A Gambler's Quest(an online gambling blog)

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Walsh) — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 21:53:00 +0000

Despite the busy week leading up to the holiday here in the U.S., I managed to do some damage. I mostly hit sportsbook.com and made bets because I was too busy to sit and play this week having some person days off and family events. But I did roll in another $3,200 on baseball round robin parlays! The round robins are the best because you can get one or two bets wrong in your parlay (depending on the amount of teams) and still win. I rode the Yankees, Angles, and a few other teams to a homerun of my own! Again, we it comes to U.S. sports and most European sports, we have found Sportsbook.com to be the choice.

I did lose at a fair share back in blackjack though. Mostly at new casinos that I was asked to review for Gamblera.com. I dropped $800 all told, and finshed with a net gain of $2,400! Also, I've been asked by my superior here to start rounding off my numbers for the same of this blog, so you might notice some more cleanliness to my win/loss reporting going forward.

End of week: $2,400 to $37,520

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Walsh) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 00:02:00 +0000

Dang. So the King of Pop is dead. Michael Jackson went down within 10 minutes of me winning $4,000 on a ridiculous run at Caribbean Stud in the Riverbelle Casino. The software was in payout mode and I was getting one huge hit after another. Four of Kinds, Full Houses, Straights, Trips, etc. I told you there were advantages to this, and Jay Reese wrote a great article that touches on this on Gamblera.com which you can check out at http://www.gamblera.com/features/online-casinos-rigged.shtml.

Anyway, I spent the rest of the week losing sports bets and poker games and still finished up $3,200!

End of week: $3,177 to $35,120

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Walsh) — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 21:33:00 +0000

I'm back in action after a nice vacation from gambling and work in general. OK, that's a bit of a lie. I did play for fun in Atlantic City one night. And what I remembered from the experience is how much more expensive it can be! Between a hotel, meals, a few drinks at the bar and some entertainment, casinos really hit your wallet hard if you don't win, and seriously dampen your winnings if you do win. Alcohol plays a part in that of course, and the idea that they never post a clock anywhere and you are like prisoner. When I play online at home I have enough other distractions to keep things at a more leisurely, sporting pace. Maybe I'm bitter because I did take a beating in AC and of course that was on my dime.

Anyway, I was back to work this week and hit up Casino Las Vegas for a good portion of the time with my focus on black jack and a few other table games. I held my own and then got up on some sports bets, and feel good about getting back in the swing of things.

End of week: $890 to $31,943

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Walsh) — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 22:45:00 +0000

Incidentally, I've been working (and gambling online) in a few countries in Europe for the most part since January. Call me a jetsetter I guess. Anway, I'm back in the United States for the a few months where you would think that playing online could be a bit of a challenge. But it's not so bad. We get a lot of questions on gamblera.com about where people in the U.S. can go to gamble online. We have an excellent guide on this topic at www.gamblera.com.gambling-in-the-us.shtml. But here's a shortlist of some of the sites I have included in my mix recently from the U.S.:
bodoglife.com
sportsbook.com
Online Vegas
Golden Casino
Go Casino

I specifically mention the sites above because that's where I played this past week. Despite my success in the past at all of these sites, I got roughed up a bit this week in the casinos, mainly on the chill Free Ride which I love in a relaxing playing while watching a movie sort of way and in Three Card Poker and Spanish 21. I dropped about a grand, which is nothing giving my lead!

End of week: $1,087 to $31,053

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Walsh) — Sun, 31 May 2009 21:56:00 +0000

