On pokerroom.com the game is the same in the real money tables and the play money tables. So there's your simulator. They even calculate the rake, so it will be numerically the same as the real money tables. The only difference seems like it might be the skill level of some of the players. But some of the real money players are always among the play money tables, and I don't necessarily get taken down by them all the time either.
The advantage of the right simulator is that instead of 40 or 50 hands an hour you can play hundreds of hands in the same amount of time. Heres a pretty good one:http://www.topshareware.com/MS-Texas-Holdem-download-590.htm
The thing about Roulette, which I had not realized before today (there was this discussion here last week about Natenberg's mention of the odds in roulette) is that although placing your bet on a single number hoping for a 36:1 payout sounds like it's a sucker game, there's infinite other bets you can make on the roulette. You can place a bet on any one number (36:1 payout), on any two adjacent numbers (18:1), any row of three consecutive numbers (12:1), any square of 4 numbers (9:1), three columns of 12 numbers or 1-12, 13-24, 25-36 (3:1), odds, evens, black, or red (2:1). You can place these bets in any combination you want, with different amounts of chips on each of them, whatever way you want to arrange them. It's creating your own statistical hedging strategy. Yeah, there's the 0 and the 00, where you will automatically lose, taking statistically a 4.8% cut. But you know what? That's the commission. You accept the 0 and the 00 as part of the game the same way you accept broker commissions as part of the equation when you try to profit from stocks.
OK!! You obviously have a plan, so best of luck and let us know how it works out easyrider - thanks, and very nice - I didn't know these simulators existed. I'll be using this for sure.
I don't know if it was mentioned here yet, but Vic Sperandeo, one of my favorite authors of trading literature and a very good trader started his career as a speculator by playing poker. He was pretty good at that as he mentions in his interview with Jack Schwagger in 'New Market Wizards'. I am reading this book probably the third time in my life. At least some parts of it.
http://www.wilsonsoftware.com/tthwin1.html This is a link to the most popular Hold'em training/simulating software
Hii When you get that system worked out call any casino in Vegas. They will send a limousine to pick you up at the airport. In fact they would probably pay your plane fare.
Ages like a fine wine... I think you might like this interview Vic gave a few years ago. http://www.wallstreetuncut.com/wsuArchive2.htm (3rd interview from bottom enititled "Would Ayn Rand Draw To An Inside Straight") PEACE and good-trading...
I get about a dozen spam-mails a month offering 4 free plane tickets to Las Vegas or Florida or Mexico. Not because I have a gambling system going though. Right now my only major problem is my uneasiness, my misgivings about whether these games really are randomly programmed, and whether they really will give me a payout if I make some big bets and win. Once that is resolved in my mind, I will really devote myself to this. I was just playing "CyberPoker" on this site I've been trying today, the same one that has Roulette and Baccarat. It's just like Hold-Em poker except you don't play against other people, and there's no raising or bluffing, just one fold or call, and there's no shared cards. You're dealt 5 cards face up, the dealer is dealt one card face up. If you fold you lose 1 point ante (you can change the dollar value). If you call, the dealer is given four more cards, and if your hand beats the dealer's you get a payout based on the hand you have. Royal Flush pays 1,000:1. The dealer hardly ever won. Even when I had no hand, I called just to see what the dealer would get, and the dealer usually had nothing, and my payout was 4 points, so I got back 1 point extra over the 3 I put in. It's just way too easy. You can play for $50 per point, and you would make $50 profit for having a Pair, after getting back your $50 ante and $100 call. And there's no interpersonal strategy and psychology, it's just the simple odds of what cards may be dealt the dealer's hand. Can this be for real? If it is, I'll be at it all day and night. If it isn't, I'll get taken for a ride.
Hii, You cannot beat Roulette no matter what you do or how hard you try UNLESS the wheel is broken. You should definitely buy any book about hold em immediately. I think you will be amazed how tight you have to play. for example a hand like j-7 suited which i believe you consider a raising had should almost always be folded. While it is good to think about hold em and all endeavors in life you should not attempt to reinvent the wheel. Good Luck.