Play Poker like a professional (Poker)

Member Name: AdvocatusDiaboli

Product:	Poker
Date:	11/08/01 (691 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The only skill game in the casino

Disadvantages: Needs to shed its seedy image

~ Background ~

I first discovered the game of poker when I was about 13 years old. It was simple game a 5 card draw and I won a small amount the first time I played. I did not play the game again until the age of 16, I had started visiting casinos (underage) and noticed a beginners game where it only cost £1 to buy in to the tournament and the first prize was £100. 40 players sat down and I came 4th (won £10), I was hooked and have spent the last 6 years of my life trying to play better and better.

Poker is believed to have originated in this country but it is really America's card game. It is estimated that out of 250 million Americans over 100 million play poker. Poker comes in many forms and up until the 1970's the main forms were 5 card stud (player is dealt 5 cards and bets according to their strength)and 5 card draw (player is dealt 5 cards and has the option to change 0,1 or 2 of his cards after which there is another betting interval. During the 1970's a new game was born, it was a hybrid of traditional poker and 7 card stud, its name is Texas Hold'Em.

~ The different variants of Poker ~

The game of Texas Hold'em is played thus - each player is dealt two cards face down (called 'hole'cards) a round of betting occurs with players betting according to the strength of their first two cards. After this three cards are put in the middle of the table face up and are used by everybody at the table, another round of betting occurs with players betting according to how these 3 cards have helped thier 'hole cards', these three community cards are called 'the flop'. Another card is then added to the flop (again face up), the is card is called 'the turn' or '4th street' and another round of betting occurs, finally a fifth card is added face up (called 'the river' or '5th street') to the four on the table, the five cards on the table are known as 'the boar
d'. Players make up their best 5 card hand out of the seven they have available (the 5 on the table and the 2 in their hand) and their is a final round of betting. Players do not have to play any of their 'hole' cards as their best hand maybe the five on the table! this is known as playing the board. This actually occured at the final hand of the 1998 World Series of poker when the board showed 8-8-9-8-9, Scotty Nguyen bet all his chips and Kevin McBride called his bet announcing "I call, I play the board", Nguyen held a 9 giving him the best hand.

There are other variations of Poker such as 7 card stud, Razz, Chinese poker and Omaha. The only one of these seen in UK casinos on a regular basis is Omaha. The rules of Omaha are the same as Texas Hold'em with two major exceptions. Firstly you are dealt four 'hole' cards instead of two and you must play exactly two of your four hole cards. The game is also played as a hi/lo split game but I shall not incude any infomation on that as it is rare to fina a hi/lo game in the UK.

~ The hand rankings ~

Below is a list of how highly the pssible hands rank in poker along with an example.

1. Royal Flush (Th-Jh-Qh-Kh-Ah)
2. Straight Flush (4d-5d-6d-7d-8d)
3. Four of a Kind (9-9-9-9-x)
4. Full House (8-8-8-5-5)
5. Flush (5h-7h-Th-Qh-Ah)
6. Straight (3x-4x-5x-6x-7y)
7. Three of a kind (7-7-7-x-y)
8. Two Pair (8-8-7-7-x)
9. Pair (J-J-x-y-z)
10. High card (2-3-6-8-A)

In the above example a number or capital letter denotes a card, a small h,d,c,or s denotes hearts, diamonds, clubs or spades and x, y and z denote different cards that do not have to relate to the rest of the hand.

~ The betting ~

There are four types of betting applied to Poker games - Set Limit, Spread limit, Pot Limit and No Limit. Pot Limit is the most common form of betting in the UK although No Limit and Set Limit are the most popular
in the USA. Pot Limit involves being able to raise any amount up to the size of the pot during the betting round. Almost all cash games and tournaments in the UK are Pot limit. Cash games differ from tournaments in that you can bring whatever amount of money you want to the table, in a tournament you pay a set entry fee and the total amount put in by all the entries is divided up amongst the highest finishers at the end of the tournament. In a tournament the 'blinds' also increase whilst in a cash game they stay the same. Tournaments require more luck than a cash game but a skilled player still has a large advantage.

~ Opportunities to play in the UK ~

If you have never played the game before I would suggest playing a game amongst your friends to familiarise yourselves with the rules or going to a beginner night at the casino. Beginner nights at casinos usually cost a maximum of 5 pounds to play and there is tuition available for genuine novices. They do not advise you on strategy though so you will have to find that info for yourself (I will provide some recommendations at the bottom but will not go into strategy myself for space reasons). Once you have graduated from these small games there are regular tournaments across the UK rnaging from £10 to £50 buy-in events and then there are festivals where the entry cost for a tournament can go right up to £2500.

~ The differences between cash games and Tournaments ~

Casino poker comes in 2 distinctive forms. Firstly there are the cash games, in these there is a minimum buy in amount and there are two forced bets (known as blinds) that rotate around the players at the table. This is to ensure that there is some action at the table so that people do not just sit back waiting for the best possible hand.

Tournament poker is different in that everyone buys in for the same amount and are given a set amount of chips. The blind start of small but get bigger throughout the du
ration of the tournament so that the game must come to a conclusion and produce a winner. A lot of people argue that there is less skill in Tournament poker because you are forced to make moves, I personally would disagree - it is true that luck plays a greater role in tournament poker than in cash games but a skilled player can still excel in tournament poker.

'Reading' becomes much more important in Tournament poker, this is a phrase used to describe a players ability to 'know' what another player is holding in his hand and play the game from there. Reading is a skill that few players posess and it can take a long time to truly master the art.

~ The Big Games ~

The biggest Poker tournament in the world is the World Series of Poker held at Binions Horseshoe in Las Vegas during May. It was started in 1970 by Benny Binion and the best Poker players in Vegas, in its first year only 13 people played and at the end the legendary Johnny Moss was voted champion. In 1971 it adopted a tournament system and Johnny Moss won it again. It is a No Limit Hold'em tournament that costs $10,000 to enter and lasts a gruelling four or five days, first prize is $1,500,000 and even second place picks up $950,000. In 2001 there were 615 entrants and the winner was Carlos Mortensen from Spain. Other legendary winners include Johnny Chan (87 & 88), Phil Hellmuth (89), Doyle Brunson (76 & 77) and the late Stu Ungar (80,81 & 97). The biggest cash games in the world take place at the Bellagio and the Mirage in Las Vegas. Many players buy into the 'Big Game' cash game for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Although luck is a factor in the game of poker in the end a skilled player will always beat an unskilled player.

~ futher reading ~

If you want to learn more about poker strategy I would recommend the following books :-

Super/System by Doyle Brunson
The Theory of Poker by David Sklansky
Book of Tells by
Mike Caro
No Limit & Pot Limit Hold'em by TJ Cloutier
Championship Omaha by TJ Coutier & Tom McEvoy

~ places to play on the internet ~

The following offer games for free, real money or both.

www.paradisepoker.com - I have also written an opinion on this site.
www.pokerpages.com
www.cccpoker.com
www.pokerstars.com

Please inform me in the comments if you would like any other information added to this opinion.

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