Kamis, 17 Desember 2009

Collecting Sports Jerseys

Collecting sports memorabilia is a source of joy for many game enthusiasts, and sports jerseys are among the most popular memorabilia collected by enthusiasts around the world.

Why is sport jersey collecting so popular? One reason is that the jersey is intimately connected to the player who wore it. We can see and feel the association and get closer to the player and the game.

A sport jersey uniquely identifies a player's team. It usually has the team nickname or city on the front and the player's number or name on the back. The market for old sport jerseys is huge; however it is also plagued by a lot of fakes being sold as originals.

While buying a new jersey closely inspect for use and alterations. Use and wear are different. Use occurs when a player uses it. Wear occurs when a jersey is laundered or handled often. If an original jersey has been used by someone else you could negotiate a lower price. Look for signs of use on the inside such as sweat stains as well as the outside of the jersey. It is sometimes helpful to turn a jersey inside out to see if wear or restorations have been done.

Sometimes fraudsters put team numbers later on to an old jersey to mimic an original worn by a superstar. In this case the jersey would be practically worthless. Check if the numbers and letters on a jersey have been applied with the same material at the same time. They should show consistent wear all over and should have faded evenly. Also touch the fabric to ascertain if all the numbers are from the same material.

A very effective method to determine the authenticity of a jersey is to compare it with other known, authentic samples and photos. Photo matching is possible by finding photos of the player in uniform and making a comparison to the jersey. Go step by step, look at the numbers, estimate the length, look for any other small detail, and look at the fabric. Become a jersey Sherlock Holmes!

It is not easy to find out if a jersey is original or not. The best way to procure old sports jersey is to buy from a reputable source and research as much as possible.

Minggu, 13 Desember 2009

Easy Games to Play for Fun

Get acquainted with a practical guide on the easiest games that you can play online. And once you read this article, you will find that you have at least stopped losing all your money. If you follow the advice well and to the dot, you will also learn how to start winning cash from other players or by beating the casino. Sounds interesting? It is.

Note that the games you must look out for are those where the house edge is very low. If these are hard to find at the casino you have entered, look for those games that depend more on skill than on luck. Some of these include blackjack and poker. The games to avoid because they depend solely on luck are any of the slot machine games such as Caribbean Stud or the regular or progressive slot jackpots. These rely only on luck and the house edge there is against you.

What is a House Edge?
Since the casinos and betting establishments are in it for making money, they have created an artificial method to gain leverage over the players. This is what they have termed house edge. What it means is that over and above what you win, the casinos deduct a certain amount for themselves. It is something like insurance but only for them and not for you. But the casinos do not actually do this. Instead, they have inserted these odds into the game winnings so that you do not notice it. When you win, you are paid according to the newly calculated odds and you are no wiser.

For instance, if you walk over to a casino and place a bet of ten dollars on a roulette table. (For arguments sake, let us also suppose it was an American roulette table.) If you win, you should be given three hundred and seventy dollars because the true odds is thirty-seven to one. Instead, you will only get three hundred and fifty dollars according to the odds of thirty-five to one. This is what I was referring to in the previous paragraph. What has happened is that you have lost twenty dollars to the casino as part of the house edge.

Playing Poker:
Pick and play this exceptional game because ,here, you are not competing against the house at all. It is other players like you who you are up against. Do battle against them and defeat them for cash. No house edge comes in the way here, but you do pay a small part of the money you win to the casino as a commission. This winning commission is called rake, and its so minute that you do not feel it pinch your pocket.

In addition, this is one of the best games to play if you are good at it and if you have razor-sharp skills. You will be able to mint money like crazy if you can read other expressions and count the cards well. You can also pick from a variety of game variations such as Red Dog Poker and Texas Holdem.

Playing Blackjack:
This is one of those games that the casino does not like you playing. If it was up to the betting establishments, they would remove these tables altogether. Why? Because the edge for them is only a half percent! Thus, is you play well by remembering that you have to beat the dealer and not reach 21, you stand a big chance of accumulating a large sum. I also suggest you brush up on your mathematical skills.

If you wish, learn how to count cards, but be careful. Because card counting works, casinos have banned it. All you have to do is count the colored cards (the cards that are ten and above). Then, it will be easier to decide which bet to make and which not to make. Practice again and again at home because you not only have to master this skill but you also have to learn to do it silently so that the casinos do not catch on.

Video Poker:
This is a game very much like one of the many regular and progressive slot machines games you will run into at a casino, but it is different. Unlike slots, skill plays a big part in the results, and thus you have a bigger chance of winning than at one of the slot machines.

But, before you begin, glance at the payment structure pasted on the machine. You should make your gaming decisions based on the house odds and payment structures of the machine.