Great player!

WASHINGTON — As reported by the Columbian: “Federal officials must immediately withdraw the final study for the Cowlitz casino and issue a revised document that reflects current conditions, an attorney representing La Center’s four cardrooms demanded Thursday.

“Guy Martin, an attorney with the Perkins Coie in Washington, D.C., said the document, released May 30, fails to account for a recent decision by a state hearings board that caused the 152-acre site to revert to farmland.
“The casino’s final environmental impact statement also does nothing to address ’scathing criticism’ by local governments after reviewing the May 2006 draft study, Martin wrote in a letter to George Skibine, acting assistant Interior secretary for Indian affairs…”

BAY ST. LOUIS, Mississippi — (PRESS RELEASE) -– Leading Hollywood Casino Bay St. Louis cast members and supervisors of the second quarter for 2008 were recognized for their outstanding service Tuesday. Each quarter Hollywood Casino recognizes the service of seven exemplary employees awarding the shinning stars with trophies, gift certificates and cash awards.

Cast members of the quarter include Oanh Nguyen, table games, Gina Sellier, slots, Buffy Kidd, group sales, Debbie Fernandez, Bridges Grill, and Rose Wuesthoff, purchasing. Lishia Berthold, slots supervisor, and Beverage Supervisor Kim Cole have been named supervisors of the quarter.

General Manager John Chaszar introduced each department supervisor who awarded the employees they nominated to receive the award. “Kim has outstanding abilities and she demonstrates her commitment and leadership skills in all of her daily actions,” said Dottie Torchie, beverage manager. “Kim’s positive and upbeat personality helps motivate our cast members and promote self-esteem and harmony, thereby leading to positive job performance,” said Torchie.

“Buffie is pretty much the backbone of the sales team, said General Sales Manager Kim Gardache. “She’s is everywhere she is needed before you even have to ask her and it’s not uncommon to have guests and bus coordinators to ask for her by name,” said Gardache.

“We can be very proud of each of these deserving cast members and supervisors for their dedicated service and outstanding commitment to making Hollywood Casino the best casino on the Coast to visit as a guest and to work as an employee,” said Chaszar.

Hollywood also recognized Robin Cuevas, beverage server, for her perfect attendance record for last-year. “Nearly 10-percent of our employees have never called in for sickness, personal problems, or any other understandable issue for the year. That’s impressive,” said Chaszar.

Casino managers and directors nominate their respective employees for consideration with the winners being decided by an internal committee. The 2nd Quarter awards luncheon was held in the Cypress Ballroom where more than sixty managers and supervisors attended the awards ceremony.

Hollywood Casino Bay St. Louis and Hollywood Hotel offers 291 guest rooms, 1,158 new slot machines, 21 unique table games, a 6-table poker room, and a 14-station video poker bar. There are four restaurants including Tuscany Steaks and Seafood, Jackpot Java, the Bridges Grill, and the all new Epic Buffet. Hollywood also features the state’s only Arnold Palmer Golf Course ranked among the top ten courses in the state and Top 40 casino courses in the country by Golf Digest magazine.

The fully renovated land-based casino has live weekend entertainment venues including Shaker’s martini and piano bar and monthly concerts in the Cypress Ballroom. Legendary jazz musician Pete Fountain performs every Tuesday and Wednesday in the Oak Royale room. Hollywood is the only casino resort on the Coast with all amenities on site along with 17,000 square feet of flexible function space and private meeting rooms. Tokens Gift Shop is open 24/7 for shopping.

Today, I am going to take a look at the exciting game of roulette. I have to take this opportunity to share with you that I love this game. I always have and probably always will too. I used to play roulette at a regular land based casino, but in more recent years, I moved online. Rolling the roulette wheel online is the convenient way to play.
I don’t know about you, but I feel that there is an almost magical attraction to the roulette game - thrill and anticipation all revolving around one simple concept. At the press of a button, a piece of this rotating action can be yours.

Let’s access some spinning fun at the game of European Roulette. All the glamour of the popular roulette game has been rolled into an online attraction. In this article, I will outline how this simple game works.

Roulette is believed to have evolved from a game in France in the seventeenth century and certainly has experienced some changes along the way. Since its invention, roulette has become a popular form of entertainment and is now played around the globe. I am sure that its creator, mathematician, Blaise Pascal, would be rather surprised, although proud, to see the online versions of the roulette game available today via the Internet.

