Texas hold’em is the game to know if you’re going to play poker in this day and age, either live or on internet poker sites. The basic rules of Texas hold’em are easy to learn, although the game itself can take years to master, if it can be mastered at all. Texas Hold’em Step One: The Starting Deal Texas hold’em is dealt using a button, a disc representing the dealer position. The player to the button’s left puts in a forced fraction of a bet, this is called the small blind. The player to his left puts in a full bet, this is called the big blind. Two cards are dealt to each player. The player to the left of the big blind chooses whether he wishes to continue by either matching the big blind or raising the bet. If he does not wish to continue, he folds and play proceeds clockwise around the table. When the action reaches the small blind, he can complete the bet or call a raise if there has been a raise, or he can raise or fold. The big blind may check or raise if there has been no raise, fold, call or re-raise if there has been a raise. Texas Hold’em Step Two: Play of the Hand After the “pre-flop” action, three community cards go in the middle of the table. These are the flop cards and all players can use them. Action starts with the first player to the left of the dealer who has not folded. He may check, bet or raise and subsequent players may check or bet if there has been no bet, fold, call or raise if there has been. This continues for a fourth community card, the turn and a fifth, the river. Texas Hold’em Step Three: The Showdown Once all five cards have been dealt and all surviving players have called all bets, the player with the best five-card hand using the two in his hand plus the five on the board wins. It is possible to use only one or even none of your hole cards. You do not have to figure out whether or not you have won, as the software will award the pot to the winner automatically. Texas Hold’em Step Four: Where to Play When you know the rules of hold’em you just have to find opponents to play against and that is more easily accomplished than ever before. Just visit a poker guide and compare reviews and poker room ratings. Look for a site offering your preferred poker variation and tour just a few clicks away from actually playing. If you want to get the most out of your first wagers, also try to find the best poker bonus online. In doing so, you will earn extra money for every hand you’re dealt.

If the Red Wings keep this up, the next time they perform back in Hockeytown could be along a parade route.

Producing timely offense and perfectionist defense, Detroit is not only beating the Pittsburgh Penguins, they are shutting them out.

With first-period goals from Brad Stuart and Tomas Holmstrom and another lockdown effort, the Red Wings topped the Penguins 3-0 to take a 2-0 lead in the Stanley Cup finals on Monday night.

If they can match this twice in Pittsburgh, the Red Wings will return to Detroit with the Cup in tow.

Puck-possessing Detroit held onto it all night and registered 34 shots. After a 19-save effort in a 4-0 series-opening win Saturday, Chris Osgood stopped 22 in a rocking-chair game and earned his third blanking of the playoffs — 13th of his career.

“I play the game as it comes,” Osgood said. “I love playing behind these guys. I don’t need 40 shots to play the game or to feel good. I’m confident regardless. I’m not really into stats too much, just into winning.”

Gatineau Olympiques defenceman Takuma Kawai may be a Japanese hockey player, but he’s sporting a very Canadian gap in his front teeth.

Kawai moved away from his home and family in Eniwa, Japan, at 15 to pursue his dream of playing hockey in Canada.

The 19-year-old is living that dream to the fullest at the Memorial Cup, which is the championship of the 60-team Canadian Hockey League.

“I always wanted to come to Canada and play. When I was little I watched NHL games on TV,” Kawai said prior to Gatineau’s game against Belleville on Monday.

Japanese-Canadians in hockey are common enough. Devin Setoguchi and Kawai’s favourite Paul Kariya are just a couple of them.
But media relations personnel from the CHL were scratching their heads to come up with previous players who were born in Japan and played major junior hockey.

Suffice to say, Kawai is a rarity.

“I think I’m the first Japanese player to play major junior,” Kawai theorized. “I know there’s half-Japanese, half-Canadian players, but I’ve never heard of a Japanese-born player.”

The Flyers were the latest team to skate away without a title, making the city’s big four sports teams 0-for-25 since the 76ers last won a championship in 1983 and celebrated with a parade down Broad Street. The Flyers extended their personal Stanley Cup drought to 33 years - nothing since back-to-back titles in 1974 and 1975.

The only cup the Flyers will drink out of in June might come with a fancy umbrella at some swanky vacation resort.

