So I did some reading up about poker and picked up some interesting facts about poker. Here are some:

• No one really knows the origin of the game. There are elements that go as far back at the 15th century, while other developments are as recent as 1970.
• On a deck of cards, the king of spades represents David, King of Israel; the king of Clubs represents Alexander the Great, King of Macedonia; the king of Hearts is Charlemagne, King of France; and the king of Diamonds is Caesar Augustus, Emperor of Rome.
• Popular belief holds that a standard deck of playing cards represent significant religious and metaphysical meaning. The 53 cards in the deck represents the 52 weeks of the year, the 4 suits represent the seasons of fall, winter, spring and summer, the 13 cards per suit represent the 13 phases of the lunar cycle, and if you add up all of the cards in the playing deck you get 364 days of the year… then you add a joker for a total of 365 days.
• Ex-President Richard Nixon won $6000 during his first two months in the U.S. Navy in World War II, playing poker. His winnings were used to fund his first (and successful) campaign for congress.

Interesting stuff huh? Any other facts and figures you can add to the list? If you have any just leave a comment, I’m sure other readers would love to learn more.

There are loads of sites out there, and the main thing to do really is to get as much practice as you can. Check out some free sites and see how well you can get on.

It’s easy to do some research about Internet Casinos by visiting an aggregator like Online Casino Topic, a site which provides an exhaustive review of some of the best online casinos around, with insight on how the games work, what sign-up bonuses they offer and their payout percentage. The great thing about a website like this is that a plethora of different online gaming sites online, so it’s always good to do some research. They also offer reviews on US online casinos who are not fully accepting US players.

It’s an interesting industry, which to tell you the truth I haven’t been exposed to much; but there’s lots to read if you want to learn more about casinos online. Don’t just focus on the technology though; that’s interesting, but not where all the innovation is happening. Look at the operational elements, the back office, the money trails and the people who actually make the site work. That’s where the interesting stories lie.

Games make one of the best sort of Christmas presents, in my humble opinion anyway. Don’t get me wrong, I have no objections to socks and aftershave, after all, even useful things have their place; but there’s nothing quite like watching a kid’s face light up when they get a good game, especially one that they have been waiting for. There are loads of games around, from board games all the way to online games, but the best gift always depends on who is going to receive it.

So, what games look like being a success this Christmas? Well, according to what some of my friends are saying, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is a must-have and Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Limited Edition is going to be just massive. I’m not really into that sort of game, but something like The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks would go done just great in our house at the moment. Arthur’s really getting into his DS games at the moment, and it would make a change from Super Mario and Sonic.

Of course, it’s always worth keeping online games in mind. Ok, they don’t look a good under the tree, but you can download new games any time you want and play to your heart’s content. Games like Emily’s Holiday Season or Zuma’s Revenge (I’ve spent many hours playing that one). It’s it grand to have so much to choose from?

Anyway, if you want to come and hit me over the head with some furniture, just go to my Brute page, create your own Brute and try to kick the living daylights out of me.

One a serious note, the game has an interesting viral element, where you can gain experience points by inviting others to play the game. So sign up now

I just saw a question on Twitter from @TheAmanda asking if she was the only one who knew the difference between Vulcans and Romulans. I responded straight away with a tweet letting her know I knew the difference too. Vulcans are trained to wipe any emotion out of their lives, while Romulans are highly emotional. They’re actually two species on the seminal science fiction series called Star Trek which I watched fervently many many moons ago. It’s amazing how facts like that can stick in your mind sometimes and that’s basis of trivia: those snippets of information about something totally random that can spring to mind as soon as someone asks the question.

If you’re a fan of trivia there are quite a few places online where you can learn more and more pieces of trivia and other places where you can compete with others in exciting trivia games. One such place is Triviala.com where you can take part in free trivia quizes and even compete with others for weekly cash prizes. That’s not the end of it though, if you get bored of the multitude of trivia quizes there are on the site; you can go ahead and create your own quizes, then invite your friends to come and take part in them. The site is based around it’s own monetary currency they call Crowns. You can earn Crowns by winning quizes or performing tasks like uploading an avatar photo etc. Once you amass your Crowns you can use them to compete for monetary prizes; the more Crowns you have, the more chances you get to win.

It’s a great site if you’re looking for a way to spend your time and if you feel your trivia is up to scratch. One to bookmark I think.

The contest is open to anyone, all over the globe, available to anywhere that Zazzle can ship the mug too. Obviously it would help if you had a Twitter account as that’s how the list of friends on the mug is built up. But if you don’t have a Twitter account, just find someone who has and I’ll send you a mug of THEIR friends (if you are so inclined). It’s always better to use your own friends though, that is, if you have any

How to enter

There are two ways you can enter this competition. You can write a blog post about it or your can Tweet about it. You can enter with both these if you want to increase your chances of winning. The competition starts now and closes on the 31st December 2008 at 23:59 GMT.

1. Blog Post: In order to get an entry into the competition, simply write a blog post about it and leave a comment on this post to let me know about your post. If you have multiple blogs you can enter multiple times (up to 5 times).
2. Tweet: To enter the competition, simply follow me. Then all you have to do is Tweet the following: RT @OwenC is giving away a Twitter Mug for New Year. Enter here: http://tinyurl.com/winatwittermug You can enter the contest as many times as you like, but if you don’t leave a 4 hour gap between tweets, they will be considered invalid.

That’s all! The contest winner will be picked at random just after the New Year is ushered in here in the UK. I’ll be needing your Twitter name (if I don’t already know it) and your address to ship the mug to, so if you can be online that would help, but you don’t have to be. This is my first competition, so I’m looking forward to running it. Good luck everyone!

Looking forward to a quiet weekend? Got some time on your hands? Well, here’s a game I can recommend that’s bound to keep you up till 3:00am. It’s a pretty simple game based on matching 3 tiles and collecting stars. However, as with all simple games, it can be pretty addictive.

I’ve spent ages trying to beat the high score. I can get a pretty decent score, but topping the guy at the top is proving to be extremely elusive. Anyway, when you have time, check out ZTar.

Image details: Arcade game served by picapp.com

Thanks to the sterling effort of the boys down at ManxJam, we now have a brand spanking new ManxArcade. You can now find me there spending my precious time playing classics like:

• Olympic Discus Throw
• Archery
• Connect 4
• Super Crossbow
• Fairgame
• Monkey Target
• Javelin
• Marble Motion

*sigh* I was really hoping to get some work done this weekend!

Which are your favourite games. I must admit I have spent a lot of time playing Diamond Valley 2

I just wanted to drop a quick post about games actually. I was looking at the bet365 casino which I had blogged about before and noticed they have put up a Blackjack Guide, which is really great for Mike, a friend of mine who has NO IDEA how to play. Putting out a Basic Strategy Guide is a great way to get people interested in the game and it also is more content for people to surf into their site. Not that a Blackjack Strategy Guide is hard to produce, but it’s amazing how many websites out there don’t supply any help as to how to use their services.

Blackjack, online games, Lively, bingo .. how do you waste your free time?