By the way all, I need to stop and really take pause and admire my work so far in front of you all. I started in January with $10,000 and now I have $32,685! Tripled my money! I'm not a seasoned gambler necessarily (at least I wasn't when I started this gig in January) and I know people lose more often than they win when gambling, so this is all the more something to be proud of. Here's Murphy's Law though: If it was my money and I got to keep it all, I would probably have lost much more and only have like $1,000 left, if anything. But I think it goes to show that you need a little money to win some money. Just like they say it's easy to make money if you have money. I'm not saying people need to start with $10,000, but if you can play a bit larger some time and not worry about it, you can do pretty well. The other way to look at it though is that I only made $22,685 since I started in January and I'm probably now what you might call a gambling pro. If I play this out over a year at this rate I will have made about $55,000, which may or may not be a good salary depending on who you are or where you live, plus there would be no health or retirement benefits if you were on your own, so this pacing isn't as amazing as it seems for all the time I put it. Plus, there is a great chance of losing! I don't know what my point is except that I'm trying to decide how impressive my gambling has been going as I give you this glimpse into the experiences of a full time online gambler who is trying to share some tips and strategies and reviews of good places and games to play along the way. If you have anything specific you want me to try out, make your suggestion at feedback@gamblera.com and write "suggestion for Jay in the title."

Oh, and if you wondering why I am blabbing about everything buy my wins and losses this week, it's because I only had a few hours scheduled for "work" (gambling), so I lost $545 in Texas Hold'em and called it a week.

End of week: $545 to $32,140

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Walsh) — Mon, 25 May 2009 01:07:00 +0000

Yeah, I'm still playing around with some baseball bets because they are available daily and I love it, but you want to hear more about my luck in the online casinos I'm sure. Well, luck isn't quite the word to describe my week at the tables. I tried to work it at blackjack and never caught one good shoe. I had some hits on the match play with some decent change down, but overall it wasn't happening so I went to a new game: Free Ride. Now free ride is not the game to play when you are in bad need of stabalizing and increasing your odds to win as it's usually a slow and methodical loss (which was the case for me). But it is a world of fun, and easy to play while watching a movie and there's always the possiblity of a huge progressive hit. Of course, I was bouncing all over casinos and all across different games, but by the end of the week I moved on to casino hold'em, which is a table game version of Texas Hold'em but you play against the dealer only there is a progressive payout system attached like in Caribbean Stud or Free Ride. And afte getting down $5,500 from the early to the middle part of the week, I won back a few grand and closed out at negative $2,614. As John Cusak said in High Fidelity, who needs a drink?

End of week: $2,614 to $32,685

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Walsh) — Sun, 17 May 2009 21:12:00 +0000

Hi all. So I went back to sports betting this week, which doesn't help a lot of you I know, but it sure helped my bank roll. In the first few days of the week I hit three round robin baseball parlays for a total of $11,432 on a total of only $420 bet to accomplish that. I lost some bets as well ($1,000), but you play big to win big, and since I won my first bet, it was all found money anyway. I'm telling you, the round robin is the way to go. It's essentially bunch of parlays that are played in every combination just like a trifecta box in horse racing. Basically you pick up to 6 teams (at least on sportsbook.com where I made all of these bets because of the option and quick and reliable bet ratings and payments), and I did pick 6 teams on each bet. To simplify, let's say you do a five-team round robin. You place a dollar amount for the 5-team bet, as well as for each of the combinations of 4 team bets and 3 teams bets on down the line if you want. I bet $10 on the one 5-team option (that means all 5 teams I pick win), $10 on 4 teams option and $10 on 3 teams. Since there are only 5 teams, there is only one 5 team bet. But when you bet on 4 teams, there are 5 combinations of 4 out 5 teams to win, and at $10 per bet that's $50. I also bet on 3-team combinations, of which there are 10 ways for 3 teams out of 5 to win, so that's 10 bets at $10 which yields $100. When you add it all up, the bet costs $160 in total. That's $10 for the 6-game parlay $50 for the 4-team combinations, and $100 for the 3-team combinations. Now, depending how you structure it, if just 3 of your 5 teams win, you can get your money back. If 4 teams win, you will likely triple your bet at minimum. And if all 6 win, you win a lot...in this case, $5,000 on the $160 bet. Got it? Sure, a straight parlay pays out more than each of these bets individually, but then you can win so many more bets on the same teams and they add up. If all 5 teams win, you would have won 16 bets in total, which is what gets us to the $5,000 mark! And in baseball, where any team can win on any night, it's nice to know you can still win a lot even if one of your teams in the parlay loses.

