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As sports betting continues to expand it’s footprint across the United States with legal, online sports betting opportunities, as does the world of legal, online casino and iGaming. Here, we’ll look at a rather rudimentary guide on how to play online poker and win.

How to play iGaming online poker: Starting out

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If you’re just getting your feet wet playing poker online, you’re not alone. Many are dabbling in electronic casino games for the first time.

Texas holdem is widely available online, as well as games like Omaha. The latter doesn’t have nearly the mass appeal or availability, however, so we’ll focus mostly on online Texas holdem.

How to play online poker: Winning

Before we proceed, let’s just clear up a few basics. There are four suits and two colors in a standard 52-card deck. We have two red suits – diamonds and hearts – and two black suits – clubs and spades. Face cards are jacks (J), queens (Q) and kings (K). Aces (A) can be used either as a high or low card, similarly to blackjack.

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Unlike blackjack, you’re not only playing against the dealer, but also the others at the table. In Texas holdem, you will get five ‘community’ cards dealt, and two ‘hole’ cards. Your two hole cards are not shown to anyone else. You must use at least one of your hole cards to make the best possible hand against everyone else at the table.

There will be a round of betting based upon everyone’s hole cards. The order is determined by the ‘button’, which is a round marker rotating around the table each hand. This signifies who is the ‘dealer’. The next two positions are the ‘small blind’ and ‘big blind’ spots. There is a pre-determined amount required to play the hand.

The big blind pays the entire amount, the small blind plays half, and has the option of matching the big blind to remain in the hand. After the big blind, each player around the table has the option of either ‘calling’, or betting the amount of the big blind, raising or folding. The betting goes all around the table until every player matches the highest bet made in a particular round.

After the hole cards are bet upon, the ‘flop’ is dealt. These are the first three community cards. Another round of betting ensues. Then, a fourth card, or ‘Fourth Street’ or ‘The Turn’, is dealt, and another round of betting, etc. Lastly, a fifth card, or ‘Fifth Street’ or ‘The River’, is dealt, and the final bets are made before a winning hand is determined.

How to play online blackjack: Strategies

There are plenty of different strategies for winning at online poker, but the best advice is to be patient. It might seem rather boring to continually fold hands, and Texas holdem can be a grind at times, but impatience is rarely rewarded, and it’s a good idea to wait for ‘Top 10’ hands. Eventually, you’ll learn about suited connectors (cards of the same suit in numerical succession), or just suited cards in general, which can be good starting hole cards.

In addition, sometimes you will hit a set – or three of a kind – on the flop with cards which aren’t necessarily great hole cards initially. You’ll learn the nuances of the game as you gain more experience. For intermediate or advanced players, this is all common knowledge, but for beginners just learning the game, patience is a virtue.

While various tables can have players of very different skill levels, and you do not want to play ‘tight’, or too close to the vest, using less risky play initially will mitigate big losses early on and keep your interest as you continue to learn. Eventually, you’ll also learn how to bluff, which by a series of strong wagers, can trick other players into believing your hand is stronger than it might really be.

This is certainly for more advanced players, but down the road you’ll learn you can win a hand even if you have lesser hole cards than your opponent simply by wagering strategy.

As you start out, you’ll need to know the order of winning hands, and memorize this list:

Royal flush (AKQJ10 of the same suit)Straight flush (Five cards in sequence, same suit)Four of a kind (Same card in all four suits)Full house (Three of a kind and a pair)Flush (Five cards of the same suit, sequence not required)Straight (Five cards in sequence, suit doesn’t matter)Three of a kind (Same card in three different suits)Two pairs (two different matching numbers or face cards)One pair (two matching numbers or face cards)High card (If you do not have any matching cards, it’s simply your highest card)

How to play online poker: Play responsibly

Again, please be careful initially when setting out. Do not play for more than you can afford to lose, try and limit your alcohol intake and other outside distractions, and simply focus on the game.

In fact, some players like to engage in chatter at the table in person, or via ‘chat’ in a room. Block all of that out and just focus on the cards, especially early on. Remember your basic rules and don’t try and get too cute. If so, you’re going to really enjoy playing poker in the comfort of your own home.

