His First Real Poker Game

Perry had been playing poker for years with his buddies. It started in college. Their weekly home games involved some pretty crazy versions of Poker. Games with names like Casino, Fiery Cross, 2-2-1, Pineapple, and "Deuces, Jacks, Man with the Ax, but a Pair of Natural 7's Wins the Pot" were just some of the unique games they played. Oh sure, they would play "Texas Hold 'Em." But Hold 'Em was one of the purer games that they played, and only occasionally. Perry was used to playing "Dealer's Choice" (as the "deal" passes to the left of the previous dealer, the new dealer decides what game will be dealt with the new hand).

Now in his mid-20's, it was a unique experience for him when he went to a real Poker room for the first time to play in a real Poker game. He chose to play "Hold 'Em." It would be strange for him to play the same game, hand after hand. But he looked forward to seeing what it was like to play poker in the largest Poker Room in the world.

When he walked in the door and entered the Main Room, he was not prepared for what he would see. The room was huge, and he had never seen so many poker tables in his life. Watching tournaments on TV don't really give the viewer a true feel of what a big Poker Room looks like.

There were several different games to choose from in the Poker room: Hold 'Em, 7 Card Stud, and Omaha. Perry decided ahead of time that he wanted to play Hold 'Em. Once he was in the Casino, he had to decide whether to play a limit game or a no-limit game. Then there was the choice of what stakes to play. Perry didn't feel that he was ready for a no-limit game, so he decided on the $2-$4 limit Hold 'Em game.

He searched around the large room trying to figure out how to find the $2-$4 game. This particular Poker Club is a loud place. Public announcements are being made, calling players to available seats from several locations throughout the room. There are cocktail waitresses, food servers, and porters running up & down the aisles taking care of the customers. There are even Massage Therapists giving "Chair Massages" to players as they are playing their hands. It was a lot of sensory stimulation for this guy on his first visit.
Perry noticed that there were men & women dressed in tuxedos (called Floor People) scattered throughout the room. He decided to ask one of them to point out the $2-$4 Hold 'Em tables. When they found Perry a seat, his heart began to beat faster with excitement. They sat him in seat #9, directly to the dealer's right. Perry pulled $50 from his wallet, and the dealer exchanged his cash for 50 $1 chips. These were the first professional Poker Chips that Perry had ever held in his hands. His excitement continued.

He was playing at a full table. The Big Blind was one position to his right, which meant that Perry was the first to act. He looked at his two cards which were a 7 of hearts and a Deuce of Spades. Everyone will agree that a 7/Deuce off-suit is the worst Hold 'Em hand one can be dealt (perhaps Perry should have seen this as an omen). He folded his hand. But he watched intently as the rest of the hand progressed.
Playing a game of Poker at a table full of strangers is definitely different than playing with a table full of one's buddies.

As the game continued, Perry began to relax, and was able to focus on his cards. Unfortunately for him, the river card always seemed to be a hand killer for him. So many times he thought he had the winning hand, and then the river card would hit the table, and he just knew that someone else made their straight or their flush, and his 2 pair would not be able to stand up. And so often, he was right.

Besides learning about Poker at this Poker Club, Perry also had to learn from whom to order a beverage to pay the least amount of money. Perry decided to stay sober at his first professional experience, so he was ordering Pepsi. When a Porter came by, and Perry ordered a Pepsi, he was charged $1. Later, when the cocktail waitress offered him a drink, the Pepsi cost $1.75. And when a food server was delivering a meal to one of the people at his table, he ordered another Pepsi, which cost him 50 cents. Live and learn. My suggestion is to always order from the food server, so you can throw them a buck, and they get a 50 cent tip out of it.

When his money ran out, Perry decided not to re-buy. He was done for the night. This was a smart move for his first Casino Poker experience. He then walked around the room and watched other games of varying stakes. He saw pots of hundreds of dollars being won. He thought how he could never play in those higher stake games. When he walked out of the Casino, he was tired and his mind was spinning.

Perry was fascinated by his real Poker experience. He was able to see Poker in a completely different light. He still participates in his weekly game with friends. But now there is talk at his table about several of his buddies getting together and going to the Poker Club to see what it's all about. So next week at the buddy game, there should be some very interesting dialog about their professional experiences.

It's important to remember to change up one's style of play when one makes a switch from a private game with friends to a Casino game with strangers.

