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This column is dedicated to looking at a single hand and dissecting it to help poker players better understand the game and the mindsets of some of the top players in the world. Let’s focus for a minute on Dan Harrington’s hand at the World Poker Tour Championship at the Bellagio in April.

Dan’s in late position, blinds are 1500-3000 with a 400 ante. The buy in was 25000. Harrington raises 10,000 with K-9 off. One player calls, the big blind. Flop comes rainbow 2-10-5 rainbow. Obviously Harrington misses here, but could this help his opponent? Big blind checks, and Harrington makes a continuation bet of 12,000. Big blind calls. Interesting. So what’s Harrington thinking here? “I think he has a small pair or paired the 10.” Next comes the turn, 7h, which puts a flush draw on the board. Another continuation bet by Harrington, this time for 26000. Still, the BB calls, but “He thought about it a long time…” River comes 8h. If the BB was looking for a flush, he made it, or possibly the straight.

At this point Harrington is thinking “He has a pair and he thinks he’s going to make stand on the end, and he hopes I check on the end.” Now at this point we see that Harrington has nothing, but with good poker position and his betting patterns, this is a wonderful opportunity to pull off a bluff. After all , it won’t look suspicious as the betting signifies that Harrington has something, even though we know he holds a muck if he’s challenged. And unfortunately this time he is. He pushes 60000 in forcing the BB to bet his whole stack. And he does. And what does the BB turn over? Pocket fours. Now there’s lots that can be said for the bad play by the pocket fours, but in the end, it just goes to show you that even with the most advanced technical skill, such as that shown by Harrington, sometimes our love of our hand throws off any logic and “should have happened,” moments.

Still, it speaks volumes that Harrington was able to predict the poker hand so accurately.

If you’re going to apply for a credit card, a mortgage, a loan or any other source of finance, one thing any potential lender will check is your credit report. This will tell them about any previous unpaid debts or legal judgments against you, and help them assess whether you are creditworthy or not.

There are three three nationwide consumer reporting companies in the US: Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. All keep different information about you, and all or any of them may be referred to by a potential lender.

If you are thinking of applying for credit, therefore - and especially if you have ever been turned down in the past - it is important to find out what these companies have on their records about you. And because all three companies are independent, you need to check on all of them.

The good news for consumers is that as from September 1, 2005, everyone in the US is entitled to a free copy of their credit report from each of the consumer reporting companies once a year.

To get free copies of your credit report, you should not apply to the three companies directly. There is only one website that is authorized to give out free credit reports, and this is at www.annualcreditreport.com. You can also get your free credit report via telephone by calling 877-322-8228.

If you find a mistake on your credit report - for example, a debt that isn’t yours or a disputed amount - you’ll need to fill out the form that comes with the report, or follow the instructions on the explanatory sheet. Upon receipt of a challenge, a credit reporting agency must investigate the claim, usually within 30 days.

As long as a charge is in dispute, it will still show up on your report. Long-time lenders say it’s common for reports to have errors. Some estimate that as many as 80 per cent of all credit reports contain some kind of misinformation. So it really is important to take advantage of this free opportunity to check your credit report, even if you’re not currently planning any finance applications.

Nick Davis is the owner of credit card comparison website www.finest-credit-cards.com, which aims to match you up with the ideal credit card to suit your situation. With details of all the leading card offers updated daily, plus informative articles to guide you in your choice, you will never pick the wrong credit card again.

You should be wise today to investigate if you have a nice offer or if you don’t with the moneylender that offers you a loan. It doesn’t matter if you live in Eugene Oregon or in Anaheim California a secure online inspection will spare you often a lot of ail. Check out to see if the merchant bank who wants to give you a credit loan is upright. A bank in Ames Iowa or so may have a total totally different actual rate of interest for a 12500 dollar credit loan then a moneylender in Largo Florida and that makes a big clear difference in your weekly costs.

Translated in Dutch it means: Woon je in Grave of Emmen en hebt u BKR. Lenen met en BKR codering is nog nooit zo eenvoudig geweest. Verwen jezelf met een nieuwe auto met negatieve bkr registratie, 199547 euro is gewoon mogelijk om te lenen. Van Nunspeet tot Meerssen, geld lenen met en BKR codering is hier geen enkel probleem.

That’s why now you really need to investigate and see if you can have a money loan at a honest percent rate. Nowadays you can suss out rates quickly at websites and learn if there are other sneaky conditions you should be aware of. Many of the merchant banks wil show you a interest rate that is looking secure but feels severely or so after some time. 17.7 percent loan rate may seem so just but will that be unalterable after you’re going to reinforce your bank loan.

The Sony Platinum Visa Card is a credit card with a unique reward program particularly for those with good credit scores. Cardholders are entitled to earn one point for every dollar spent on general purchases and three points for purchases of Sony merchandise charged to the Sony Visa Card.

