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What better night to be postively mischievous than Halloween? Halloween is a time to let go of your inhibitions, forget about the humdrum 9 to five, get a little wacky and be somebody else - just for one night. If you’re throwing a costume celebration this Halloween, collect great halloween party ideas, beverages, food and friends together for a spooktacular night with a frightful theme like a 7 Deadly Sins Party! Pride, lust, greed, envy, sloth, wrath and gluttony will all play a part in making your party a wicked success. Make “sin stations” for your guests and have an awards ceremony at the conclusion.

Halloween Party Ideas

Nothing sets the mood like frightful Halloween decor. String up black paper bat garland. Cut out enormous question marks from black paper and string them up too. Use ink to create fingerprints onto clear acetate paper, cut out and attach to mirrors and windows around the home! Of course, no murder mystery would be complete without a few questionable “weapons” lying about. Leave out items like a wrench, toy sword and mark and empty bottle, “POISON” to bring on the suspicion!Make peanut butter cookies and chocolate cookies to give to your friends. Place the cookies in a clear cellophane bag, alternating the peanut butter cookies with the chocolate cookies to match with the orange and black theme. Tie the bag shut with a cute piece of orange or black ribbon.

Substitute the light bulbs in your house with orange colored light bulbs for the night. In one of the rooms, make it completely black except for a small glow-in-the dark light so that you guests feel like they are in a haunted mansion.In the all black room, have a soundtrack of ghost cries and goblin noises playing in the background. You can find creepy Halloween soundtracks at your local music shop or online. For an extra bonus, hide a fog machine behind your front door so that when your friends enter your house, they are immediately greeted with a frightful welcoming!

Get a Poker Blog to Get an Audience Not everyone can be Chris Moneymaker. Putting aside the whole skills aspect of the equation, very few of us can rally the kind of public support that accompanied his meteoric rise to Poker Star status. The undeniable fact is that online poker stars these days need a fan base in order to catapult their skills at the poker table into a full time online poker career. If you eventually want to make poker your career, you need to gain an audience, just like the real online poker stars. The best way to gain an audience these days is to start a poker blog. If you create a blog, and contribute to it consistently, then you will slowly gather a group of dedicated followers who hang on your every typed world. This kind of digital fan base can translate into a real world poker career if you levy your online power through poker affiliate schemes and online poker forums. Eventually, you will be able to earn enough attention through your blog that you can make your poker persona your real life persona. You can try to get a following the old fashioned way, but you will be much more successful in the long run if you just start up a new poker blog.

One of the great things about poker is it is a very social game. While online poker does retain some of this social quality, it usually just ends up people insulting each other in the player chat box on the screen. But sitting down at a table in online poker casino, or even going over to a friend’s house for a friendly home game, is a very social experience. You talk to people, joke around, drink a few beers and have a good time. And hopefully win some money. This social interaction aspect is especially interesting when you’re at a casino or online poker room, generally sitting with strangers. I’ve been at some tables where everyone is basically silent and doesn’t say a word to one another. However, some tables I have sat at turned out to be extremely friendly. There are people joking around, ribbing each other, and after an hour it feels like you are sitting with old friends rather than people you never met before today. But you have to remain cautious in these situations. It is a fun and enjoyable experience to joke around and have fun with people at the poker table, but not at the expense of your playing. If you get too friendly with people, you may subconcsiously not play as cold and calculating as you should, or you may just simply not be paying as close attention as you normally would. Remember, always remain focused, even if it’s at the expense of joining in the table fun.

In poker, there’s no question that luck is a factor. Sometimes it’s a huge factor, depending on the odds that are overcome to beat a hand. This fact is never more apparent than when you’re running bad. When you’re on a bad streak in a poker online game, you seem to lose no matter how well you play-if you don’t have the nuts, somebody’s going to crack your hand on the river. I’ve got a friend who drew a set two hands in a row, and went all in, only to lose to runner-runner flushes. Twice in a row. When luck isn’t on your side, it seems like there’s nothing you can do to turn it around, be there are a few ways to reduce your losses and survive until your luck comes back.

Tighten up-if you’re on a bad streak, don’t plan on drawing a winner. If you don’t have a great starting hand, thing’s probably won’t be getting better on the flop.

Bluff less-your online poker opponents can tell that things aren’t going your way, and when they see that you’re on a bad streak, they’ll be more likely to call your bluffs.

Don’t complain-complaining about your lousy luck will let your opponents know that you’re in the middle of a bad streak and probably close to tilting, which will make you a target.

I find myself intrigued by the habits of the Average Man poker players when the hot shot famous poker players get more TV time than some NBA stars. The normal man is always more intriguing than his famous brethren anyway, simply because he is far more accessible to me as a less-than-famous poker player. I find myself often wondering what defines the average poker player. Is he a high roller? A microstakes player? Textbook tight-aggressive?

