What Men Prefer Women Wear on Dates

The other day my friend remarked that she would remember 2013 as the year when she started regularly wearing jeans instead of dresses. I was actually somewhat surprised I didn't notice since I'd like to consider myself a relatively observant guy. But when I got to asking my male friends about what they like to see women wear, I found I wasn't alone. "Clothes?" one friend offered, somewhat unhelpfully, and then, "But sometimes no clothes?"
The bottom line is that there is no specific item men want to see a woman wear—on dates or otherwise. One friend mentioned that a girl's style should just be "proper for the occasion." If we're going out for fancy drinks or dinner, a cocktail dress is always nice to see. Jeans are great for dive bars and movies. Your work pants, though? Not so much. We don't necessarily want our date to look professional. There's something endearing about a woman who only has the slightest affinity for a sports team but wears their colors to a game. If a woman loves the team and is rabid about her favorite jersey, wearing the piece actually demonstrates loyalty.
There are a few things we don't necessarily want to see out on a date. For example: yoga pants. Those are for yoga and yes you look amazing in them but no they aren't for date night. Also, no Uggs. I have no idea why it turns so many of my guy friends off, but I'm in firm agreement with them; please leave those at home.
All of this being said, we men are simple creatures. One guy said, "Some sighting of skin: legs, neckline, chest, collar bone," is likable. But at the end of the day, the way a woman wears her clothes is much more important than anything else. We want you to be you. One gent told me, "I just want her to express her personality with what she wears; nothing too generic." If that means you're a dress woman and jeans are foreign, that's okay. If you immediately get into sweats and a tee when you're home, we won't hold that against you (unless you come to meet the family in them).
Men are attracted to confidence, not the perfect skirt. Be genuinely yourself, wear something you feel hot in, and we will likely agree. When you dress in a way that makes you feel sexy, you project sexy. And when in doubt, as one friend aptly put it, "A simple black dress would win the day for boy and country in most situations."

"My Date Had Gas" and Other Dating Dealbreakers

Merry, 22
“My date was driving us home when a dog jumped into the road. He swerved right into it and laughed. I think the dog actually lived—but our relationship died.”

Lori, 30
“Dinner with a new guy was going great until an awful smell started coming and going. We complained to the restaurant, but they had no idea what it was. Right before we left, my date used the restroom, and our waiter came up to me. He said he knew what the smell was—my date had bad gas, which was why he was taking so long in the bathroom. That was the end of that guy. I couldn’t believe he blamed the smell on the restaurant when it was him all along!”

Katie, 30
“My date showed up at my door with a shirt for me to wear. He thought it would look sexy on me. Creepy!”

Chana, 26
“I was on a date with this guy, and we decided to take the subway to a baseball game. Then, all of a sudden, he started talking dirty to me. He had a volume control problem, so everyone around us heard him. After he stopped the raunchy talk, he told me a story about his friend and herpes—loudly, of course. I’ve never been so embarrassed.”

Catherine, 29
“When a guy I was friends with asked me out, I thought it was strange that he gave me his number on the back of an ATM receipt. During our date, I found out the real reason: He said he searches ATM booths for receipts with large balances. Then, when he meets girls, he writes his number on the back so he looks wealthy. We definitely never went on another date.”

Most. Awkward. Second. Date. Ever.

