Anyone who has watched any of the World Series of Poker events will note that endurance plays a large part in eventual success. If you don't have the constitution to survive an eight hour game you can forget multi-million dollar jackpots. Well, not content with teaching us how to play cricket, or how to win the World Series of Poker 2005, the Australians have now come up with a way of improving our favourite card game in the shape of Keith Sloane.
SPEED POKER
Those of us who aren't getting any younger can actually imagine dying during a championship game, but Mr Sloane's Speed Poker may yet be the answer ... if it can overcome the purists. By installing two dealers to ensure shuffled ready-to-go cards and putting a clock on all players with a twenty second set limit for action, Keith's strategy seems to work a treat. Faster action, more pots to be won in the same time and a more exciting spectacle for the (these days all important) TV cameras.
Of course, online poker had that problem cracked ages ago as players who have been timed out and had perfectly good hands auto-folded in front of them can testify. It only happens to you once and you quickly get in the groove and make your plays in a timely fashion. Everyone's happy and the game glides along as smooth as silk. How long can it be before the Aussies invent speed lager?
Those of you wanting to grab a few mad moments of online roulette may be interested in the following account from a reader (Jurgen H from Manchester) who likes to play offline at least once a month, justto keep an old skill alive. Apparently, Jurgen used to live in Monaco, and spent years studying the treajectory of the various dealers' spins, monitoring the behaviour of the ball and the wheel and in general trying to calculate probable outcomes. With certain dealers, whose habit had become relatively fixed after long perios of repetition, Jurgen spotted discernable patterns reflected in the actual outcome. During these periods where a definite rhythm developed he was able to better his odds of successfully predicting a winning number by a factor of three and hit a long and rewarding winning streak.
My guess is that by the time you've paid for a stopover in Monaco long enough to gain a real advantage your costs will offset any winnings! At least online roulette is totally random, you don't need a tuxedo or French accent and you can sleep on your own couch instead of spending a month's wages just to see how the other half win. Never the less, Jurgen raises an interesting insight and I know professional gamblers who profess to carrying out the same intel with successful results.
