At a time when millions of people are grappling with unemployment, many technology companies are actually desperate to hire as many new employees as they can. With tech industry investments frothing up once again, folks with skills such as software and web development are in high demand nowadays — especially in Silicon Valley. I talk daily with company founders who tell me they’re keen to hire as many good engineers as they possibly can.

In a stiff hiring environment like this, once-uncommon perks like free lunch, snacks, massages and foosball tables are practically required. How can a startup, or even a larger tech firm, attract top engineering talent? Here are a few ways that companies are trying to set themselves apart:

• Matchmaker, matchmaker: Anyone who applies for an engineering position at online dating site Zoosk between August 3 and September 30 and gets hired will be put into the running to win a date with either Samantha or Steve, two actors who starred in recent Zoosk TV commercials. Zoosk says it will cover all of the costs of the date, including a round-trip flight to Los Angeles, a chauffeured limousine and dinner. Sure, it’s gimmicky, and it plays into the stereotype of the dateless programmer — but it does sound like fun.

• All vices welcome: Remember the days when hosting an open bar was enough to get a roomful of tech industry talent? Nowadays, event organizers have upped the ante significantly. Take the super luxe party Silicon Valley event planner 50Kings is throwing the night before the Techcrunch Disrupt conference opens in September. From the invite: “We’re taking over the home of a prominent member of the Paypal Mafia and turning it into our very own private casino. Real tables, pro dealers, cocktail waitresses, strict security and high-stakes play. Serious tech players are flying in from Seattle, LA, Las Vegas and we even have an RSVP from an NBA All-Star. The party is on us, but there is a significant minimum table commitment.” Work hard, play hard, indeed.

• Entrepreneurship 101: It seems counter-intuitive, but several startups have taken to providing their employees with classes on starting their own companies. The New York Times has reported that real estate website Redfin gives regular classes on entrepreneurship at its headquarters in Seattle. Similarly Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s co-founder and the current CEO of mobile credit card processing startup Square, gives his employees regular talks on topics such as how to raise venture capital. The thinking is, savvy engineers are likely to get the itch to start their own companies. Giving them the tools to learn how to do so in house may entice them to keep working as employees for as long as possible before they strike out on their own. And in this environment, whatever keeps engineers on your team is a good thing.

Of course, nothing lures in potential employees quite like cold hard cash. Financial incentives such as high salaries, solid stock option packages and lucrative bonuses are a given — and they’re getting bigger by the day. This infographic from Focus.com provides a great snapshot of today’s salary situation:

Feature image courtesy of Flickr user Tess Aquarium.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
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• Cleantech Financing Trends: 2010 and Beyond
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Going Tilt on or the Tilt is a poker term describing a mental state that can happen as much to expert high stakes cash players as to free online poker games players, it is where the players focus is lost and they become upset, play with unfocused aggression, or both, often resulting in losses and errors. Most of the time it occurs after a bad beat or when the player realizes that he’s just been fooled by a bluff.

Usually the Tilt doesn’t last a long time; but it can last longer in bad cases, for example after losing repeatedly or when your full house is beaten by a quad.

Players you don’t like can put you on tilt a lot easier than someone you like and respect. Even top players suffer from this, the high levels of the game are populated by some very strong personalities and some of them do not like each other very much, check out some of the poker TV shows and forums for numerous examples.

Some players are good at detecting the tilt, if you’re able to develop this type of feeling then it comes in very handy at times since there are potential advantages to be had in profiting from players that are on the tilt. Care is advised when doing so, not for any physical reason hopefully but you do not want to get a reputation as a player who attempts to wind others up, it can backfire against you and also result in online poker game and chat bans..

Tilt questions to consider

Would you try to detect the tilt and take advantage?

If you do and can what are the best ways of making use?

Are some players more susceptible to the tilt than others and can you engineer it? For instance, in online poker games if someone types things like “zzzzzzz” then they might be tilted by continual slow play and made to over-bet in their frustrated state.

Might it be a tactic to bluff tilt in a critical moment?