I may never know exactly what the perfect, average, poker player, is but I can tell you conclusively that the Average Man poker player is in fact an online player. Most poker players access the game online two to three times per week, which is far more than those who actually put the time and effort into driving to the casino. Science is not often my friend, but in this case the number crunchers got it right. The Average Man is an online player, who may have never even played in a traditional brick and mortar casino.

I never would have thought that the day would come when the average poker player played alone and at home. Times change, and that which I once thought was impossible is now the order of the day.

When it comes to giving online poker themed gifts to your friends, there is always the temptation to order up some personalized playing cards. Just a quick browse on the internet shows you that there are all different kinds of online poker cards out there. You could get ones with a specific pattern or design if you wanted. If you were feeling really creative you could even order up some gift playing cards with photos on their backs. These are definitely the height of personalized playing poker cards because your friend’s face will be looking at you every time you shuffle the cards. Or better yet, you could put your image on the backs so that your friend never forgets about you. The question that many people ask is whether they actually need personalized playing cards. The answer is always no. No one actually needs personalized playing cards. But practicality is not the issue when it comes to custom gifts like this. Personalized paying cards are just more fun. Make a truly persona gift for your poker playing buddies and order up some custom gift cards. They will be sure to appreciate the thought you put into their gift. Personalized poker cards are the perfect blend of creativity and practicality.

One of the best things about playing online poker is that you can play for as long as you like. When you make the effort to drive out to a brick and mortar poker house, you tend to feel obligated to stick around. It seems like a waste of time to drive 45 minutes to the closest casino unless you stick around and play for a few hours. With that mindset, you may have to separate a chunk of several hours aside in order to play poker. When you play online poker, however, you can play as few or as many hands as you’d like. If you play just one or two hands, you can duck out of the game if something comes up. While it does increase table turnover, there usually are enough players to fill your seat when it becomes vacant. When something interrupts your game, it’s pretty handy to be able to play poker for a few minutes, and then leave without any serious repercussions. While I wouldn’t recommend making it a habit if you want to win more often than lose, you can play a few hands when you’ve got a few minutes to spare, and sharpen up your game a bit.

The most impressive bluffs come about when a poker online player with the worst cards possible makes a player with a strong online poker hand fold. It doesn’t get much more exciting than when a player with an unpaired 8-2 off suit makes an opponent with a low flush fold his hand. However, it’s common misconception that one can only bluff with the worst cards. In fact, one of the best ways to ensure that your bluff is going to be effective is to do so with a fairly strong hand. The best kinds of pokerbluffs are the ones that aren’t entirely bluffs. If you’ve got a good hand, but not the nuts, or if you’ve got a good hand but are in danger of someone drawing out on you, betting more than you normally would with that hand can end up saving your from being outdrawn. If you’ve got an Ace-Jack and the flop comes out Jack-10-5, you’ve got a solid hand-high pair with Ace kicker. Your one problem is that it’s in danger of being outdrawn by a straight. Since no one has a straight yet, you can protect your set of Jacks with a bet that’s big enough to force everyone else to fold.

I regularly hear from a recreational bowler looking to take on this intricate sport more seriously. When bowling is the case, this is important beginning in your development as a true student of the game. Read carefuly, ’cause our bowling pro shop’s “Next Steps” handbook to the Top 5 Bowling Tips may take your game to new levels. The guys from your city’s bowling pro shop want bowlers harness bowling skills. We like to say, roll strikes if can spare ‘em (hehe). Just kidding. Okay, bowling is a simple game with not-so simple details. No worry, our bowling experts have you throwing the best way we know how.

It’s not a big purchase, buy your own custom fit a personalized bowling ball, which will do wonders! Fit is important. It’s no joke, get your favorite ball drilled for custom finger holes, and your game will benefit. A precision fitted bowling ball can make a substantial improvement in your game. It’s also important you’re having well-made bowling shoes that have shoe laces!

Since you may have previous bought good bowling ball and shoes, listen to the number two piece of bowling advice: how to aim. If you hold the ball, don’t necessarily roll the ball at the back of the lane. Line up using the arrows like a gunsight. The reason? You’ll find it more effective to roll through a point a good deal closer. To get the most out of your aim, it should be your habit to stand in the precise location on the wood each time. With that consistency you can adjust your aim using the arrows in the lane.

What do you make of hooks, to get proper speed and ball control? That makes our next best piece of bowling advice. They get traction with the pricy reactive ball. Actually, serious bowlers pack at least two bowling balls to roll amazing pin action, according to the lane. Just a bit of caution: intermediates should not try to be fancy, and don’t get a ball that is too heavy for you. A lot of semi-pro bowlers opt for bowling balls with synthetic materials. However you should know these balls often make even moderately good pros seem silly. And that does it for our first three bowling tips. There will be more shortly.

–Michael Hulen

My friends and I manage a company team (US Systems) comprised of morning shift for a bowling shoes manufacturer down in Plano, Texas. I chime in with advice to beginning bowlers on the web and in my local newsletter. Lastly, I should say hi to all my heavy rollers at the finals in Atlantic City. Sorry I can’t be there.