Poker Chips - Clay Chip Manufacturers & Suppliers in India

Previous: Inside Underground NY Poker #4
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Spades — 1.4
One of the many things that fascinates me about poker is the clear distinction between tournament players and cash players. Anyone who’s played enough live poker, both cash and tournaments, knows how different the experiences can be.
In general, tournament players are more social and laid back. They’ll usually talk strategy at the table, engage in table talk, and discuss previous hands more often than cash players will. The game seems to bring more enjoyment to them, as the vibe and overall mood of most tournament tables are usually more positive and uplifting than that of your average cash game.
Personally, I really enjoy dealing mixed game tournaments — something I wouldn’t do until moving to Vegas many years later.
In my opinion, you’re really missing out if the only games you’re familiar with are NLHE and PLO. The mixed game community is almost like a subculture that exists within poker, and the typical mixed game player has usually been playing poker a lot longer than the typical no-limit player. This isn’t always the case, but I find it to be generally true. Don’t get me wrong, though — there is no correlation between a player’s skill level and which games they play.
Being that NLHE is such an interesting and complex game, it usually takes many years until a no-limit player will venture off into other variants of poker.
Jumping back into the present, I was about to play a $75 tournament at Spades for the first time. Andy and I had just walked into the room, which was buzzing with conversation and positive energy. There was a short-handed $1/$2 NL cash game going, but it was about to break, and most of the attention in the room was focused on the tournament.
I noticed that Andy was looking around a little too much, probably trying to spot Matt, considering he owed Andy $2k and was most certainly going to be caught off-guard.
I was expecting to see Gary, but he wasn’t anywhere in sight. In fact, I never once saw him at the club. I would later discover that he was a silent partner in Spades — I don’t know what other responsibilities he had beyond player recruitment. However, it wouldn’t be the last time that I saw him.
Players who had arrived early were already in their designated seats for the tournament, waiting for play to begin. Each table had a dealer seated in the box, protecting the out-of-play stacks that were inside the well, and a suited deck of KEM cards spread face-up across the felt.
Registration was being conducted at the podium, with Vinny checking players in and handing out seating cards. I could see that he was busy doing his job, so I decided to introduce myself to one of the dealers and pick his brain.
This was how I met Chris. He looked to be around Andy’s age, in his early 30’s, although a bit younger. I would eventually get to know him very well during my time at Spades. He was Punjabi — an ethnic group from India — and had dark skin, dark eyes, and hair that was styled into a faux-hawk. He was born and raised in New York, and spoke with a typical Long Island accent.
“What’s up bro, I’m Chris. Welcome to the game.”
“Thanks, so, can you tell me about the tournament? What’s the structure like?”
“Sure, it’s a $75 buy-in with unlimited reentries until the end of the dinner break, which is after level 6. I think we’re ordering Italian tonight. The starting stack is 15k.”
Andy chimes into the conversation — “What do the blinds start at, and how long are the levels?”
“Blinds start at 25/50 and the levels are 20 minutes.”
“Does cash run throughout the tournament?” — I could tell Andy was more interested in playing cash.
“No, we need the tables available for the tournament. Cash starts as soon as the first table breaks.”
“And how much of the tournament buy-in goes towards the prize pool?” — Andy was never shy about talking business.
“$50 goes into the prize pool, $25 goes to the house. The top 10% of the field makes the money, but deals are usually made.”
Andy and I head over to the podium to register. I introduce him to Vinny, they exchange names, and Vinny puts Andy on the text list. We hand over our buy-ins and receive our seatings cards — we drew different tables and wouldn’t be sitting together. Vinny directs us towards our seats.
“Table 1 is over in the room on the left, and Table 5 is in the room on the right. Good luck guys, your stacks are at the table.”
Andy asks me to join him in the smoking room, which is unoccupied, giving us some privacy. He lights up a cigarette.
“Hey buddy, switch seating cards with me, quick.”
“Okay, but why…?” — as we trade cards.
“Matt’s in the box at your table.”
“Hmm… What are you gonna do?”
“Make him a sweat a little bit. The best chance I have of getting paid is to make him come to the conclusion that paying me off will cost him far less than dodging me.”
“I don’t understand, what do you mean?”
“I need to remind him how valuable his reputation is, and that I have the power to destroy it. He’ll pay me when he realizes that dodging me is no longer an option.”
“What if he doesn’t have the money?”
“He probably doesn’t, in fact, that’s what I’m expecting him to say. I’ll work out a payment plan with him, if that’s the case.”
“Don’t make a scene, alright? I wanna get a dealing job here.”
“Don’t worry buddy, this isn’t my first rodeo.”
I leave the smoking room and head over to my newly acquired seat. Most of the table had already arrived. My table draw consisted primarily of players who appeared to be over 40 years old, with the exception of one guy who looked like he was in college. There was only one woman at my table, around my mother’s age, and an elderly gentleman who was very soft-spoken.
I introduce myself to the table and the dealer greets me.
“Hi, can I have your seating card, please?”
“Sure, thanks.” — I toss him the white, plastic seating card and he pushes me a stack of chips in exchange. I count the stack to ensure that it’s correct, and of course, it is. The chips were clay, Monte Carlo tournament chips. They didn’t feel cheap, and I liked how they handled.
I join in on the conversation that’s happening at the table and exchange pleasantries, getting to know my opponents. My table fills up, and it’s just about 3 PM on the dot. A couple of guys are talking about sports, others about the news.
Suddenly, I hear a tap on the plexiglass window and look over to see Vinny signaling the dealers, holding his hand up with 5 fingers stretched wide. The dealer puts the button in Seat 5, then scoops the deck up from the felt and begins to give it a scramble.
“Okay guys, the button is in Seat 5. The starting blinds are 25/50. Good luck, everyone.”
The dealer gives the deck a shuffle and the clock starts. You could see the current time left in the level by looking through the plexiglass window into the main room. They were using software called “The Tournament Director”, and the clock was being displayed on a laptop.
At the time, I had more experience in tournament poker than I did in playing cash games. I regularly played in online tournaments and did quite well. The WSOP coverage was wildly popular, and I had already been hosting tournaments at my house since I was in middle school. I felt a sense of confidence.
The first hand at my table gets dealt, which I fold. Before we even have our first flop, there’s an all-in and a call — pocket 8’s against AK. The eights hold up, and the losing player gets up from the table and walks over to the podium to reenter.
Most of the players were trying to get it in preflop and chip-up as much as they could during the reentry period. I employed a different strategy — instead, I played tight ABC poker, waiting for the right spot to either jam or call off because of the table dynamic. I knew that, eventually, I’d get it in good.
I get dealt pocket Aces in the cutoff. UTG puts in a raise, and a player in middle position 3-bets. Back in 2007, it was very popular to 3-bet more often, but most players wouldn’t 4-bet unless they had Aces, Kings, or AK. There was a popular saying back then — “The 4th bet is always Aces”. It wasn’t necessarily an absolute truth, but you get the point.
Playing ABC poker, I shove with my Aces and get snap-called by the 3-bettor holding pocket Tens. My Aces hold and the double up gets through. I pick up a few value hands throughout the next couple of levels and play them straightforward, winning several pots without having to go to showdown. The only hand I had tabled at this point was the Aces, and I wasn’t opening many hands — I had a tight image.
I win a couple more pots with marginal holdings, taking advantage of my tight image. A couple more levels go by, and the dinner break is approaching. I look down at AJ in early position, put in a raise, and get called by the chip leader at the table — the young guy who looked like he was in college. The flop comes A95 rainbow, I lead out for about 1/3 the pot, and he insta-jams on me.
I had seen this spot so many times while playing online — it was always two pair, as sets would slow play in this spot. It was a move made by players who thought that their tight opponent was incapable of folding a strong Ace on such a dry board. I know that I’m beat, and announce, “I fold”, but make sure to not muck my hand, yet. I wanted to be sure.
“Nice hand. Are pocket Jacks any good?”
“You have Jacks?”
“Yeah, you bluffed me, right?” — I expose one card, the only Jack that I have.
“I did.” — He half-smiles and exposes one card, showing a 9.
“Well played.” — and I throw my hand into the muck.
Now, I was sure.
The tournament goes on break, and I walk back into the main room where a bunch of players are waiting in line for food.
Italian had been brought in — baked ziti, chicken parm, spaghetti & meatballs, salad, and garlic knots were the available options. I get in line and serve myself chicken parm and some salad.
While eating my dinner, I look around the room and can see Andy through one of the plexiglass windows — he’s talking to one of the dealers, who is I presume to be, Matt. It’s just the two of them, and the conversation doesn’t last long. Andy walks out into the main room and joins me for some food.
“I saw that. Is that Matt?”
“Yeah.”
“Is he gonna pay you?”
“Oh yeah. I told him that I’d be here playing cash until the game breaks, and he said that he’ll give me $500 at the end of the night and $500 every week until I’m paid off.”
“Is he really gonna pay you, though?”
“I’m certain he will, I think he realizes the situation that he’s in now. But, I’ll see what happens at the end of the night.”
We talk for a bit longer, right up until the break is about to end, discussing which players we think are strong, and comparing our stacks to the rest of the field.
With a minute left on the break, we both head back to our tables. I take my seat and ask the dealer how many places are being paid.
“How many people are getting paid tonight?”
“I don’t know, yet. Vinny is still calculating the prize pool. It should only be a few more minutes until he announces the payout structure.”
At six full tables, the real poker was about to begin — no more reentries.
In that moment, there was nothing I wanted more than to cash my first real, live tournament. I felt like I had something to prove — I was the youngest person in the field, and I wanted to earn some respect from the other players. However, there was still a long way to go, none of the tables had even broken, yet.
Was I capable of escaping the inevitable cooler situations that show up during the course of a tournament? Could I manage to run good and win my flips? Would I be able to keep it together if I took a tough beat, or stay patient if my stack got short?
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To be continued…
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Next: Inside Underground NY Poker #6

