Bangkok or Krung Thep meaning the City of Angels is Thailand’s capital as well as its largest city. It’s a city with infinite layers which you need to explore to reveal its hidden secrets. Bangkok has a rocking nightlife for the party animal, temples and sites for the culture lovers, and shopping galore for the shop-a-holic. It is a bustling densely populated metropolitan, an exotic city filled with wondrous sights and smells.

Bangkok Waterways

While many of the klongs (canals) have since been replaced by roads, the Chao Praya River or the River of Kings continues to flow unaltered, separating the original capital of Thonburi on one side of the river, from today’s Bangkok. On the Thonburi side of the river (the original site of Thailand’s capital) networks of canals (klongs) still connect the city to the suburbs, which remain largely unaffected by modern development. And on the Rattanakosin side it is still possible to catch river taxis along Khlong Saen Sap, an important transport artery that cuts through the heart of the modern city.

Many of the historic sights of Bangkok lie on the banks of the Chao Praya River. The river provides contrasts of old and new, with many of Bangkok’s most revered temples standing alongside warehouses, old wooden houses, new residential blocks and prestigious five star hotels.

On the waterways you can find the floating market boats piled high with tropical fruit and vegetables, fresh, ready-to-drink coconut juice and local food cooked from floating kitchens located right on the boat. Floating markets are Taling Chan Market, Bang Ku Wiang Market, Tha Kha, and Damnoen Saduak.

Besides the local river taxis or ruer duan stop at most landings along the river, the Chao Praya Express Boat Company operates an additional tourist boat service that stops at ten major piers and provides access to attractions like the Grand Palace, Wat Po and the Royal Barge Museum.

Bangkok Temples

Bangkok’s temples are a unique part of the capital’s heart and soul. The architecture is awe-inspiring and the glittering decoration is stunning. The temples or wats are an important part in Buddhist traditions, Monks live in the temple complexes, attend to prayers and duties and then collect food and necessities from ordinary people on the streets. This daily alms ritual takes place all over Thailand and is part of the Buddhist philosophy of giving and making merit to attain a better life beyond this one.

Wat Phra Kaew ———–The Emerald Buddha

Wat Phra Kaew or the Temple of the Emerald Buddha is regarded as the most important Buddhist temple in Thailand. Located in the the grounds of the Grand Palace, it enshrines Phra Kaew Morakot or the Emerald Buddha, the highly revered Buddha image meticulously carved from a single block of jade.

Wat Arun in Bangkok ————-Temple of Dawn

Wat Arun, locally known as Wat Chaeng, is situated on the west (Thonburi) bank of the Chao Phraya River. It is believed that after fighting his way out of Ayutthaya, which was besigned by a Burmese army at the time, King Taksin arrived at this temple just as dawn was breaking. He later had the temple renovated and renamed it Wat Chaeng, the Temple of the Dawn.

Wat Pho ————-Temple of Reclining Buddha

Wat Pho or the Temple of the Reclining Buddha is located behind the splendid Temple of the Emerald Buddha. It’s the largest temple in Bangkok and famed for its huge and majestic reclining Buddha measured 46 metres long and covered in gold leaf. The Buddha’s feet are 3 metres long and exquisitely decorated in mother-of-pearl illustrations of auspicious characteristics of the Buddha.

Wat Mahathat

The headquarter of Thailand’s largest monastic order and Vipassana Meditation centre, Wat Mahathat is an important centre for the study of Buddhism and meditation. Although most programmes are in Thai, there are some in English and the temple has become a popular place to learn the Vipassana meditation method.

Wat Traimit ————–Temple of Golden Buddha

Located at the end of Chinatown’s Yaowarat Road, near Hualampong Railway Station, Wat Traimit houses the world’s largest golden seated Buddha measuring nearly five metres in height and weighing five and a half tons. In the past, artisans crafted the Buddhas in gold and disguised them from invading armies by a covering of stucco and plaster.

Wat Sutat ——————–Great Swing

One of the oldest temples with a sweeping elegant roof and the site of the original Giant Swing ceremony. A huge teak arch, all that remains of the original Giant Swing are in ruins in front of the temple. The swing was used in a ceremony to give thanks for a good rice harvest. Young men would ride the swing high in the air, suspended 80 feet from the ground when in full swing.

Wat Saket ———————-Temple of the Golden Mount

The grubby yellow hill crowned with a gleaming gold chedi is also known as the Golden Mount, or ‘Phu Khao Thong’. It rises within the compound of Wat Saket, an unusual temple that houses Buddha relics within its 58-metre-high chedi surmounted by a golden cupola. Built by King Rama I just outside the new city walls, the late-18th century temple served as the capital’s crematorium. During the following 100 years, the temple became the dumping ground for some 60,000 plague victims.

