Deal or No Deal is a popular UK Television show on Channel 4. There is a lot of money involved in this game show, where a contestant risks winning all or some of it or losing it. Because it is so popular, there are spin off versions of it now being offered by many online bingo sites.

At first, deal or no deal bingo seems like the usual 90 ball game. It looks the same, there are still 90 balls that are randomly selected and you still win prizes for one line, two lines and then a full house.

But, in addition, there are also 22 boxes, one belongs to you and the rest have any of the numbers between 1 and 90 on them. There will also be a set amount of money inside each box, just like there is on the TV show.

You will see at both sides o9f your screen what the different amounts are, but not which box contains what amount. As the game progresses, and the numbers are called out, the boxes will open with the corresponding sum of money being crossed out on the screen.

When someone wins the full house is when it all becomes interesting, they can then play deal or no deal. You will basically be offered a deal by the bingo site, this will be based on what the sums of the money left are.

You then get the option to deal or not deal, if you do not deal, you will have to have whatever sum of money is in the box that you are holding. If your box turns out to contain the highest sum that was left the gamble would have paid off.

But, at the other end of the spectrum, it could be that you had a really low amount in your box and you would have been better off taking the deal after all. Overall it is a really good fun game to play, you can potentially win hundreds of pounds by playing so it is definitely worth a go.

I found out that there is a tournament variant called All-in or Fold. The rules are this: There is only one blind (called big blind). Each player starts with just one chip; it doesn’t matter how many, anyway, for these reasons: Your only options are: All-in, and Fold. All in or Fold poker tournaments are increasingly popular in both cash and free poker why not have a play if you come across one, they can be good fun. But be sure to read this first!

If you are on the big blind you are automatically all-in. You receive change, though, if, for example, you have 5 chips and another player goes all in with 2 chips and you call them (which is also an all in). He will not win five chips from you; you will get a change of three chips.

If you’re on big blind you can simply ignore everything else that follows. (This only happens about 10% of the time though on a 10-player table. If you somehow want to become hooked.) So it’s really a math game, and a position game too.

Why math game?
Because you are relying totally on preflop all-ins you must commit to memory the probability of your winning, or at least have a good feel for them. I can give some examples (You can generalize; the probability’s pretty much the same in a similar situation; for instance the first example will be: Two Overcards vs. a Small Pair, or say, A-10 over 5-5 and approximate the probabilities:

A-K vs 8-8
55%-45% in favor of 8-8

A-K vs A-Q
75%-25% in favor of A-K

A-10 vs K-K
75%-25% in favor of K-K

A-K vs 7-6
65%-35% in favor of 7-6

A-10 vs K-Q; A-Q vs K-J
63%-37% in favor of A-10 and A-Q

A-A vs 8-8
80%-20% in favor of A-A

A-A vs A-K
93%-7% in favor of A-A

A-A vs K-Q
85%-15% in favor of A-A

But these do not imply that you should wait for A-A or K-K or A-K before you move all-in, of course. Do it with two face cards, a pair, or A-x. Just make sure the big blind doesn’t reach you, for if that happens your decision’s beyond your will.

All-In or Fold is also a game of position. Oftentimes players in these tournaments play hands similar to the above, and throw away the rest.

Consider these two examples:

(1) You are in late position with 4-4 and there are two all-ins in front of you. You might be facing three or four overcards, or an overpair. Fold.

After all, if you are in late position, there will be many hands before you reach the big blind.

(2) You have A-8 in early position. You are two hands away from being the big blind, so you move all-in, and players after you will interpret an early-position all-in as a sign of strength.

What you consider, then, is the strength of your hand and the surrounding action.

With one-on-one, which happens mostly, the above probabilities still apply. But with three or more, hand strength matters more. Big pairs are still big; medium pairs shrink in power (because you can’t see the Flop yet; usually we see the Flop with a medium pair to hit a Set). A-x becomes weaker; A-K and A-Q weaken down a little bit. However, make sure you play a hand while you’re still in control of your decision. When you get yourself blinded out, it’s for your tournament life, mostly.

To read more articles like this and learn to play online poker check out the NoPayPOKER.com blog which is full of free poker tips and lessons as well as offering a no risk play free poker online site where you can put theory into practice.

This post is syndicated with permission from GamerFront.net

This past week saw another retro – re-release. This time the good people at Capcom give us a double dose of side scrolling beat-em up action. Final Fight Double Impact gives Final Fight and Magic Sword the royal treatment. Final Fight I have some fond memories of SNES days, and interestingly enough we actually have a working Magic Sword cabinet in the Gamerfront office.

