Welcome to poker’s world.

We need five minutes to learn poker and many years to start playing well. Poker has a few centuries history. Despite that, in Poland it still evokes negative associations. Disreputable fellows are playing cards in a club filled with smoke. But, reality is completely different…This moment poker is flourishing as an entertainment, sport and..a job of professional players.

The first stage of poker boom was begun by the event called World Series of Poker, which has been played since 1970. Transmissions on TV attracted to the card rooms hundreds of thousands of new players, and the best players achieved fame and, obviously, large money. In 1998 movie “Rounders’ came into existence. It poured oil on the flames of poker. Matt Damon, John Malkovich and Edward Norton created amazing production, and this movie became classics of the kind. You just have to see it!

Nowadays we are observing the second phase of revolution. On the Internet appeared hundreds of virtual poker rooms, where any time night or day play millions (yes, exactly – millions) players from all the world. The real explosion happened in 2003, when Chris Moneymaker (yes, it is his true surname), 27 years old accountant from Tenessee won the main championships World Series collecting 2,5 million dollars prize. But the most interesting is the fact, that registration fee for championships, worth $10.000, Chris won in internet tournament, for participation in which he paid $40.

Remarkable success of Moneymaker caused that a dozen or so millions Americans decided to try their hand in poker, mainly in online game. If Moneymaker could become a millionaire, I can too. It is difficult to find better example of American Dream. Watching football or basketball matches on TV we can not even dream to be  our idols. In a case of poker game it looks differently. To turn on the computer and to deposit several dozen dollars in the poker account is enough, and..,sky is the limit.

Some people play just for fun. They are ready to lose few dollars or several dozen in return for fascinating emotions. They treat lost money as a cost of fun, like a ticket to the cinema. But sometimes it will happen also bigger win…

Someone else can treat poker as a sport, challenge. His ambition is defeating competitors, winning in a tournament and then, maybe success in the light of flashes in World Series of Poker. The sportsmen treat online poker as retreat and good workout before real struggling. And the last group – the professionals. People who earn their living by playing poker. They earn fortunes  playing online, and in big real tournaments they achieve a fame and prestige. Wait a minute - you can say - how is it possible? Poker is a random game at least, and the luck decides about win. Besides, every child knows that we can win against casino. Nothing more erroneous. Playing poker, online or really, we don’t play against the casino, but against other players.

In a long term the experienced player being familiar with an arcane of poker, maths, statistics – will be regularly winning. In a short period of time a random element appears, a bit of luck, that may support weak player (giving him deceptive belief about his possibilities and making him a loyal visitor of card room).

To finish this introduction, I can add, that the game which we are involved in, is Texas Hold’em Poker – the most popular variety of poker. Apart from “Texas” quite popular are: 7 Card Stud and Omaha. However, popular in Poland five-cards, selected poker does not actually exist in the West. In “Texas” each player gets 2 cards, and the next five are being uncovered on the table. So every player has 7 cards on the disposal, from which he have to complete the strongest combination. More information you will find in the next chapter: “The principles of the game”.