I’m A Poker Player – What Other Forms Of Wagering Will I Enjoy?

What are the typical traits you would feel are part of the psyche of a typical poker player? It’s a relevant question when you consider the whole gambling industry as what appeals to someone that wins money playing at the poker table, is likely to be very different to what a person who enjoys sports betting or slot gaming finds exciting.

Yet although playing poker is radically different to enjoying a few spins on a slot game, or placing a bet on a horse race or football match, there is still a massive crossover between people who enjoy poker plus one or more other forms of gambling, be that slots, card games, dice games, sports betting or even bingo.

Indeed, that is why many of the top poker sites now also offer a wide range of other different gaming platforms that customers can access all from a single account. Even the doyen of poker sites, PokerStars, has now expanded into casino gaming and sports betting.

It is clear that there are a massive swathe of players that enjoy multiple forms of gambling, but as a poker player, which of these different types of games are best suited to your particular mindset and skills? Are all other forms of gambling essentially so different to poker that it doesn’t matter, or will your poker skills and abilities be best served enjoying other forms of gambling specifically?

The Poker Analyst

As a poker player, you already have some strengths. The game requires you to be a quick-thinker, adaptable and to size up situations quickly. You need to be able to second-guess what your opponent is going to do and what they may hold in their hand and how that compares to yours. This really does improve your analytical skills.

If you are strong when analysing things then a good fit for you as a poker player is the world of sports betting. Here you can analyse lots of details about a wide range of sporting events, ranging from statistical data, to news about individuals or teams competing, right down to the conditions that the event is going to be played in.

If thinking while under pressure is more your thing, then you can take this a step further and take a closer look at In Play betting. In this form of wagering, you are betting on events in a sporting contests while the event is underway. Of course, that means that it is an ever-changing sporting environment and sometimes here your analytical skills can allow you to spot a good value bet when it is available and turn it into a profitable winning bet for yourself.

The Risk Taker

Are you a poker player who is never afraid to throw all their chips into the middle, even if you are holding nothing in your hand and are simply trying to bluff your way to a win? Do you enjoy the thrill of taking on players, making big bets and trying to get the rest of the table to bend to your will? Well if you are a risk taker at the poker table then there are certainly some other options available to you.

One great choice is the progressive jackpot slot. These are slot games that not only have all the usual wins available, but in addition have one large jackpot prize that increases in size with every spin made on the slot. Some games, such as Microgaming’s Mega Moolah, offer a prohgressive jackpot prize of over £1,000,0000 and these prove to be very popular with fans of low risk/high reward slot games.

Most online casinos have a fine choice of progressive slot games from a number of different development companies and the prizes on offer from them range from a few hundred pounds up to several millions.

Another game you may like where the odds are not always in your favour but where taking risk can be rewarded well at times is Roulette. This popular game comes in two versions, American and European and I would always advise playing the European version over the American as simply because the odds are slightly nmore in your favour on this slot (because the European Wheel only has one green zero section, the American wheel has one green zero section and another green double zero section).

Roulette is a game that you can play more safely if you prefer, by betting on the outside bets of the layout, such as the High or Low bet or the Odd or Even bet. However, you can really rank up the element of tension by backing single numbers (which pay out in most casinos at odds of around 34/1) and which if landed, could land you a very sizeable win.

The Strategist

If you are someone who likes to play games that have a strategic element to them, rather than leaving things to chance, then your skills at the poker table can be formidable. A good poker strategy goes hand in hand with a strong poker game these days.

There are a few other games where strategic thinking and following a strategy can reap dividends and one of these is another card game, Blackjack. This game even has a strategic guide you can download and follow which will tell you exactly what move to make based on what you hold in your hand, compared to the card you can see in the hand held by the dealer.

Many people believe the aim of blackjack is to get as close to 21 as possible, but in actual fact that is not the case. The aim is to beat the dealer’s hand, regardless of the value of the cards you hold in your hands. The dealer can only play to an agreed formula, they will either stick or twist on soft/hard 16 or 17, depending on your table and game.

Given the dealer has a limited strategy to follow, by using Blackjack strategy, you can almost make this a 50/50 game in terms of you winning as often as the house. That is about the best odds you can get in any online casino game.