End of week: $9,720 to $35,299

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Walsh) — Mon, 11 May 2009 00:54:00 +0000

I showed my mother how to play craps online for Mother's Day in preparation for a family bday celebration at land-based casino, and of course, she had all the luck. I told her the money was play (which it sort of is for me), but the dollars were real and when she went on a great run with hundreds down across all the numbers, we made $1,800. I took that and on Tuesday I tried my luck at Carribean stud in vegasonline and royalcasino, and I got murdered, not to mention the sites were sup-par. I lost the gains from roulette and never hit more than trips (three-of-a-kind) a few times. Pretty weak. I lost a few hundred on some baseball bets that were ill-advised, but made the games much more fun to watch! And finally I won a bit back in blackjack on two different sites. All told, my account took a $2,270 hit.

End of week: $2,270 to $25,579

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Walsh) — Mon, 04 May 2009 02:01:00 +0000

I'm baaaaack! Back from my two-week vacation which included a Caribbean cruise. The trip was actually part of a wedding that I was in for a friend of mine and very fun, thanks for asking. I admit it was hard laying off the tables in the ship's casino, but I can be laying down my own cash given the freeroll from my employer Gamblera after all. I do admit that I joined the women in our group a few times for some roulette and bingo, but that was just child's play for fun. For a guy who is control of his gambling though, it sure is great to be back at "work" with my $23,309 stake as I review these sites and blog for you all.

Anyway, I dedicated the first three days back to the poker rooms for a total of about 20 hours. I played at my staples: sportsbook.com and fulltilt, and I pulled in a fair $900 for all my efforts. After that, I decided that I might as well make it a solid poker week. I tried a bunch of new casinos that gamblera.com had wanted to make a first screening of, and they were crap. I made some money with the help of a few small first-time despositer promotions, but the interfaces were garbage, the rakes were week and the tournaments were garbage. I told gamblera no need for a second opinion and no need to even list them here (one is actually now listed on our blacklist page for spam/illegal activies). From there I closed out the week at a site that gamblera has ranked No. 2 at the time of this writing, titanpoker.com. A few of our staff raved about it, but what I initially saw was another Playtech site (which are always solid) pleasantly surprised me. For a poker room that gets no pub and doesn't market much, the quality, players, support, rakes and touranments were great. I also made $3,234, but that's not supposed to factor into my opinion much according to my review guidelines here. I should say that gamblera.com is great about the reviews and doesn't get into affiliate parnterships unless sites are objectively ranked highly first, and if a site falls out of favor too far, we remove the site and the partnership altogether, so I would call it a great resource for you newbies and seasoned online players alike.

End of week: $3,315 to $26,624

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Walsh) — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 04:14:00 +0000

Baseball is back! I doubt most of the world outside of the U.S. cares, but I love it because there is so much more to bet on daily! Of course, I don't know who is good yet and that's probably why I got destroyed so early in the season. Who would have thought the Marlins, Blue Jays and Orioles would be so hot to start? I need to learn a bit more about cricket and some of the European games that are out there too, but there's only so much betting time in a week, especially with all the casino games out there. I can't remember the time I even stepped into a real, land-based casino last (Foxwoods in Connecticut I think), but I can't see doing nearly as well there as the success I find online. Not sure why that is. I did have concerns at one point about how software can be manipulated, but then I learned that everything is fairly well regulated (except for some shady sites....see out blacklist) and so even if the games can be streaky at times, they also need to be streaky in your favor sometimes. Anyway, I did ok in the casinos, but America's favorite pastime, baseball, wasn't my favorite this week as I dropped $2,420.

End of week: $2,420 to $23,309

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Walsh) — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 00:46:00 +0000

One of my new favorite games is Casino Hold'em. Most sites seem to have a version of it, but I was playing it (well, I might add) at Sportbook.com. Then I got into slots on the same site (their download casino offers excellent slots called Realtime slots (if you play, make sure you use the download casino version and not the flash-based slots offered on the web site itself). Anyway, I cleaned house. Not sure if anyone will ever win those "random jackpots" they had, but I did have fun. Then I dipped into the poker rooms a few nights and all and all it was a quiet, harmless week of gambing.