India! Ever wondered which casino games have high popularity over here?
Seems you are passionate about casino games?
In India, you can play many casino games widely spread in goa.
Don’t take any stress.
All casinos in Goa are legal and permitted by government and law.
Here we mention the 6 casino games, which are popular with players from India.
With that said, let’s get started.
Roulette
The Roulette is the most popular casino game not only in India but all over the world.
Roulette is the French word, which means a little wheel.
In this casino game, players have to bet on red or black color, odd or even number, a single number or numbers are high then 18 and low then 18.
According to historians, first Roulette played in France during the 18th century.
And according to some historians as well, Blaise Pascal (French mathematician, inventor, physicist, and writer) introduced this game in France in the 18th century.
In the 19th century, casino lovers widely spread this game in Europe and America.
And slowly it becomes one of the most played casino games in western countries, respectively.
In 1970, Asian countries like India started offering this game in their casinos.
By 2009 there were thousands of casinos offering this game in their respective casinos.
Now let’s talk about rules for playing Roulette.
After betting on color, particular number, number range, and odd or even number. The dealer will rotate the wheel with the bowl inside them.
And after winning, Dealer announced Number and colors.
Also, the Dealer's place dolly (a type of marker) on the Roulette table.
And the most interesting thing is that when the dealer places a marker on the table then no player can withdraw their bets, change their bets and collect their bets.
At last, the dealer removes all losing bets by rake and will determine all payouts remaining outside and inside winning bets.
And after finishing all collections of payouts, the marker is removed and collecting betting, changing betting starts once again.
Just a piece of advice for you.
Using electrical devices like mobile phones, cameras, smartwatch, iPad is strictly prohibited in the casino.
The only things which Indian casinos allowed are cigarettes, your drink, money and player chips.
Indian Rummy
The Indian Rummy is the second most popular casino game not only in India but all over the Indian subcontinent.
Indian rummy is most played among all Indian casino games.
It is because Indian rummy is a variation of gin rummy and rummy 500 both.
If you ever play rummy outside India. Then you can easily spot the difference between original rummy and Indian rummy.
Unlike other casino games, in Indian rummy, only 2 to 6 players can participate.
As mentioned above, Indian rummy is very similar to the original rummy. The only difference is that you will find several cards dealt.
For over 2 players the dealer makes 3 desks, whereas for 2 players the dealer makes 2 desks.
Indian rummy is a discard based game, where each player has to pick a card from the open pile on his or her turn.
After picking a card from the open pile, now the player has to discard one card from his or her collection to the open pile.
As always, the most interesting thing is that.
In Indian rummy, you can use the joker card. A joker card can be used as a substitute to form a combination.
In India, each card carry’s specific point.
Face cards included Jacks’ card, Queen card, King card, and aces carry 10 points.
Whereas number cards carry points equal to their face value. And the joker card carries zero points.
And the player who scores zero first wins the game.
According to Indian Rummy rules, there should be 2 runs. And from 2 runs one should be pure.
That means one run should not contain any joker in it.
Just a piece of advice for you.
Using electrical devices like mobile phones, cameras, smartwatch, iPad is strictly prohibited in the casino.
The only things which Indian casinos allowed are cigarettes, your drink, money, and player chips.
Fortunately, India rummy is one of the India casino games that you can play online and offline too.
Online casino games realm may promote lots of offers for a casino promotion that makes your gambling experience worthwhile.
With this casino promotion offer, you can win a lot of cash.
But before applying to this casino promotion offer, please read all terms and conditions.
Slot machine
Another most-played casino game is the slot machine.
People call slot machines as the Poker machine in Australian and Canadian English, fruit machines in British English, piggy in Scottish English, the slot in American English.
Indian casino game lovers must play this game in their life.
This machine creates chances to win for its customers.
According to historians, Pitt and Sittman from New York developed the first slot machine in 1891.
The slot machine contains 5 drums that hold 50 cards.
Back in 1891, the player had to insert a nickel coin. After inserting Nickel coin, a player has to pull the lever.
Pulled levers spin drums and cards.
In 1891, there was no payout mechanism in the slot machines.
And according to a historian, slot machines at that time worked on revolving mechanical reels to determine and display results.
And the original machine of 1891 works on 5 reels, which is not only reliable but also it was simple and easy to use.
However, nowadays the slot machines work purely on digital.
Slot machines are generally programmed to pay out as winning 85% to 95% of the money bet by players.
People called this payout the return of player (ROP) or theoretical percentage (TP).
However, the theoretical percentage varies from country to country.
Just like the theoretical percentage of Nevada is approx 75% and the theoretical percentage of New York is approx 83%.
By using computers at the time of software writing, manufacturers set the theoretical percentage of slots machines.
Be aware.
Many investigations conclude that the dealer of a slot machine uses a digital machine or any fraud and cheating device.
These types of dealers can steal your money by any unfair use.
Blackjack
Our fourth most playing casino game on the list of casino games that are popular in India is Blackjack.
Blackjack is an American version of popular games known as Twenty-one.
In blackjack players don’t have to compete with each other. They play blackjack with one or more decks of 52 cards.
Blackjack is the most played game among all Indian casino games in India.
Although blackjack has no specific history.
But according to historians, they find the first reference of blackjack in Don Quixote (a Spanish novel) written by Miguel de Cervantes.
Many gambling houses in the USA were offered bonus payouts to generate interest in the twenty-one game.
Now let’s talk about rules for playing Blackjack.
At the time of playing. The dealer has to face five to seven playing positions on a semicircular table.
52 cards decks are shuffled together between one and eight standards.
At the starting of each round, up to three players can place their bets in the betting box.
That means three players at each position at a table allowing to bet.
The player who has to bet on the front of the betting box considers having control over the position.
Even the dealer has to consult the controlling player for playing decisions.
Any player is independent to control in as many boxes at a single table.
However, in the USA rules are a little different from the Indian casino game's rules.
In the USA casinos, players are limited to playing over two and less than 4 positions at a table.
But according to rules, the player can’t play over one table at the same time and in the same place.
Just a piece of advice for you.
Using electrical devices like mobile phones, cameras, smartwatch, iPad is strictly prohibited in the casino.
The only things which Indian casinos allowed are cigarettes, your drink, money, and player chips.
Poker
Our fifth most-played casino game on the list of casino games that are popular in India is poker.
Poker is another card game in which the player has to bet on cards.
Poker games always vary in desk configuration. But often in poker games, the dealer uses a standard 52-card deck.
According to historians.
Casino lovers introduced this poker game back in the 19th century in the United States Of America.
And that time people love this game not only in the US but also in India.
At the beginning of 20th-century poker successfully fed their name on the list of best India casino games.
In the 1990s, gaming historian David Parlett challenged the notion. Which states that poker is a direct derivative of As- Nas.
And finally, in the 1970s, these developments in poker make this game more popular than it is ever.
The World Series of Poker started by the casino lovers in the United States makes poker more famous in India as well.
Guess what is an interesting thing in poker?
In 2013, researchers of Carnegie Mellon University, University of Alberta, and the University of Auckland developed a computer poker player.
This computer poker player thinks like a human.
You may wonder why they developed a computer poker player? Right?
The reason they develop computer poker is to play this game against humans.
If you have no human opponent out there, you can still play poker games against this computer program.
Online casino games realm may promote lots of offers for a casino promotion that makes your gambling experience worthwhile.
With this casino promotion offer, you can win a lot of cash.
But before applying to this casino promotion offer, please read all terms and conditions.
Baccarat
Our sixth most-played casino game on the list of casino games that are popular in India is Baccarat.
Baccarat is another comparing card game played between player and banker.
Each round of Baccarat has three possibilities.
The first player has the highest score, the second possibility is when a banker has the highest score, and the third possibility is when a tied match between player and banker occurs.
Some sources claim the first reference of this game in the 19th century.
Some source claims that Italian soldiers introduced this game in France during the France-Italian war in the 15th century.
During the Napoleon era, people loved this casino game.
Before legalization, people play this game in private game rooms.
Now let’s talk about the rules of this game.
Player rule:
In case when the player has an initial 0-5 then they draw a third card. And if a player has an initial total of 6 or 7 then they stand.
Banker rule:
If the player has only 2 cards, then the banker acts according to the same rule as a player.
Final thoughts.
To sum it up, all the above casino games are widely popular in Indian casinos.
Casino games lovers shared the above games. That’s why here we mentioned all the games, according to their ratings and personal experience.
We all know every casino game has its different rules.
And who knows sooner or later, we add more variety to this list.
If you have anything you’d like to add in this list, then let us know in the comments section below.
I hope that you gained additional knowledge by reading this article.
​
https://preview.redd.it/fotyls0ser151.png?width=940&format=png&auto=webp&s=f5f0c28ea8fdbf1c0a5a0301429a99640c5946a1

