Kiss My Ace

Don't Get Burned By The Kiss My Ace Attitude!

Kiss my Ace indeed! It’s a great selling line for a poker site and of course in pairs, threes and four of a kind, they make killer hands! However, too many of us take the Kiss my Ace attitude at first sight of the card and give it way too much importance. The moment you take that first careful peek at your two hole cards and the top one’s an ace, instantly there’s that, “I’m gonna bet!” rush that washes over you. This is a reaction that needs taming quickly in new poker players. Even accompanied by a premium second card, a solo ace is not a sure- fire winning start to a game.

For example: The chances of flopping a second ace are surprisingly a little worse than one in five. This is worth dwelling on before you go shovelling in the chips at the outset. The same logic applies to low pocket pairs of twos or threes. The odds of flopping your way to three of a kind from this starting position is eight to one. Now if your pocket pair are Jacks or above, serious shovelling should begin.

ROULETTE THERAPY
Simon writes in from Clerkenwell explaining that between tiring bouts on the poker site he often hits the casino button and plays roulette for half an hour to allow his brain cells to begin talking to one another again. He poses an interesting question.

Q: How did roulette begin? (He’d heard the Chinese started it.)
A: Most historians are fairly convinced it was started by a  French scientist (Pacsal) who was thought to be working on a perpetual motion machine. After years of failing to achieve free energy, he eventually settled for having invented a wheel with plenty of slots that could be spun, creating an opportunity for gambling with a small marble. This was developed over the decades and eventually came to fame in German casinos during the early nineteenth century. The critical invention of the double zero improved the punters odds and roulette became extremely popular and somethin