Countless peoples populate the lands of the Age of Lost Omens, fighting for their collective pride, a greater cause, or simply to eke out survival in an untamed and magical world. The Pathfinder Lost Omens Character Guide dives into the myriad cultures and organizations you can encounter or join in your journey, breathing life into both your character and the many allies and enemies you're bound to meet along the way. This must-have guidebook for characters of all types introduces three new ancestries to the Second Edition of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game-the regimented and warlike hobgoblin, the plant-like leshy, and the inquisitive lizardfolk-provides 10 new heritages for the game's core ancestries, offers nearly 100 new ancestry feats, and presents 10 new archetypes to allow characters of any class to participate in the world's most notable organizations, from the adventurous Pathfinder Society to the rabble-rousing Firebrands to the magical masters of the Magaambya!

This follow-up to "WPT: Shuffle Up and Deal" from poker professional Antonio Esfandiari with contributions from other stars of the World Poker Tour provides the next level of poker strategies and insights for today's poker players. Cash Games are the most commonly played version of Texas Hold'em; in fact at this very moment thousands are playing this non-tournament style of Hold'em in casinos, home games and online. This will be a must have for all poker enthusiasts.

Chess Developments provides state-of-the-art openings coverage. Chess Developments focuses on the current trends - concentrating on critical lines, theoretical novelties and powerful new ideas. It offers players of all levels the opportunity to keep up-to-date with current opening theory whilst also expanding and improving their repertoires. In this book, Bryan Paulsen examines key lines in the Semi-Slav Defence, which is hotly debated at both world championship and club level. Paulsen covers the fascinating Botvinnik Variation, the solid Moscow Variation, the razor-sharp Anti-Moscow Gambit, the popular Cambridge Springs Defence and the hybrid Queen's Gambit Declined. He studies the most theoretically important and instructive games in recent years, highlighting the main developments and novelties for both sides. Whether playing White or Black, this book provides you with vital knowledge of a popular opening. *Essential coverage and analysis of the Semi-Slav 5 Bg5 *Includes the Botvinnik, Moscow, Anti-Moscow and Cambridge Springs *Packed with key new ideas and critical lines

So you're a fairly decent chess player. You compete in tournaments, you play on the Internet. But you would love to make that leap to become a chess master. What do you need to know, how much do you have to practise, and how much of the success of the masters is simply a matter of innate talent, superior brainpower or just good luck? This useful book, aimed at all chess players who aspire to become chess masters, shows you what the masters know and you don't. Written by one of our biggest-selling and best-loved chess authors, in his trademark chatty, accessible but always informative style, this book is filled with practical exercises and test games that will reveal the secrets of how to join chess's elite ranks.

A deck of 52 beautiful cards featuring mini meditations you can fit into your busy day, inspiring affirmations to repeat aloud, and soothing quotations from wise souls. The box also includes a booklet on mindfulness and a stand for displaying the cards. You don't need long hours of silence to feel the benefits of mindful meditation. There are so many little moments throughout the day when you can pause, be present and find peace within. Whether your goal is to dial down your stress levels or refresh your outlook on life, the journey begins with this box. Alongside a pocket-sized booklet covering the essentials of mindfulness and mindful meditation, this box contains a set of 52 beautifully designed cards, each with a brief meditation on one side and either a calming affirmation or a wise quotation on the reverse. Each card can be displayed individually using the wooden stand, allowing you to bring tranquil inspiration to any shelf, windowsill, desk or side table. This is the perfect gift for anyone looking to bring a sense of peacefulness and presence into their daily lives. The box includes 52 individual cards, a 16-page booklet and a high-quality wooden stand Choose to display a mindful meditation, a soothing affirmation or an inspiring quote Beautifully presented and featuring bespoke card designs

Professional blackjack player Kevin Blackwood shares his million-dollar winning strategies for mastering the odds and consistently beating the house at their own game.

Play Blackjack Like the Pros is the requisite introduction to the modern game of blackjack, including high and low stakes casino, shoe games (several decks shuffled together), online, and tournaments. Blackwood begins with the basic rules of play and then moves on to teach his proven card-counting method, broken-down into three levels: novice, recreational, and professional. He also covers camouflaging techniques (it's perfectly legal to count cards, but if the house catches you they will kick you out), money management, and team play. Blackwood includes many stories of his and other professionals' triumphs at the tables and keeps the highly technical language that bogs down most gaming books to an absolute minimum.