India! Ever wondered which casino games have high popularity over here?
Seems you are passionate about casino games?
In India, you can play many casino games widely spread in goa.
Don’t take any stress.
All casinos in Goa are legal and permitted by government and law.
Here we mention the 6 casino games, which are popular with players from India.
With that said, let’s get started.
Roulette
The Roulette is the most popular casino game not only in India but all over the world.
Roulette is the French word, which means a little wheel.
In this casino game, players have to bet on red or black color, odd or even number, a single number or numbers are high then 18 and low then 18.
According to historians, first Roulette played in France during the 18th century.
And according to some historians as well, Blaise Pascal (French mathematician, inventor, physicist, and writer) introduced this game in France in the 18th century.
In the 19th century, casino lovers widely spread this game in Europe and America.
And slowly it becomes one of the most played casino games in western countries, respectively.
In 1970, Asian countries like India started offering this game in their casinos.
By 2009 there were thousands of casinos offering this game in their respective casinos.
Now let’s talk about rules for playing Roulette.
After betting on color, particular number, number range, and odd or even number. The dealer will rotate the wheel with the bowl inside them.
And after winning, Dealer announced Number and colors.
Also, the Dealer's place dolly (a type of marker) on the Roulette table.
And the most interesting thing is that when the dealer places a marker on the table then no player can withdraw their bets, change their bets and collect their bets.
At last, the dealer removes all losing bets by rake and will determine all payouts remaining outside and inside winning bets.
And after finishing all collections of payouts, the marker is removed and collecting betting, changing betting starts once again.
Just a piece of advice for you.
Using electrical devices like mobile phones, cameras, smartwatch, iPad is strictly prohibited in the casino.
The only things which Indian casinos allowed are cigarettes, your drink, money and player chips.
Indian Rummy
The Indian Rummy is the second most popular casino game not only in India but all over the Indian subcontinent.
Indian rummy is most played among all Indian casino games.
It is because Indian rummy is a variation of gin rummy and rummy 500 both.
If you ever play rummy outside India. Then you can easily spot the difference between original rummy and Indian rummy.
Unlike other casino games, in Indian rummy, only 2 to 6 players can participate.
As mentioned above, Indian rummy is very similar to the original rummy. The only difference is that you will find several cards dealt.
For over 2 players the dealer makes 3 desks, whereas for 2 players the dealer makes 2 desks.
Indian rummy is a discard based game, where each player has to pick a card from the open pile on his or her turn.
After picking a card from the open pile, now the player has to discard one card from his or her collection to the open pile.
As always, the most interesting thing is that.
In Indian rummy, you can use the joker card. A joker card can be used as a substitute to form a combination.
In India, each card carry’s specific point.
Face cards included Jacks’ card, Queen card, King card and aces carry 10 points.
Whereas number cards carry points equal to their face value. And the joker card carries zero points.
And the player who scores zero first wins the game.
According to Indian Rummy rules, there should be 2 runs. And from 2 runs one should be pure.
That means one run should not contain any joker in it.
Just a piece of advice for you.
Using electrical devices like mobile phones, cameras, smartwatch, iPad is strictly prohibited in the casino.
The only things which Indian casinos allowed are cigarettes, your drink, money and player chips.
Fortunately, India rummy is one of the India casino games that you can play online and offline too.
Online casino games realm may promote lots of offers for a casino promotion that makes your gambling experience worthwhile.
With this casino promotion offer, you can win a lot of cash.
But before applying to this casino promotion offer, please read all terms and conditions.
Slot machine
Another most-played casino game is the slot machine.
People call slot machines as the Poker machine in Australian and Canadian English, fruit machines in British English, piggy in Scottish English, the slot in American English.
Indian casino game lovers must play this game in their life.
This machine creates chances to win for its customers.
According to historians, Pitt and Sittman from New York developed the first slot machine in 1891.
The slot machine contains 5 drums that hold 50 cards.
Back in 1891, the player had to insert a nickel coin. After inserting Nickel coin, a player has to pull the lever.
Pulled levers spin drums and cards.
In 1891, there was no payout mechanism in the slot machines.
And according to a historian, slot machines at that time worked on revolving mechanical reels to determine and display results.
And the original machine of 1891 works on 5 reels, which is not only reliable but also it was simple and easy to use.
However, nowadays the slot machines work purely on digital.
Slot machines are generally programmed to pay out as winning 85% to 95% of the money bet by players.
People called this payout the return of player (ROP) or theoretical percentage (TP).
However, the theoretical percentage varies from country to country.
Just like the theoretical percentage of Nevada is approx 75% and the theoretical percentage of New York is approx 83%.
By using computers at the time of software writing, manufacturers set the theoretical percentage of slots machines.
Be aware.
Many investigations conclude that the dealer of a slot machine uses a digital machine or any fraud and cheating device.
These types of dealers can steal your money by any unfair use.
Blackjack
Our fourth most playing casino game on the list of casino games that are popular in India is Blackjack.
Blackjack is an American version of popular games known as Twenty-one.
In blackjack players don’t have to compete with each other. They play blackjack with one or more decks of 52 cards.
Blackjack is the most played game among all Indian casino games in India.
Although blackjack has no specific history.
But according to historians, they find the first reference of blackjack in Don Quixote (a Spanish novel) written by Miguel de Cervantes.
Many gambling houses in the USA were offered bonus payouts to generate interest in the twenty-one game.
Now let’s talk about rules for playing Blackjack.
At the time of playing. The dealer has to face five to seven playing positions on a semicircular table.
52 cards decks are shuffled together between one and eight standards.
At the starting of each round, up to three players can place their bets in the betting box.
That means three players at each position at a table allowing to bet.
The player who has to bet on the front of the betting box considers having control over the position.
Even the dealer has to consult the controlling player for playing decisions.
Any player is independent to control in as many boxes at a single table.
However, in the USA rules are a little different from the Indian casino game's rules.
In the USA casinos, players are limited to playing over two and less than 4 positions at a table.
But according to rules, the player can’t play over one table at the same time and in the same place.
Just a piece of advice for you.
Using electrical devices like mobile phones, cameras, smartwatch, iPad is strictly prohibited in the casino.
The only things which Indian casinos allowed are cigarettes, your drink, money and player chips.
Poker
Our fifth most-played casino game on the list of casino games that are popular in India is poker.
Poker is another card game in which the player has to bet on cards.
Poker games always vary in desk configuration. But often in poker games, the dealer uses a standard 52-card deck.
According to historians.
Casino lovers introduced this poker game back in the 19th century in the United States Of America.
And that time people love this game not only in the US but also in India.
At the beginning of 20th-century poker successfully fed their name on the list of best India casino games.
In the 1990s, gaming historian David Parlett challenged the notion. Which states that poker is a direct derivative of As- Nas.
And finally, in the 1970s, these developments in poker make this game more popular than it is ever.
The World Series of Poker started by the casino lovers in the United States makes poker more famous in India as well.
Guess what is an interesting thing in poker?
In 2013, researchers of Carnegie Mellon University, University of Alberta, and the University of Auckland developed a computer poker player.
This computer poker player thinks like a human.
You may wonder why they developed a computer poker player? Right?
The reason they develop computer poker is to play this game against humans.
If you have no human opponent out there, you can still play poker games against this computer program.
Online casino games realm may promote lots of offers for a casino promotion that makes your gambling experience worthwhile.
With this casino promotion offer, you can win a lot of cash.
But before applying to this casino promotion offer, please read all terms and conditions.
Baccarat
Our sixth most-played casino game on the list of casino games that are popular in India is Baccarat.
Baccarat is another comparing card game played between player and banker.
Each round of Baccarat has three possibilities.
The first player has the highest score, the second possibility is when a banker has the highest score, and the third possibility is when a tied match between player and banker occurs.
Some sources claim the first reference of this game in the 19th century.
Some source claims that Italian soldiers introduced this game in France during the France-Italian war in the 15th century.
During the Napoleon era, people loved this casino game.
Before legalization, people play this game in private game rooms.
Now let’s talk about the rules of this game.
Player rule:
In case when the player has an initial 0-5 then they draw a third card. And if a player has an initial total of 6 or 7 then they stand.
Banker rule:
If the player has only 2 cards, then the banker acts according to the same rule as a player.
Final thoughts.
To sum it up, all the above casino games are widely popular in Indian casinos.
Casino games lovers shared the above games. That’s why here we mentioned all the games, according to their ratings and personal experience.
We all know every casino game has its different rules.
And who knows sooner or later, we add more variety to this list.
If you have anything you’d like to add in this list, then let us know in the comments section below.
I hope that you gained additional knowledge by reading this article.
​
​
https://preview.redd.it/a2gsyc3ntdw41.png?width=940&format=png&auto=webp&s=d91ad666cd4c976913872d4e773dbb2be67cf13d

India! Ever wondered which casino games have high popularity over here?
Seems you are passionate about casino games?
In India, you can play many casino games widely spread in goa.
Don’t take any stress.
All casinos in Goa are legal and permitted by government and law.
Here we mention the 6 casino games, which are popular with players from India.
With that said, let’s get started.
Roulette
The Roulette is the most popular casino game not only in India but all over the world.
Roulette is the French word, which means a little wheel.
In this casino game, players have to bet on red or black color, odd or even number, a single number or numbers are high then 18 and low then 18.
According to historians, first Roulette played in France during the 18th century.
And according to some historians as well, Blaise Pascal (French mathematician, inventor, physicist, and writer) introduced this game in France in the 18th century.
In the 19th century, casino lovers widely spread this game in Europe and America.
And slowly it becomes one of the most played casino games in western countries, respectively.
In 1970, Asian countries like India started offering this game in their casinos.
By 2009 there were thousands of casinos offering this game in their respective casinos.
Now let’s talk about rules for playing Roulette.
After betting on color, particular number, number range, and odd or even number. The dealer will rotate the wheel with the bowl inside them.
And after winning, Dealer announced Number and colors.
Also, the Dealer's place dolly (a type of marker) on the Roulette table.
And the most interesting thing is that when the dealer places a marker on the table then no player can withdraw their bets, change their bets and collect their bets.
At last, the dealer removes all losing bets by rake and will determine all payouts remaining outside and inside winning bets.
And after finishing all collections of payouts, the marker is removed and collecting betting, changing betting starts once again.
Just a piece of advice for you.
Using electrical devices like mobile phones, cameras, smartwatch, iPad is strictly prohibited in the casino.
The only things which Indian casinos allowed are cigarettes, your drink, money and player chips.
Indian Rummy
The Indian Rummy is the second most popular casino game not only in India but all over the Indian subcontinent.
Indian rummy is most played among all Indian casino games.
It is because Indian rummy is a variation of gin rummy and rummy 500 both.
If you ever play rummy outside India. Then you can easily spot the difference between original rummy and Indian rummy.
Unlike other casino games, in Indian rummy, only 2 to 6 players can participate.
As mentioned above, Indian rummy is very similar to the original rummy. The only difference is that you will find several cards dealt.
For over 2 players the dealer makes 3 desks, whereas for 2 players the dealer makes 2 desks.
Indian rummy is a discard based game, where each player has to pick a card from the open pile on his or her turn.
After picking a card from the open pile, now the player has to discard one card from his or her collection to the open pile.
As always, the most interesting thing is that.
In Indian rummy, you can use the joker card. A joker card can be used as a substitute to form a combination.
In India, each card carry’s specific point.
Face cards included Jacks’ card, Queen card, King card and aces carry 10 points.
Whereas number cards carry points equal to their face value. And the joker card carries zero points.
And the player who scores zero first wins the game.
According to Indian Rummy rules, there should be 2 runs. And from 2 runs one should be pure.
That means one run should not contain any joker in it.
Just a piece of advice for you.
Using electrical devices like mobile phones, cameras, smartwatch, iPad is strictly prohibited in the casino.
The only things which Indian casinos allowed are cigarettes, your drink, money and player chips.
Fortunately, India rummy is one of the India casino games that you can play online and offline too.
Online casino games realm may promote lots of offers for a casino promotion that makes your gambling experience worthwhile.
With this casino promotion offer, you can win a lot of cash.
But before applying to this casino promotion offer, please read all terms and conditions.
Slot machine
Another most-played casino game is the slot machine.
People call slot machines as the Poker machine in Australian and Canadian English, fruit machines in British English, piggy in Scottish English, the slot in American English.
Indian casino game lovers must play this game in their life.
This machine creates chances to win for its customers.
According to historians, Pitt and Sittman from New York developed the first slot machine in 1891.
The slot machine contains 5 drums that hold 50 cards.
Back in 1891, the player had to insert a nickel coin. After inserting Nickel coin, a player has to pull the lever.
Pulled levers spin drums and cards.
In 1891, there was no payout mechanism in the slot machines.
And according to a historian, slot machines at that time worked on revolving mechanical reels to determine and display results.
And the original machine of 1891 works on 5 reels, which is not only reliable but also it was simple and easy to use.
However, nowadays the slot machines work purely on digital.
Slot machines are generally programmed to pay out as winning 85% to 95% of the money bet by players.
People called this payout the return of player (ROP) or theoretical percentage (TP).
However, the theoretical percentage varies from country to country.
Just like the theoretical percentage of Nevada is approx 75% and the theoretical percentage of New York is approx 83%.
By using computers at the time of software writing, manufacturers set the theoretical percentage of slots machines.
Be aware.
Many investigations conclude that the dealer of a slot machine uses a digital machine or any fraud and cheating device.
These types of dealers can steal your money by any unfair use.
Blackjack
Our fourth most playing casino game on the list of casino games that are popular in India is Blackjack.
Blackjack is an American version of popular games known as Twenty-one.
In blackjack players don’t have to compete with each other. They play blackjack with one or more decks of 52 cards.
Blackjack is the most played game among all Indian casino games in India.
Although blackjack has no specific history.
But according to historians, they find the first reference of blackjack in Don Quixote (a Spanish novel) written by Miguel de Cervantes.
Many gambling houses in the USA were offered bonus payouts to generate interest in the twenty-one game.
Now let’s talk about rules for playing Blackjack.
At the time of playing. The dealer has to face five to seven playing positions on a semicircular table.
52 cards decks are shuffled together between one and eight standards.
At the starting of each round, up to three players can place their bets in the betting box.
That means three players at each position at a table allowing to bet.
The player who has to bet on the front of the betting box considers having control over the position.
Even the dealer has to consult the controlling player for playing decisions.
Any player is independent to control in as many boxes at a single table.
However, in the USA rules are a little different from the Indian casino game's rules.
In the USA casinos, players are limited to playing over two and less than 4 positions at a table.
But according to rules, the player can’t play over one table at the same time and in the same place.
Just a piece of advice for you.
Using electrical devices like mobile phones, cameras, smartwatch, iPad is strictly prohibited in the casino.
The only things which Indian casinos allowed are cigarettes, your drink, money and player chips.
Poker
Our fifth most-played casino game on the list of casino games that are popular in India is poker.
Poker is another card game in which the player has to bet on cards.
Poker games always vary in desk configuration. But often in poker games, the dealer uses a standard 52-card deck.
According to historians.
Casino lovers introduced this poker game back in the 19th century in the United States Of America.
And that time people love this game not only in the US but also in India.
At the beginning of 20th-century poker successfully fed their name on the list of best India casino games.
In the 1990s, gaming historian David Parlett challenged the notion. Which states that poker is a direct derivative of As- Nas.
And finally, in the 1970s, these developments in poker make this game more popular than it is ever.
The World Series of Poker started by the casino lovers in the United States makes poker more famous in India as well.
Guess what is an interesting thing in poker?
In 2013, researchers of Carnegie Mellon University, University of Alberta, and the University of Auckland developed a computer poker player.
This computer poker player thinks like a human.
You may wonder why they developed a computer poker player? Right?
The reason they develop computer poker is to play this game against humans.
If you have no human opponent out there, you can still play poker games against this computer program.
Online casino games realm may promote lots of offers for a casino promotion that makes your gambling experience worthwhile.
With this casino promotion offer, you can win a lot of cash.
But before applying to this casino promotion offer, please read all terms and conditions.
Baccarat
Our sixth most-played casino game on the list of casino games that are popular in India is Baccarat.
Baccarat is another comparing card game played between player and banker.
Each round of Baccarat has three possibilities.
The first player has the highest score, the second possibility is when a banker has the highest score, and the third possibility is when a tied match between player and banker occurs.
Some sources claim the first reference of this game in the 19th century.
Some source claims that Italian soldiers introduced this game in France during the France-Italian war in the 15th century.
During the Napoleon era, people loved this casino game.
Before legalization, people play this game in private game rooms.
Now let’s talk about the rules of this game.
Player rule:
In case when the player has an initial 0-5 then they draw a third card. And if a player has an initial total of 6 or 7 then they stand.
Banker rule:
If the player has only 2 cards, then the banker acts according to the same rule as a player.
Final thoughts.
To sum it up, all the above casino games are widely popular in Indian casinos.
Casino games lovers shared the above games. That’s why here we mentioned all the games, according to their ratings and personal experience.
We all know every casino game has its different rules.
And who knows sooner or later, we add more variety to this list.
If you have anything you’d like to add in this list, then let us know in the comments section below.
I hope that you gained additional knowledge by reading this article.
​
​
https://preview.redd.it/0q1qzli5cfr41.png?width=940&format=png&auto=webp&s=f7431fb239c6a69dea6de92e105a155c4aed196a