How you dress for a date on which you plan to tell the person you're falling for that you have an incurable sexually transmitted infection? I went with sensible leather flats that would transport me back to my car quickly in the Los Angeles twilight, after his inevitable "I can't see you anymore"; plain gray trousers that would modestly sheath my thighs in his presence; and an old striped top with tiny moth holes near the collar and hem, faded and worn-out, like I'd surely feel later that night. Usually I'd put more effort into my appearance for a second date. I'd comb straightening serum into my hair and swab shadow onto my eyelids. I'd wear a shirt that didn't have holes in it, at the very least. But why bother? He was going to dump me anyway.
I was once optimistic about dating. Though never a 10 on the self-confidence scale (or even—let's be honest—a perfect seven), I had enough strength to believe that the right guy would overlook my flaws. My chronic lateness? No problem! My braying anxiety? Not so bad!
But HPV is different. It's not a personality quirk I can explain away or an endearing habit a man might learn to love. It's a disease, one with symptoms that range from embarrassing to deadly—in some cases, genital warts; for high-risk strains, the possibility of cervical cancer. Some treatments can even lead to infertility. And on top of that, it's contagious.
When my doctor first told me I had two strains of HPV, low-risk (the warts) and high-risk (the cancer causer), I was struck speechless. It was the day after my 24th birthday, and I shivered on the examination table, a paper gown across my lap, clenching my knees together as my cheeks flushed red. How had this happened? I could count my sex partners on one hand. Yet after a certain point, I had trusted each enough to skip using a condom. One must not have known he was infected. So there I was, stumbling out of the drugstore into the blinding afternoon light with an expensive tube of ointment in my purse, specially formulated to kill rogue skin cells in my body's most tender region.
For weeks after my diagnosis, I wallowed in a sullen bog. Given the numbers, you'd think that I wouldn't feel so alone: HPV is the most common STI in the U.S. Most sexually active adults get it at some point, with nearly 60 million women—38 percent of the entire female population—infected at any given time, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But while 90 percent of HPV infections go away within two years and never produce symptoms, mine didn't. Small, whitish bumps mottled the inner folds of my vagina every few weeks, and my abnormal Pap smears led to two painful biopsies to study precancerous cells. I had to hum to drown out the sound of my gynecologist snipping off bits of my cervix with long, snub-nosed scissors. In the seven days until each of my test results came back negative, purple shadows formed under my eyes and I bit my nails down to the quick.
Prodded by friends, family, and my mother's polite request for grandchildren, I eventually worked up the nerve to start dating again. I filled out an online profile and soon found myself trading e-mails with a bumbling, sincere computer programmer named Mike, who admitted a weakness for Hello Kitty, chili fries, and rare birds. Near the end of our second marathon phone call, he said, "At this point, I wouldn't care if you had two heads." What about an STI?

6 Online Dating Profile Red Flags

From bad spelling to sketchy pictures on online dating profiles, lots of things will cause us to raise an eyebrow and proceed with caution—but there are a few red flags that have us scrambling to click the little X. We asked members of Marie Claire Ask & Answer — Marie Claire's online Q&A community for relationship, sex, and dating advice — for the online dating profile mistakes that have them running in the other direction. Here's what they said:

RED FLAG: Appearing sex-crazed.
"When guys emphasize they are looking for a woman that enjoys "intimacy," they mean, but don't have the honesty to say, sex," warns 1loohoo. Wanting sex isn't anything new—so don't panic that you'll never get laid if you don't pepper your profile full of sexual innuendo. Suggestive jokes can be funny and endearing once someone gets to know your personality a little, even on a first date...but before you've even had an email exchange, it just comes off as a little desperate and creepy.

RED FLAG: Cliché statements.
Clichés like "... likes long walks on the beach, going to movies, etc." are red flags, says two469. Who doesn't like going to movies? There are tons of regular, nice-enough people out there—but that's not enough to get you a date. You don't need to fly planes or travel to fascinating places in your spare time to stand out—just get specific. Instead of saying you like to read, talk about your favorite genre. Instead of just saying you like action movies, also 'fess up to your guilty-pleasure TV show. Whether or not your date shares your hobbies, you'll appear interesting. 7zebras agrees, saying "I absolutely hate when a girl says they are up for anything. That means that they are incredibly boring and are not passionate or into anything. They are willing to try stuff but only when someone else leads them too it...Boring!"

RED FLAG: Claims of being young at heart.
two469 says statements like "... have the heart and spirit of a seventeen year old." send her running. Why? It screams "Peter Pan complex." Let your silly side and sense of humor show in your profile without making direct statements about your mental age—it's a tip-off that you don't have your life together and will be a disaster to date.

RED FLAG: Non-solo photos.
"Photos with someone else who's WAY more attractive standing alongside" are a dealbreaker for chesterdad. Would you send a potential employer your more-qualified friend's resume along with yours? No. Don't do the equivalent on a dating site. You're advertising yourself, not your hot friend.

RED FLAG: Airing your dirty laundry. wudaddy is skeptical of "Those that say they're looking for a "real" person," saying "They themselves are usually fake." In fact, these sentences usually directly proceed what wudaddy refers to as "Several paragraphs worth of rants because of past failed dates/relationships." Statements like these are a red flag because they act as a flashing BURNED AND BITTER sign. We all have baggage—but if you're not over your last relationship, wait until you are before you start dating again, online or off.