Other Temples

In addition to Bangkok’s must-see temples are: Wat Benchamabophit, Wat Bowonniwetwihan, Wat Chanasongkram, Wat Intharawihan, Wat Ratchanatdaram Worawihan, Wat Rakhang, Wat Ratchabophit, Wat Ratchapradit, Wat Suwannaram and Wat Thepthidaram.

When you enter the world of online gambling the most immediate feeling you will have is probably excitement, you will have no time to explore all your available options but go for the first you can see, deposit some money and wish the best of luck to yourself as you throw the virtual dice or check your poker hole-cards for pocket aces. This might be of great fun to you for a while but later on your might notice how all your friends and other peoples who are more experienced earn more money then you, and you wonder… How do they do it?

This is very easy; they take advantage of special bonus deals set up by online gambling sites. When you sign up at a new site they often hand out “first time deposit bonuses”, you enter a bonus code when you register and you will get a bonus on your first deposit. This is something all poker sites offer, and their offers are really nice. Most sites offer a 100% deposit bonus, for example this is something Full Tilt Poker does. Whatever you deposit at Full Tilt Poker up to $600, you will get a 100% bonus matching it. In reality this means your $600 deposit will give you a $600 bonus, for doing nothing! You just earned 6500 for signing up at the site, isn’t that incredible? You can now go on playing poker at FullTiltPoker.com and have fun knowing that you got $600 doing nothing but started playing at their site.

Poker as we are all aware is a game of chance that can involve amounts of money being placed as wagers. When these types of amounts are placed on the table there is a need for rules to be given. These poker rules are for the most part well known but for absolute beginners it is best if they become acquainted with the rudiments of the game.

You can find books and internet sites that will provide helpful information about the game of poker and the poker rules and also any variations. These variations in the poker rules will for the most part be instigated by the players themselves. If you are not too sure about what these variations are like, sit out a few games and look to see how the poker rules and the variations interact.

The basic rules for the game of poker will however be found in all poker games. Generally in poker games the poker rules state that the 52 card pack can be used. In some of the games certain types of cards will have wild cards. The use of these wild cards will depend on how the poker players feel about having them in their game.

In the poker rules the rankings of poker hands is very important. A higher ranking will enable you to win the game if your opponents’ hands are lower than yours. You will however need to make sure that you understand these combinations and hand rankings.

There different play strategies and techniques which you can use to make your game of poker even better. These moves can be leant from various poker books and online poker tutorials. You can use advice which you have found on the internet tutorials. This information will help you understand all of the terminology which is used in poker.

The poker rules will also extend in to the different ways of betting and paying the wage money. The rules for poker have basically divided the betting possibilities into four main rules. These rules are call, fold, raise and check. While these are the main betting poker rules for betting there are other methods which you may want to look into.

These betting rules have the ability of affecting how your poker game is played and won. The use of poker rules can help to make your poker game more fun and challenging. As the poker rules can sometimes have twists to them you should find out from your poker buddies what the rules are for the game that you are about to embark on.

Watch Phil Ivey keep a poker face as no one else can

Today while many people have home computers and enjoy gambling for recreation or sport there is no longer a need to leave home to go to a casino, today there are hundreds of casinos on the Internet where a person can play online poker with all the excitement of being at a casino.

Internet poker when played at poker websites often have software that is downloaded that gives the actual feeling of playing at a casino, many of these software programs the Internet poker player can chat with the other players that they are playing against.

These are many in number, such as PartyPoker.com and where poker players who do not have a windows running system are still able to play Internet poker.

There are other poker websites like FullTiltPoker.com PokerStars.com and Ultimatebet.com of which each have daily tournaments, large tournaments and run qualifiers for seats at land based tournaments.

These online poker websites run promotions for new players that register at their Internet poker site where they will often match the amount of the deposit that the player makes one hundred percent up to a certain amount. They also often run special poker games or tournaments with large cash prize pools, or with prize packages that will include buy-ins for a land based tournament and include airfare, hotel accommodations, and spending money for the winning poker player that is last to leave the final table of a qualifier.

While there are poker games at poker websites that can be played for points rather than money, there are also many poker games that can be played for large amounts of money and in order to play in these games the registered poker player will find it is rather easy to use a credit card or their bank account numbers to transfer money into their online poker account.

While many Internet users find online poker not only enjoyable but also a place where they can hone their poker skills as many of the online poker players are poker pros having won not only online tournaments but also land based tournaments.