It has been an interesting week for me.
First, I was invited to speak at World Crypto CON in Las Vegas and then shortly before the event they told me I couldn’t speak. At the same time they told most of my other anarchist friends they also couldn’t speak and/or they were banned from the event, including Ben Swann, Luke Rudkowski and Josh Sigurdson of World Alternative Media.
I was already in Texas for the Texas Bitcoin Conference and I mostly just wanted to play in their crypto poker tournament anyway so I went to Vegas.
All manner of strange people seemed to be coming up to me, including one woman speaking in tongues. And, a weird energy surrounded the event... so much so that my body was shaking the entire time.
Then they also didn’t allow me to play in the poker event! I paid one guy some BTC to buy his chips and they threatened to call the police on me! I know what happens next when that happens so I left the premises.
Later that night, Josh Sigurdson was poisoned and barely survived. Other anarchists I knew who were there were being accosted, having their phones stolen and other aggressions.
I should mention this all occurred on Halloween. Day of the dead. Whatever happened, karma struck instantly and no one showed up! I then got a message from my wife that she wanted me to come home immediately and I was happy to do so.
She told me that God told her that we had to tell everyone to repent immediately before it was too late and she went into two days of screaming, crying and became delirious after three days without eating or sleeping.
Eventually we had to get her to the hospital to get her calmed down. I’ve spent the last two days with her there and we just returned home as they gave her a number of things to relax her.
Is something strange going on? It sure feels like it. In any case, as I stated in the last newsletter, no matter what happens I am just going to continue on with my work (although spending more time with my family is also a priority) helping people to wake up... that’s all I can do.
Current Events
As I write it is the midterm selections in the USSA. Yet another, “most important election in our lifetime.” All fear propaganda to try to make believe that voting will fix this evil system of slavery. It won’t. But, when they say this is the "election of our lifetimes" they are right on one thing. Politics, central banks and government are very close to destroying the entire world.
Elect to walk away from it all now before it is too late. I know I don’t have to tell TDVers that but it is worth reiterating.
And, the results are in. Anarchy won like it has every single selection.
And the wars continue killing or destroying the lives of millions of innocents, Americans continue to get extorted for trillions of dollars per year, millions of innocents remain in cages in rape camps and the Federal Reserve continues to impoverish and steal from everyone.
Meanwhile, in things that actually matter, the battle over bitcoin has hastened dramatically. But, you wouldn’t know it from the price action.
The complete lack of volatility has only gotten worse (or better if you are in the “volatility is bad for bitcoin” camp).
Here is a chart of bitcoin on October 27th.
For a 24 hour period it traded within a $15 band! It’s like the whole world is just waiting to see what happens next.
And, what will happen next? I am still expecting a panic sell-off along with all worldwide markets followed by a price explosion.
We did make it through October without that happening, but I have pointed out November is also a prime month for it to occur. If nothing major occurs in November then I may have to reassess.
The US stock markets continue to hang in there but really only propped up by a minority of stocks as this tweet from early October points out.
Bank stocks, which are probably one of the most important to watch are off 17% from January of this year.
Meanwhile, crypto exchange Binance made more profit than Deutsche Bank in the second quarter of this year!
As I said last issue, things really couldn’t be going better for the cryptospace, right as it appears that bank stocks and the market as a whole is on the verge of collapse.
On October 26th, the CEO of Visa, Al Kelly, said that he “certainly” does not view cryptocurrencies as a threat to his business right now, but added that “if we have to go there, we’ll go there.”
You’ll have to go there Kelly... better start working on your resume. Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC is about to release its first blockchain-powered handset in cryptocurrencies, making it the first big name in the industry to accept only digital currencies as payment.
Exodus 1, the first version of HTC’s blockchain phone, is priced at 0.15 BTC or 4.78 ETH, which in current trading equates to about US$960.
HTC first announced the Exodus phone in May, which features a built-in digital wallet that will enable users to store and trade cryptocurrencies.
But, the game changing news is that ICE, the owner of the New York Stock Exchange, has announced they will launch their new digital asset platform, Baakt, on December 12th. This will enable traditional institutional investors to easily invest into the bitcoin market.
The total bitcoin market right now is about a $110 billion market cap.
Total value of financial asset worldwide is estimated to be over $300 trillion. Which means bitcoin is only 0.03% of total financial assets held in the world.
If, say, only 1% of that $300 trillion were to go into bitcoin, that would mean $3 trillion would be trying to enter a market worth $100 billion.
In other words, if you don’t own bitcoin and other cryptos by December 12th... don’t do that. And, don’t forget precious metals either.
FinIst analyst Denis Lisitsyn recently said on RT, “The aggressive US policy in recent years has forced some countries to look for an alternative to the dollar and replenish their gold reserves. Worries about the future growth of global economy are an additional incentive for purchases. Many question Donald Trump’s protectionism.”
Sounds like he has been listening to TDV’s Ed Bugos!
In the same article, Vladimir Rojankovsky, LIFA, expert at the International Financial Center said that Hungary, Poland, Russia, China, India, Turkey and Saudi Arabia are all hoarding gold.
This, after Russian ownership of US Treasury bonds dropped from $96.1 billion in March to an 11-year low of $14.9 billion in May.
The writing is on the wall. And almost the entire public has no idea what is happening.
Luckily you do, so stick with us here as we give you are best guidance on how to survive and prosper during and after the dollar collapse.
And get right with your family and God. I’ve had a few moments in the last week where I thought it might be all over and each time I felt despondent knowing I still haven’t done enough. Don’t wait too long.
Coming Events
Due to my wife being in the hospital recently I cancelled going to Steemfest in Poland. I was also going to go to Iran and Iraq on that trip. But, I’ve decided family has to come before work in this respect.
Which means, really, my next major events are close to home with the TDV Summit on February 12-13th and Anarchapulco/Cryptopulco from February 14-17th.
I couldn’t help notice that World Crypto Con, which seemed to be out to kill all of us anarchists, was on October 31st and Anarchapulco starts on Valentine’s Day. Because it is really all about love.
If you haven’t checked out the TDV Summit page lately, check it out. We’ve added a number of great speakers and I still have a few surprises to announce. It is two full days this year and I am able to focus on it fully for the first time as we have a professional management team running Anarchapulco now. And, included in the price is a gala dinner to be held on the evening of February 12th.
And, Anarchapulco just released its main stage speaker list (there will be 5 stages this year). It’s quite the list! Jeffrey Tucker - Anarchapulco Master of Ceremonies
Ron Paul Former - Congressman, Author of 'End the Fed'
Andrew Napolitano - Senior Judicial Analyst for Fox News
David Icke - Ground breaking Author & Public Speaker
Doug Casey - Founder of Casey Research
Cynthia McKinney - Activist, Former US Representative
Jeff Berwick - Founder of Anarchapulco, The Dollar Vigilante, and Anarchast
Dayna Martin - Author, Speaker, Midwife, Unschooling & Peaceful Parenting Advocate
Derrick Broze - Creator, The Conscious Resistance Network
Luke Rudkowski - Journalist, Founder of WeAreChange.org
Max Igan - Host of The Crowhouse
G. Edward Griffin - Author of 'Creature from Jekyll Island'
Mark Passio - Independent Researcher
Sasha Daygame - Author, Men’s Coach, Spiritual Adventurer
Ole Dammegard - Truth Seeker, Code Breaker, and Peace Maker
Thaddeus Russell - Historian, Podcaster, Founder of Renegade University
Anil Gupta - Author of 'Immediate Happiness'
Brien Foerster - Author of 'Lost Ancient Technology'
Eric July - Frontman of BackWordz, Co-founder of Being Libertarian
Matt Phillips - Past President of Free State Project, Ambassador, Activist, Entrepreneur - Dr. Sherri Tenpenny
Physician Entrepreneur & Vaccine Activist
Vit Jedlicka - President of Liberland
Joe Quirk - President of The Seasteading Institute
Becca Tzigany - Activist & Author, Venus and Her Lover
Joel Bowman - International Man
Jonny Dupre - Psycho-Social Coach & Trainer - The International Man
Vin Armani - CryptoSavage
Avens O'Brien - 2nd Generation Liberty Activist
Tim Moen - Leader of the Libertarian Party of Canada
Gina Carr - Blockchain Company Leader, Author, Emerging Technology Expert
Tata Meche, José Merced Velazquez Pañeda Tata - Town Elder, Cheran, Michoacan
There are even more announcements soon, including Larken Rose and many more. And, we haven’t announced the Cryptopulco speaker list yet. It should come out in the next week. You won’t want to miss it.
Anarchapulco will likely sell out by January. And all 1,000 rooms in the Princess Hotel are already close to sold out, so if you want to stay on premises, make sure to book your room now. If you miss it, don’t worry, we’ll likely be filling up a hotel nearby down the beach too!
And, don’t worry about what might happen in the future. Live in the present. Own some precious metals and cryptocurrency. Work on yourself, physically, mentally and spiritually. And spend more time with your loved ones.
Everything else will work itself out.
Now, I’m going to go watch Lord of the Rings with my wife and kids. “Hey kids, did you know that ring of power is an allegory for central banks and government?”
Thank you, as always, for being a subscriber!
Jeff Berwick