Some players are naturally impatient, when they lose a big hand they bet bigger in order to try and make back their previously large chip stack. And in doing so they adopt a type of play that could be called kamikaze on their next hand though unlike a kamikaze there is some chance of success though it will be down to pure luck for them.

However, before you decide to rush off and try to take advantage of tilted players keep in mind that a player ‘on tilt’ may not necessarily be vulnerable; after all, as is generally accepted agreed in poker, aggression often wins the day and tilt is aggression.

With that said unfocused unthinking aggression is less likely to lead to success than the focused non angry type. Rarely we find players who can tilt and be focused at the same time – Look at McEnroe in tennis – he made a career from being on tilt.

Even in free poker you’ll find plenty of tilters. It’s the time spent by players to amass their free chips as opposed to cash value that can send them tilt

If its real cash involved, then on some other sites (not to be named) players only ever chat to call their competitors names like ‘donk’ to try and goad them into tilt.

I must admit, if I lose a hand and then get strong hole cards the next hand, I’ll sometimes type in the chat box that I’m on tilt – over time, however, I fear that I’ll become predictable, so don’t do it too much.

In summary, you have to make your own mind up about how to handle tilt in yourself and others. You will find no shortage of it as you play so why not test out some tilt tactics when you play poker online for free and see how it goes. On a note of caution, and it’s your call of course, don’t make a habit of trying to goad others to the tilt, you can pick up a bad image that way and some site mods might even ban you. So as with all things in life, balance is best and be nice…most of the time! And if all this is new to you then you should learn to play poker for beginners at a poker online free site first, no risk of loss but as I say you will bet to experience plenty of tilted players even so!

At this moment online, hundreds of poker tournaments are taking place . On an online poker site, besides the fact that you can play poker for free, you can also find players from all over the world that are participating in various tournaments with the hope that they will become successful and earn a lot of money. But this is not always the case. Yes, there are moments when you are traversing a very good period and you manage to win massive amounts of money. The crude part is all that you won in a week you can loose it in just a single day.

If you have just started into the world of online poker is very important not to rush things. On the Web you can find sites which are giving you free money in order for you to become used with the game.

If you are fully mastering the rules and you are playing according to the right strategy in time you could start to make a living from playing online poker. The main thing to remember regarding the online poker is that out there are players that are wanting the same thing as you, which is to become successful.

When you loose a very important match and drop a massive amount of money is crucial to abandon for a while online poker. Many are making the mistake to come back as quickly as they can in order to recoup all they have lost. In my opinion this is a big mistake. After you have lost a huge sum of money you are not thinking clearly and returning back you risk to loose even more money. This is why is very important that from time to time to take a break from online poker and to do something else. When you will return you will think more clearly and the decisions that you will take will be much better. In order to get used with the game you could play free poker.

After you have established yourself as a successful online player choose you matches carefully and don’t enter only the table with high stakes. Yes you can be lucky and win big bucks but you also can fail. Take your game to perfection by playing on the tables with medium or small stakes.

Playing poker on the Internet with free poker money can get you a lot of satisfaction if played correctly. If you are playing by the rules there is a big possibility to succeed!

Low pocket pairs are better then many people think they are. They are also a lot worse then some people think they are. If you’re playing a free poker game it may not seem such a big thing but when its high stakes this stuff matters! Actually, even if you are playing “just” free poker games for any reason other than fun then you should treat it serious. So read on!

Ok to start with if the pot odds are about four to one it’s relatively secure to call, although a drawback, you won’t be pocketless after. Four to one may make you think that you should be calling every pocket pair but at the early stages it’s very difficult.

The difference in folding a few more times could be saving you thousands of dollars in the right environment. If the blinds are still relatively low in comparison to the chip stack and if you have enormous implied odds are also safe times to see these low odds hands.

When the blinds are few and far between then there’s not too much to fear monetary wise. As if you call every pocket pair you will see fewer blinds over a 3/4 of an hour spell.