Play Blackjack Like the Pros is written in the style of Phil Hellmuth's Play Poker Like the Pros using easy-to-understand lessons that all levels of players can quickly benefit from.

Blackwood is one of the world's top card counters. He began with only a few hundred dollars and has won over a million playing blackjack. In Play Blackjack Like the Pros he demonstrates how to earn over $10,000 a month from just a few days work.

Blackjack is set to balloon in popularity. Ben Mezrich's book on the MIT card counting team Bringing Down the House was on the New York Times bestseller list for weeks and is being made into a movie staring Kevin Spacey. Blackjack Tournaments are growing in popularity with many of the top casinos offering large prize pools. Online Blackjack is currently a multi-million dollar industry. Blackwood keeps the highly technical language that bogs down most gaming books to an absolute minimum.

Foreword by Stanford Wong, author of Professional Blackjack and the master of modern card counting.

UNHOLY TRICKS by Terence Reese and David Bird is a further collection of bridge tales involving the eccentric monks of St Titus. In addition to their usual rubber bridge games - and they play for surprisingly high stakes at the monastery - the monks become involved in duplicate matches against nuns, visiting Italians and even the local police.

A poker primer from the hosts and stars of the World Poker Tour, offering basic strategy, trivia, and an inside look at this runaway hit. The World Poker Tour has revolutionized the game of poker by putting cameras under the table and raising awareness and enthusiasm to an international level. The World Poker Tour: Shuffle Up and Deal is aimed at the millions of passionate fans of the WPT, whether they're ambitious up-and-comers on the poker circuit, or casual players hoping to take the pot at their next Wednesday night game. Shuffle Up and Deal will be a solid poker primer, covering set-up, play, and basic poker strategy, along with many of the interactive elements of the WPT TV show: poker trivia, definitions of poker terms using examples from the show, profiles of WPT star players, insights into the world of professional poker, and an inside look at the show.

From the late Revolutionary Wars and Egyptian campaign, to the battles of Austerlitz, Borodino, Leipzig, and Waterloo, Absolute Emperor is a mass battle wargame that provides all the rules needed to play during this period of grand armies and sweeping campaigns. Players' armies are composed of multiple corps, with command and control being of the utmost importance, all influenced by the elan of your general. Do you follow in the footsteps of Napoleon and be crowned the Absolute Emperor or stand against tyranny as Wellington and Blucher?

'Move by Move' is a brand new series which provides an ideal platform to study chess openings. By continually challenging the reader to answer probing questions throughout the book, 'Move by Move' greatly encourages the learning and practising of vital skills just as much as the traditional assimilation of opening knowledge. Carefully selected questions and answers are designed to keep you actively involved, and allow you to monitor your progress as you learn. This is an excellent way to study any chess opening and at the same time improve your general opening skills and knowledge. In this book, Grandmaster Neil McDonald studies one of the most important openings of all, the Ruy Lopez, which is still regarded as White's strongest choice after 1 e4 e5. Also known as the Spanish Opening, the Ruy Lopez has a long and distinguished history. It's sufficient to say that it has been played by virtually every single great player! McDonald shares his experience and knowledge, examines the opening from both sides of the board, and offers answers to all the key questions. *Essential guidance and training in the Ruy Lopez *Written by an opening expert and renowned coach *Key ideas absorbed by continued practice

Two compelling titles now brought together in one volume! ----- Beating Unusual Chess Defences: 1 e4: Dealing with the Scandinavian, Pirc, Modern, Alekhine and other tricky lines by Andrew Greet. ----- Anyone who plays 1 e4 as White must be prepared not only for Black's main defences but also an assortment of less popular lines. These, when taken together, represent a significant percentage of the replies you can expect to meet when opening 1 e4. Dealing with these slightly offbeat variations is often a daunting task, especially since your opponents are likely to be specialists in these lines and therefore know them inside out. ----- Beating Unusual Chess Defences provides the perfect solution. International Master Andrew Greet gets to grips with each of these tricky openings. He identifies how to exploit their weaknesses whilst avoiding their strengths, thus constructing a practical and dependable repertoire for White. This book covers everything a 1 e4 player needs to know about facing these defences. ----- Beating Unusual Chess Openings: Dealing with the English, Reti, King's Indian Attack and other annoying systems by Richard Palliser ----- Beating Unusual Chess Openings is a godsend to those chess players fed up with struggling against all opening moves other than White's main two: 1 e4 and 1 d4. From the respectable (English Opening, Reti and King's Indian Attack) through to theoffbeat (Nimzo-Larsen Attack, Bird's Opening) and the totally bizarre (Orang-utan, Grob); everything Black needs to know about facing unusual openings is covered within these pages. Richard Palliser gets to grips with all of White's possibilities, examining their strengths and weaknesses and in turn organizing a reliable and practical repertoire for Black.

