Robbie Williams

Robert Peter Maximilian Williams is an English singer-songwriter and record producer. His career started as a member of the pop "boy band" Take That in 1990, then going on to leave the band in 1995 to begin his solo career. Williams' record sales stand at over 55 million to date. Williams entered the The Guinness Book of World Records when in just one day he sold more than 1.6 million tickets for his 2006 world tour. He has been the recipient of many awards, including fifteen BRIT[3] and six ECHO awards. In 2004, he was inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame, after being voted as the Greatest artist of the 1990s. Robbie Williams is the artist who is currently featured the most times in the UK Now That's What I Call Music! series. In the first 68 Now!s he has appeared 29 times (including 4 times with Take That).

Chicago Poker Card Game

The poker-related card game called Chicago is one of the most popular card games in Sweden today. Relying on the keeping of score instead of the placing of bets, it is suitable even for environments such as schools, where gambling is often prohibited. The game exists in countless versions, so here a somewhat arbitrarily chosen basic game will be followed by a number of possible variations.

Hand scores

The backbone of the game is that each poker hand has its own point value, as given in this table:

One pair - 1 point.
Two pair - 2 points.
Three of a kind - 3 points.
Straight - 4 points.
Flush - 5 points.
Full House - 6 points.
Four of a kind - 7 points
Straight flush - 8 points

Basic rules

Chicago is played with a standard 52-card deck. Each player is dealt five cards. The objective is to reach 52 points.
Exchanges and hand scoring

The players are allowed to exchange any number of their cards. If a player chooses to exchange one card only, he may choose "one up", meaning that he is dealt one card faced up, which he can either accept, or instead take the next card unseen. After the exchanges, the player with the best hand and only one player gets points for his hand. Then follows another round of exchanges, but no hand scoring.

Now, the first player begins by playing one card. Ordinary whist rules apply, but the players keep their cards collected by themselves. The player who wins the last trick gets 5 points. Also, the player with the best hand whether it is the same player or not gets points for his hand. Please Note: After achieving 42 points a player is no longer permitted to trade cards as they normally would. Instead, they are dealt 6 cards at the beginning of the game and must discard one before the first scoring round. No further exchanges are permitted.
Chicago

After the second exchange, any player can choose to play Chicago. In this case, he pledges himself to win all the tricks of the game. If he does, he is awarded 15 points, but if he fails, the penalty is just as harsh: -15 points.
Blind Chicago

Sometimes, a player given five cards below ten either inclusive or exclusive - must be decides before game starts is allowed to replace them before the exchanges begin.
Some play with 3 exchanges instead of 2. Then of course, scoring for hands will be made after both the first and the second exchange.
Some do not use the "one up" rule.
Often, a game will require that a player declare "Chicago" before they can win the game. The declaration is accepted regardless of whether one wins or loses the 5 tricks.
Often, one wants to give higher rewards than 7 or 8 points for four of a kind and Straight flush respectively. There are several ways to achieve this, most notably by elevating the player immediately to 52 points, or lowering either all players or one player of the holder's choice to 0 points, or a combination of these. Some also separate the Royal Flush from the Straight Flush, awarding 9 points for a Royal Flush. Holding a Royal flush usually means immediate victory.
The confusion is great as to what scores are appointed in the case of Chicago. Some will argue that no player will get any points at all besides the +15 or -15, whilst others will allow other points to be awarded. The +5 for the game, however, can never be stacked with the +15 for Chicago. Yet another variation is to award +13/-13 points for Chicago and the declaring player gets to go first. In that variation it is forbidden to declare Chicago unless the player has reached 13 points, ruling out the possibility of a negative score.
Some prescribe that any player with 45 points or more is not allowed to replace any cards.
Some require that after and not in the same hand as a player reaches 52 points, he must win the game once more before he actually wins. This handles the possibility that more than one player reach 52 points in the same hand.
Some award 10 points instead of 5 if the last trick is taken with a deuce. If this variant is employed, 30 points must also be awarded for a Chicago hand successfully ended with a deuce.

