Learning Texas Holdem Poker On-Line Getting Your Feet Wet

As of 11/25/04 when this page was created I've been playing Texas Holdem Poker online for three months.  In that time I've had a chance to learn many things about Texas Holdem Poker and how to learn and play correctly in the cheapest manner possible.  I began playing at a friendly low stakes home game but wanted to be able to play on-line in my spare time.  I logged onto partypoker.com and started at their play tables.  Just like the games on Yahoo I learned one thing very quickly.  The only thing you'll learn playing for fake money is how to play VERY bad poker.  The play at the fake money tables is pathetic.  Every hand is played regardless of the quality of a players two cards.  The only valuable thing you'll learn at the free money tables is how the interface for that poker site works.  Do not try to learn poker here.  Most online poker establishments offer bonuses for new accounts.  PartyPoker.com gives you an extra $25.00 on your first deposit.  The minimum is $50.00 so this means you'll have at least $75.00 to play with right off the bat.  They accept credit cards and a variety of other payment methods.  My credit card companies won't accept charges from gambling establishments so I used my checking account and IGM Pay.  So far no complaints and no security issues.

Limit Texas Holdem Poker

Even at the smallest limit Texas Holdem table you'll see bad poker being played.  At Party Poker this is the .50/1.00 tables.  Now I played on these for awhile sometimes winning sometimes losing but learning much more than I did at the free tables.  The first book I picked up was about playing internet poker and was a helpful first read.  There was much I just didn't understand but was able to glean some helpful information from it.  As I read more I played some of the higher stakes tables like 1$/2$ and 2$/4$ and I actually did better because the players played more what I'd consider proper poker.  That is you could predict the quality of their hands because the stakes were high enough that you didn't have people playing stupid hands to the river and getting lucky.  The idea is to win over time so playing against poor players will lose you money when your trying to learn and even makes it seem that the poor players might be winning.  I'll guarantee you that players who play poor hands to the river will lose in the long run.  The problem is that on the internet you'll not likely be at their tables when they do.

How to play high stakes poker cheap

So lets say you want to play with high quality players and have the stakes keep people playing quality poker.  I certainly don't recommend playing higher stakes poker just to sit with these folks.  However tournament poker lets you sit with these folks for just $10.00 per time.  Here's how it works.  Places like PartyPoker.com have what is called Satellite Tournaments.  These are Limit or No Limit Texas Holdem tournaments where the entry fee is just $10.00 prizes are given to the  top 1-16 players depending on how many play.  The top bunch usually win a free entry into a high money tournament usually worth $150 - $250 for the entry.  These are satellites of larger tournaments, sort of like a poker farm team.  For your $10.00 you get to play no limit Texas Holdem poker with $1000.00 in chips to start.  Who knows maybe you'll win.  Usually you get at least a couple hours of quality poker and if you do well you'll be playing 4-5 hours on your measly $10.00  That's allot of Texas Holdem Poker education and experience for $10.00 

Now if you really want to learn Texas Holdem you got to do some reading.  The following two books allowed me to take 3rd and 5th in two satellite tournaments immediately after reading much of the text.  I'm still working through them and learning even more.  Don't let the titles fool you into not reading them.  One is for Advanced Tournament players but because it doesn't teach poker per se but tournament strategy its valuable and easy to read even if you don't know how to play Texas Holdem Poker.

Doyle Brunson's Super System is the best poker book I've read yet.  The way it is written makes the reading go fast and the important lessons sink in and you'll see an improvement in your play immediately.  This is a definite stable of poker reading material and is widely considered the Bible of Texas Holdem Poker instruction.

How to play high stakes poker even cheaper.   Sit & Go Single and Multi Table Tournaments

I didn't have four to five hours to play a satellite No Limit Texas Holdem Poker tournament on PartyPoker.com but wanted to play for at least an hour or so.  I started looking over their interface and came across Sit & Go poker tournaments.  These are single or multi table tournaments where  in the case of a single table the game starts when the table is full.  Because there are so many other people wanting to play your table fills in a minute or less.  Then you play Texas Holdem No Limit or Pot Limit poker until someone at the table wins all the chips.  The tables payout 50% to first place 30% to second place and 20% to third place.  The games have stakes of all various levels, I play the tables with a 5$ entry and an extra buck goes to PartyPoker.com  Not a bad way to play a tournament without committing yourself to multiple hours if you are successful.   Below you can see the PartyPoker.com interface and all the various tables offered in the Sit & Go formats.

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