Toward the end of the millennium, the World Rock Paper Scissors Society had fallen on hard times. Long gone were the heady days when an RPS champion would be honoured by a tickertape parade. By the time brothers Graham and Douglas Walker joined in the late 90s, the society had been reduced to little more than a loose collection of drinking companions with a common interest. It was then that Graham and Doug decided to take the helm and re-chart the course of the World RPS Society by bringing its teachings to the masses via the Web. Relying on their background in advertising, they established a website (www worldrps.com) and began a campaign to increase membership and return the World RPS to its former glory. In 2002, they achieved their greatest coup yet:;rebuilding the International World Championships of Rock Paper Scissors. Now they have written THE OFFICIAL ROCK PAPER SCISSORS STRATEGY GUIDE, covering the complete RPS scene from the playground to the pro level, including RPS culture around the world, the history of the World RPS, basic rules and game fundamentals, the personality behind each throw, winning gambits, building a strategy, secrets of the RPS masters, and how to set

Bad Beats and Lucky Draws is your down-and-dirty guide to the world of high-stakes professional poker. Phil Hellmuth, nine-time World Series of Poker Champion and author of Play Poker Like the Pros, presents a blow-by-blow account of many of poker's "clash of the titans" hands from the World Series of Poker, the World Poker Tour, and the European Tour. Phil provides insights into what the players were thinking and includes his own take on what they (and in many cases what he) should have done differently. Highly entertaining and instructive, Bad Beats and Lucky Draws gives you a seat at the table with the best bluffs, reads, and over-the-top plays such as the hand that won Phil his record-tying ninth bracelet at the 2003 World Series to the heartbreaking play that knocked him out of the "Big One." Bad Beats and Lucky Draws also includes special contributions by * Doyle Brunson* Johnny Chan* Annie Duke* Howard Lederer* Daniel Negreanu* Ted Forrest* Jennifer Harman * Layne Flack * Men Nguyen * John Bonetti

Are you having a problem at bridge or perhaps a disagreement with your partner? Why not ask the expert? Ron Klinger replies to bridge queries from players around the world. The answers to questions that may have bothered you are also probably in this stimulating book.

Are you tired of playing the same old openings time and time again? Perhaps it's time for a change, but you cannot decide between the numerous options available? Here's the answer: choose "Dangerous Weapons" and amaze your opponents with new and exciting opening ideas!In this book," "four renowned opening experts get together to take a revolutionary look at the Benoni, the Benko and all their associated variations. Instead of travelling down well-trodden and analysed paths, they concentrate on fresh or little-explored variations, selecting a wealth of 'dangerous' options for both colours. Whether playing White or Black, a study of this book will leave you confident and fully-armed, and your opponents running for cover!"Dangerous Weapons" is a series of opening books which supply the reader with an abundance of hard-hitting ideas to revitalize his or her opening repertoire. Many of the carefully chosen weapons are innovative, visually shocking, incredibly tricky, or have been unfairly discarded; they are guaranteed to throw even your most experienced opponent off balance. *The Benoni and Benko in a whole new light*Packed with original ideas and analysis*Ideal lines to shock your opponents

It's hard to believe that it's been over a decade since One Jump Ahead: Challenging Human Supremacy at Checkers was published. I'm delighted to have the oppor- nity to update and expand the book. The ?rst edition ended on a sad note and that was re?ected in the writing. It is now eleven years later and the project has come to a satisfying conclusion. Since its inception, the checkers project has consumed eighteen years of my life- twenty if you count the pre-CHINOOK and post-solving work. It's hard for me to believe that I actually stuck with it for that long. My wife, Steph, would probably have something witty to say about my obsessive behavior. Rereading the book after a decade was dif?cult for me. When I originally wrote One Jump Ahead, I vowed to be candid in my telling of the story. That meant being honest about what went right and what went wrong. I have been criticized for being hard on some of the characters. That may be so, but I hope everyone will agree that the person receiving the most criticism was, justi?ably, me. I tried to be balanced in the storytelling, re?ecting things as they really happened and not as some sanitized everyone-lived-happily-ever-after tale.

