Thursday, June 30, 2011

Knowing When To Walk Away From The Poker Table

It’s very hard to walk away from anything that is addictive, and poker is most definitely addictive to those of us that play it almost daily.

Even if the whole money aspect of the game was taken away, we would all still probably continue to play in the free money tables just to get some sort of rush going.

Learn How To Add Discipline To Your Game

However, since all real gambling does involve actual money, it becomes extremely difficult to stand up and walk away from the action, especially when you’re losing. This is why having the discipline to recognise when its time to stop is so important.

I’m very lucky in that I seemingly have no trouble walking away from a bad poker session. Blackjack, on the other hand, is a completely different beast, and after almost a decade of playing 21 I still can’t quickly and easily pull myself away from the table.

However, since I don’t take Blackjack seriously as a form of income, I don’t really pay it too much attention. That is not the case for all of my peers, far more poker players rely on the money they make in their sessions both as their primary and secondary revenue source.

Know The Symptons Of Ill-Discipline

The psychology behind walking away is simple, as the experts point out that you should leave a losing session when you are mentally drained, physically tired and/or in a poor state of mind.

The reasoning is that when you feel bad your ability to make informed decisions is hampered. Bad moves in poker lead to losing pots, which result in having an even worse attitude.

You can normally tell when you’re not playing your best or are suffering from a poor attitude, but that’s also when your willpower is at its lowest, making it hard for you to log off.

It is absolutely crucial that you begin to develop the discipline needed to do this though, as it can only have a positive effect on your bankroll and future sessions. courtesy pokerblog.com

Thursday, June 23, 2011

The Top Ten Free iPhone Apps

1.	Find Me!
2.	eBay Mobile
3.	Telekinesis: iPhone Remote Desktop
4.	VoiceNotes
5.	Twinkle
6.	Pandora
7.	NetNewsWire
8.	Tap Tap Revolution
9.	MobileChat
10.	Flashlight

[source: Free iPhone Apps ]

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

5 Tips For Shopping Online

5. Be Secure

When shopping online, plastic is the preferred method of payment. However, you must remember that your credit card number is static. It doesn't change unless you close and reopen an account, and once your credit card information is online, it can be compromised if it falls into the wrong hands.

There are some measures online shoppers can take to minimize their risk. First and foremost is ensuring that all online shopping is carried out only on secure sites. To be certain the page you're on is secure, look for a tiny padlock icon, usually found in the top right corner of your browser's URL bar. You can also tell if the site is secure by looking for an "s" in the URL address. While non secure sites and pages begin with http://, secure sites begin with https://.

Some Web browsers now have larger certificate windows that are easier to read and that allow users to examine site information more carefully. For example, if you intend to check out your online purchases using Circuit City's secure Web page but the site name on the page certificate doesn't match up, steer clear -- and alert Circuit City of the problem.

Never send your account numbers or any other personal information via e-mail, which isn't secure [source: FTC]. For this same reason, you should never access a Web site to shop through an e-mail link [source: Consumer Reports].

4. Credit or Debit?

Mark Landridge/Getty Images
Using a credit card is your best bet for online shopping.

Shopping online is easiest with plastic, but some plastic is better than others. It's advisable only to use credit cards, rather than debit cards, for online shopping. Credit cards represent an extension of credit, while debit cards draw directly from your bank account. Once in possession of your banking information, hackers can do much more damage to your finances than with your credit card number.

Under the Fair Credit Billing Act, consumers are protected in the event of identity theft or fraud -- if they use a credit card. This law protects account holders by limiting their fraud liability to $50. Payments for unauthorized charges to a credit card can also be put on hold and investigated [source: FTC]. Even better, most credit card companies offer more protection, sometimes limiting consumer liability for fraud to zero. Using a debit card affords you some federal protection as well. If you notify your bank of a fraudulent debit card purchase within two days your liability is limited to $50; after that it raises to $500 [source:Bankrate].

Most credit card companies now offer single-use credit card numbers for online shopping. These expire after one purchase and only your credit card company knows which account it's linked to.

Using only one credit card for online shopping is another great way to head off potential online shopping headaches [source: Consumer Reports]. If you have one credit card number sent via cyberspace, the potential for fraud is limited to that one account. Should a hacker come by your account information, you'll have only that credit card company to contend with.

3. Beware the Restocking Fee

Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Returned items don't restock themselves.

Online shopping could eventually mean the death of the physical retail store, but even if that happens, one thing will be constant: the warehouse. There will always be a need to store vast amounts of items and to employ people to stock these warehouses.

Until robots take their jobs, warehouse employees will require salaries for the work they perform. Paying a person for retrieving, packaging and shipping an item that you've purchased online is already built into a retailer's costs. But if you return the item, it still has to be repackaged and replaced, although the company hasn't made any money from the return. As a result, online retailers have begun to charge restocking fees on returned items.

It's a reasonable requirement, but some restocking fees are easier to swallow than others. While some retailers charge up to 25 percent or more, a fee of 15 percent of the price you paid for the returned item has become customary for intensively packaged products, like electronics. Before proceeding to checkout, familiarize yourself with the retailer's return policies, which should be explicitly stated somewhere on its Web site.

