History of Poker

There seem to be differences of opinion on the origin of poker. Moreover, there seems to be no clear or direct early ancestor of the game. It is more likely that poker derived its present day form from elements of many different games. The consensus is that because of it's basic principal, its birth is a very old one.

Jonathan H. Green makes one of the earliest written references to poker in 1834. In his writing, Green mentions rules to what he called the "cheating game," which was then being played on Mississippi riverboats. He soon realized that his was the first such reference to the game, and since it was not mentioned in the current American Hoyle, he chose to call the game poker.

The game he described was played with 20 cards, using only the aces, kings, queens, jacks and tens. Two to four people could play, and each was dealt five cards. By the time Green wrote about it, poker had become the number one cheating game on the Mississippi boats, receiving even more action than Three-Card Monte. Most people taken by Three-Card Monte thought the 20-card poker seemed more a legitimate game, and they came back time and time again. It would certainly appear, then, that poker was developed by the cardsharps.

The origin of the word poker is also well debated. Most of the dictionaries and game historians say that it comes from an eighteenth-century French game, poque. However, there are other references to pochspiel, which is a German game. In pochspiel, there is an element of bluffing, where players would indicate whether they wanted to pass or open by rapping on the table and saying, "Ich Poche!" Some say it may even have derived come the Hindu word, pukka.

Yet another possible explanation for the word poker, is that it came from a version of an underworld slang word, "poke," a term used by pickpockets. Cardsharps who used the 20-card cheating game to relieve a sucker from his poke may have used that word among themselves, adding an r to make it "poker." The thought was that if the sharps used the word "poker" in front of their victims, those wise to the underworld slang would not surmise the change.

The game of poker has evolved through the years, through many backroom games to the present day casinos around the world. Its history is rich with famous places and characters. For example, during the Wild West period of United States history, a saloon with a poker table could be found in just about every town from coast to coast.

Today, poker is carefully regulated by gambling laws, and saloons have given way to casinos and card rooms, but Poker is played more than any other card game in the world. It has grown into a sporting event, with competitions and tournaments all around the world. Tournaments take place almost every week of the year somewhere in the world.

If you compare the prizes of major sporting events around the world, you will find that the monetary outcome of any given event in poker would (pardon the pun) stack up. Poker today is one of the fastest growing, but hardly recognized sporting events. The pinnacle of the poker world, The World Series of Poker, attracts players from all over the world every year to compete for money and titles as the world's top poker players.

Poker will always be around and will continue to grow and flourish like so many other past times. There will always be a game to play, money to be won, and crowns to be worn.

How to Bluff in Texas Holdem

To those that have really mastered it, bluffing in poker is an art-form. Bluffing is also a key strategy that must be learned in order to become a big time player. It is a craft that takes a lot of studying, patience, and intuition to be great at.

We will mainly be focusing on the Texas Holdem style of play. First of all, if you are a bad liar, it's time to get better at it. Having a nice clay chip set and fancy table won't help you win the game. There is a reason many players wear sunglasses and don't show expression on their face. They are trying to be difficult to "read," or in other words, they want it to be difficult for their opponents to figure out what kind of poker cards they are holding. You don't want to show a lot, or any, emotion in this game. The other players will often learn how you operate very quickly if you make it obvious.

There are certain times and situations that must be learned and followed as to when bluffing is the right call to make. Learning these strategies will not only help you in your bluffing, but also help you to figure out when someone else is!

First and foremost, you want to be close to, and preferably on, the button when you bluff. This way, everyone else has called, checked and bet before it's you're turn to act. If everyone is checking, then you have the opportunity to throw in a poker chip or two and see how many opponents you can get to fold.

You also have to take into consideration, if you opponent keeps betting, what they could possible hold in their hand. Even if you are on the button and everyone else is checking, you aren't going to necessarily win the hand. You don't want to push all your poker chips in just to lose the pot in the end. You need to learn when it is time to stop throwing in more chips, and when you have been defeated for that hand.

