» Issue 2
By Dave 'El Blondie' Colclough, the European Poker Player of the Year.
Dave is frequently seen playing Poker on TV at the World Series of Poker or on
Late Night Poker. This is Dave's poker diary, where he regularly details poker
tips and strategy and recounts tales of his experiences playing professionally.
Dave is sponsored by the brilliant online poker site
Bet365 Poker.
For all Dave's amusing and informative Poker articles,
click here
So you have watched Late Night Poker, you enjoyed it, but it wasn’t quite clear how the action panned out. So let’s just try and explain the basics simply. We will start with Texas Hold’Em. This is because it is the most common form of poker played throughout today’s world.
You get dealt two 'hole' cards, which are just for your own personal use. There are then 5 communal cards dealt. You have to make the best 5 card poker hand out of these 7 cards. (No, you cannot have 3 pairs. 5 card hands only!)
There are 4 rounds of betting. During each round everyone has three options: to call (match the current bet), raise, or fold their hand. Everyone must put the same amount into the pot, if they wish to continue to the next round of betting, or the showdown.
- The first round of betting is after you have been dealt your 2 hole cards.
- The second round is after the first 3 communal cards are dealt, known as the flop.
- The next round is after the fourth communal card is dealt the turn.
- The final round of betting is after the final fifth communal card is dealt, and is often referred to as the river.
So what are you waiting for? The best place to start the learning process is at the Play tables at bet365poker.com. That way, you can get the hang of the pop up buttons, how the game flows, and generally feel comfortable before moving onto the cash tables.
When I play live cash games, we often get dealt 10 to 15 hands an hour. In tournaments this may go up to 25 or even 30 hands per hour. One huge advantage of playing and learning poker on the internet with bet365poker.com, is that you will be dealt between 70 and 90 hands per hour. And if you are a computer whiz, you can even multiply that a few times by opening 2 or 3 windows. This is why youngsters like Sweden’s 'The King of Ding' have become poker phenomenon’s in a very short space of time.
The King of Ding? You have never heard of him? I don’t think Eric is quite 21 yet, and is one of the nicest guys I have met on the circuit. Always smiling, never complaining, smartly dressed, good looking, sexy girlfriend... sorry.
Getting carried away again. Anyway, when Eric started playing, he was obviously a natural. He got very good, very quickly. He was playing the biggest games available on the net very quickly (do not copy this at home, you might hurt yourself!). When scooping a large pot, he would type 'DING!' into the conversation box. The reason being that he had an old fashioned 'open all hours' cash register : you pressed a button, out popped the drawer, you put the money in, you close the drawer, and the cash register goes 'DING' to say thank you. Cute. Some players liked it. Some players didn’t see the funny side. Their problem, not his, I’d say. Nowadays Eric is a millionaire from the game. He has so much money locked up in his cash registers, rumour is that he hasn’t cashed in even a third of it, and doesn’t actually know how much he has!!! So as I was saying, LOL, what are you waiting for?
See you next week!
Dave
For all Dave Colclough's informative Poker articles - click here