Bouillotte, a vying 18th century French gambling card game of the Revolution, based on Brelan, very popular during the 19th century in France and again in America for some years from 1830. Bouillotte is regarded as one of the games that influenced the open-card stud variation in poker. A piquet pack is used, from which, in case five play, the sevens are removed. When four the knaves, and when three the queens are omitted. The ace is the highest card in play and in cutting. Counters or chips, as in poker, are used. Before the deal each player antes one counter to the pot, after which each, the age passing, may raise the pot; those not seeing the raise being obliged to drop out. Three cards are dealt to each player, and a thirteenth, called the retourné, when four play, turned up. Each player must then bet, call, raise or drop out. When a call is made the hands are shown and the best hand wins. The hands rank as follows: Simple Brélan, three of a kind, ace being high. Brélan Carré, four of a kind, one being the retourné. Brélan Favori, three of a kind, one being the retourné. If more than one player has a brélan, the best is one that matches the rank of the turn up a brélan carré, or squared-up brelan. If none matches, that of highest rank wins. Any player with a brelan receives a side-payment of one chip, two if it is a carré, from each opponent. If no player holds a brélan, the hand holding the greatest number of pips wins. All hands are turned face up, including those of players who dropped. The face values of all these cards are totalled for each suit, ace counting 11, court cards 10 and numerals their face value. The best suit is the one with the highest visible total, and the player holding the highest card of it wins the pot, provided that he has not previously dropped. If he has, the winner is the player counting the greatest face value of cards in any other suit.

An extensive network of soft drinks manufacturers exists and the term soft drink comes from the phrase soda water. Carbonated soft drinks and their diet counterparts are now some of the most popular manufactured drinks on the market. Drinks Manufacturers Coordinating with a drinks manufacturing plant to process and bottle the product is not an easy task. Whether to choose a contract beverage manufacturer or filler will depend on a host of factors beginning with location. Drinks Manufacturing Make Cans are most often of aluminum. This aluminum is widely available, affordable, lightweight and easy to shape. Since it is far more cost effective to recycle aluminum beverage cans than to extract the raw aluminum from its ores, they are the most recycled of all beverage containers. Make Cans Coordinating with a Manufacturer Drinks plant to process and bottle the product is not an easy task. Whether to choose a contract beverage manufacturer or filler will depend on a host of factors beginning with location. Manufacturer Drinks The best place for beverages resources on the Internet. Facts and opinions on drinks provides by my beverages. My Beverages New Beverage design is the aspect of the development process that most clearly communicates your brands' image to the consumer. It is vital that your product possesses the desired qualities and attributes to achieve a distinctive presence in the marketplace. New Beverages Starting an energy drink company is easier than most people think. Contract manufactures eliminate the need for most equipment. The most important thing to consider when developing an energy drink is creating a brand identity. Own Energy Drinks Creating a soda drink is easier than most people think. Contract manufactures eliminate the need for equipment. Own Soda Coordinating with a Soft Drink Manufacturing plant to process and bottle the product is not an easy task. Whether to choose a contract beverage manufacturer or filler will depend on a host of factors beginning with location. Soft Drink Manufacturing

Duplicate Poker

 

Duplicate poker is a variant of the popular card game poker. Duplicate poker is based on the principles of Duplicate Bridge but also involves some of the rules used for playing pot limit and no limit Texas hold'em.

Duplicate poker is a skill-based game in which there are two or more tables consisting of the same number of players. Each table is dealt with an identically shuffled deck of cards. Every player holds the same hand as the person seated in identical seats at other tables.

All players begin each hand with the ability to bet the same number of playing chips, regardless of prior performance in the previous rounds.

The object of Duplicate poker is to win more chips than your opponents sitting in corresponding seats at other tables. Ultimately, the winner is decided based on the total number of chips accumulated up until the end of the game, as compared with those held by all players in the same seats at the other tables. Conceivably, even a player who loses chips overall can win at the game if that player loses fewer chips than his opponents.

Duplicatepoker.com, the first poker room to use the format, closed down on October 5th 2008, citing the global financial crisis as the reason for the removal of services. It had previously been popular due to the fact that as a skill-based game it was legal in the U.S. While the game is more conducive to an automated online format because of pre-set decks and the need to record accurate scoring, Duplicate poker has also been played in a live format. The first-ever Duplicate poker tournament was held in April 2007 at the Cherokee Casino in Tulsa, Oklahoma.