In Final Fight the city’s gangs have taken the mayor’s daughter hostage and it is up to her boyfriend and her father to pummel the streets back into submission with their fists and some “Extra Joy”. Magic Sword takes your skills as a warrior and pits them up against a tower 50 levels tall filled with more baddies than you have quarters (no worries you have unlimited continues). There really isn’t too much to describe here and if you have played either one of these titles in the past 20 years you know what to expect.

I will have to admit that both of these titles show their age a little, but I believe they wear it well. The new fancy HD graphics help liven things up a bit but the game play is as people will remember. For me the draw of these titles in the past was the co-op. With this release players are given the option of taking their game online. This option gives a “virtual” arcade feeling that I find a lot of fun.

For the price of admission ($9.99/800 MS points) I would say go pick this one up. Especially if you’re going to be playing with friends in person or online. Both titles make for good fun without a massive time investment and the addition of the drop in/out multiplayer can present some interesting guests at times.

VIA [ GamerFront ]

Today’s episode of The 404 Podcast starts off with a intimate glimpse into Justin’s mind, so we recommend throwing on some goggles before watching. He reveals that his name was initially supposed to be Jonathan, but due to complications surrounding the pronunciation of his name, the doctor just shortened it to the simpler-sounding Justin. Jeff also has a funny story about his father’s name, and it turns out it wasn’t always Sweet Lou!

It’s Thursday, so you know what that means: Natali Del Conte joins the fun and adds a valuable female perspective on our motley crew.

We’ve been talking about the Sony PlayStation Move since it debuted at last week’s Game Developers Conference, and Sony just announced its first Move commercial, brought to you by…the future. The video features a very Colberian Kevin Butler, the PlayStation’s VP of Realistic Movements, who takes sarcastic shots at Nintendo and Microsoft in the very distant future (November 2010).

We could spend an entire show on this next topic, a list of 10 things women do that turn men off. It’s all in good fun and we’re obviously generalizing, but we’re finding it hard to dispute the irritations that writer Brendan Tapley brings up, including “assuming we know what you want us to do,” “smothering instead of mothering,” and “over-sharing.” Thanks to NDC for sticking around to keep us in check!

Finally, a new study in the latest Retrevo Gadgetology Report (gadgetology?) anecdotally shows that one in 10 people under 25 would pause coitus to check their social networking updates, which begs the question: is Facebook better than sex?

Short answer: No, dude.

Long answer: Listen to the show!

EPISODE 540

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Originally posted at The 404 Podcast

Video Games | Aliens vs Predator | Demo Multiplayer Gameplay HD

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

Oh, man, the new AVP is good fun. You’ve downloaded the demo, right? It’s free on Steam right now. Sure, some people are bitching about lack of dedicated servers and the dated graphics, but it’s FUN. Just watch the video above to see what I mean.

The new affectionately slanderous and in vogue slur among today’s youth: "You have nappy gingivitis breath"! This is usually followed by an even more endearing taunt which we can’t repeat here.  I am quite sure your imagination is funcioning quite well at this point.

Though said in good fun, some people really do have gum disease and gingivitis – and often, but not always, this is accompanied by bad breath. This is also known has ‘halitosis’.

There is something slightly ironic in this innocent sounding ‘bust’. Many of the people who bandy it about may very well have gingivitis themselves! Yes, the stats tell us that up to 75% and some say 80% of the population may have some form of gum disease right now!

The worst part is that many who have it, do not even know. In time this problem can lead too lose and lost teeth. Many people don’t even realize that they have been nursing an unhealth case of gum disease until the dentist or periodontist tell them.

The sad thing about this is that once the teeth become lose, they may want to do surgery on you to correct the problem.  People seldom get gum disease in one isolated area. This could spell a great financial burden.  Something like Oramd could help.

It can be expensive to lose teeth and have implants or dentures created.  In both cases, you really have to realize that the substitute is not as cool or good as the real thing.

A bit of know how and prevention knowledge could make a big difference. Such information could allow you to avoid expensive dental treatments and keep your teeth for a lifetime.  Regular brushing and flossing may not always be enough to prevent gum disease. If it was, would so many people have it? Ummm – probably not. ‘An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure’.

Yo, you might have nappy gingivitis breath and not even know it!