RED FLAG: Your own red flag checklist.
"When she starts going off the deep end about her laundry lists of what is bad, the red flags go off and I think PSYCHO and run," pizzatroll says. Keep your own personal red flag checklist in mind...and off your profile. A checklist, especially one of "don't wants" rather than "wants" makes you seem demanding—in a bad way—and will scare off any potential matches.

5 Dating Tips I Wish I'd Followed While I Was Single

Dating advice from a married woman who hopes you don't waste as much of your single life as she did.
When I started seeing my husband, aka the first guy I wasn't embarrassed to tell my therapist about, I was gobsmacked to realize how much I hadn't known about dating before then.

In fact, I'd been going about being single all wrong. I didn't have very much fun at it, which is depressing since I didn't pair up until my 30s. Besides, so much luck was involved in my finding my match that there are probably more alternate universes where I'm still living solo than where I'm married.

I realize that my past experiences have made me who I am today, but I still wish I could go back in time and have a sisterly chat with poor, clueless, "younger me." I could've written three novels, started a business and hiked the Appalachian Trail with all the wasted time and energy. It's too late for me, but maybe you can learn from what I wish I knew then.

1. Finding a romantic partner is only one of many goals you can have at once. There's a difference between making something a priority and having an obsession. No one wants to be the Captain Ahab of the dating world.

2. When you like a guy, and your mutual friends have multiple anecdotes about him projectile vomiting after excessive drinking, you need to rethink the infatuation. You didn't like it when your godson hurled on you, and he was a toddler. 4 Signs You're Dating A 'Man-Boy,' Not A Man

3. It's not about getting someone to think you're good enough for them. It’s about finding someone you can stand to spend a ridiculous amount of time with. It's about finding the puzzle piece you fit with and the Ernie to your Bert.

4. Work on your gaydar. It'll make your life much easier.

5. Sometimes boyfriends have little annoying habits. And sometimes they have small behaviors that indicate a complete lack of respect. If you wouldn't let your friend's sweetie talk to her that way, don't put up with it yourself

How To Play Poker

Lesson 1: The Basics
There are really two different things you must learn when you want to learn how to play poker. The first is the basics of the game and the second how to bet in poker.
To begin with, poker is a classic gambling game played with a standard deck of playing cards. The object of poker is to arrange groups of cards together into sets commonly known as hands. There are so many different variations of poker that it is difficult to go into to much detail when discussing poker in general. If your looking to learn how to play a particular poker variation check the other poker courses offered.
A hand of poker is won by the player with the highest-ranking hand among the players who are still in the game at the end of the betting. The goal of playing poker isn't simply to win a lot of hands. The goal it's to win as much money as possible! Over a series of many deals, successful players will be ones who maximize their winnings on the deals they win while minimizing their losses on the deals they lose.
The highest-ranking hand in poker is five cards of the same value or five of a kind. However, a five of a kind is only possible in a game with wild cards. The highest-ranking hand in a poker game without wild cards is the straight flush. The hand rankings from highest to lowest are as follows; five of a kind, straight flush, four of a kind, full house, flush, three of a kind, two pair, one pair, high card. When two hands are of the same rank, the tiebreak depends on the type of hand. For a detailed description of each hand see Poker 112: Poker Hands.
For straight flushes, flushes, straights, and nothing, the hand containing the highest card wins. Thus, the straight Q-J-10-9-8 beats the straight J-10-9-8-7. It would also beat 5-4-3-2-A, because the ace is being used as a low card in this case. If there is a tie between high cards, the second-highest cards are compared, and so on downward, until one card is higher than another. For example, the flush A-10-4-3-2 beats the flush A-9-8-7-6 because the 10 is higher than the 9. If all five cards are identical except for suit, the hands are equal and the pot is shared equally between the winning players. For example, a royal flush in spades would tie with a royal flush in diamonds.
For four of a kind and three of a kind, the hand with the higher ranking matched set wins; 7-7-7-3-2 beats 6-6-6-A-K because sevens are higher than sixes. Unmatched cards matter only if the sets are equal; K-K-J-3-2 beats K-K-9-8-7 because the jack beats the 9.
For full houses, the highest three of a kind determines the winner. If the three of a kinds have the same rank then the higher pair wins, otherwise the ranks of the pairs are ignored. For two pair and pair, the hand with the highest pair wins.

