.

People have been fascinated with gambling ever since time began and they have also been fascinated with systems to beat the odds of the house winning. Some of the greatest minds known to man have also tried to tackle beating the odds and even Albert Einstein is reputed to have said the only way you can beat the odds at roulette is to steal from the table when the croupier isn’t looking.

Blaise Pascal is credited with the invention of the roulette table after attempting to create a perpetual motion wheel and as a mathematician and philosopher was asked by a friend to help with a system to beat the table. The question of this interested him greatly and sparked the first ever book on the theory of probability. This book is the well renowned Traite du Triangle Arethmetique.

Professor Einstein was correct and mathematical configurations or systems will never beat the table, there is no true way to overcome the house edge and this is the case with virtually every casino game.

From time to time, you will find books or treatises which boldly proclaim to beat the house edge and they are all over the internet. Don’t buy them; if Albert Einstein could not fathom it out, the chances of anyone else being able to do this are slim to absolutely non-existent. People making this claim are charlatans of the worst order and they, like the casinos, simply want to part you from your money.

Casinos offer an opportunity for entertainment, nothing more, and nothing less. This is what gambling is, it is fun, a distraction and a way to test probability. Some people get lucky and win, while others never win, but they play the table games slots or whatever floats their boat, because it is great fun.

Gambling systems are generally based on money management strategy. There three prominent systems, the negative and the positive betting progression and the hedge betting system. The negative progression theory has you increase your bets after a loss and the positive theory is the opposite. These types of systems can be bad for your bankroll if you take them too seriously, so don’t. Remember you are playing for fun!

In the most part casino welcomes you to try your strategy or systems out at the tables and the only banned system is card counting in blackjack. Get caught doing this and it is punishable by law, although it is good strategy in blackjack to get to know your cards. Looking at what appears on the table, generally gives the player an idea of what cards may come up next.

The casinos love system players because they know they will spend money at the tables, in particular with negative progression. As far as hedge betting is concerned, a lot of gambling games actually allow you to play this way; it is in the rules and is the same as taking insurance. The odds bet in craps is a hedge betting wager.