Sapphires

Sapphire is a gemstone variety of the mineral corundum, an aluminum oxide, when it is a color other than red or dark pink, in which case the gem would be a ruby, considered a different gemstone. Trace amounts of other elements such as iron, titanium, or chromium can give corundum blue, yellow, pink, purple, orange, or greenish color. Pink-orange sapphires are padparadscha. Pure chromium is the distinct impurity of rubies. However, a combination of e.g. chromium and titanium can give a sapphire of a color distinct from red. Sapphires are a part of many jewelry settings. Sapphires found naturally by searching through certain sediments or rock formations, or manufactured for industrial or decorative purposes in large crystal boles. Because of the remarkable hardness of sapphires , sapphires are used in some non-ornamental applications, including infrared optical components, such as in scientific instruments; small, high-durability windows ; wristwatch crystals; and very thin electronic wafers, which are used as the insulating substrates of very special-purpose solid-state electronics . The sapphire is one of the two or three gem-varieties of corundum, with another one being the red or deep pink ruby. Although blue is their most known color, sapphires make up of any color of corundum except for red. Sapphires may also be colorless, and found in shades of gray and black. The cost of natural sapphires varies depending on their color, clarity, size, cut, and overall quality - as well as their geographic origin, oddly enough. Significant sapphire deposits are found in Eastern Australia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Madagascar, East Africa, and in North America in a few locations, such as at Gem Mountain, and in or near the Missouri River in the region around Helena, Montana. Sapphire and rubies found together in the same area, but one gem is usually more abundant. Color in gemstones breaks down into three components: hue, saturation, and tone. Hue is the color of the gemstone. Saturation refers to the vividness, brightness, or colorfulness of the hue and tone is the lightness to darkness of the hue. Blue sapphire exists in various mixtures of its primary and secondary hues, various tonal levels and at various levels of saturation. Blue sapphires evaluated based upon the purity of their primary hue. Purple, violet, and green are the most common secondary hues found in blue sapphires. Violet and purple can contribute to the overall beauty of the color, while green considered distinctly negative. Blue sapphires with up to 15% violet or purple are to be of fine quality. Blue sapphires with any amount of green as a secondary hue are not fine quality. Gray is the normal saturation modifier or mask found in blue sapphires. Gray reduces the saturation or brightness of the hue and therefore has a distinctly negative effect. The color of fine blue sapphires described as a vivid medium dark violet to purplish blue where the primary blue hue is at least 85% and the secondary hue no more than 15% without the least admixture of a green secondary hue or a gray mask. Yellow and green sapphires found regularly. Pink sapphires deepen in color as the quantity of chromium increases. The deeper the pink color the higher their monetary value as long as the color is trending towards the red of rubies. Sapphires also occur in shades of orange, brown, and colorless sapphires sometimes used as diamond substitutes in jewelry. Padparadscha sapphires often draw higher prices than many of even the finest blue sapphires. Recently, more sapphires of this color have appeared on the market result of a new artificial treatment method that is lattice diffusion.

Online bingo is the game of bingo played on the Internet.

Unlike balls used in regular bingo halls, online bingo sites use a random number generator. Most bingo halls also offer links to online poker and casino offerings as the patrons are often in the target market. One notable feature of online bingo is the chat functionality. Bingo sites strive to foster a sense of community and interaction between players as this helps customer retention.

Playing bingo online, players can make use of optional features, which make playing the game easier, such as auto-daub. Auto-daub automatically marks off the numbers on cards as they are called, so players don't have to. Most software providers support other gaming features as Best Card Sorting and Best Card Highlighting where players cards are sorted and highlighted by closest to bingo. Some of these features are designed to free players to enjoy the communal pleasantries of the chat features.

There is variety among the different kinds of bingo games that can be played. For example, some inexpensive game rooms appeal to the player who may want to play for just a 10 cents or 10 pence; some bingo games only allow players to purchase the same amount of cards so they are not competing against the high rollers out there who buy many cards for the same game.

The odds in favor of an event or a proposition are expressed as the ratio of a pair of integers, which is the ratio of the probability that an event will happen to the probability that it will not happen. For example, the odds that a randomly chosen day of the week is a Sunday are one to six, which is sometimes written 1:6, or 1/6. In probability theory and statistics, where the variable p is the probability in favor of the event, and the probability against the event is therefore 1-p, the odds of the event are the quotient of the two, or p/(1-p). That value may be regarded as the relative likelihood the event will happen, expressed as a fraction if it is less than 1, or a multiple if it is equal to or greater than one of the likelihood that the event will not happen. In the example just given, saying the odds of a Sunday are one to six or, less commonly, one-sixth means the probability of picking a Sunday randomly is one-sixth the probability of not picking a Sunday. While the mathematical probability of an event has a value in the range from zero to one, the odds in favor of that same event lie between zero and infinity. The odds against the event with probability given as p are (1-p)/p.

