When you’re joining an online poker room there are certain things that you need to consider in order to make sure that you’ve joined the best possible poker room for your needs. You can’t always rely on one person’s opinions either, because often they can be swayed towards whichever poker room they play with. There are several factors that you need to look at when choosing an online poker room to play in.

The first thing you should do is take a look at some different online poker rooms that seem popular and pick 5-10 of them that you would want to play on based on checking them out. Once you have your list of poker rooms together then you can begin doing your research on each poker room. We’re going to now take a look at some of the things you need to check when joining an online poker room.

* One of the first things you need to check out is whether or not the poker rooms you’ve picked accept players from your country. If the poker room doesn’t accept players from your country then you can take them off of your list now as they are no longer useful to you since you can’t play with them.

* You should send an email to each of the support emails for the poker room so that you can find out how long it takes them to answer your question. When you actually need help nothing is worse then not being able to get a hold of a support rep with your poker room such as Full Tilt so it’s important that you find a poker room that answers your email in 24 hours or less.

* You should check out the games that the poker room offers so you can ensure that they have the poker game you want to play. Every poker room will offer Texas Holdem, but not every poker room will have poker games like Omaha Hi, Seven Card Stud and Five Card Draw. If you want a poker room that offers a lot of poker games so you can play them all then you should look at the poker rooms with lots of players.

* The bonus is really important for some players and not so important for other players. If you want a big bonus then you’re going to need to join one of the medium sized poker rooms. The biggest poker rooms like Poker Stars don’t offer the best welcome bonus or promotions. Poker rooms like Cake Poker, Carbon Poker and PKR Poker have excellent bonuses though and some great promos.

* The size of the poker room is important and you should check out how many players are playing when you check out the poker room. If there isn’t enough traffic on the poker room then it takes way to long to start playing in games and tournaments which sucks big time. You need to find a poker room with a nice player base so that you can play poker whenever you want to play.

Here’s something to consider when betting on baseball teams because of who’s pitching that game. What statistics are you actually paying attention to? What stats are affecting/swaying your decision on who to put money on? There are some that are greater indicators than others as to how a pitcher is actually performing. One statistic that you should completely ignore is the Win/Loss record for the season.

You don’t have to be a sports gambler, just a baseball semi-enthusiast, to know the pitcher’s record isn’t by any means a true indicator of his performance. Here’s a quick example for you. Nolan Ryan’s 1987 Astros campaign. He posted a 2.47 ERA with an amazing 1.14 WHIP. He has 11.5 strikeouts per nine innings and ended the year with an 8-16 record. Would those numbers actually prevent you from believing Ryan was capable of winning every game he pitched that year? Of course not, those stats are staggering - except, mind you, for the win/loss record.

Now, I’m certainly not saying that the win/loss record isn’t capable of providing a window into whether the team as a whole is worth betting on, because it is. The hitters could be in a major slump, the bullpen could be unreliable, the manager could be ineffective. So all of those while contributing to a star pitchers less than stellar record would also likely affect who you bet on. But it shouldn’t affect whether you feel confident that a pitcher can win the game.

As a baseball fan, there are few things more infuriating than seeing a great pitcher, especially one that you trusted enough to bet on their team, allow one earned run, a couple scattered hits, fan a dozen and still lose the game…while on the other side of the coin there’s pitchers who can give up 10 runs in a game and still inexplicably pull out a win.

I’ll provide the other viewpoint just for argument’s sake for online baseball betting. There are some who will say a pitcher who gets a win knows how to keep his team in the game, and it’s for that reason the statistic is still good to use to judge a pitcher. I see the logic in this, but in the end I disagree. I think the number of times that a great pitcher would receive such consistent horrible run support and still win games because he “managed” the game well by doing something other than just pitching well is more or less a myth.

Pitchers pitch, strike guys out, get them to hit into the ground…that’s what they do. That’s not “keeping your team in the game,” that’s just pitching well…that’s why they have lower ERA’s and WHIP. But they can still perform at this high level, give up a run or two, and see their win evaporate because either the hitters couldn’t scrap together any offense or the middle relief blew it for the pitcher without him even being on the mound affecting the game.

A couple situation scenarios you may have seen at the online blackjack tables or been faced with yourself and wondered, despite what the chart says, what you should do. Just because the card recommends one thing doesn’t mean you always have to follow it to the letter. Learning the game is one thing, but trusting your instinct shouldn’t be thrown completely out of the equation. Anyway, let’s take a look at them.

First, what do you do if your first two cards total 16 and the dealer is showing 10 (face card, 10, whatever), also keeping in mind your hand isn’t comprised of two eights or an Ace and a five. The basic strategy says to hit, do you? The idea of being that close to 21 and getting a card that won’t bust you is right on the edge there, it could go either way. But yes, you follow the play book and hit. Statistically, you have a better chance of improving your hand vs. the combined probability of either busting or straight losing to the dealer if you stand. This won’t matter how many decks you’re playing with, the best move is still to hit.

And second, what if you do have a pair of eights dealt to you, and the dealer shows an Ace, what do you do? The play book calls for a split, but is that the right call for most people? First, you don’t take insurance, but that’s not limited to this scenario, you should never take insurance. OK, now on to the decision at hand, do you split? The rules recommend this because of the increased likelihood of improving your 16 to at least 18 for each split, thus improving your chances to not only win, but to make more money on the hand overall. I honestly could go either way here, but I’m not a fan. In fact, I’d almost be tempted to surrender. The 14-16 area is a death sentence against an Ace as far as I’m concerned, and there’s no guarantee, especially in an eight-deck game, that you’ll do any better by doubling your blackjack money. Most people holding a card in their hand will follow it, but if you’re looking or advice, at least peek at the other cards on the table…if you see a handful of face cards, splitting might not be the right move that time.