How To Play Slot Machines

Lesson 1: Slot Machine Basics and Strategies
There is at least one slot machine for every eight people living in Las Vegas. They tend to take up the majority of the floor space in your average casino.

So what's all the hype about? Well, in 2004 a lucky software engineer from Los Angeles won $38.7 million on a single spin of the reels. How's that for incentive?

There are many different kinds of slot machines, single-line slots, multi-line slots, progressive slots, video slots, and online slots to name a few. They all work on the same principle.

RNGs and Payback Percentages

Each slot machine is governed by an RNG or Random Number Generator, which determines the combination of symbols that you see when you spin. This combination of symbols is based solely on math and is predetermined as soon as you hit the Spin button or pull the Arm. It has nothing to do with how often you spin, how much (or how little) has been paid out, if it's your birthday, if you use a player's card, or any other condition you can control.

So if slots are random, how do you play slot machines and win? The hard truth is; there's no way to guarantee consistent winning when playing slots. However, there are some things you can do to improve your chances of winning. It all starts with understanding how slots work.

Each slot machine has a predetermined payback percentage. The average payback is around 90%. What does this mean? A machine that has a 90% payback rate will return 90% of players' money throughout the life of the machine.
If 10 million dollars are played on this slot machine over several years, you could expect it to payback 9 million dollars over this period. This does not mean that every time you sit down at the machine it will return 90% of your money. If you've ever played slots before you'll know this isn't what happens. Most of the payback occurs when the big jackpot combinations are spun.

Maximizing Your Chances of Winning

Payback percentages typically vary anywhere between 80% and 98%. The higher the payback percentage the better chance of return you have. Unfortunately casinos don't post the payback for each machine.

The good news is that there are ways to find these high payback machines, known as "loose" slot machines.

1. Try Machines in High Traffic Areas

Casinos like people to see winners. For this reason the higher payback machines tend to be located in higher traffic areas such as near aisles, cashiers, and restaurants.

2. Play Higher Denomination Slots

If you have the bankroll, higher denomination machines tend to have higher payback percentages than low denomination penny slot machines. If you're looking for a higher payback you'll have better luck trying dollar machines than nickel machines.

3. Avoid Progressive Slots

You should also avoid progressive slots if you want to play slots with higher payback percentages. It's true that you aren't going to win millions on one spin at non-progressive slots, but these machines have a much higher payback in the short run. In general, machines with smaller jackpots payout more often.

4. Play Progressive Slots

Wait?! Didn't I just tell you to avoid progressive slots? Yes, I did. But there's an exception with online slots. More specifically, the Random Progressive Slots at Winpalace Casino. Their slots have good-sized jackpots (sometimes $20,000+) that hit randomly.

Here's the key though: You can qualify for the progressive regardless of how much you're betting per spin. That means on a 20-line machine, you can play as little as $0.01/spin and hit the jackpot. I like to play at least $0.20 per spin on these in order to have a better chance of hitting free spins or a bonus round. But either way, that makes those progressives well worth playing and affordable for any budget.

5. Read and Understand the Payscale

All right, so now we know where the looser slot machines are located, but don't just down and start spinning those reels. Make sure you read the slot machine instructions before you start to play. Even machines that look the same may have different play rules. Many machines pay special bonus jackpots when you play the maximum coins. Standard slot machines will often allow you to play 1 to 3 coins at a time. A machine may pay different level jackpots for a good combination like "777". For example it may pay 100 coins for a 1-coin bet, 200 coins for a 2-coin bet, and 500 coins for a 3-coin bet. If you were playing this slot you would always want to play the maximum 3-coin bet. When in doubt always play the maximum bet.

6. Take Advantage of Comps

 Remember, even if you're playing low denomination slots, you're still a valuable player to the casino. That means you need to take full advanage of all the free stuff you can get. Comps are complimentary (free!) items like food, giveaways, and rooms, given to players as an incentive to play at that casino. You can earn tons of comp points while playing slots, regardless of whether you're winning or losing. Before you start playing slots, make sure you sign up for a player's card with the casino and always use it when you're playing.

7. Know When to Move On

At most casinos you will find a large variety of different types of slot machines, both in denominate and play. Your choices may run the gambit anywhere from penny video slots to high stakes slots. Which one you decide to play is ultimately up to you, but remember to move on if you're not having any success. Sometimes all it takes is a new machine to turn your luck around.