Mark Leoni

[http://www.pokerchipsandstuff.com]

Home Poker Games Are Illegal

Home poker games have been under a lot of heat from law enforcement over the last few years. As the popularity of poker has grown the amount of people playing at home has also increased. Some of these games have gotten enough attention that the local and federal agencies have actually done raids.

When gaming laws were first written, they were intended to prevent people from hosting games in which they would profit from the play. Poker was never the focus of these laws and it they were never intended to prevent home games. With poker being so popular in American culture today, it is very unlikely that any one person would be punished too much for having a home game. The recent pressure is on games that are being "hosted" with the intent on profiting from the game itself without playing. These games usually involve high stakes and less than reputable clients.

The fear of this type of prosecution is where do you draw the line? Laws vary from state to state on the "acceptable" limits of home games. There is a lot of discretion that is up to the law enforcement agencies. When groups of friends get together to play cards it usually will not draw any attention, and it should not. The question is can the law use the card game as a "gateway" to enter the house which may be under suspicion for something else? The simple answer is yes.

There are also tax implications which can become issues as well. If the game is played with high enough stakes then the I.R.S. may have an interest in what goes on. After all casinos are required to report many cash transactions that a home game would not. In cases where the I.R.S. were to get involved the property of the game could be seized legally. All items including poker tables, cash, poker chip sets [http://www.premiumcasinosupply.com], and any other property they deem necessary.

Security and cheating are also things that are regulated at a casino. There is very littld chance of getting cheated these days playing in a licensed casino. This is not the case for home games. Getting robbed is also less likely at a casino unlike a random house.

My thoughts are very straight forward on this manner. If you choose to play a low limit game with people you know who live above board lives you should have no problem. On the other hand if you are doing something dishonest then these laws could affect you. Playing a poker game for money outside a licensed card room is illegal and you should act accordingly.

Chris Stephen is the owner of [http://www.premiumcasinosupply.com] and expert author on poker and poker supplies

Enjoy Free Poker Games

Online poker game has become the flavor of the season. Nowadays, the popularity of online poker games has surpassed the craziness of land based poker games. Let us know why online poker games are so popular among public:

1. Super Speed

The speed of play poker online is generally twice that of land based poker play. So, you can get same fun and pleasure in comparatively less amount.

2. Inexpensiveness

Usually, rake collected by an online poker room costs 5% or less of each pot whereas the same will cost you roughly 10% or even higher in land based poker play. In this regard online play is the better value option.

3. 24x7 availability

One of the interesting features of online poker games is their continuous availability throughout the day. You can actually your time of play at any day and any time and get real fun and pleasure. In land based players must plan ahead and get to the venue at the due starting time.

4. Better Choices

Online poker players provide better more choice, in the number and variety of games to select from and players to play with. So, make sure you decide judiciously and reap better results.

5. Difference in Poker Tells

Poker Tells between online and land based poker play vary from each other. Usually in land based players spend more time observing body language and voice whereas in online poker games gives emphasis on timing, bet size, and table position rather than the judgment of facial expression.

6. Flexibility

In online poker, you are flexible to choose play in more than one room at a time. Clearly this is not an option open to land based players.

So, if you are a poker lover, you must take the pleasure of trying your hands in online poker tables and feel on the top of the world.

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Poker Games: Home Games vs. Casino Action

People usually play poker at home or with friends for starters and the transition from their usual style they developed in these kinds of games and the style required if you play in a casino online or offline can be hard for some. The home games have always a simpler structure. Usually, all the players at the table ate a small amount. And then the bids and raises are situated somewhere between 25cents and maximum $2. Home games also don't value the best game style, they value only the best hands. This means home games are a lot about luck and very little about strategy. When a home player decides to turn to casino poker, then he must know the three essential differences between what he knows and what he is about to start: competition, the forced bets and the bets in general.

The first difference is at the very beginning of your games: you will see that usually the antes are gone and in their place there come the blinds. The blinds are forced bets that have to be placed by the first person after the dealer (the small blind), and the person after him (the big blind). The rest of the players at the table don't have forced bets - they will however bet the blinds when their turn comes. The only obligation the players have is to call the big blind or raise it, accordingly to their hand and strategy.

