Joining unusual-size ring games is a very good tournament practice. The quantity of your practice depends on the type of tournament you are interested in.

Practicing for multi-table tournaments

All multi-table tourneys are terminated with short-handed games. If you prefer to be prepared for it, you should first practice in short-handed ring-game conditions. Multi-table tourneys alone don’t provide sufficient chances to practice short-hand games, however, because you allocate the vast majority of your time at full games. After you, at last, make it entirely to the end, and table size begins to shrink, your mudah54 online level of skill becomes critical. Completing just one position up at the standings may mean as much as double your prize money.

For that reason, if nothing else, I suggest you practice a lot with head’s-up and short-handed play. If the stakes are high enough, you get nervous enough and thinking “Oh nice, now I’m a head’s up. I have no idea how I should play, and five grants are at stake.”

If you face a long drought without winning prize money in multi-table tournaments, you should consider occasionally brushing up your shorthanded skill through ring tables (because the drought implies you haven’t seen short-handed games in some time).

Preparing for single-table tournaments

If you prefer to play single-table on-demand tourneys, you should first practice on unusual-size games, because these tournaments move from full game to short game quickly. If you play comfortably and have a bit of luck on your side, you may quickly go from a full game to short-handed to head up, so you have to make sure you are ready to play at all levels.

After you systematically enjoy success in single-table tournaments, you don’t have to return and keep playing the ring game variants. And if you find yourself continuously losing at a certain level in the tourney, even if you are in the prize money, you should find a ring game of the size you are having trouble with and brush up your skill again. For example, if you are always busting out of no-limit tourneys in second place, play a few head’s-up ring games.

Many films involve a game of poker in one context or another, but the number of films that deserve to be called poker films is not so many. There are a few really good ones, though. Below are the top three poker films. All were done before the first poker sites opened their business on the internet. But one of them is modern, while the other two show a more traditional picture of poker.

Cincinnati Kid (1965)

A young poker gun called Cincinnati Kid (played by Steve McQueen) comes down to New Orleans to take on the undefeated champion and card-sharp Lancey Howard. The battle of the giants is played out as a game of five-card stud with very high stakes. On doubtful grounds, the Kid trusts that he can defeat “The Man” straight up in an honest game without cheating. It’s just that other people at the table are cheating, and the Kid is losing to the Man.
The Kid finds out about the cheating and manages to have the 96ace casino dealer replaced. With a clean deal, the game turns and the Kid starts winning back his money. But on the final hand, he loses a huge pot with a full house against Man’s royal flush. The film contains a lot of pretty darn realistic poker footage. Of course, it’s the old-school kind of poker played with cash on the table and players bringing more money to the table in the middle of a hand.

Rounders (1998)

In the cult film of the poker boom in the early twentieth century, the five-card stud has been replaced by no-limit Holdem, the Cadillac of Poker.

Again we meet a young and brilliant card player (Mike McDermott, played by Matt Damon). At the beginning of the film, he loses everything to a man with “connections to the top of the Russian mob” (played by John Malkovich). After losing his tuition money, Mike McDermott is forced to sustain his laws studies by delivering groceries in the graveyard shift. Then his best pal, (Worm played by Edward Norton) comes out of prison and a crazy hunt for fast cash begins, the old friends using all the tricks in the poker book as well as some not so honest tricks from the book of card magic. Much against his will, Mike returns to the game he loves, and while his pal makes one final mistake and is forced to leave town and the film, Mike uses all his poker talent to pay back his friend’s debts and save his own life. Then he packs a bag and goes to Vegas for the big bucks, in the realization that the card table is where he’s supposed to be.

The Sting (1973)

As a poker aficionado you’ll be alarmed of learning that in this film too, the story revolves around the prospect of making money in poker by cheating. Maybe straight up, honest poker games are not exciting enough for the film industry. In any case, in this film, we follow two petty gangsters as they try to set up an elaborate scam against a big gangster, Doyle Lonnegan, without him even noticing the scam. After losing a lot of money in a high-stakes poker game where the cheating mobster is being outwitted by a better cheater, he jumps on the opportunity to con his foe, Lonnegan is lured into an even bigger scam set up against him. In the end, he loses an enormous amount of money in a scene where everybody from betting clerks to FBI agents is part of the scam. It’s often been said that watching poker is as fun as watching paint dry. There’s probably some truth to this if you’re not a true poker fanatic, and filmmakers dealing must handle this problem. These three film classics manage to balance realistic poker scenes and exciting stories.

Microgaming may be the world’s most popular online gambling games developer, but it is not above taking on games from other leading internet gaming software vendors, including Australia’s very own independent NextGen Gaming.

The two gaming firms have just concluded a deal where NextGen has bolstered Microgaming’s Quickfire platform with not one but five exciting new online slot games, which are available now at the multitudes of online casinos powered by Microgaming software, including the super-popular All Slots Casino and All Jackpots Casino.

These 5 New Slot Games Pack a Real Punch

While this is a huge coup for NextGen to be supplying a firm like Microgaming with state-of-the-art online casino games, the deal is an even bigger coup for you and me as online slot fans, because these five new slot games pack a real powerful punch and a half in terms of playability, excitement, and generosity!

In no particular order, the five new online slot games are The Snake Charmer slots, Hot Hot Volcano slots, California Gold slots, Gold Ahoy slots, and Enchanted Mermaid slots. While so far Hot Hot Volcano slots have turned out to be my favorite game, check out my mini-reviews below and decide which one you’d like to have a crack at first:

The Snake Charmer slots is 5 reel, 25 pay line slot featuring a chilled out snake charmer from India whose job it is to wrangle baskets of deadly serpents. The smiling snake is the expanding wild symbol while the snake charmer himself acts as the scatter symbol. There is a maximum jackpot of 5,000 coins and a min bet of $0.01 and a max bet of $100.00.

Hot Hot Volcano slots is a sizzling 5 reel, 25 pay line game, with searing graphics, burning sounds, and red hot speed to bring you an online slot game packed with molten lava wilds and an explosive Eruption bonus that is so hot, it will singe your eyebrows where you sit! With enough wilds and scatters to burn down the house, this is one smoking hot game!

California Gold slots will appeal to online slot fans who enjoy the thought of historical gold rushes, as well as fans of top-rated 3D-inspired graphics that look like they’re about to rip out of your screen. Go deep down into the ground for a shot at winning payout gold! With loads of free spins and triple win chances, this certainly is a ‘nugget’ of a game.

Enchanted Mermaid slots were not my cup of tea (neither are unicorns, dolphins, or ponies), but I get how some online slot fans will drool at the chance to dive deep to win big riches. Particularly as this game is part of the Select-a-Play series, where you choose between free spins and multipliers, even though the mermaid ultimately decides your prize.

Gold Ahoy slots are the last of NextGen’s new additions to Microgaming’s Quickfire platform, but certainly not the least. As a pirate-themed slot game, the graphics and sounds are top-class. As you’d expect, this game has more than a pinch of adventure to it, complete with loads of multipliers, prizes that can be quadrupled, and a marvelous map bonus round.