As you continue to practice and improve your strategies, you will last longer and longer in the game until you're wrangling up the chip sets at each game you go to. Be sure to be as inconspicuous as possible, and never reveal to your friends how you do it! You don't want them to use your own strategies against you…

Keys to Sharpen Your Poker Skills

Poker is the perfect combination of both skill and luck. However, you can play for years and find that you still have a lot to learn...

Know the ranking and probabilities of possible poker hands. The best hand is a straight flush, comprised of five consecutive cards of the same suit.

Make sure you know the basic rules and terms. After the cards are dealt, the poker player to the left of the dealer has the option to fold, check or bet. To fold is to retire your hand because you do not think you are capable of winning. Folding results in the loss of any money you have so far put into the pot but prevents you from losing more. To check is to stay in the game but to decline to bet. Betting means that you put additional money in the pot, and anyone wishing to stay in the game must do the same.

Prepare for the draw by deciding which cards you want to keep. Experienced players try to avoid drawing more than two cards, because doing so signals that you have a weak hand and limits your ability to bluff.

Understand that the game changes as the stakes increase. For example, in a nickel-ante game, bluffing is not likely because no one is likely to be scared away at such low stakes. As bets increase, bluffing becomes a more effective technique.

Poker is primarily a game of psychology, not chance. You are playing against other people, not against the cards. Study your opponents for "tells”, revealing traits that convey information about their hands. Does a player whistle when bluffing? Tap their feet when agitated? Look for these signals and remember them, while being conscious of any tells that you may be sending.

Keep your game competitive by avoiding patterns. Patterns in your play are signals that your opponents will pick up. If, for example, you follow the same betting pattern every time you bluff, opponents will figure this out. Poker is infinitely variable and every hand is unique.

Texas Holdem: The Most Famous Poker Game

For those that have little experience or players who appreciate the psychological, strategic and mental aspects of poker, Texas Holdem is the poker game of choice. It is, as poker professional Mike Sexton has stated on the WPT, “a game that takes minutes to learn and a lifetime to master.” There is a great deal of truth in that statement as there are different nuances that confound even those players who have a strong background in this particular variation of poker.

Every player gets two cards and two players - the small blind (half of the stake of the table) and the big blind (the full stake) - place mandatory bets to initiate action. Each player has to determine whether they want to play their hand by, at the minimum, calling the big blind, raising the bet or declining to play and folding. For those that remain in the hand after this round of betting is completed, the first of the community cards come down with a three-card display called the "flop." This is followed by another round of betting and, if any players still remain, another card is dealt, called the "turn" or Fourth Street. Another round of betting ensues and, if there are still players contesting the hand, the final card called the "river" or Fifth Street is dealt. A final round of betting occurs and, once this is completed, if there are players still in play for the hand, they display their cards. The best five-card hand takes what is in the pot and the poker game moves on to the next hand.

This is a community card game because there are five cards on the table that all players use - players can use one, both or neither of their two hole cards to make their best five-card hands. Through strategic play, bluffing at the pot or even table talk, players use every part of their capabilities to try to win the hand. The game can be played in different styles - Limit, Spread Limit (rarely seen nowadays), Pot Limit (where betting is limited to what is in the pot) and No Limit - and different people will excel in different forms of this game. What makes community card games the best is that there is something for everyone.

Most every poker room around will offer a form of Texas Holdem, as it is currently the most popular game around. With that in mind, every Internet poker room will offer Texas Holdem as its bedrock of poker games. For anyone who wants to take an initial dive into the world of poker, Texas Holdem is the route to take.

Changing Gears When Playing Poker

A good poker player is unpredictable and is able to change gears. The way you do this is dependent on your opponents and your table image.

If you have been playing solid poker and were not once caught bluffing, you will have substantial bluff equity. If you have been playing loose and bluffing a lot, you will be in a position to get paid off when you hold a good poker hand. When your opponents are playing tight, you should play looser and, when they are loose, you should tighten up your game. Always try to be one step ahead of your opponents.

It is the ability to balance your game by changing gears at the right moment that makes you unpredictable. This is why you should occasionally advertise plays when you know you will be playing with the same players for a while: show them hands you do not normally play and mix up your play to cash in on those plays later. This is not as important when playing online poker since people usually don't pay as much attention to the game and also because players move around a lot. However, it should still be done under the right circumstances.