The ruby is a pink to blood-red colored gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum. The red color caused mainly by the presence of the element chromium. Its name comes from ruber Latin for red. Other varieties of gem-quality corundum called sapphires. The ruby considered one of the four precious stones, together with the sapphire, the emerald, and the diamond. All natural rubies have imperfections in them, including color impurities and inclusions of rutile needles known as silk. Gemologists use these needle inclusions found in natural rubies to distinguish them from synthetics, simulants, or substitutes. Usually the rough stone heated before cutting. Almost all rubies today treated in some form, with heat treatment being the most common practice. However, rubies that are completely untreated but still of excellent quality command a large premium. The Price of rubies primarily is by color. The brightest and most valuable red called pigeon blood red, commands a huge premium over other rubies of similar quality. After color follows clarity: similar to diamonds, a clear stone will command a premium, but a ruby without any needle-like rutile inclusions may indicate that the stone been treated. Cut and carat also determine the price. In the evaluation of colored gemstones, color is the single most important factor. Color divides into three components, hue, saturation and tone. Hue refers to color as we normally use the term. Transparent gemstones occur in the following hues: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, purple and pink are the spectral hues. The first six are spectral hues; the last two are modified spectral hues. Purple is a hue that falls halfway between red and blue. Pink is a paler shade of red. In nature there are rarely pure hues so when speaking of the hue of a gemstone we speak of primary and secondary and sometimes tertiary hues. In ruby the primary hue must be red. All other hues of the gem species corundum called sapphire. Ruby may exhibit a range of secondary hues. Orange, purple, violet and pink are possible.

Brick and Mortar

Brick and mortar bricks and mortar or B&M in its simplest usage is used to describe the physical presence of a buildings or other structure. It's a concept usually referred to in business, which applies to the physical location for a business or organization.

The term brick and mortar business bricks and mortar business or B&M business is often used to refer to a company that possesses a building or store for operations. The name is a metonym derived from the traditional building materials associated with physical buildings — bricks and mortar. Its first use was in 1992.

More specifically, in the jargon of online ecommerce businesses, brick and mortar businesses are companies that have a physical presence and offer face-to-face customer experiences. This term is usually used to contrast with a transitory business or an internet-only presence, such as an online shop, which have no physical presence for shoppers to visit and buy from directly, though such online businesses normally have non-public physical facilities from which they either run business operations from, and/or warehousing for mass physical product storage and distribution.

An example would be the movie-rental shop Blockbuster Video, which has physical stores and is in competition with the newer online rental services offered by Netflix. In this sense, the term is also a retronym in that all stores had a physical presence before the advent of the Internet, making such a term unnecessary.

A comparable term in the United Kingdom is High Street shops, although the phrase bricks and mortar business is also commonly used.

Poker Pineapple

Pineapple Poker

Pineapple is played with a standard 52-card deck. All players receive three cards dealt face down (hole cards) as their personal hand and then must immediately discard one of the three cards. The first round of betting occurs. Three cards are turned face up in the middle of the board simultaneously (flop). The second round of betting occurs. At this time players must discard one of their hole cards. One more card is dealt face up on the board (turn). A third round of betting occurs. The last card is dealt face up on the board (river card). The fourth round of betting occurs. Board cards are community cards for all players to use. A player may use any combination of five cards among the board cards and hole cards to form a poker hand. A player may choose to use all the board cards (playing the board) and no hole cards to form a poker hand. The highest five card poker hand wins the pot. In the event of a tie, the pot is split equally among the tied winning hands.

Poker Ante

An ante is a forced bet in which all players put an equal amount of money or chips into the pot before the deal begins. Often this is either a single unit a one-value or the smallest value in play or some other small amount; a proportion such as a half or a quarter of the minimum bet is also common. An ante paid by every player ensures that a player who folds every round will lose money though slowly, thus providing all players with an incentive, however small; to play the hand rather than toss it in when the opening bet reaches them.

Antes are the most common forced bet in draw poker and stud poker but are uncommon in games featuring blind bets see next section. However, some tournament formats of games featuring blinds impose an ante to discourage extremely tight play. Antes encourage players to play more loosely by lowering the cost of staying in the hand calling relative to the current pot size, offering better pot odds. With antes, more players stay in the hand, which increases pot size and makes for more interesting play. This is considered important to ensure good ratings for televised tournament final. Most televised high stakes cash games also use both blinds and antes. Televised cash games usually have one of the players pay for everyone, normally the dealer, to accelerate play. If there are six players for example, the dealer would toss six times the ante into the pot, paying for each person.

In live cash games where the acting dealer changes each turn, it is not uncommon for the players to agree that the dealer or some other position relative to the button provides the ante for each player. This simplifies betting, but causes minor inequities if other players come and go or miss their turn to deal. During such times, the player can be given a special button indicating the need to pay an ante to the pot known as "posting"; see below upon their return. Some card rooms eliminate these inequities by always dealing all players into every hand whether they are present or not. In such cases casino staff or neighboring players under staff supervision will be expected to post antes and fold hands on behalf of absent players as necessary.