Antonio Esfandiari is one of the best known Professional Poker Players. It is because of his efficient craftsmanship in the game of poker that he is most frequently referred to as Antonio ‘The Magician’ Esfandiari. This famous Professional Poker Player is also known as an actor. He has been currently found to be co-starring with Phil Laak in I Bet You, a TV show on MOJO HD. Antonio Esfandiari was born in Tehran in Iran on 8th December in the year of 1978. He was then rechristened as Amir Esfandiari. He moved along with his family to San Jose in California when he was merely a boy of 9 years.

It was not that Antonio Esfandiari was fond of the game from the very early age. Rather, he used to take much interest in performing magic tricks. It was at his age of 19 that Antonio became a magician and he took it as his profession. It was during this period of time that he changed his name from Amir to Antonio. When he became quite famous as a professional magician, he was invited to a poker game of Texas Hold’em. From this time on he began playing poker.

So far as the success and achievements of Antonio Esfandiari as a Professional Poker Player is concerned, he won nearly 1.4 US dollars at the Commerce Casino in the year of 2004. A few months after this achievement of Antonio, he won the World Series of Poker bracelet in Pot-Limit Texas Hold’em. It was for the first time that he won the World Series of Poker bracelet.

Antonio Esfandiari was found to have appeared in the second and also in the third season of the Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament. Though he had finished dead last in the previous season, he made an impressive come back securing the second place in the third season. Antonio also took part in each of the seasons of NBC Poker after Dark and also in the early four sessions of High Stakes Poker.

The performance of Antonio Esfandiari as a Professional Poker Player was quite impressive in the year of 2007. He managed to win more than 2.7 million US dollars in that year. Apart from his identity as a famous Professional Poker Player, he is also renowned for his chip trick techniques. It is often reported that when he is on his tour to the poker circuit, he shares the same room with Phil Laak with whom he is presently co-starring in I Bet You.

It has happened eleven times in his professional career as a poker player that his money has been finished during the game. His money finishes five times in the World Poker Tour and six times in the World Series of Poker. Though he has failed to manage the credit of having any ITM main event finish, he has won one Bracelet in the World Series of Poker. If you ever happen to see him play at a tourney, make sure you take something to calm your nerves. This is one legend who will keep you on your feet.

You have decided to visit Asia for your next vacation and have decided to go to Bangkok, Thailand. Your flight is booked but you are still looking for a hotel. But, how do you decide which hotel to stay at?

Your decision should be based on what you plan to do while you are “Krung Thep”. Will you be spending most of your time sightseeing, shopping or enjoying the nightlife? You don’t want to waste valuable time in a Bangkok taxi inching along Sukhumvit Road.

Siam Square area is a good place to stay if you want to have some fun shopping. There are hundreds of small shops at street level and the Siam Center and the Siam Discovery shopping centers have many up-market brand label shops. On the top floor of Siam Discovery Center there is a cinema complex with some of the most comfortable seats to be found in the world. After a hard days shopping, relax and lie down as you watch a movie!

Another great shopping mall nearby is Mahboonkrong (MBK). It will take only 10 minutes to walk there from Siam Square and you will find literally hundreds of smaller shops and stalls, selling many goods at bargain prices. Electronics and clothes are the specialties here. Both of these areas are on the Skytrain routes and are easily accessible.

If you plan on seeing other parts of the country, taking ½ and full day trips, I suggest you book your hotel near the Bangkok Airport. Make sure that you stay near the new Bangkok Airport – Suvarnabhumi and not at Don Muang. Only stay in this area if you do plan to go to Bangkok proper. Bangkok Airport hotels are conveniently located and easy to get to from Suvarnabhumi.

If soaking up the Bangkok nightlife is your reason for visiting, there are a few different areas you can stay. If Patpong Road is your destination, stay either on Silom or Suriwongse Road. The Nana Entertainment Plaza is on Sukhumvit and Soi 4 (or Soi Nana) and there are a variety of hotels – everything from the JW Marriott to the Majestic Suites or the Dynasty. In the Soi Cowboy area, you can stay anywhere near Soi Asoke, Soi 22 or anywhere along Sukhumvit Road and just catch the Skytrain.

Probably, your hardest decision will be selecting your hotel since there are so many 4 and 5 start hotels in Bangkok. For the budget traveler, there are also cheap hotels in Bangkok. Some hotels that I recommend are: Windsor Suite Hotel Bangkok, Viengtai Hotel Bangkok, Radisson Hotel Bangkok, or the Amari Airport Hotel Bangkok. Another solution is to do a search for Hotel Bangkok Sukhumvit in any search engine. Or visit my Thailand Link Directory.

Do your research, and look for a discount Bangkok hotel, and enjoy your stay in the Land of Smiles.