The odds against Sunday are 6:1 or 6/1 = 6: it is 6 times as likely that a random day is not a Sunday. Hence 'odds' are an expression of relative probabilities. Generally 'odds' are quoted in this format odds against rather than as odds in favor of, because of the possibility of confusion of the latter with the fractional probability of an event occurring. E.g., the probability of a random day of the week is a Sunday is 'one-seventh' 1/7. A bookmaker may for his own purposes use 'odds' of 'one-sixth', but the overwhelming everyday use by most people is odds of the form 6 to 1, 6-1, 6:1, or 6/1 all read as 'six-to-one' where the first figure represents the number of ways of failing to achieve the outcome and the second figure is the number of ways of achieving a favorable outcome: thus these are odds against. In other words, an event with m to n odds against would have probability n/ m + n, while an event with m to n odds on would have probability m/ m + n. Even in probability theory, odds may be more natural or more convenient than probabilities. This is in particular the case in problems of sequential decision making as for instance in problems of how to stop online on a last specific event, which is solved by the odds algorithm.

In some games of chance, using odds against is also the most convenient way to understand what winnings will be paid if the selection is successful: the winner will be paid 'six' of whatever stake unit was bet for each 'one' of the stake unit wagered. For example, a winning bet of 10 at 6/1 will win '6 × 10 = 60' with the original 10 stake also being returned. Betting odds are skewed to ensure that the bookmaker makes a profit—if true odds were offered the bookmaker would break even in the long run—so the numbers do not represent the true odds.

Odds on means that the event is more likely to happen than not. This is sometimes expressed with the smaller number first 1:2 but more often using the word on 2:1 on meaning that the event is twice as likely to happen as not.

Decimal presentation

Taking an event with a 1 in 5 probability of occurring i.e. a probability of 1/5, 0.2 or 20%, then the odds are 0.2 / 1 − 0.2 = 0.2 / 0.8 = 0.25. This figure 0.25 represents the monetary stake necessary for a person to gain one monetary unit on a successful wager when offered fair odds. This may be scaled up by any convenient factor to give whole number values. For example, if a stake of 0.25 wins 1 unit, then scaling by a factor of four means a stake of 1 wins 4 units.

Ratio presentation

Fixed odds gambling tends to represent the probability as fractional odds, and excludes the stake. For example, 0.20 is represented as 4 to 1 against written as 4-1, 4:1, or 4/1, since there are five outcomes of which four are unsuccessful. Thus, the stake returned must be added to the odds to compute the entire return of a successful bet. In craps, the payout would be represented as 5 for 1, and in money line odds as +400 representing the gain from a 100 stake.

By contrast, for an event with a 4 in 5 probability of occurring i.e. a probability of 4/5, 0.8 or 80%, then the odds are 0.8 / 1 − 0.8 = 4. If one bets 4 units at these odds and the event occurs, one receives back 1 unit plus the original unit 4 units stake. This would be presented in fractional odds of 4 to 1 on'' written as 1/4 or 1–4 , in decimal odds as 1.25 to include the returned stake, in craps as 5 for 4, and in money line odds as −400 representing the stake necessary to gain 100.

Fixed odds are not necessarily presented in the lowest possible terms; if there is a pattern of odds of 5–4, 7–4 and so on, odds which are mathematically 3–2 are more easily compared if expressed in the mathematically equivalent form 6–4. Similarly, 10–3 may be stated as 100–30.

Gambling odds versus probabilities

In gambling, the odds on display do not represent the true chances that the event will occur, but are the amounts that the bookmaker will pay out on winning bets. In formulating his odds to display the bookmaker will have included a profit margin which effectively means that the payout to a successful bettor is less than that represented by the true chance of the event occurring. This profit is known as the 'over-round' on the 'book' the 'book' refers to the old-fashioned ledger in which wagers were recorded, and is the derivation of the term 'bookmaker' and relates to the sum of the 'odds' in the following way:

In a 3-horse race, for example, the true probabilities of each of the horses winning based on their relative abilities may be 50%, 40% and 10%. These are simply the bookmaker's 'odds' multiplied by 100% for convenience. The total of these three percentages is 100%, thus representing a fair 'book'. The true odds against winning for each of the three horses are 1-1, 3-2 and 9-1 respectively. In order to generate a profit on the wagers accepted by the bookmaker he may decide to increase the values to 60%, 50% and 20% for the three horses, representing odds against of 4-6, 1-1 and 4-1. These values now total 130%, meaning that the book has an over round of 30 130 − 100. This value of 30 represents the amount of profit for the bookmaker if he accepts bets in the correct proportions on each of the horses. The art of bookmaking is that he will take in, for example, $130 in wagers and only pay $100 back including stakes no matter which horse wins.

Profiting in gambling involves predicting the relationship of the true probabilities to the payout odds. Sports information services are often used by professional and semi-professional sports bettors to help achieve this goal.

The odds or amounts the bookmaker will pay are determined by the total amount that has been bet on all of the possible events. They reflect the balance of wagers on either side of the event, and include the deduction of a bookmaker’s brokerage fee vig or vigorish.

Indian Poker

Blind man's bluff also called Indian poker, or squaw poker or Indian head is a version of poker that is unconventional in that each person sees the cards of all players except his own.

The standard version is simply high card wins. Each player is dealt one card that he displays to all other players traditionally stuck to the forehead facing outwards- supposedly like an Indian feather. This is followed by a round of betting. Players attempt to guess if they have the highest card based on the distribution of visible cards and how other players are betting.

Other versions forehead stud are variations on stud poker, in which one or more of the hole cards is hidden from its owner, but shown to all other players, as above. During its coverage of the 2004 World Series of Poker, ESPN showed a Blind Man's Bluff version of Texas hold'em.