The Drift Crisis continues! In crumbling Alluvion, the goddess Triune's city domain within the Drift, the heroes are thrust into the center of tensions between anxious factions at the heart of the Drift Crisis catastrophe! By agreeing to aid a desperate android priest of Casandalee, the heroes can start to help healing these divides. But first, they must curry the favor of a community of ysoki scrappers outside of the Dark, a neighborhood where technology doesn't work that hasn't been touched by light for decades. Exploring those murky streets, they confront undead menaces and otherworldly spirits of hatred and anger, eventually restoring light and power to the cursed region, and shining further illumination as to the origin of the Drift Crisis! "A Light in the Dark" is a Starfinder adventure for four 7th-level characters, launching the 3-volume Drift Hackers Adventure Path. Drift Hackers is the exciting conclusion of the Drift Crisis, an event taking place across the entire Starfinder game line, in which faster-than-light travel breaks down and the galaxy is thrown into chaos. In addition to the adventure itself, this book includes a player's guide filled with character creation advice and new gear designed just for Drift Hackers players, along with an Adventure Toolbox filled with new rule options and strange alien creatures. Each bi-monthly full-color softcover Starfinder Adventure Path volume contains a new installment of a series of interconnected science-fantasy quests that together create a fully developed plot of sweeping scale and epic challenges. Each 64-page volume also contains in-depth articles that detail and expand the Starfinder campaign setting and provide new rules, a host of exciting new monsters and alien races, a new planet to explore and starship to pilot, and more!

Death is not the end! In a world filled with undead, resurrection, and beings from beyond the mortal plane, long-dead mistakes can still cause problems for the living-or provide opportunity. Pathfinder Player Companion: Haunted Heroes Handbook takes aim at possessing forces of all sorts, from worldly magic to spirits of the dead, and provides you with options to rid yourself of that influence, take back control, or profit by cunning bargains with forces in need of a mortal vessel. This handbook also provides valuable information on the places, organizations, and faiths especially concerned with spirits, hauntings, and possession, and how any of these can affect your outlook and abilities. Each monthly 32-page Pathfinder Player Companion contains several player-focused articles exploring the volume's theme as well as short articles with innovative new rules for all types of characters, as well as traits to better anchor the player to the campaign.

Former world champion Jose Capablanca's introduction to chess, available for the first time in English in algebraic notation, is an ideal first chess book for players of all ages. In systematic fashion, Capablanca lucidly explains the rules and basic principles of this fascinating game, and illustrates these with a wide range of practical examples. Topics covered include: . The game, the pieces, their moves and object . Improving your game . Elementary opening principles...and much more After capturing the world championship in in 1921, Capablanca was for a time regarded as practically invincible. Although he surprisingly lost his title to Alexander Alekhine in 1927, Capablanca remained a leading player until his death in New York in 1942.

'The Power' is back. King of the oche and a legend in the game, Phil Taylor is largely responsible for taking darts into the 21st century. Recently crowned world champion for an unprecedented eleventh time, Taylor is a complete one-off - the Tiger Woods of his sport - and the most phenomenal player ever to throw a dart. Brought up in the back streets of the Potteries, where his Dad tried to turn him into a boxer, Taylor's first job saw him earning GBP75 a week in a factory making ceramic toilet handles - and by the age of 25 he had hardly thrown a dart in anger. Then he attended an Eric Bristow darts exhibition, and the 'Crafty Cockney' became his mentor and friend and loaned him GBP10,000 to play the pro circuit. Within five years Taylor had won the first of his eleven world titles ... In his book, Taylor describes how Bristow coaxed, bullied, humiliated and often literally punched him into making it as a pro. He is candid about the booze culture of the game, while revisiting the memorable matches and recalling vivid stories featuring the likes of Bristow, Cliff Lazarenko (who once had 20 cans of lager before a match), John Lowe and the legendary Jocky Wilson. A dispute between the professional players and the British Darts Organisation in 1992 almost led to a dispirited Taylor giving up the game for good. And he retraces the worst six months of his life, during which time he was convicted of sexually assaulting two female fans and had his MBE rescinded. The pain for his family was hard to bear. This is a story of a man having to come to terms with unparalleled success in his professional life after a career setback that would have destroyed many others; a unique sportsman whose steely-eyed determination won him an unprecedented eleventh world title in 2004 in what many observers described as the best professional darts match in living memory.