It has been an interesting week for me.
First, I was invited to speak at World Crypto CON in Las Vegas and then shortly before the event they told me I couldn’t speak. At the same time they told most of my other anarchist friends they also couldn’t speak and/or they were banned from the event, including Ben Swann, Luke Rudkowski and Josh Sigurdson of World Alternative Media.
I was already in Texas for the Texas Bitcoin Conference and I mostly just wanted to play in their crypto poker tournament anyway so I went to Vegas.
All manner of strange people seemed to be coming up to me, including one woman speaking in tongues. And, a weird energy surrounded the event... so much so that my body was shaking the entire time.
Then they also didn’t allow me to play in the poker event! I paid one guy some BTC to buy his chips and they threatened to call the police on me! I know what happens next when that happens so I left the premises.
Later that night, Josh Sigurdson was poisoned and barely survived. Other anarchists I knew who were there were being accosted, having their phones stolen and other aggressions.
I should mention this all occurred on Halloween. Day of the dead. Whatever happened, karma struck instantly and no one showed up! I then got a message from my wife that she wanted me to come home immediately and I was happy to do so.
She told me that God told her that we had to tell everyone to repent immediately before it was too late and she went into two days of screaming, crying and became delirious after three days without eating or sleeping.
Eventually we had to get her to the hospital to get her calmed down. I’ve spent the last two days with her there and we just returned home as they gave her a number of things to relax her.
Is something strange going on? It sure feels like it. In any case, as I stated in the last newsletter, no matter what happens I am just going to continue on with my work (although spending more time with my family is also a priority) helping people to wake up... that’s all I can do.
Current Events
As I write it is the midterm selections in the USSA. Yet another, “most important election in our lifetime.” All fear propaganda to try to make believe that voting will fix this evil system of slavery. It won’t. But, when they say this is the "election of our lifetimes" they are right on one thing. Politics, central banks and government are very close to destroying the entire world.
Elect to walk away from it all now before it is too late. I know I don’t have to tell TDVers that but it is worth reiterating.
And, the results are in. Anarchy won like it has every single selection.
And the wars continue killing or destroying the lives of millions of innocents, Americans continue to get extorted for trillions of dollars per year, millions of innocents remain in cages in rape camps and the Federal Reserve continues to impoverish and steal from everyone.
Meanwhile, in things that actually matter, the battle over bitcoin has hastened dramatically. But, you wouldn’t know it from the price action.
The complete lack of volatility has only gotten worse (or better if you are in the “volatility is bad for bitcoin” camp).
Here is a chart of bitcoin on October 27th.
For a 24 hour period it traded within a $15 band! It’s like the whole world is just waiting to see what happens next.
And, what will happen next? I am still expecting a panic sell-off along with all worldwide markets followed by a price explosion.
We did make it through October without that happening, but I have pointed out November is also a prime month for it to occur. If nothing major occurs in November then I may have to reassess.
The US stock markets continue to hang in there but really only propped up by a minority of stocks as this tweet from early October points out.
Bank stocks, which are probably one of the most important to watch are off 17% from January of this year.
Meanwhile, crypto exchange Binance made more profit than Deutsche Bank in the second quarter of this year!
As I said last issue, things really couldn’t be going better for the cryptospace, right as it appears that bank stocks and the market as a whole is on the verge of collapse.
On October 26th, the CEO of Visa, Al Kelly, said that he “certainly” does not view cryptocurrencies as a threat to his business right now, but added that “if we have to go there, we’ll go there.”
You’ll have to go there Kelly... better start working on your resume. Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC is about to release its first blockchain-powered handset in cryptocurrencies, making it the first big name in the industry to accept only digital currencies as payment.
Exodus 1, the first version of HTC’s blockchain phone, is priced at 0.15 BTC or 4.78 ETH, which in current trading equates to about US$960.
HTC first announced the Exodus phone in May, which features a built-in digital wallet that will enable users to store and trade cryptocurrencies.
But, the game changing news is that ICE, the owner of the New York Stock Exchange, has announced they will launch their new digital asset platform, Baakt, on December 12th. This will enable traditional institutional investors to easily invest into the bitcoin market.
The total bitcoin market right now is about a $110 billion market cap.
Total value of financial asset worldwide is estimated to be over $300 trillion. Which means bitcoin is only 0.03% of total financial assets held in the world.
If, say, only 1% of that $300 trillion were to go into bitcoin, that would mean $3 trillion would be trying to enter a market worth $100 billion.
In other words, if you don’t own bitcoin and other cryptos by December 12th... don’t do that. And, don’t forget precious metals either.
FinIst analyst Denis Lisitsyn recently said on RT, “The aggressive US policy in recent years has forced some countries to look for an alternative to the dollar and replenish their gold reserves. Worries about the future growth of global economy are an additional incentive for purchases. Many question Donald Trump’s protectionism.”
Sounds like he has been listening to TDV’s Ed Bugos!
In the same article, Vladimir Rojankovsky, LIFA, expert at the International Financial Center said that Hungary, Poland, Russia, China, India, Turkey and Saudi Arabia are all hoarding gold.
This, after Russian ownership of US Treasury bonds dropped from $96.1 billion in March to an 11-year low of $14.9 billion in May.
The writing is on the wall. And almost the entire public has no idea what is happening.
Luckily you do, so stick with us here as we give you are best guidance on how to survive and prosper during and after the dollar collapse.
And get right with your family and God. I’ve had a few moments in the last week where I thought it might be all over and each time I felt despondent knowing I still haven’t done enough. Don’t wait too long.
Coming Events
Due to my wife being in the hospital recently I cancelled going to Steemfest in Poland. I was also going to go to Iran and Iraq on that trip. But, I’ve decided family has to come before work in this respect.
Which means, really, my next major events are close to home with the TDV Summit on February 12-13th and Anarchapulco/Cryptopulco from February 14-17th.
I couldn’t help notice that World Crypto Con, which seemed to be out to kill all of us anarchists, was on October 31st and Anarchapulco starts on Valentine’s Day. Because it is really all about love.
If you haven’t checked out the TDV Summit page lately, check it out. We’ve added a number of great speakers and I still have a few surprises to announce. It is two full days this year and I am able to focus on it fully for the first time as we have a professional management team running Anarchapulco now. And, included in the price is a gala dinner to be held on the evening of February 12th.
And, Anarchapulco just released its main stage speaker list (there will be 5 stages this year). It’s quite the list! Jeffrey Tucker - Anarchapulco Master of Ceremonies
Ron Paul Former - Congressman, Author of 'End the Fed'
Andrew Napolitano - Senior Judicial Analyst for Fox News
David Icke - Ground breaking Author & Public Speaker
Doug Casey - Founder of Casey Research
Cynthia McKinney - Activist, Former US Representative
Jeff Berwick - Founder of Anarchapulco, The Dollar Vigilante, and Anarchast
Dayna Martin - Author, Speaker, Midwife, Unschooling & Peaceful Parenting Advocate
Derrick Broze - Creator, The Conscious Resistance Network
Luke Rudkowski - Journalist, Founder of WeAreChange.org
Max Igan - Host of The Crowhouse
G. Edward Griffin - Author of 'Creature from Jekyll Island'
Mark Passio - Independent Researcher
Sasha Daygame - Author, Men’s Coach, Spiritual Adventurer
Ole Dammegard - Truth Seeker, Code Breaker, and Peace Maker
Thaddeus Russell - Historian, Podcaster, Founder of Renegade University
Anil Gupta - Author of 'Immediate Happiness'
Brien Foerster - Author of 'Lost Ancient Technology'
Eric July - Frontman of BackWordz, Co-founder of Being Libertarian
Matt Phillips - Past President of Free State Project, Ambassador, Activist, Entrepreneur - Dr. Sherri Tenpenny
Physician Entrepreneur & Vaccine Activist
Vit Jedlicka - President of Liberland
Joe Quirk - President of The Seasteading Institute
Becca Tzigany - Activist & Author, Venus and Her Lover
Joel Bowman - International Man
Jonny Dupre - Psycho-Social Coach & Trainer - The International Man
Vin Armani - CryptoSavage
Avens O'Brien - 2nd Generation Liberty Activist
Tim Moen - Leader of the Libertarian Party of Canada
Gina Carr - Blockchain Company Leader, Author, Emerging Technology Expert
Tata Meche, José Merced Velazquez Pañeda Tata - Town Elder, Cheran, Michoacan
There are even more announcements soon, including Larken Rose and many more. And, we haven’t announced the Cryptopulco speaker list yet. It should come out in the next week. You won’t want to miss it.
Anarchapulco will likely sell out by January. And all 1,000 rooms in the Princess Hotel are already close to sold out, so if you want to stay on premises, make sure to book your room now. If you miss it, don’t worry, we’ll likely be filling up a hotel nearby down the beach too!
And, don’t worry about what might happen in the future. Live in the present. Own some precious metals and cryptocurrency. Work on yourself, physically, mentally and spiritually. And spend more time with your loved ones.
Everything else will work itself out.
Now, I’m going to go watch Lord of the Rings with my wife and kids. “Hey kids, did you know that ring of power is an allegory for central banks and government?”
Thank you, as always, for being a subscriber!
Jeff Berwick

CONTENT COURTESY OF COLUMBIA CVB
 
ON STAGE

• Pints & Punchlines: Rose Comedy Club Thursday 9 PM at Rose Music Hall. Pints & Punchlines comedy showcase is back! This monthly comedy showcase features hosts Rob Harris and Michael Yetman with some of the area’s finest comedians. From the hardened veterans to fresh faces, performers come ready to show their best material as audiences get a chance to learn about Columbia’s best kept secret! $2.

• India Day 2018 Saturday 1-5 PM at Jesse Wrench Auditorium, Memorial Union. Cultural Association of India (CAI) is proud to organize the MU-India Day. This event will highlight the academic and scholarly contributions of faculty, students, and staff who have links to India or interact with India. A roster of distinguished speakers and guests from MU makes this program a must to attend. This will be followed by the celebration of India’s 69th Republic Day that will include a vibrant cultural program depicting the heritage of India. Free and open to all.