Ready to give online poker a try? Head over to BetMGM to sign up and play.

For more sports betting tips, visit SportsbookWire.com and follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook. Please gamble responsibly.

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Anyone who has followed California’s futile efforts over the years to legalize online poker knows not to get their hopes up. It only ever results in disappointment.

But while online poker has turned into a busted flush (more on that later), perhaps regulated sports betting stands a better chance of becoming a reality.

If the Golden State did give the green light to sports wagering, it would be the biggest domino to fall since PASPA’s repeal last year.

Besides boasting a population of almost 40 million, California is also the country’s wealthiest state. In fact, if it were a country in its own right, its $3 trillion economy would be the fifth-largest in the world.

Furthermore, sports-loving California is home to 19 major professional sports teams, easily eclipsing any other state.

Jennifer Roberts,associate director of the International Center for Gaming Regulation at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, said, “California is certainly an attractive state for regulated sports betting because of the size of the population and the number of college and professional sports teams.”

These factors alone clearly indicate California would be a mammoth market if state-sanctioned sports betting was permitted.

Boutique analyst firm Eilers & Krejcik Gaming forecasts that California could generate as much as $2.1 billion in annual taxable revenue from legal sports betting. That’s if the legislation includes mobile wagering.

By comparison, NewJersey generated $200 million in revenue from nearly $3 billion in bets in the 12 months following sports betting’s launch in June 2018.

California’s gambling stakeholders

Certainly, achieving legalized sports betting won’t be easy, though, especially as various parties have skin in the game. CA’s key stakeholders in gambling are:

• The tribes
• The card rooms
• Horse racetracks
• The CA Lottery

There are more than 60 tribal casinos throughout California. The dominant tribes are controlling gaming in the state, an industry worth around $8 billion in revenue a year.

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When it comes to sports betting, the tribes are opposed to having to reopen their agreements with the state. They are also against splitting the gambling market with the likes of the tracks and the card rooms.

As well as casinos, more than 70 legal card rooms of varying sizes are in California. However, individual rooms offer player-banked versions of casino games, like blackjack and baccarat.

This means players take turns to assume the role of the house, and the card room takes a cut of the action. This shrewd workaround of the law led to tensions with the tribes for years and was the subject of a recent lawsuit.

However, a trio of tribes lost the case in federal court in the summer.

Is California wagering ‘a zero-sum game’?

While the resolution to this dispute gives the prospect of sports betting and online poker a slight boost, we are still a long way off the main stakeholders seeing eye to eye.

RichardSchuetz, who spent four years as commissioner for the California Gambling Control Commission, said, “The three industrial actors (tribal casinos, card rooms and tracks) basically treat any expansion of wagering as a zero-sum game.

“That is, if one benefits, it hurts the others. And then there is always a challenge as to what the constitution and the tribal compacts allow, and that often becomes confused by the different actors.”

Meanwhile, Roberts said, “The addition of a new form of gambling raises complicated questions, such as who will be allowed to offer it: state lottery, card rooms or tribes. And whether it impacts any exclusivity, compacts or authorized forms of gambling.

“I don’t see (legislation) going anywhere until these key stakeholders can come to an agreement.”

What needs to happen for California sports betting to pass?

For sports betting to become a reality, California needs to pass a constitutional amendment.

The first step to kickstart that process began in June. For the second year running, AssemblymanAdamGray and state Sen. Bill Dodd introduced an amendment in their respective chambers.

Legislative rules mean bills with tax implications need a two-thirds majority to pass in both the Assembly and the Senate. California voters also have to give the green light to the amendment by a straightforward majority.

The earliest an amendment could be put on the ballot would be in November 2020. Issues relating to the cost of licenses, tax rates and who could offer sports betting would be decided later.

That means we would likely be looking at sports betting launching in California in late 2021 at the earliest.

That would be three-and-a-half years after PASPA’s repeal. And even then, it would also probably be restricted to land-based venues, at least at first.

However, Jim Ryan, CEO of the online arm of California’s Pala Band of Mission Indians, which is behind PalaCasino.com in New Jersey, remains skeptical.