Watch High Stakes Poker, it is the best poker show on TV bar none. While the World Poker Tour and ESPN’s World Series of Poker regularly garner the highest ratings, the half-hour segment on the Game Show Network is by far the most interesting.

Firstly and most importantly, High Stakes Poker is a cash game, while most other shows are tournaments. On top of that, most of those shows are only the Final Table of massive tournaments. There are no losers at the Final Table of any major tournament – they are all going to be making a lot of money. And you aren’t seeing every hand, only the ones that the producers think are the most interesting. Unlike when you watch the WPT and the WSOP, every hand is shown on High Stakes Poker. And when you see a $10,000 bet on High Stakes Poker, it is a real $10,000 bet representing real money.

This difference underscores a major shift in the style of play. In a cash game, you can buy in as many times as you want while in a tournament, you can only go broke once. This opens the door for bigger bluffs, more speculative pre-flop raises and a lot of very pricey decisions.

There are also no satellite qualifiers at the High Stakes table. While this hurts the Chris Moneymaker fan in all of us, it means that every seat is filled by a wealthy guy who is not afraid to move some money. In fact, High Stakes Poker is one of the only places to see wealthy amateurs face the pros: players like Jerry Buss and Guy Laliberte are too rich to play poker for a living, but will fool around on the felt from time to time.

And then there are those unique All-Star tables that only High Stakes Poker can make happen. There are just too many people in a major tournament to end up with a final table of Doyle Brunson, Antonio Esfandiari, Barry Greenstein, Sammy Farha, Jennifer Harmon, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey and Phil Hellmuth. This is an All-Star lineup that needs to be hand picked and assembled, both of which the producers of High Stakes Poker are happy to do.

So now, here is the list of the top 10 best hands in the history of High Stakes Poker. They feature big **** outs, big bluffs, great calls, huge pots and a couple of riverboat gamblers running a million dollar hand four times.

10. One of the most infamous moments in the history of High Stakes Poker occurred early in the show’s run. Daniel Negreanu was holding a K10 against Antonio Esfandiari who was holding pocket Jacks on a board that read Q 10 6. Kid Poker moved in on the Magician for almost $650,000 leaving Esfandiari to make one of the great reads in televised poker history. Too bad the deck disagreed. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rut0vx-UtGI.

9. Want big bluffs? Watch the relative unknown Brad Booth bluff poker superstar Phil Ivey off a pair of pocket Kings on a board that read 3 6 7 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYaWCKnGd8M.

8. 1 out of every 50 or so times that you pick up pocket Kings, someone has pocket Aces. In this heartbreaking hand Sammy Farha almost gets off of his Kings pre-flop against Barry Greenstein’s Aces. Almost, but then again, maybe it was a good call. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yg551su1KnM.

7. One of the best parts of watching High Stakes Poker is watching the players come to arrangements about running hands twice and such. Watch in this hand as Patrick Antonius and Sammy Farha agree to run a million dollar pot 4 times. Also of note is how quickly Sammy Farha calls a $300,000 bet with nothing but a king high flush draw – and it’s the right call! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRhEqem0c9A.

6. The biggest pot in High Stakes Poker history was almost this $1.2 million monster between Guy Laliberte and David Benyamine. But in the end, Guy is just too nice to be a poker pro after all. Watch for Doyle Brunson’s great line, “This represents a day in his life, it represents your life.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuzU_M8HtBU

5. If you play enough poker, you are going to get ****** out on. Not everyone gets ****** out on for $750,000 though. Watch as Patrick Antonius swallows a rivered full house from Jamie Gold http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBm1wnq2C5o.

4. Another hand featuring pocket Aces, pocket Kings and Sammy Farha. Only this time he has the Aces and rubs up against the ever chirping 2006 WSOP Main Event champion Jamie Gold. The poker played in this hand is not nearly as interesting as the conversation. Then again, a $400,000 is pretty interesting stuff. There are two parts to this one as both Sammy and Jamie are chatters at the poker table.

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NF2P3lPSxS8

Part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRt_S0LxgZg&feature=related

3. All of the players at the table had agreed to pay any one who won a hand holding a 7-2 an extra $500 a piece. So naturally, poker brat Phil Hellmuth had to try. Only, he didn’t expect to run into Mike Matusow and his pocket Kings. This hand is for any one who thinks that Phil Hellmuth is a poker celebrity only because of his mouth. Watch the difference between a decent poker player with a huge mouth and great player with a huge mouth http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NF2P3lPSxS8.