End of week: $460 to $25,729

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Walsh) — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 03:44:00 +0000

I hope you are all reading this week, because I have to share my best week yet with everyone! First off, March Madness is always my favorite when it comes to betting, and I cleaned house. Made an easy $3,400. If I wasn't such a coward, I could have had another $10,000! I lost the very last game of huge 6 game parlay and it came down to 1 friggin point! Incidentally, I did all this in the Sportbook.com casino which takes bets from US players.

While watching the games I was busy at the tables too of course. I cleaned up in 3 Card Poker again, and for the first time ever I did real well at Free Ride. A few progressing and several trips flopped that led to four-of-kinds a few times, all which a lot down. Did ok in the poker rooms too. I was feeling so good, I hit the roulette table and hit my birthday with $100 down for another $3,500 on one spin. I also laid down a zillion stupid bets as anyone would probably do up as much as me, especially when it's not your cash, but hey, if I was my cash I still would have had the same killer week. I can't wait to save up a bit more and do this whole thing for myself!

End of week: $8,503 to $25,269

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Walsh) — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 01:23:00 +0000

Have you guys tried the online bingo thing? I gave it a go at Miss Bingo, and it was kind of fun, though a bit slow for me. Kind of like Keno in that way. It's a good way to waste some time without worrying about your bankroll much, but it is slow, and this site doesn't care to see me spending all my time in bingo rooms, lol. So I jumped back into the fray at the black jack tables and went through some great shoes. I pushed it in craps, but got my ass kicked this time. I was tyring to really go up quick on some big hardways bets, but no go this week.

End of week: $1,332 to $15,434

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Walsh) — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 22:41:00 +0000

Wow, what a game between UConn and Syracuse. Went 6 OTs and cost me $2,000 sadly. I lost a few others, won a few more in college hoops, mostly all parlays, but stayed around -$2K. Still, I was hot in the poker rooms with some epic showdowns. Pierc37 was a noble competitor, but I got the better of him in the end! Overall, I finished down just a bit, but a great comeback from the sports bet losses earlier in the week.

End of week: $240 to $16,526

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Walsh) — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 02:36:00 +0000

Back in the saddle! Man, I'm really finding that you have to play big to win big. Sure, you can lose quicker too, but that wasn't the case this week. I ripped it up at Caribbean Stud Poker believe it or not, scoring two four-of-a-kinds, and hitting a few straight flushes in three card poker too. The weather was nasty out...cold and snow...and I never had more fun playing big besides the fireplace, and hot chocolate instead of alcohol helped keep me in check while playin big. $4,530 baby!

End of week: $4,530 to $21,296

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Walsh) — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 00:10:00 +0000

I'm playing soft lately. Is it the Ides of March coming or something? I think over my break two weeks ago I reflected for the first time on my run, which brought me as high as $7K up in only two months. I wish it were my money! I took it easy this week, but this new thought process has me fired up to really start playing next week. Anyway, took in a bit in the poker rooms and won a few more parlay bets, but that's about it. See you soon!

End of week: $520 to $16,766

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Walsh) — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 04:32:00 +0000

Well, somebody is rusty! I take one week off and it's like I completely forgot how to win. I lost some sports bets, but mainly I got wiped out in black jack and in the poker rooms. It's amazing how momentum seems to apply even to luck! At least I didn't start chasing!

End of week: $920 to $16,246

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Walsh) — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 02:30:00 +0000

No gambling or betting this week. Sorry all.

End of week: $17,166 (no action)

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Walsh) — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 01:29:00 +0000

I took the sports betting angle this week and I must say, I'm really getting my systems down on college hoops. I like February when the teams have established their true identities, and I started rocking parlays left and right! I didn't step foot in casino or poker room except for one night of hold'em, and in the end I pulled in $2,314 net.