“There needs to be a constitutional amendment, which the residents of California need to vote on in a ballot. I just don’t see the will to do that at this point in time based on the discussions we have had with the various tribes in the state.”

Schuetz is equally pessimistic about progress in 2020. “My guess is you will see some lobbyists, lawyers and legislators make money by making some noise about sports wagering, but at the end of the day, nothing will pass. It will mainly just be a dance that seems to happen year after year after year.”

But what about California online poker?

Efforts to legalize online poker in California have been going on for more than a decade.

Alas, lawmakers have failed to pass a bill in all those years, while key stakeholders struggled to agree on the framework for online poker.

Although no constitutional amendment is required, there still needs to be a two-thirds majority for it to be given the go-ahead. However, hopes are fading for Californians ever being able to play regulated online poker.

“I would make online poker a huge underdog for legalization in 2020,” Schuetz said. “It is an election year, and the conventional wisdom is that this is never a good time to make an effort to pass gambling-related legislation.

“Moreover, there just isn’t much energy behind poker anymore, partially because it has been upstaged by sports wagering. And, secondly, because it has been something of a non-event where it is legal.”

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That non-event he referred to is poker’s struggling fortunes in other states. In the only meaningful US market where regulated online poker exists, New Jersey, revenues continue to disappoint.

The Garden State’s poker sites generated revenue of $1.7 million in August, which was down 9.5% on a year earlier. Poker was dwarfed by online casino’s revenue of $39.4 million for the same month, meaning poker accounted for a paltry 4.1% of total gaming revenue.

The right ingredients for California online poker to thrive

What California isn’t lacking is liquidity to make a success of online poker. To illustrate this point, the state’s population is more than four times greater than New Jersey’s.

There is also a real appetite for the game, backed up by the vibrant land-based poker scene. California was even thought to be one of the world’s largest online poker markets before Black Friday in 2011.

California’s population likely has an appetite to sustain three or four large poker sites. And that’s even without compacting with other states to increase player pools.

But despite all this, Ryan said the wrangling and subsequent impasse has all but killed poker’s chances.

“I think everybody got exhausted by it, and I just don’t think anybody has the will to try to make poker happen. Right now, if anything is going to happen, people will be focused on sports betting.

“I think it is a larger market opportunity and is a product that doesn’t exist. Many of the tribal casinos would welcome that in their properties, whereas poker does exist in a land-based environment today.”

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Using online poker to acquire players

Regulated online operators in markets like New Jersey and the UK use poker as a low-cost customer acquisition tool and cross-sell players into casino and sports betting.

But there won’t be online casinos, and possibly not online sportsbooks, in California. Without these other products, online poker loses much of its appeal from a revenue generation standpoint.

Summing up online poker’s chances, Schuetz sounds even more downbeat than Ryan.

“From all of my experience in California, I would be startled if online poker ever became a reality in the state.

“Back when I was in the middle of this debate, the operators would say there are millions and millions of dollars to be made. But in a state the size of California, it was basically budget dust. It is just too contentious between the different industrial actors and not enough money in it for the state to take much of an interest.”

A gloomy outlook for sports betting, poker in California

In conclusion, things don’t look too good for the prospect of sports betting, and especially online poker.

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While sports betting does appear to have the greatest chance of being legalized, much rests with the politically influential tribes. They hold all the aces.

So, it’s a frustrating wait if you’re a Californian who is itching to play regulated online poker or place a legal sports wager in a regulated environment.

H2 Gambling Capital estimates that Californians gamble around $200 million a year on offshore casino and poker sites. The research firm suggests another $200 million is bet annually with offshore sportsbooks.

That’s hundreds of millions of dollars bettors are wagering via unregulated channels and the state is missing out on taxes.

Ryan said, “If the government is unwilling to present them with a regulated product, they are simply betting with offshore books. All you need to do is go to a sporting event in California and you will see a number of people around you betting on their mobile devices.

“The horse has already left the barn, but the question is, do you want to regulate it, tax it, create jobs and protect the consumers? That is what state governors need to wrap their heads around.”

We say, don’t hold your breath.