Simplicity is the name of this game in my mind. Based on chance - all you have to decide is upon which number to place your bet. Give it a try.

The main aspect worthy of note in European Roulette is that the online table and wheel contain a single zero. This game provides better odds than the American Roulette game which includes a double zero. In the European version, there are 36 red and black numbered compartments and one section hosting a zero.

How to Play

In European Roulette, bets are placed in the betting area of the roulette table next to the roulette wheel. The small ball is then released into the dial and the roulette wheel begins to spin. Once the roulette comes to a standstill, the ball settles in one of the numbered spaces and winnings, if any, are paid out accordingly. It is as simple as that!

Real Time Gaming’s version of European Roulette provides realistic sound effects and bright graphics to enhance the player’s online roulette experience. Once you set the wheel in motion, you can hear the noise of the ball spinning around with the movement of the roulette dial. The ball then bounces until it finds its resting place in one of the roulette sections. So that there will be no doubt, the winning number and position is then shown on the top right hand side of the screen.

What are you waiting for? Spin into a European Roulette game and enjoy some great entertainment.

Continuing with our reviews of Microgaming’s latest online casino games (launched earlier this month), we present two more online video slots, “Quest for Beer” and “Alley Cats”, as well as the highly anticipated Gold Series “Multihand Hold’em High”:

Quest for Beer - A title which most of us can relate to, “Quest for Beer” is a five-reel, 25-payline video slot set in a fantasy world of Viking giants and where beer is gold. Highly entertaining, this game offers a Wild (Bear tankard symbol), free spins, a scatter (sexy “beer wench” symbol), and a Bonus Feature.

Double winnings and 10 free spins are awarded when the beer tankard symbol shows up on the second, third and fourth reel at the same time, with a chance at entering the Bonus Round and re-triggers. To get into the bonus round, hit three beer wench symbols on any reel and line. The bonus consists of throwing axes at beer kegs and can award up to 40x winnings.

An at risk gamble feature also offers double and quadruple winnings. Base game payout is 25,000 coins, with 50,000 coins reachable on free spins and an additional 5,000 in bonuses.

Alley Cats - The smallest new online slot of the bunch this time around in Alley Cats, although the potential winnings don’t necessarily indicate that. “Alley Cats” is made up of five reels and nine paylines.

The “Strike” symbol is the most highly revered in this game, which acting as a scatter symbol can trigger up to 100x winnings and 20 free spins with doubled winnings. It also triggers a second-screen bonus round set in a back alley where feline characters like to bowl using Chihuahua’s as bowling pins.

Win up to 50,000 coins in the base game, and double earnings on free spins, as well as up to 2,700 in the second-screen bonus round.

Multi-Hand Hold’em High - Last but not least is surprisingly something other than a video slot. Multi-Hand Hold’em High is Microgaming’s latest addition to their Gold Series of online casino games. Being touted for new graphics and super-realistic animations, this new game allows from one to five hands of Hold’em High poker to be played at once.

The payouts are nothing short of generous, awarding up to 500 to 1 (on the Royal Flush) and a 50 to 1 payout on a side bet. Chips range from 1.00 to 5.00, which amounts to max winnings on a single hand of 75,000 and 2,500 on the side bet.

Microgaming recently announced their latest new release of casino games, and our very own Sweetie fittingly wrote about in in our Casino Games Blog. And not to discredit Sweetie, (he/she know’s what he/she’s good for….we’re not sure of Sweetie’s sex, to be honest), we think it’s necessary to go into a little more detail about these new online casino games. So without further delay, Mr. Devon Chappell presents a very boring, yet informative review of Microgaming’s latest games beginning with “Sure Fire” and “Cashapillar”:

Sure Win - This is a five-reel, 25 payline video slot with a wild, scatter, multiplier and Gamble/Free Spins Feature awarding up to 35,000 coins in the base game and a whopping 140,000 with free spins and good luck.

Themed on the sport of racecar driving, “Sure Win” offers triple wins with the “scoreboard” wild symbol in various combinations, while the “Bookie” symbol provides scatter opportunities on reels 3, 4, and 5, consequently dishing out plenty of free spins. The Gamble Feature offers double and quadruple winnings with a risk.