2. Maybe the single best play in the history of High Stakes Poker was brought on because of tilt. Watch as Doyle Brunson ponies up $400,000 with top pair and middle kicker against the eccentric billionaire Guy Laliberte all because he lost a previous hand to Jamie Gold http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csgzYv4jo6k.

1. Want crazy cards? How about a full house going up against quads? Watch this ridiculously cold deck between Gus Hansen and Daniel Negreanu climb up past half a million dollars. And the best part is, they both seem to know exactly what is going on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojeRwWIdQBM.

So there is a list of the 10 best hands in the history of High Stakes Poker. Check these and more out online and on the Game Show Network.

One of the popular card games that are gaining its popularity now is the poker. Poker is simply a card game solely based on the language expressed in words through bets as well as the language of strategies and deception. It is a card game which can be played by two or more card players wherein each card player has the choice to make one or more wagers. Most of the time there are no requirements needed in playing poker on many online sites. And most of these sites are offering freeroll games open to all.

Freeroll is a situation in hold’em wherein a player can have the chance to win the whole pot when assured of a half because he or she is presently tied with another player. Freeroll tournament is just the same with other multi-table tournaments. The only difference is that the buy-ins in freeroll is not cash. Buy-in refers to the minimum amount needed to play and start with a new game. It is sometimes used to indicate the number of starting chips a player has. Before, pokers are being played in land casinos and poker rooms, however, today pokers can be played through the internet. In fact, there are various best freeroll poker sites anywhere in the net. Some of them are PokerStars, PokerHost and UltimateBet.

PokerStars is a place for both beginners and experienced poker players. The site has more tournaments and tables compared to other freeroll poker sites. It offers poker games like Omaha, ring games, Stud, Texas Hold’em and tournaments. The aforementioned games have pot limit, no limit and fixed limit. PokerStars also hold tournaments like Asia Pacific poker Tour (APPT), European Poker Tour (EPT), Latin American Poker Tour (LAPT), PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA), World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) and World Cup of Poker. PokerStars had already produced a WSOP Main Event Champion whose name is Daniel Negreanu and Joe Hachem. Indeed, PokerStars is one of the best freeroll poker sites today because it has a variety of online poker games of different kinds.

Another freeroll site is the PokerHost. This poker room will give you an experience to play like pro and join any poker games. It provides up to date experience in an online poker room, the top quality customer support, sense of community and fun. PokerHost is known to be one of the best freeroll poker sites because it uses a system to randomly generate different seed numbers.

Ultimatebet is one of the best freeroll poker sites which have been in the business since 1999. This poker room is consistently offering poker players pro and beginners the great cash games, poker tournaments, and free play. As a matter of fact, it offers the popular Texas Hold’em Poker as well as the Omaha poker. Undeniably, Ultimatebet has been a good poker room for it has safe gaming environment and a wide range of poker games.

Freeroll poker tournaments are experiencing a total boom today because of the widespread of the best freeroll poker sites. Experienced poker players as well as new players are battling for a prize pool even without cash investments.

Playing online poker is not the same as playing in person, as you cannot watch body language, which is a great advantage if you want to win. However, there are ways you can read the action of other poker players if you know what to look for in an online poker game.

The first thing you should pay attention to is how long it takes the person to place a bet. This is known as the stall. However, many experienced players are now using this method to try to fool other players. The best way for the stall method to work is that you must know the players in the room. After you play a room awhile, you will get to know the regulars and learn who is an expert. Once you know this, then the stall method will help you know which players are new. Inexperienced players often stall due to the fact they are not sure how much to bet even if they have a great hand. Just watch your step, remember pros are now using the same method to side track you.

Watch for players that have been playing rather quickly and then all of a sudden stall or vice versa one that has been thinking a bit before betting and then bets quickly after being dealt a hand. Either one of these could mean they have something good in their hand. No matter whether you are playing online or offline, you can learn behavior patterns of other poker players and get the edge.

The pattern of poker players is probably the most important factor with online poker. Since you cannot watch their faces, you can still watch the patterns that are there from betting, to calling, to raising. You should pay attention to the way in which each player bets compared to the size of the pot as well. Online players are normally those that play all the time, they have their own routine and patterns, just as in real life. These are things you must learn if you want to win at any online poker game.

Watch those chat boxes. Yes, it can be fun to chat with your friends; however, you can also be heckled just like in real life. A matter of fact, the chat box might be your worst enemy. They can yell at you with all capitals, use rolling smiley faces, and more to distract you from your main goal. You will hear all kinds of insults such as “newbie”, the “game room cheats”, and so on and so forth. Anything to get your mind off the game and watching the other players.

Of course, you cannot watch the other players in your poker room, but you can watch the way they play and learn from experience how to read online poker players.