Purchases made through www.sony.com/mysony are entitled for a whopping eight points for every dollar spent. These points can then be redeemed for Sony CDs, DVDs, games, movie tickets, and electronics. The points expire in five years if they aren’t redeemed with a 250,000 point per year limit, which is well high and reasonable. There is no point limit for purchases made through Sony’s website. On top of that, cardholders are able to earn 1,500 bonus points on their first purchase.

Overall, the Sony Visa Card is a great card, with reasonable interest rates and a 0% introductory rate applicable for new purchases or balance transfers made within the first twelve months upon joining. No annual fees are charged either.

However, finance charges are calculated based on the “Two Cycles Average Daily Balance” method which is higher than the more commonly used “Average Daily Balance” calculation. This may result in higher charges, so it is advisable not to carry an outstanding balance forward when using this card. The APR for less qualifying applicants may also be higher.

On a more positive note, this credit card company provides platinum cardholders benefits of up to $1,000,000 in travel accident insurance, auto rental insurance, and various travel and emergency assistance services.

All in all, The Sony Visa Card is ideal for those who spend or plan to spend a significant sum on Sony merchandise and also those who intend to take full advantage of the online shopping experience Sony has to offer. As long as card members do not default on their outstanding balances, then they will have much to gain from using the Sony Visa Card.

Whether you have only recently moved into a new place of residence & need a whole new range of domestic appliances and fittings; or you just need a new kettle - John Lewis will assist you. It is normally acknowledged that the kitchen is the heart of every home, so it is vital to own the correct home appliances after all, in the view of the fact that the incorrect food processor can make a huge difference

Without doubt some buys are considerably more significant than others; therefore you may perhaps spend more time when taking into account which cooker or dishwasher you want to buy rather than mulling over your next toaster. But, even the smallest of products can transform the look and feel of the kitchen. Also, ordering several products from 1 shop gives you the opportunity to give your kitchen a fresher feel by matching the style of your purchases. Glancing at the John Lewis shop you may also see ideas for kitchen products you might not have ponder over before - bread makers for example.

But it is not merely the ‘look’ of the appliances that you must mull over but also the requirement; for example what size toaster do you fancy? How many facilities do you need on your washing machine? Do you prefer a gas or electric cooker? For added info and suggestions on deciding on the finest kitchen appliances then take a look at John Lewis’s customers’ articles, which can be read on their internet site.

Purchasing from the John Lewis internet site couldn’t be any simpler or more helpful. Not only will you get free standard delivery on each and every order; you may also pick next day delivery if you ever require that toaster in an urgent situation; as well as free returns if you were frustrated by the goods. John Lewis also at the present gives two day express delivery service on a number of domestic appliances for instance washing machines, dishwashers & cookers. Thus, you can defiantly order from John Lewis’s website with self-assurance. John Lewis stocks a wide variety of gas cookers for you to buy.

A times in the past securing gorgeous leather foot stools was, if not the province of the rich and famous, then at least limited to to shoppers with plenty of wealth and the finances to delight in life’s more dearly-won pleasures. Fortunately leather furniture presently is greatly more accessible and as pretty a centre for your living space as it ever was.

For many the most errorless examples of this case is the leather chesterfield settee, which gives any house a grand, classical Tudor feeling. A Chesterfield suites made from elegant leather and hand crafted by one of Britain’s finest craftsman is genuinely a thing of wonder, and will provide many years gratification and great service to the most imperious family line.

Concerns about the maintainability of leather furniture are also nothing to worry about these days, with a universal range of choices of brushing and stain proofing now usable for any wallet. Your settee and chairs will be fortified with a warranty for several dollars, and the protective covering will last, if not a lifetime then certainly a generation or even longer.

Most pleasing of all a leather chesterfield couch can also be used in the most contemporaneous houses, with the traditional styling forming a wonderful accompaniment to those living rooms where modern fixtures, composites and the modern would otherwise rule. If you have an exceedingly innovative room why not complement your with a leather chesterfield sofa?

1. Google love …

Google and all its programming is not some form of enemy - unless you are a piece of web scum, that is.

Google is based on the idea that it should help people FIND WHAT THEY ARE LOOKING FOR.

That’s all.

Sit with the statement above. Meditate upon it if necessary. Use EFT.

But UNDERSTAND that a pointless site that has no unique content will NEVER get ANYWHERE with Googly or any other outfit that is using their techniques and methods.

You can buy books and ebooks until your wallet bleeds on “how to trick Google” this and that - just forget it.

Unless you have SOME THING that SOME PEOPLE will HONESTLY WANT and be grateful for when they find it, there is no hope and there is no point in reading any further.