Simply packaged items like books and unopened DVDs shouldn't cost you any money to return. Likewise, if you're returning the product because it's defective, you shouldn't be expected to pay any return fee. If you've damaged the product's UPC code or serial number, however, don't bother trying to return it -- you've pretty much taken the item permanently out of circulation. You can try to recoup some of what you paid by listing the item on Craigslist or eBay.

2. Bargain Hunting

Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images
One way or another, Cyber Monday will find you.

Online shopping presents consumers with a wonderful new advantage -- the ease of bargain hunting. Prior to shopping via the Internet, finding the lowest price for an item meant perusing catalogs and circulars, traveling from store to store or hitting the yellow pages for a calling spree. Not so much anymore.

Check out sites like CyberMonday.com (Cyber Monday is the online retailers' version of Black Friday) to get hooked up with online bargains. Other sites, like NexTag.com, let you comparison shop. There are also entire blogs -- MightyGoods.com and FindGift.com are great places to get your online shopping chops -- dedicated to aggregating lists of gift ideas. Often, however, a simple Google search of the item you want will yield even better deals. If you want a more focused search, head over to Google's new Product Search page (formerly known as Froogle).

Search discount sites like Overstock.com for the item you want before buying it elsewhere. These retailers purchase excess items that manufacturers couldn't unload on other retailers at a discount and generally pass the savings onto customers. Don't be afraid of purchasing refurbished items either -- this is often just another word for surplus inventory [source: Allentown Morning Call].

Tabbed browsing has even further paved the way for finding deals online. When checking out, don't pass by the online coupon code bar. Open another tab or window and do a quick search for coupons for the retailer available on other sites, like FatWallet.com and CurrentCodes.com. You may come up with a coupon you didn't know existed just by taking a few extra seconds for a quick search. Many stores will happily provide you with their own promotional codes if you sign up for their email newsletters. Enter the code before you check out to reap the savings. Keep in mind that this is only a tiny sample of bargain-hunting sites on the Web. You may have your favorites, but no one would blame you for keeping your shopping secrets to yourself.

1. Plan Your Purchase

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Check with your boss to see if gifts can be shipped to your office to keep family members' prying eyes off them.

If there's one big drawback to online shopping, it's the agony of waiting for your order to be shipped. The earlier you make your purchases, the greater chance they'll arrive on time. Under federal law, retailers must ship items within the dates specified (for example, three to five days for standard shipping), or within 30 days if no shipping date is specified in the transaction.

To cut down on shipping fees, try to order many items at once from a single retailer. Your purchases should be lumped together into one large package with one shipping fee attached. By registering with an online retail site, the cookies uploaded to your computer will retain any items in your online shopping cart until you either delete or purchase them, allowing you to ship everything at once -- and at one price. Many online retailers offer free shipping on purchases over a certain dollar amount, and online coupon sites regularly offer free shipping coupon codes.

If you can't catch a break on shipping, ordering early enough will allow you to opt for standard shipping. It's almost always the slowest, but if you order early, you've got time on your side. Give yourself a little more time if you're ordering from a third-party vendor through a big online retailer. The retail site's delivery date is an estimate, one the vendor doesn't always meet.

To learn more about the ins and outs of online shopping, take a look at the links on the next page.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

DANIEL NEGREANU – TIP OF THE WEEK

Don’t get beat down

I'm probably asked this poker question more than any other. How do you deal with bad beats?

It's a relevant question, especially considering how important it is to be able to handle those painful stings of bad luck that you'll inevitably encounter.

There are definitely some do's and don'ts when it comes to dealing with bad beats. Let's look at a few of the don'ts.

1. Don't tell bad beat stories.
Do you want a sure-fire way of guaranteeing that nobody will talk to you? Just tell them how unlucky you've been and how they wouldn't believe the hand you just lost with.

Look, they really don't care. Bad beats happen to everyone.

I mean, seriously, have you ever looked forward to someone telling you a hard-luck story? Keep your bad beats to yourself.

2. Don't go on tilt.
What often happens to players when their luck runs bad is that they start playing poorly. They go on tilt. They chase hands they normally wouldn't or try something new because, hey, playing good cards just isn't working.

Reacting in this manner will wreck your game. You don't have to try something new. You need to focus more keenly on playing well and sticking to your game plan despite the bad run of cards.

3. Don't let your opponents see you sweat.
If they know you've been running bad, their confidence against you will soar. They will surely look for the opportunity to attack. Like sharks circling their prey, once they see you're wounded, they'll move in for the kill.

You must keep your composure at the poker table and not let bad beats affect your play. Staying calm and focused will go a long way towards making a quick recovery.

Keep this in mind, too: When players ask how your cards have been running, it's a trick. Answer shrewdly by saying, "Pretty good, actually. I've been on a nice streak lately." You might know that the cards have turned to ice, but your opponents don't need to know it. Remember, deception is fundamental to the game of poker.