Pocket pairs are mostly just something to see a flop with and get away from easy but in rare cases you may even consider going/calling all-in with them. I wouldn’t recommend pushing with anything less then 66 as A2-A5 are popular hands these days. I remember when I first started playing poker and I found out that missing the flop with AK your still usually over 30% to hit by the river so I would just push all in regardless.

I use to believe that a thirty percent chance was a favourable amount when talking odds, but as you become more experienced you understand that the only time these odds pay out is the rare occasion your put in a scenario and have to call. Learn your trade playing free poker games before moving on to the money tables so you can understand these rules and odds first hand.

Low pocket pairs are better then many people think they are. They are also a lot worse then some people think they are. If you’re playing a free poker game it may not seem such a big thing but when its high stakes this stuff matters! Actually, even if you are playing “just” free poker games for any reason other than fun then you should treat it serious. So read on!

Ok to start with if the pot odds are about four to one it’s relatively secure to call, although a drawback, you won’t be pocketless after. Four to one may make you think that you should be calling every pocket pair but at the early stages it’s very difficult.

The difference in folding a few more times could be saving you thousands of dollars in the right environment. If the blinds are still relatively low in comparison to the chip stack and if you have enormous implied odds are also safe times to see these low odds hands.

If the blinds are low then you really have nothing to worry about the amount of money that you lose here calling every single pocket pair you see will be less then the amount of the blinds in 30-45mins.

Pocket pairs are mostly just something to see a flop with and get away from easy but in rare cases you may even consider going/calling all-in with them. I wouldn’t recommend pushing with anything less then 66 as A2-A5 are popular hands these days. I remember when I first started playing poker and I found out that missing the flop with AK your still usually over 30% to hit by the river so I would just push all in regardless.

I use to believe that a thirty percent chance was a favourable amount when talking odds, but as you become more experienced you understand that the only time these odds pay out is the rare occasion your put in a scenario and have to call. Learn your trade playing free poker games before moving on to the money tables so you can understand these rules and odds first hand.

Winning any type of poker be in high stakes Vegas or free poker comes down to being able to extract profit from marginal situations. The object is not (it’s impossible anyway) to win every hand played, but every hand YOU play – OK also impossible but that has to be your aim. The best way to do this is to out bet your opponents and one way to do this is the slow play.

The Art of the Slow-play
The skill of playing it slow is to intentionally gamble a smaller amount so you can hide the potentially unstoppable hand you hold and trap the opposing player with the weaker hand.

The slow gamble is different to blagging and pays out against both decent and poor opposition. Poor opposition often just gamble their cards, therefore if they have something or looking to draw they’re going to pay you off.

When not to Slow-Play
Slow play is a good methodology however you shouldn’t always play to this one strategy- for instance if there’s a flush or straight hand on the board. The idea of slow play is to play against your opposition’s cards which have a small chance of getting better or at least being able to beat yours. Just say the flop is AD / 7H / KC & you hold 7D / 7C & you put the other player in an Ace or King. It is normally more beneficial to gamble the cards more forcefully on the turn.

By slow playing the turn you’re potentially loosing cash on the turn- the only sensible motive for slow playing this scenario is if you know the opposition will fold with any gamble you declare.

If you hit quads or a full house, don’t over play the hand. If your opponents are playing out of position, they frequently don’t bet the turn or river, instead they check or call. If you slow play the turn, this type of opponent doesn’t start throwing in raises and re-raises on the river.

Therefore, just keep betting the turn, despite the improvement. They rarely put you on quads, so try to get some action on the turn.

How to Represent Your Hand
A strong bet can represent a strong hand. This is especially true when betting after the flop. If an A or K shows on the flop, you can represent an A or K in your hand by betting. Often, it is what you represent that is more important than what you actually have, especially if you have put your opponent on a medium or weak hand.

So there you have it a fast guide to the slow play. Typically it works better with money games than free poker where you’ll find many beginners who don’t pick up the nuances and throw all in regardless! But of you find yourself in a free online poker freeroll with real money up for grabs then think about how and when you might apply it.