Cashapillar - One of Microgaming’s largest video slots to date, Cashapillar invokes the catepillar’s cousin the centipede by offering 100 paylines on five reels of action. Single wild “Cashapillar” symbols double all winning combinations, while stacked wilds on all five reels produce mega-wins.

Up to 2,000 coins in the base game can be won per line, while 6,000 coins can be nabbed with Free Spins, equating into 2 million coins in the base game and 6 million coins with free spins. Considering this is not a progressive slot, those are some amazing figures. Just be ready to place much larger bets if playing all 100 paylines at once.

eCommerce Online Gaming Regulation and Assurance (eCOGRA) has issued their first quarterly disputes report for 2008, revealing both good and concerning news. The good news is that the average number of complaints was down from 2007. However, at no fault to any one online casino or eCOGRA, the number of invalid dispute complaints was up considerably.

According to eCOGRA’s dispute mediator, Tex Rees, there were 171 total dispute complaints made my players in the first quarter, which was well down from the 2008 average of 195 per quarter. Of these complaints, 27 were dismissed because they did not involve eCOGRA approved online casinos. An additional 17 disputes were thrown out for their lack of sufficient information to make a claim or for being downright fraudulent claims.

Not to encourage bad behavior, but for anyone who is not familiar with player fraud, let’s just say it’s not that uncommon, especially concerning free bonus money. All online casino bonuses are governed by certain terms and conditions. All online casinos across the board only permit one player per household to be eligible for a single account and welcome bonus (reload bonuses and ongoing promotions are still available).

What some players attempt to do is open multiple accounts under different names, use different credit cards etc. to try and get around this condition. This is bonus abuse, and it is something that warrants an online casino to freeze and close a player’s account, which after being undertaken, often prompts cries of bloody murder by disgruntled players knowing they have done wrong or did not read the terms and conditions of the bonus.

Going back to eCOGRA’s first quarterly report of 2008, there were 34 dispute complaints (27% of all disputes) that fell into this category. All in all, this brings the total number of valid disputes down to 127, amounting to 10.6 valid disputes per week regarding all eCOGRA certified online casinos adorned with the Safe and Fair Seal. This amounts to an average of .26 disputes per casino. According to Rees, nearly half of all disputes were successfully mediated in the favor of the player.

There is really no such thing as your favorite hand or your worst hand. Its all in your mind That things between your ears.. The brain.. The noggin.. The dome.. The psyche…

I am not saying that you are crazy. Lot of us have weird things that we do say, or think about We may not say them to others. The brain is a crazy instrument. It can take us to great places or bring us down to the depths of the crapper. All about controlling it Making it bow down to us Gotta get in control of it The way you do that is by understanding how it works and making effort in your life to improve every day in your mental states. We can tryuse this to improve our online casino game skills And make some money Mean, damn, isn’t it one of the big reasons why we play?

These crazy mental associations we make over things that aren’t even related are due to classical conditioning. In case you fell asleep in Psychology 101, this idea comes from the Russian physiologist, psychologist, and physician named Ivan Petrovich Pavlov. The term he actually used was conditional reflex and it was based on him training his dogs (”Pavlov’s Dogs”) to salivate when he rang a bell. He did this by ringing a bell right before he fed the dogs. So after a while of this, he rang the bell without feeding the dogs. Boom, the dogs salivated without the food. Bell and food was associated. So Pavlov got his much beloved dog saliva.

So bringing this classical conditioning psychology stuff into the casino world, you’ve associated a particular hand with misery. Or you’ve associated that hand with ecstasy. So as soon as you see that hand, boom, you’ve arrived in your mental paradise or purgatory.

Get deep in that hand. Talk to top players you know in poker, blackjack, baccarat and ask them why you suck at that hand. Maybe it’s a mistake you aren’t noticing. Start doing the right things, stop doing the wrong things, and be aware. Notice trends that you’re doing. Maybe you tend to always do the same thing when you get that hand. Maybe you always play the hand too tight. Or maybe you always play that particular hand too loose. Try doing the complete opposite next time and see what happens.

When you get that “bad” hand (that most people would consider a good hand) stop psyching yourself out. Do some positive thinking about it and interrupt that old pattern of negative thinking. Think, “This time I’m gonna blast with this hand” or whatever you say when you have a great hand. Act like you actually do have that good hand.

Get that poker psychology on your good side.