• Garth Fagan Dance Company Saturday 7 PM at Jesse Auditorium. Mr. Fagan forged his own dance language and technique, drawing from modern dance, Afro-Caribbean and ballet. Tony award-winning choreographer Garth Fagan’s dancers communicate with unbridled energy the depth, precision, and grace of Fagan’s work. The Company’s “fearless” dancers are “able to sustain long adagio balances, to change direction in mid-air, to vary the dynamic of a turn, to stop on a dime,” wrote David Vaughan in Ballet Review. Fagan’s ever-evolving dance language draws on many sources: sense of weight in modern dance, torso-centered movement and energy of AfroCaribbean, speed and precision of ballet, and the rule breaking experimentation of the post-moderns.

 
SPECIAL EVENTS

• Missouri Association of Fairs and Festivals Convention Friday 10 AM – 9 PM at Holiday Inn Executive Center. There are so many festivals and Fairs across Missouri that it’s only right they have their own convention — with live music. Enjoy country blues artist Kristie Kraus, pop-rock country duo LyraLee and more.

• R.O.C. 7K Trail Run Saturday 9 AM at Cosmo Park’s Antimi Shelter. The R.O.C. Trail Run is BACK! Start your new year with Rhett’s Outdoor Challenge and enjoy a morning on Rhett’s Run. This 4.3 mile trail run will take racers through the scenic twists and turns of this hilly, well maintained single track course. All participants will receive a finisher item and a post-race snack once they’ve completed their run. This event will include chip timing, Visit Columbia MO @VisitColumbiaMO @VisitColumbiaMO age group awards, volunteer support and direction, and an aid station (water stop) on the course. Registration required.

• Columbia Farmers Market Saturday 9-12 PM at Parkade Plaza. Columbia Farmers Market is a year-round producer-only farmers market! Shop local with over 70 vendors, all within a 50 mile radius of Columbia!

• Bacon & Bourbon 2018 Saturday 1-4 PM at Bur Oak Brewing Co. Enjoy tasty samplings from local restaurants, distillers, and distributors! Live Music by The Barroom Billies. Tickets are $20. NOTE: *sold out*

• Explore Missouri Wine & Beer Saturday 6 PM at Root Cellar. Spend the evening with Root Cellar owners Jake and Chelsea Davis as they pour some of their favorite beverages from around the state. Enjoy delicious local dishes from Root Cellar's kitchen as we discuss pairings and share some amazing stories about Missouri's Wineries and Breweries. $25.

 
GALLERY
 

• Indulge through March 9 at Columbia Art League. In this show, we invite artists to explore the art of eating. Artists’ connection to food tells us much about the time, place, and culture in which they lived. Our relationship with food can be complicated, tangled up with the need for survival, with our primal connection to land and community, and fraught with emotions from guilt to pleasure! In this show, artists are encouraged to Indulge and serve up a veritable feast for the eyes.

• January Exhibit through January 27 at Sager Braudis Gallery. Sager Braudis Gallery presents the January Exhibit, January 3 - 27, 2018, featuring abstract, mixed-media paintings by Matt Ballou of Columbia, MO, Monoprints on fibers surfaces by Amy Firestone Rosen of St. Louis, MO, representational oil paintings by Mary Jo O’Gara of Winnetka, IL, trompe l’oeil painted woodcarvings by Thomas Pfannerstill of Louisville, KY, and metal, figural sculpture by Guillermo Rigattieri of Mendoza, Argentina.

• Jon Luvelli: Images from Central Missouri through Spring 2018 at the State Historical Society of Missouri. Raised in a rural farm town near Columbia, Missouri, Jon Luvelli's fine art photography has garnered national and international attention in the field of street photography. His images are distinguished by their focus on Midwestern townscapes and underlying social messages. The stark contrasts of light and dark encourage viewers to find beauty in uncustomary forms. This exhibition of photos, which is the first installment of a permanent Luvelli collection at SHSMO, represents central Missouri and casts an aesthetic spotlight on contemporary life on the county roads and midtown streets of the Show-Me State.

• Being Bussabarger: Painting, Sculpture, Ceramics, Sketchbooks, and More through May 5 at the State Historical Society of Missouri. Painter, sculptor, and ceramicist Robert Bussabarger (1922–2013) lived and worked in Missouri for over fifty years. Being Bussabarger pays tribute to the artist's creative spirit with a retrospective selection of his artworks from the 1940s to the 2010s. The wide range of media within the Society's collection of Bussabarger's art demonstrates the depth and breadth of his talent.

• Salvador Dali exhibit at The Tiger Hotel. In the lobby of the hotel, you will find two lithographs from Dali’s 1977 ‘Twelve Apostles or Knights of the Round Table’ Suite: James the Lesser or The Vicar of Britain and Phillip or Knighting of Sir Galahad. Between them is Dali’s1974 original work, The Last Corner of the Last Planet, from a suite of twelve paintings known as ‘Conquest of Cosmos.

 
SPORTS
 

• Mizzou Men’s Basketball vs. Auburn WED 8 PM at Mizzou Arena.
  
• Mizzou Swimming/Diving vs. Drury TH 4 PM at Mizzou Aquatic Center.
  
• Stephens College Basketball vs. Lyon College TH 7 PM at Silverthorne Arena.
  
• Columbia College Basketball vs. William Woods University SAT Women’s Basketball 1 PM, Men’s Basketball 3 PM at Southwell Complex.
  
• Stephens College Basketball vs. Central Baptist College SAT 1 PM at Silverthorne Arena.
  

 
LIVE MUSIC
 
Wednesday

• Jack Harlow, The Homies, NicDanger 8 PM at Rose Music Hall; $15.

Friday

• Flyover Country 5 PM at Rose Music Hall; free.

• Johnny Henry 8 PM at Nash Vegas.

• Dismal Niche Presents: 18andCounting & the Only Ensemble, Oxherding, Azure Witness 8 PM at Café Berlin; $7.

• Mid-MO Rock Collective 9 PM at Rose Music Hall; $5.

• Michael Jackson vs. Prince dance party tribute 9 PM at The Blue Note; $5.

Saturday

• Hickman Academy of Rock Student Showcase 7 PM at Café Berlin; $5..

• My Posse In Effect: Live Tribute to The Beastie Boys 9:30 PM at Rose Music Hall; $6 in advance, $8 day of show.

Sunday

• “We Always Swing” Jazz Series presents Billy Childs Quartet 3:30 PM and 7 PM at Murry’s.

• Metal Meltdown 8:30 PM at Rose Music Hall; $6.

 
MOVIE GUIDE
12 STRONG - “12 Strong” is set in the harrowing days following 9/11 when a U.S. Special Forces team, led by their new Captain, Mitch Nelson (Hemsworth), is chosen to be the first U.S. troops sent into Afghanistan for an extremely dangerous mission.
CALL ME BY YOUR NAME - In Northern Italy in 1983, seventeen-year-old Elio begins a relationship with the visiting Oliver, his father's 24-year-old research assistant, with whom he bonds over his emerging sexuality, their Jewish heritage, and the beguiling Italian landscape.
COCO - Coco follows a 12-year-old boy named Miguel who sets off a chain of events relating to a century-old mystery, leading to an extraordinary family reunion.
THE COMMUTER - During his daily commute from Manhattan to Upstate New York, a cop-turned-insurance salesman (Liam Neeson) is approached by a mysterious woman (Vera Farmiga), who tells him that he must locate a passenger who's carrying something dangerous. If he fails, everyone aboard the train, as well as his family at home, will be killed.
DARKEST HOUR - During the early days of World War II, with the fall of France imminent, Britain faces its darkest hour as the threat of invasion looms. As the seemingly unstoppable Nazi forces advance, and with the Allied army cornered on the beaches of Dunkirk, the fate of Western Europe hangs on the leadership of the newly-appointed British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (Academy Award nominee Gary Oldman). While maneuvering his political rivals, he must confront the ultimate choice: negotiate with Hitler and save the British people at a terrible cost or rally the nation and fight on against incredible odds. Directed by Joe Wright, DARKEST HOUR is the dramatic and inspiring story of four weeks in 1940 during which Churchill's courage to lead changed the course of world history.
DEN OF THIEVES - DEN OF THIEVES follows the lives of an elite unit of the LA County Sheriff's Dept. and the state's most successful bank robbery crew as the outlaws plan a seemingly impossible heist on the Federal Reserve Bank of downtown Los Angeles.
FOREVER MY GIRL - Forever My Girl tells the story of country music super-star Liam Page (Alex Roe) who left his bride, Josie (Jessica Rothe), at the altar choosing fame and fortune instead. However, Liam never got over Josie, his one true love, nor did he ever forget his Southern roots in the small community where he was born and raised. When he unexpectedly returns to his hometown for the funeral of his high school best friend, Liam is suddenly faced with the consequences of all that he left behind.
THE GREATEST SHOWMAN - Inspired by the imagination of P.T. Barnum, The Greatest Showman is an original musical that celebrates the birth of show business & tells of a visionary who rose from nothing to create a spectacle that became a worldwide sensation.
INSIDIOUS: THE LAST KEY - In the fourth installment in the Insidious series, parapsychologist Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye) must delve even deeper into the infernal world known as "the Further" when supernatural forces target her own family.
JUMANJI: WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE - Four teenagers discover a mysterious video game from the '90s while serving detention, and are sucked into a virtual jungle when they try to play it. Transformed into various video-game characters -- a hunky explorer, a clever zoologist, a warrior babe, and a rotund professor -- the group must trek through this strange new world if they want to survive.
MAZE RUNNER: THE DEATH CURE - Thomas leads some escaped Gladers on their final and most dangerous mission yet. To save their friends, they must break into the legendary Last City, a WCKD-controlled labyrinth that may turn out to be the deadliest maze of all. Anyone who makes it out alive will get answers to the questions that the Gladers have been asking since they arrived in the maze.
MOLLY’S GAME - The true story of an Olympic-class skier who ran the world's most exclusive high-stakes poker game and became an FBI target. Her players included movie stars, business titans and unbeknownst to her, the Russian mob.
PADDINGTON 2 - In this sequel to the 2014 family film, Paddington Bear (voice of Ben Whishaw) tries to earn enough money to buy an antique book for his aunt's 100th birthday, but his quest brings him into conflict with an unscrupulous actor (Hugh Grant) who also wants the tome. In time, Paddington's misadventures cause him to end up in jail, and he plots his escape with the help of a kindhearted convict.
PITCH PERFECT 3 - The Bellas find themselves split apart and discovering there aren’t job prospects for making music with your mouth. But when they get the chance to reunite for an overseas USO tour, this group of awesome nerds will come together to make some music.
PHANTOM THREAD - Set in the glamour of 1950s post-war London, renowned dressmaker Reynolds Woodcock (Daniel Day-Lewis) and his sister Cyril (Lesley Manville) are at the center of British fashion, dressing royalty, movie stars, heiresses, socialites, debutants and dames with the distinct style of The House of Woodcock. Women come and go through Woodcock's life, providing the confirmed bachelor with inspiration and companionship, until he comes across a young, strong-willed woman, Alma (Vicky Krieps), who soon becomes a fixture in his life as his muse and lover. Once controlled and planned, he finds his carefully tailored life disrupted by love. With his latest film, Paul Thomas Anderson paints an illuminating portrait both of an artist on a creative journey, and the women who keep his world running.
THE POST - In the summer of 1971, the Washington Post faces a historic dilemma: whether or not to publish the Pentagon Papers, a top-secret document that reveals the U.S. government knew for decades the Vietnam War was unwinnable. Executive editor Ben Bradlee (Tom Hanks) and publisher Kay Graham (Meryl Streep) debate the best course of action in this docudrama.
STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI - While Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) teaches Rey (Daisy Ridley) in the ways of the Force, Skywalker's former apprentice Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) continues to explore the Dark Side.
THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI - After months have passed without a culprit in her daughter's murder case, Mildred Hayes (Frances McDormand) makes a bold move, commissioning three signs leading into her town with a controversial message directed at William Willoughby (Woody Harrelson), the town's revered chief of police. When his second-in-command Officer Dixon (Sam Rockwell), an immature mother's boy with a penchant for violence, gets involved, the battle between Mildred and Ebbing's law enforcement is only exacerbated. Written and directed by Martin McDonagh (In Bruges).
 