After the first round, called pre-flop, you go into the flop, which is the round you see the two hand cards you are given. And here you can see the second big difference. Firstly, the thing about folding when someone bets more chips/money than you have is not true. If someone bets $10 and you only have $5, then you will call him all-in, for the $5 you have, you don't have to fold. This situation only occurs in no-limit poker. Then, there comes the pot limit version, where the bets must be situated between the minimum bet `nd the size of the pot.

And, the version recommended for beginners and at the same time the most played online poker version is the limit poker (or fixed-limit). Her you must place the bets accordingly to the limits set by the game's name. So, if you are currently playing a $4-$8 game, then the bets until the turn will be of $4 and the bets placed from the turn on will be $8.

And then, the human factor comes - the competition. Game style counts the most when playing online in a casino or poker room. Luck has a small part also, as always, but this part is so small that it can be countered through a good play. Actions that you used to do in home games, like calling a player on the river just to see its hand are not that popular here.*It is mostly because here you play for real money, not for pocket change and you actually have a chance to win a lot, from different players, due to the great amount of players that are usually in online casinos.

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Tunica poker games represent the largest concentration of poker gaming in the South.

Tunica County, Mississippi is one of the country's largest gaming centers, right behind Las Vegas and Atlantic City. You'll find Tunica Count just south of Memphis, Tennessee. In fact, Harrah's Casino, once the Grand Casino Tunica, is the largest gambling resort anywhere in the country outside of Vegas or Atlantic City. Tunica is an easy drive from lots of Southern cities, so gamers in the South can get to Tunica's poker scene without booking a flight.

There are nine casinos in Tunica - Bally's, Fitz, Gold Strike, Harrah's, Hollywood, Horseshoe, Resorts, Sam's Town, and Roadhouse. Of these nine, only Horseshoe, Bally's, Fitz, Gold Strike, Harrah's,Hollywood, and Sam's Town have legitimate poker rooms. The other casinos appear to attract pit game or slot players, many of them boasting about recent slot renovations.

The Horseshoe Casino and Resort has Tunica's most famous room. Founded by Jack Binion soon after the legalization of gaming in Mississippi, this is the poker room that hosts the World Poker Open. The WPO has been at the Horseshoe since The Flood, and the room draws poker players from all over the world. The room has been expanded twice in the last six years -- there's lots of room for poker. Expect a lot of traffic at their weekly tournaments which offer some of the biggest cash takes in the region.

Another big poker draw in Tunica is at the Gold Strike, where there are daily tournaments featuring buy-ins from $25 to $500. The Gold Strike poker room is non-smoking and has sixteen tables -- the room won the 2007 "Best Live Poker" award in the region.

Harrah's Casino is huge and has been renovated in the past five years to include the largest poker room in the area. Harrah's poker room has weekly tournaments in Hold'em and Omaha, and there's always plenty of cash action running in the giant poker room.

Hollywood Casino and Sam's Town's poker rooms are the "newest" rooms in Tunica County, but the games there are more for amateurs and low limit players. There's only six tables at each poker room, making the rooms seem really small. Look for lots of cash games at both rooms.

There's plenty of poker to be played in Tunica,Mississippi. Be sure to stay in the area to take advantage of local restaurant and bar promotions for Tunica poker players and gamblers.

To learn more about Tunica Poker in general, visit that link.

Free Poker Games

There are many sites that offer free poker games online and this number is increasing all the time. Online poker is an attractive pastime for many people that can be enjoyed from home. While some sites offer a variety of free poker games for you to play, yet other sites specialize in one certain type of poker. Some of the free poker games that are offerdd by various poker sites are community card poker games, draw poker games, and stud poker games.

Community card free poker games are by far the most popular poker games offered on the internet. These types of games deal each player an incomplete poker hand and then the player must make the best hand possible by using the community cards that are dealt out. Other sites offer different variations of draw poker games. In most draw poker games each player will receive five cards and then can bet on the five cards in their hand. After the betting they can exchange some of their cards and then betting occurs again and the best hand wins. Less popular forms of free poker games include different styles of stud poker. Five-card stud poker and seven-card stud poker are two variations of these types of games.

No matter what kind of free poker games you enjoy playing, more than likely you will be able to find a site online that offers that type of game. In today's world you no longer have to make the trip to a Casino to enjoy poker games. Technology has brought about the opportunity to play poker from your own home. Whether you enjoy community card games, draw poker games, of stud poker games, there are free poker games on the internet that will provide you with hours of fun and entertainment from home.

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