By Samantha Williams
There are many different reasons why people play casino poker, it has proven itself to be the most popularly played game online, and is also a popular competitive game in live poker rooms worldwide. It offers social rewards, entertainment, education – it takes skill to play, and you can make money. You will however find that most players who do make money playing this game, started out to have fun; they are generally of a competitive nature and they just got really good at playing. A desire to win is the most brilliant excuse for playing poker, but it is also the best way to learn more about it.
Making sense of this game also means coming to terms with a lot of jargon. There is special jargon which governs particular types of poker such as Texas Hold’em or Omaha, and just general jargon, which is probably the best place to start learning. Find yourself a good glossary resource before you begin, one that explains what the jargon is and what it means, you should be able to find this at most casino poker sites.
Understand that “Blinds” are forced bets which take place off an ante, and understand how this works. If you are playing a game of community poker such as the Hold’em games, the card which are shared are often referred to as being “Board Cards”. This is another form of jargon.
Learn about draws, flops, implied odds and limit poker, in fact learn as much as you possibly can. In casino poker, the more you know the better you will fare. Try to read books by experts on the subject, these are usually guys who have made big money playing the game; guys who are your poker hero’s, you are more likely to listen and learn from them than you would anyone else.
Virtually everyone who is anyone in world poker, big stakes games has written a book. Try to unpack your mistakes when you don’t win and ask the winner if he would mind giving you a post mortem of his game. Unpacking and looking at the mistakes you made in your own casino poker game will help you to learn from your mistakes.
The most important thing you must do is play, play video poker for practice; you can find free games online if you like until you are ready to graduate to the pay for play games. Then get yourself seated around a table and play with other casino poker players. It doesn’t matter if you play online; this is just as good a learning environment as any. The games are the same, the rules are the same and they have been set up to virtually completely emulate a live experience.