CHECK EACH THEATRE FOR SHOWTIMES
RAGTAG CINEMA – 10 Hitt Street 573-443-4359
REGAL STADIUM 14 THEATER – 2800 Goodwin Pointe Drive 844-462-7342
GOODRICH FORUM 8 – 1209 Forum Katy Parkway 573-445-7469

Hi Guys, I'm here to give the info on the $700 freeroll.
I'd just to say that robswins is a young poker player friend of mine who asked to set this up for the reddit community. But I'm just dropping in to deliver the info in person.
I've really appreciated him in setting things up and representing Hero as a player here. AND robwins has contributed $200 of his own bankroll to make up for last week =)
The info: It is for tomorrow, Saturday Feb 25: 16:00 EST US start time.
The PW is: rpokerFREE69 (the pw is case sensitive)
Prize Pool is: 1st $200 2nd $100 3rd $75 4th $50 5th $40 6th $25 7th $20 8th $15 9th $15 10-26th $10
There is a country restriction, this is because there are established professional sites that hunt and scan for freeroll tournaments, thus decimating the field and pretty much goes against the spirit of a freeroll for a community. If there is a problem with the country selection, then I guess for the next* freeroll we can make adjustments.
Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Denmark, Egypt, Fiji, Finland, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Greenland, Guam, Hong Kong, Iceland, India, Ireland, Isle Of Man, Israel, Japan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Macao, Malta, Mexico, Monaco, Netherlands, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Northern Mariana Islands, Norway, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Province Of China, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela or Viet Nam
Because the prize pool pays out for 26, there needs a minimum of 26 players to join. It is a fun structure: 5000 in starting chips and 5 mins blinds with antes after level 7 and it is 9 handed NLH
There is a 'withdraw play though' on the freeroll winnings, meaning you can play with whatever you win right away (join games, tournaments etc), but you can't withdraw the money directly out of the site until you play x amount with the original amount that you won. But, basically it is your online roll to do with what you want in terms of playing. And there is no requirements for deposit etc, just sign up and play.
Last, Just like to say, a big thanks to robswins for answer questions about Hero Poker as a player. He isn't staff and anyway, I appreciate him doing this for Hero.
Cheers, David Jung Hero Poker CEO
PS If you have any issues that [email protected] can't resolve, just email to [email protected]
Additionally if you haven't registered yet, please do not use a hotmail, live or msn account; those groups of ms accounts to filter our verification emails, not all the time, but enough times to make it a pain =)
heropoker.com

Hunting for Antibiotics in the World’s Dirtiest Places
by Maryn McKenna via Master Feed : The Atlantic
URL: http://ift.tt/2rygNwV
On a chilly autumn morning in northwest London, just outside the Euston train station, Adam Roberts stops at the top of an outdoor staircase, looks around for police, and tries to appear inconspicuous. This is harder than it sounds, and not only because he’s 6 foot 3.
Roberts pulls a plastic-wrapped package from his pocket, tears it open, and slides out a long, slender tube and a swab that looks like an overgrown Q-tip. After checking again for anyone watching, he trots down the stairs, dragging the swab along the handrail, and slips the swab into the tube and the tube into his pocket. Then he strolls away.
Listen to the audio version of this article:Download the Audm app for your iPhone to listen to more titles. After a block, Roberts veers off busy Euston Road and down side streets toward his lab at University College London. He’s not up to anything nefarious—quite the opposite—but with closed-circuit TVs everywhere and London on high alert for terrorist threats, he worries about raising alarms. Only once he reaches the middle of St. George’s Gardens, a green space of big trees and old tombstones, does he relax.
What Roberts has just done, in an action that he and people who support him have performed hundreds of times, is to return to a practice that was abandoned more than 40 years ago. He has sampled the environment, hoping to find in the dirtiest, most germ-filled places an answer to one of the most pressing problems of our day.
Drug resistance—the ability of bacteria to defend themselves against the compounds we use to kill them—has impaired the effectiveness of almost every antibiotic produced since the first ones were developed, in the 1940s. At least 700,000 people are estimated to die worldwide every year from infections that no longer respond to antibiotics. That toll could balloon to more than 10 million a year by 2050 if we can’t slow the spread of resistance or find new drugs; routine surgeries and minor injuries will become life-threatening.
Yet making the necessary changes to stave off this catastrophe seems to be beyond us. We continue to take antibiotics with abandon (nearly a third of antibiotic prescriptions in the U.S. aren’t actually needed) and feed huge quantities of them to farm animals. And pharmaceutical companies—daunted by how quickly resistance can undermine drugs that may take a decade and a billion dollars to develop—are not rushing to fill the gap.
That’s where Roberts, a 43-year-old microbiologist from central England, comes in. Back at his lab, he pulls out a handful of tubes that he collected during his walk and labels them: shoe, bathroom-door handle, tree, bench, handrail. He reaches for a stack of petri dishes, each holding a layer of clear-yellow growth medium. One by one, he opens the dishes, swipes the tip of a swab over the agar, closes and marks them, and sets them aside to be incubated.
“The natural microbial world has a whole array of chemistry we haven’t yet looked into,” he tells me, recording the dishes in a ledger. “And we don’t have to go to the bottom of the ocean or an extreme environment to find it.”
Roberts asks people to send him samples from places where bacteria are likely to thrive—the less sanitary, the better. (Vincent Fournier) There was a time when all of our antibiotics came from natural sources. That is how the antibiotic era began, in 1928: Sir Alexander Fleming reputedly left a window open in his London laboratory, and discovered weeks later that specks of the mold Penicillium, blown in on the breeze, excreted a chemical that killed the bacterium Staphylococcus. That chemical became the first antibiotic, penicillin. It was followed by chloramphenicol, made by a bacterium found in compost in Venezuela, and chlortetracycline, excreted by a bacterium found in a field at the University of Missouri, a test plot for growing hay.
These were the foundational drugs of the antibiotic era, which turned the historical menace of infection from a death sentence into an inconvenience. Their ability to kill disease bacteria was not an accidental property. The earliest antibiotics were refined versions of chemical weapons that bacteria had developed over millennia to fend off other microorganisms as they competed for living space and food. The organisms that made these weapons seemed to thrive in damp and dirty places.
Those early antibiotics were so successful and so lucrative that manufacturers began scouring the world for additional ones. Bristol-Myers (now Bristol-Myers Squibb) included a pre-addressed envelope in its 1951 annual report, along with a note asking shareholders to scoop up “a teaspoon of soil, slightly moist but not wet, and free from large stones,” and mail it to company headquarters. Eli Lilly struck an agreement with members of the Christian and Missionary Alliance: Ministers going to the developing world were given test tubes to take with them. Pfizer recruited explorers, pilots, and foreign correspondents to send it soil samples.
Those searches resulted in antibiotics that remain crucial today: erythromycin, from the Philippines; vancomycin, from the jungle floor in Borneo; daptomycin, from the foothills of Mount Ararat, the biblical resting place of Noah’s Ark. But the work of identifying and isolating useful compounds was punishingly slow. Selman Waksman, a microbiologist who was funded by Merck, processed 10,000 samples before identifying streptomycin. Pfizer went through more than 130,000 samples before finding terramycin, an early tetracycline.
Soil teems with microorganisms—a teaspoon can contain millions—yet only a subset of them make compounds that may prove useful as antibiotics. And within that subset, only a tiny fraction will grow in a lab, away from the complex natural environments in which they evolved. Researchers who thought they were soaring into an entire new universe of cures—and profits—found themselves stuck on the launchpad, discovering the same antibiotic compounds over and over again. The developers of terramycin told The New Yorker in 1951 that before finding it, they had rediscovered streptomycin “at least a hundred times.”
By the end of the 1960s, drug companies gave up on finding antibiotics in soil and turned to assembling synthetic compounds in labs. Not coincidentally, the rate of finding new drugs dropped. From 1940 to 1970, a dozen different classes of antibiotics got all the way through clinical testing and entered the American market. Since 1970, only a few new classes have, which means that almost all the new antibiotics produced since then have been variations on existing ones, with mechanisms that bacteria already have learned to defend against.
With no new drugs to curb their spread, disease bacteria took off. MRSA, multidrug-resistant staph, jumped out of hospitals in the mid-’90s, sidelining athletes and creating cases of fast-moving pneumonia that can kill a child in days. The early 2000s brought the spread of VRE, which causes grave hospital infections and is resistant to vancomycin, a last-resort drug. NDM, a gene that confers resistance to a family of drugs called carbapenems, was transported out of India and around the globe by infected travelers in the late 2000s. Another resistance gene, MCR, which disables the very-last-resort antibiotic colistin (like vancomycin, a holdover from the 1950s), was identified in China in 2015 and has since turned up in more than 30 countries around the world.
By last year, the rising tide of multidrug resistance had caught the attention of the United Nations, which held a rare special summit during a meeting of its General Assembly. The convocation committed world governments to cracking down on antibiotic misuse within their borders and supporting research to find new drugs. Ban Ki-moon, then the secretary-general, called drug resistance “a fundamental, long-term threat to human health.”
“Compost bin. Pig trough. Dog-food bowl. Laptop keyboard.”
Roberts is flipping through a thick binder in his lab, reading off the places where the samples in his collection came from. He didn’t collect most of them himself. They were provided by a network he built, through a crowdsourcing campaign and a Facebook page—a modern version of the drug-company campaigns of the 1950s, aimed at harvesting samples from a wider geographic range than he could ever reach on his own.
Roberts earned his doctorate here at University College London in 2002, and for more than a decade he studied one of the main ways bacteria acquire antibiotic resistance: passing genes back and forth by trading segments of DNA. Transmissible resistance, as it is called, was described in the 1960s by two Japanese researchers, who noticed that strains of the food-borne-illness bacterium Shigella had become resistant to drugs that patients had never received.
It has been a microbiological nightmare ever since. Transmissible resistance allows the mutations that confer protection against antibiotics to spread not just through inheritance, from mother cell to daughter, but also among unrelated bacteria via the exchange of plasmids, small loops of DNA that exist separate from the chromosomes. Plasmids can transport multiple genes at the same time, so they allow resistance against multiple drugs to stack up in bacteria like cards in a winning hand of poker.
Roberts was fascinated by this phenomenon. But after years of study, he decided to shift his focus. “I started to think we could go on forever finding new resistance genes, because they are always evolving,” he says. “Instead of looking for new genes, why not look for new drugs?”
He decided to start where pharmaceutical chemistry had left off decades earlier: in the messy real-world settings where bacteria duke it out. He launched his campaign, called Swab and Send, in February 2015. For £5, participants got a sample tube, a mailing envelope, and an explanation of what Roberts wanted them to look for: a spot in the environment where bacteria were likely to be competing for nutrition and room to reproduce. He asked them to use their imagination. The less sanitary, the better.
In a departure from the first antibiotic searches, Roberts does not ask his sample-collectors to focus on soil. Instead he wants them to search in places his predecessors may have overlooked. “There’s such a rich microbial environment everywhere around us,” he says. “Every single place is a niche, where bacteria will have evolved and adapted independently. Soil may have evolved biological warfare, if you like, completely differently than a marine environment, or a muddy environment, or contaminated pond water. There’s a possibility of different chemistry everywhere.”
The Swab and Send campaign fired people’s enthusiasm: Within two months, Roberts received more than £1,000, and hundreds of swabs. Small checks continue to arrive by mail. (The price of participation has gone up, to £30 for five swabs.) Elementary schools invite Roberts to make presentations, and he gives the kids swabs to take home. He has taken sample tubes to parties and to newsrooms. He has two swabs that were swiped across desks in the Houses of Parliament.

