IntroductionIntroduction: Let's Shuffle Up And Deal!
For anyone who has ever played in a poker tournament or watched a tournament on TV, these well-known poker words ring familiar. In fact, as I write this introduction, this year's World Series of Poker is fast approaching, and experienced and amateur poker players alike dream of hearing these words at the start of the biggest tournament of them all—the No-Limit Texas Hold 'em Championship event. This year's Championship game is expected to draw its biggest field ever—with some experts speculating as many as 5,000 people, each with the singular goal of winning the coveted gold bracelet and unique distinction of being called "World Series of Poker Champion."
Without a doubt, poker is enjoying a tremendous renaissance, fueled in part by popular poker television shows that feature the final table of some of the biggest poker tournaments in the world, but even more by the explosive growth of Internet poker rooms. Although TV has helped introduce poker to a whole new generation of players, the Internet provides the convenient and accessible practice ground for players to home their skills, any time of the day or night.
What's more, poker's a game that's played and enjoyed by men and women alike. Players use a unique combination of psychology, skill, and plain old luck to try to win each other's money. It's just this combination of features that make poker an ideal game to play socially with a fun group of friends, or more seriously as a genuine hobby. Of course, some even take their games to the ultimate level and become professional poker players where they actually make a living by betting, bluffing, and raising. Poker is easy to learn and simply great fun to play! Although the game of poker can be played (and enjoyed) on a simple level, its potential for complexity (higher levels of strategy and understanding) make it challenging, fun, dynamic, and at times, hopelessly frustrating. And it is this intriguing combination of simplicity and complexity that brings people together for family games, monthly poker groups, casino action, online play, and tournament play.
Who Should Read this Book?
Play Winning Poker In No Time is written for the beginner. As the title suggests, it is also written for busy people who want to quickly learn the essence of poker and start playing! You might be familiar with the basic rules of the game, and now with the increased popularity of poker, you're interested in taking your game to the next level. Or you may have never played poker before. In either case, the goal of this book is to teach you the fundamentals of play so you can confidently sit down in a live-action game, in a casino, in a newly formed or established poker group, or even online and enjoy the challenge, excitement, and strategy of playing poker. The game itself offers many opportunities to test your general math skills, logic skills, skills at reading other people's body language, and probably above all else, your decision-making skills. Poker is a game where new information is continually revealed, forcing you to reassess prior decisions and make new decisions based on the new information.
By learning the fundamentals of play, as covered in this book, you can quickly acquire basic strategies that will help you make money rather than donate money to other players. After all, one of the main reasons so many people enjoy playing poker is that they like the thrill of winning money; for some people, like those skilled and lucky enough to make it to the World Series of Poker Championship, this money can be well over five million dollars!
How This Book Is Organized
Play Winning Poker In No Time includes nine succinct, easy-to-read chapters organized into four parts. Each chapter is written to stand on its own so you can easily skip over or read chapters in whatever order interests you. Overall, the aim in each chapter is to give you the maximum amount of information in a short space so you can start playing poker almost immediately. After all, playing poker is much more fun than reading about playing poker. However, by reading first, you pick up important tips and strategies to help you play winning poker!
Here's a brief overview of what each part contains:
In "Part I: The Basics of the Game," you learn the fundamentals of poker, including the hand rankings from strongest to weakest, that form the structure of most poker games. Understanding what constitutes a winning hand is essential to mastering any poker game. In addition, Part I offers a brief summary of the three most popular types of poker games played online, in casinos, or home games. These three types of games include
Draw poker
Stud poker
Flop poker
In "Part II: Learning the Game," you get specifics on how to sit down and win pots based on what poker game you decide to play. We begin with the hottest poker game—Texas Hold 'em—and explain how the cards are dealt and the basic betting structure. You also learn what many consider to be the four key skills required to play winning Hold 'em:
How to evaluate table positions and starting hands
How and when to bet and raise a pot
How to read your opponents to evaluate your risk/return ratio in a given hand
Hold 'em can be deceptively simple, so we focus on the biggest strategies that get you the most bang for your buck, so to speak. After Hold 'em, we cover the next most popular poker game, Seven Card Stud. In this section we cover starting hand standards, tips on how to remember other player's cards, and general strategies for knowing how long to stay in a stud pot. Part II concludes with an overview of several other popular variations of poker including Omaha and High-Low Omaha, two poker games characterized by big hands and monster pots, but are not for the weak-kneed.
In "Part III: Playing the Game," we cover the three major venues for practicing and perfecting your new poker skills. These include
Playing online
Playing or starting up a home poker game
Playing live in a casino or card room
After reading this part, you should gain a better understanding of the pros and cons of playing online, including how to pick an online poker room and set up an account, how to buy-in to a game or a tournament, and whether you should play free or use real money. If setting up a home game is your goal, this section takes you through the basics of how to invite other players to the game and how to decide which games to offer, including how to structure the betting for a fun, No-Limit Texas Hold 'em tournament. Next, if you're ready to test your poker skills against a variety of other players in a real live-action setting, head off to find the poker room in a casino. This section prepares you for what to expect when you walk into a major poker room, including how to find a seat, how to buy chips, and what you can and can't do while seated in a live game. Last, for those who are really ready to step up their game, the last chapter gives an overview of playing tournament poker, either online or in a live casino. Playing tournaments is an easy way to quickly gain poker experience for a limited, fixed investment. Many online tournaments cost as little as $5 to enter (or in some cases, even less) and the experience you gain can be invaluable. This section offers tips and strategies for making the most of your tournament experience. In this section, you also learn why Hold 'em players consider the No-Limit Texas Hold 'em game the Cadillac of all poker games, and what it means to play like the pros and to declare with confidence, "All-in."
In "Part IV: Resources," you'll find a variety of websites, books, movies, magazines, and other tools for improving your poker skills.
Special Elements and Icons
Play Winning Poker In No Time includes special elements and icons designed to help make your reading more enjoyable and interesting. Look for tips, notes, and cautions to call out extra valuable information such as important concepts, definitions, and key poker strategy. Occasional to-do lists spell out steps you need to take to accomplish tasks outlined in related sections. And in each chapter, informative sidebars provide interesting facts, advice, and anecdotes that help build your understanding of the chapter topic. In addition to those special elements, look for the following icons that signal extra strategies or exercises intended to increase your understanding of how to play winning poker.
Poker is a card game played with real money. The amount of money you are willing to risk while playing poker is called your bankroll. The money management icon marks text that offers practical guidance for how to preserve, protect, or grow your bankroll so you can play more poker. Learning how to manage your money, including determining how much money you can tolerate losing while playing poker (known as risk tolerance), is essential before sitting down to play.
Almost anyone can learn to play poker. However, my goal is to teach you how to play winning poker. As many of us have learned over time, most sports or hobbies worth doing often take practice to learn how to do them well. Playing winning poker is no exception. There are many ways to practice poker skills while in a game and even away from the poker table. Where you see the let's practice icon, you find easy exercises to further develop the skills discussed in the chapter.
While the exact origins of poker remain a bit of a mystery, poker in the United States is known to have enjoyed a rich and varied history that dates back to th...