End of week: $2,314 to $17,166

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Walsh) — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 01:57:00 +0000

I tried to build on last week's conservative play to continue building my base. Hey, it's early in the year after all. My goal is to push my base over $15,000 and then spice it up a bit. I should say as an aside that while this is my money for year, it's not all money which certainly takes some of the stress out of it. It's funny how it seems easier to win when you don't have to stress about it. But I think there is a valuable lesson here: Make sure you set aside a good base to play with, even if it takes you a few months to build up. Be prepared to lose this too. Not that you will of course, lol, but you need to play without budget dictating your decisions so that you can capitalize when the table is hot. An example of this comes from a roulette table I was on this week (I forget which site), where I debated pulling back on the one number I was playing big because it hadn't come out in like 40 spins or more. But I kept my cool and then it hit about 3 times over the next 10 spins and that pushed me over the top for this week.

End of week: $1,480 to $14,852

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Walsh) — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 03:53:00 +0000

Hey gang. So this week was all about a return to discipline and establishing a more steady, slower growth curve (the key word there being "growth"). After taking a beating on foolish gambling last week, I decided to play small ball and not drink while playing, lol. I stuck a couple of my favorite online casinos--the ones that are paying out for now anyway--and I played mostly black jack and three card poker, with some Caribbean Stud mixed in. The casinos were Casino Tropez, Titan Poker and Bodoglife.com. It shouldn't come as any suprise that these gaming sites are all ranked in our top five, as I am one of the primary online gaming reviewers for Gamblera. And yes, we do test sites thoroughly...hundreds of them.

All that said, I went through a couple great shoes and wished I had a little more money down to be honest, but I stuck to the plan for this week. I caught two triples in three-card poker too, which paid out nicely. When things started getting consistently cold, I logged out and came back the next day. What discipline! Anyway, credit me back $2,000 as a result.

End of week: $1,910 to $13,372

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Walsh) — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 03:51:00 +0000

OK, so I got a little excited over my quick $4,000 dollar gain in my first week and I tossed all discipline out the window. This led to a week of net loss with the primary damage being done on the craps tables. I had a few hundred dollar hardway bets down hoping to win a quick grand per hit (on the 6 and 8 hard), but those didn't hit. And of course, I made the mistake of not treating craps for what it is: about 7 different games all in one. There are the hard ways, the pass line bet, the field bet, playing the numbers, come bets, don't come bets and all the single roll bets. The seasoned craps player should be aware of this and typically only plays one or two games at once. But as I say, I was excited and playing three or more games at once and so when that bad number that you are not supposed to talk about came up (hint: 4 + 3), I got wiped. The problem was that this bad number came often, and many times within the first two or three rolls. I did find one casino where the craps tables were working for me (www.casinotropez.com), and I recovered some of my losses just under the wire for week end.

End of week: $2,450 to $11,462

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Walsh) — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 05:44:00 +0000

Well my friends, I took a beating last night, and again this afternoon to close out the first week of the new year, but when you take it as a whole I still ended up great. I would have had about $15,800 if I just stopped after day three (which I can't do or else I'll lose this gig)! But then I got down and committed the cardinal gambling sin of "chasing." I had just short of $14,700 by mid week and entered a poker room for some 2/4 no limit hold'em. I was getting terrible flops and retreated to a 1/2 room and then couldn't draw anything to the point that I had to bluff now and then just to see a turn card. Upshot: I dropped $300 in a few hours and called it a night.
So what happened the next day? Well, I chased as I said, but I chased in the most assinine way. I wanted to win back big money quick so I actually tried to throw down $10 hard way bets on craps, which isn't the best idea whether playing online or offline, even if I have had some good nights at it before. In 20 minutes tops I lost another $300, bringing me down to about $14,100 in total chips. I swear, it was like watching the Dow last week.

So, seeing as how I had the whole afternoon off, I poured a beer and settled into some Carribean Stud, which is always my favorite. And finally I got up a bit. About $200 to be precise, thanks to hitting trips with $20 down on the front. But then I pressed, for no reason other than the fact that I had to get ready to go outside and, of course, I wanted to get back to my previous high point. So I bumped the front to $50 and won the first hand with no qualify by the dealer before proceeding to lose the next two hands in row (with dealer qualify...a total of $300 lost in two hands!). Yikes. From there, I played a few more hands in the range of $5-$10 before landing at my new current total of $13,912. Still, I finished up pretty big for the first period of the new year. Happy Holidays!

End of week: $3,912 to $13,912