Video: How to Fight Superbugs

Maryn McKenna describes how crowdsourcing could help solve the problem of antibiotic resistance. “Toilet in the third tier of the football ground in Manchester,” Roberts reads. (That one arrived with a sketch of a football fan using the toilet.) “Fridge puddle of yuck from a forgotten and moldy lettuce.” We’re sitting in his lab. Roberts is opening petri dishes that have been incubating overnight and transferring samples of whatever bacteria have grown into 96 tiny indentations in a culture plate. He is repeating a process that the scientists of the 1940s followed, growing bacteria in the lab to see what they could do.
The first step is to scribble a swab over a dish of culture medium and let it incubate. The second is to separate all the bacteria that grow on the gel—one swab might have picked up many species—and plop them into individual wells on a fresh plate, to let them multiply without interference from one another. In the third step, Roberts dabs each of these samples into culture dishes that contain another microorganism, to see whether they can hold their own against competition. He’s looking for a “zone of inhibition”: a clear ring around a bacterium indicating that it produces a compound that can kill.
A bacterium that clears that hurdle then faces a higher one: being tested against a strain of E. coli resistant to 15 different drugs. If the bacterium survives that challenge, the compound it produces is considered worthy of further scrutiny. Roberts uses analytic tools that did not exist in the 1940s to find out whether the survivor is really something new.
Since Swab and Send began, Roberts and his graduate students have painstakingly coaxed thousands of bacteria samples through the successive rounds of incubation. Out of all those, hundreds have secreted compounds that killed at least one test bacterium, and a few killed a fungus—potentially precious finds, because antifungal drugs are in even shorter supply than antibiotics. He has found 18 promising bacteria, so far, that killed the multidrug-resistant E. coli.
It is slow work, judged against the pace of bacterial evolution. That frustrates Roberts, because he knows firsthand the risk that resistance poses. Three years ago, his daughter, who was 6 at the time, was playing in the countryside and scratched her leg. The scratch turned into a pustule, and a wash of red began to spread up and down her shin. Doctors tried three different types of antibiotics. None worked. Within 12 hours of her arrival at University College Hospital, she was carted into surgery.
His daughter recovered, though she still has a dent on her shin where the infection was cut out. But for Roberts, the episode brought home how unpredictable antibiotic resistance is, and how short the distance might be between a single recalcitrant infection and the future he’s trying to prevent: multiple tries at treatment, long hospital stays, huge health-care costs, early deaths.
“If the health-care system could not have kept up with her infection, she could have lost her leg,” Roberts says. “The way you get to having a health-care system that can’t keep up is to have it collapse under the pressure of having no antibiotics. I can see that happening really easily.”
Roberts has found 18 bacteria, so far, that were able to kill a strain of E. coli resistant to 15 different drugs. (Vincent Fournier) The slow pace of Roberts’s research hints at the enormity of the challenge of finding new antibiotics.
“The hard thing isn’t finding things that kill bacteria; steam, fire, bleach can do that,” says John Rex, who led clinical antibiotic development at AstraZeneca and now is the chief medical officer at F2G, a firm working on new antifungal drugs. “The challenge is to find things that kill bacteria but don’t harm the person taking them. You’re talking about a chemical that goes into your mouth, into your gut, into your blood, unchanged, and winds up where the infection is and kills the bacteria, and yet is not toxic to you.”
The beauty of man-made antibiotics was that they could be tailored to those challenges, and to whatever clinical need drug developers perceived. But as antibiotics have fallen to the onslaught of resistance, developers are turning back to natural sources.
“We haven’t come close to tapping the potential of the natural world,” Gerry Wright, the director of the Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research at McMaster University in Ontario, told me. Wright is the co-founder of the university’s High Throughput Screening Lab, a lab that can automate the testing of compounds. In the days it takes Roberts and his team to do a few dozen tests, a lab like Wright’s can perform tens of thousands.
“A typical Streptomyces in soil has the genetic programming to produce 20 to 40 different compounds,” Wright says. “Every one of those things has some biological activity. Not all of them are antibiotics, of course, but they’re products of evolution. They’re not kept around for nothing. If you compare that to 30 random chemicals made by a chemist, you’d be lucky if one or two have any biological activity at all.”
These days, Roberts isn’t the only one looking to the natural world for new antibiotics. A team at Northeastern University has invented a device, called the iChip, that allows bacteria that do not thrive in laboratory cultures to be grown in soil; its use led to the isolation of a promising compound, teixobactin, which is still being studied. And a project called the Small World Initiative—created in 2012 by Jo Handelsman, a University of Wisconsin professor who served as the Obama administration’s associate director for science—is similar to Roberts’s campaign, but with more emphasis on education. It teaches basic microbiology to thousands of high-school and college students each year by having them collect soil samples, isolate the bacteria the samples contain, test the bacteria for antibiotic activity, and then present their research at a symposium. The goal is to find novel compounds that companies or academic researchers could take through the next steps.
Even if those efforts succeed, it’s unclear how a new antibiotic would reach the market. The later stages of drug development—the multiphase clinical trials that test the safety and efficacy of a new antibiotic in thousands of patients—require a level of funding that only large pharmaceutical companies can muster, and that they have been reluctant to commit. How best to persuade companies to return to making antibiotics is a hot policy topic in the United States and Europe, with various incentives—grants, prizes, extended patents—all up for debate.
Roberts—who has held Swab and Send together with supporters’ small checks, one grant of £20,000, and stubborn belief—speaks wistfully of the difference that more resources could make for his project. During my visit to London, we sit on high stools in his lab while he holds culture plates up to the ceiling light, looking for telltale zones of inhibition. It’s a motion that Fleming might have made in the 1930s, when antibiotics were too new for anyone to recognize the moneymaking machine they would briefly become.
“If I had a bigger pot of money, it would really improve the amount of work we could do,” Roberts says, pulling another stack of plates toward him. “I would try to create a team with every necessary piece of expertise and all the kit they need. They would all be in one place. They would all be talking to each other. At the moment—which is normal for an academic environment—everything just takes a little bit longer than it should.”
After I return to the U.S., I call Roberts to check in. His mood is utterly different; his voice, and his finances, have gotten a lift. He has been recruited to move to the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, to work in a £25 million facility that will enable him to do just what he had envisioned: bring together teams from different scientific disciplines to work on new antibiotics. He is taking Swab and Send with him. The project will have its own budget, and a new lab and new equipment; any promising compounds he finds can be tested and developed by teams already working within the school. (Late-stage trials, with their huge logistical demands, will require a commercial partner.)
When I ask how much these resources might accelerate his search for a new drug, he corrects me.
“We don’t need just one,” he says. “Or five. If we get just a few, we’re still just playing leapfrog. We need a thousand new drugs, so that clinicians can go to the cupboard and say, ‘Right, in this decade, we’re using these 200, and we’re saving the other 800 for when the usefulness of these runs out.’ ”
“I think that is achievable,” he says. “But it’s going to take a massive amount of work.”

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Since a legend fought the case to legalise poker in these few cities, the same is being abused by scammers in the name of running poker clubs.
Several clubs have been raided and have had to switch venues since they also probably, I guess, bribe the police.
What happens because of this?
A cash game table of at most 9 players, a minimum of 4, where the at least 3 poker club employees sit to fill the 9 seats and bust the guests. Is this fine? Maybe. Service and 'complementary' food is pathetic in most places.
The first is Rockets Poker Room, last known location, Indiranagar, where no two dealers know the rules exactly, which is ridiculous as they calculate the pot for PLO differently each time and also claim different sized minimum bets for NLHE. One of the day managers slips sponsorships and part sponsors to fill their own pockets while the night managers roam the room (8-9 tables, buy-ins from Rs. 2500 to Rs. 10000+) with massive stacks at any random empty seat for a few minutes just to influence, collude, and bust players.
The 2nd is Super Straddle Poker, last known location in Kalyan Nagar, where a friendly daily freeroll is offered for Rs. 10000 to incite action for the following cash game. The amount is not always Rs. 10000 as there are not always 10 players, and always ends as a chop between last 3 players, which is great because they have at least 3 house players at the table i.e Floor Manager, sponsored players, etc. In the cash game, one dealer kept taking tips from pots without asking which was disgusting because that's up to the player. What made it worse is this.
They allow 'owners' or 'former owners' of the club to play on credit and ask winning players to wait to be paid when the rules clearly stated by them is no credit, and their creditosponsored player has lost.
WORSE.
Dealers collude with the floor manager and sponsored player and keep taking excessive rakes. So when it's supposed to be 5%, these cheaters fill their own pockets and come back to beat you when your stack isn't as full as it's supposed to be. I found this out from the person who notes down the buy-ins and though he admitted it, it's still disgusting. The formula was this. If we players pay 50,000 cash for 50,000 in chips, he should be getting < 50,000 when we cash out. However, he said that he had an excess of almost 20,000.
Disgusting. Never playing at either place again obviously. Probably going to stick to IPA Poker Lounge, which is still attached by name and legacy to the legend that won the cases he fought for legalised poker.
QUESTION: IS IT WORTH PLAYING POKER IN INDIA?