Given the state of the four franchises, which also include the Phillies and the Eagles, the Flyers could be considered top contenders to snap the miserable skid. Yes, their season ended Sunday in a huge thud with their 6-0 loss to Pittsburgh in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals. But the stunning turnaround from worst team in the NHL last season to conference finalists this year has the Flyers flying high about their future.

“We’ll remember all the good things we did, the fact that nobody gave us a chance to even make the playoffs at the beginning of the year,” centre Danny Briere said. “Hopefully, we were able to gain that experience that’s going to make us even better next year. I think we took a step in the right direction, but right now it’s kind of tough to look at the big picture.”

Some think an 84 game season does not make sense. Some would say “The players play enough as it is”, “82 games is a lot”, “What do the players think”. It seems though that an 84 game season would actually benefit the players, the league, and the fans. Here’s why.

If the league moves to 84 games the players would actually play LESS games, how you ask? Right now the NHL teams play nine pre-season games, and 82 regular season games. Players feel that with training camp and pre-season the lead up to regular season play is much to long. If the NHL moves to an 84 game season they would drop four of the pre-season games and add two regular season games. So if you include pre-season games and regular season games the players will actually play two less games overall. How does this help the league?

With more games, and an earlier start to the season, the league will be able to be more creative with scheduling which will allow one more home game per team. This is not the only benefit to the league. With 30 teams playing an extra two games that means 60 more regular season games being played overall. In the words of NHLPA executive director Paul Kelly ” The NHL makes more off of two regular season games than four pre-season games”

How does this benefit the players?

The players will have a shorter training camp, less pre-season games, and an earlier start to the season and likely a slight increase in salary. Also the fans will benefit from seeing an earlier start to regular season play.

When will the 84 game season begin?

If it happens it will likely take place in 2011. It is too late to implement a new schedule and longer season for the 2009 season and 2010 is when the winter olympics will take place so it is not likely the NHL will complicate things further with a new schedule. This makes 2011 the most likely year for the NHL to start an 84 game season.

The Philadelphia Flyers hockey team is one of the most popular hockey teams in the country, with a huge fan base and rock solid support. Philadelphia’s professional ice hockey team is a member of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL). Founded in 1967 as a part of the NHL expansions, the Philadelphia Flyers hockey team has always been one of the best expansion teams throughout and also holds the record for being the first expansion team to win the Stanley cup.

However, the years before the Stanley cup win were not great to begin with. The team was a mediocre medley of physically outmatched players during the initial years, which led to the management hiring large and tough players, who managed to earn the title of the Broad Street Bullies in 1972-73, much before they earned any other significant title. However, all this changed when the team won two consecutive Stanley cups in both 74 and 75. But this was the team’s last Stanley cup win, for while the team has managed to reach the playoffs time and time again, the cup has eluded them since 1975. This does not however mean that the team is past its glory, and is today among the best teams in the NHL, with the second highest winning percentage in the League.

The Philadelphia flyers are always in competition with other Atlantic Division members– the New York Islanders, the Pittsburgh Penguins, the New York Rangers and the New Jersey Devils. Their favorite foes however would be the New Jersey Devils, who have been major competition in the Atlantic Division titles, and being the only other team apart from the flyers to take the title since 1995.

While the team has had a history of producing great players, Bobby Clark, three time winner of the Hart Memorial Trophy, has been one of the best players ever to play on the side. Eric Lindros and Dave Schultz “Hammer” also find their names somewhere on the top of the list of the most famous Flyers players.

The Philadelphia Flyers have been playing their home games in Broad Street at the Wachovia Center. You can also catch them in action here during season. Tickets to Flyers games are available as different packages ranging from single and season tickets to package and group tickets.

If you are planning to become a Philadelphia Flyers hockey team fan, then you should become the owner of a Flyers jersey soon. The orange, white and black jersey and its many avatars has become a part of hockey folklore, what with its being one of the most recognized NHL jerseys in the country. You can also easily stock up on a number of other merchandise with the Philadelphia Flyers hockey team logo of a flying puck with four Ps to show your support and allegiance to the team.

Article written by Cassaundra Flores, owner of http://www.skyfireproducts.com. Please check out these links NHL Hockey Shop & Sports Page