Also, trying to fight Google or be cleverer somehow is pointless, distructive and the wrong attitude.

Learn to LOVE Google and work WITH IT.

If you have the contents, and you follow the most simplest common spider robot courtesy protocols, then it will come and it will index you.

It will be that mystical bridge between YOUR (customers, people, communities, friends) and your site.

That’s what it does, that’s what it is, that’s it’s nature and if you know that, then all is well.

You will get good results following the rest of this.

2. Dressing For Google …

So now, let’s have a DECENT website with DECENT content.

A decent website means:

- All the pages and directories have links that work properly and allow Google to slide with immense ease from one place to the other, without ever hitting an annoying dead end;

- All the pages are cleaned up so that you have the absolute MINIMUM of html instructions and nothing that doesn’t need to be there, such as vast and pointless java scripts or the truly appalling “mso” instructions;

- All the pages have the right meta tags which ACCURATELY REFLECT what’s on them, and including title, content, description, keywords at the very minimum;

- All your pages have proper headings and descriptions and content WHICH MATCHES your meta tags to a T;

- All your images are title and alt tagged CORRECTLY and resident on your own site.

Decent content means:

- Whatever you’ve got, it is USEFUL. If it is UNIQUE, so much the better, and that’s not hard. All you need to is to be yourself and use your own words, even if you are affiliate - write your own reviews, put your own dog’s picture on it, be unique, be YOURSELF.

- Whatever you’ve got, I’m sure there’s some people who want to look at it, read it, do something with it. There’s billions of people out there. Just make sure YOU KNOW WHO YOUR PEOPLE ARE and write to THEM.

- Decent content also means that what you’ve got is presented so that both Google and a human being get it what that is all about.

When your website is up and running, test, test and test again. Try every single hyperlink on your own computer, on someone else’s and on all manner of different browsers.

Only when you are happy that it all works as it should, we go to Step 3.

3. Let Google SEE You

You need a minimum of 35 decent links going to your site for Google to take any notice of you and start paying attention.

Please be aware that “one link” is just that - www.snark.net is NOT the same as http://www.snark.net, which is not the same as http://snark.net, nor even remotely similar to any variation including http://snark.net/index.php

All, each and every ONE is viewed as a single separate link - when you need 35 ALL GOING TO ONE SINGLE ADDRESS to do the magic.

So now, to the “decent links” part.

A site that isn’t indexed much by Google or doesn’t turn up until page 1,993,990 on a Google search for its kind is WORTHLESS to you.

Find HIGH RANKED directory listings for your site and list your site THERE. This goes for any of the many variations on getting a link from another site, be it a guestbook signed or an article placed. Don’t waste your time with anything that itself doesn’t turn up on Google’s own top ten.

Now, you’ve got a date with Google.

What we need to do next is to BUILD A RELATIONSHIP - prove our value and worth over time, in other words.

That’s the next of our Google top tips - seniority and reliability.

4. Be THERE When Google Calls!

Make sure you’ve got a decent ISP with 99% uptime or better - that’s of course elementary.

Don’t ever take your site down for whatever reason and make any changes gradually.

Most importantly, get the best tracking software you can afford and find out who is already coming, and what they are coming for.

That’s the key to long term success - to find what you’re doing well and then expanding on it. For example, if one person came from Google (or any other search engine) for the term “snark”, then build on that. Write more articles about snarks, what to do with them and without them, collect snark images - in other words, become the first port of call for any snark enquiry.

Build on your speciality some more with a web directory, guest articles, reviews and then we’re more than 3/4 the way to a real web presence and Google responding to changes in your site near instantly, which is what we want.

5. Keep Improving ALL THE TIME.

The final success tip is to keep improving ALL THE TIME.

Pull up the html or php you wrote a year ago - I bet you can do better now.

Review your meta tags and your site copy and improve on both.

Name your pages, images and directories better. Improve the content, structure, navigation of your site.

Keep at it with directory listings and submissions - directories come and go, you need to be always there with the “state of the art”.

Keep doing useful link exchanges with matching high ranked sites too and keep adding VALUE and UNIQUE CONTENT to your clean and well presented pages.

That’s the most important thing of all - to keep at it with continuous improvement.

Follow these steps EXACTLY with a well named new site with decent content - and you WILL see immediate improvement in your Google rankings.

Good Luck and Good Spirits always,

Silvia

Silvia Hartmann

CEO, The StarFields Network

Author, MindMillion - Rags To Riches In 6 Phases

Silvia Hartmann PhD is an author, NLP, Hypnosis & MET Trainer and international motivational speaker. Her published books include the international best seller “Adventures In EFT”, “Project Sanctuary” and “EmoTrance”. After a five year research project, she created MindMillion, a unique approach to wealth building and reality creation.