Poker for Dummies (Mini Edition) (2 page)

Poker has always been America’s game, but poker is changing these days. In a big way. Ask a friend or neighbor with only a casual knowledge of the game to offer an image of poker, and one of three pictures is likely to appear:

Poker is a game played by Mississippi riverboat gamblers with pencil-thin moustaches, fast hands, and a derringer hidden up their ruffled sleeves, or it’s played by gunfighters of the Old West (men like Doc Holliday, Wild Bill Hickok, and Bat Masterson). Welcome to Dodge City, pardner. Check your guns at the marshal’s office and pull up a chair.

Another picture of poker comes right out of the movie, The Sting. Imagine 1930s Chicago mobsters, a round table, a low-hanging lamp illuminating the thick cigar smoke rising from the ash tray, guys with shoulder holsters and snub-nosed 38s, a bottle of cheap Scotch on the table, and someone the size of an NFL linebacker stationed by the peep-hole at the door.

There’s a kinder, gentler version too. This is a picture of Uncle Jack and Aunt Gertie playing poker around the kitchen table for pennies, and somehow all the nieces and nephews always come away winners.

Poker has been all of these things, and more. Although your authors are far too young to have gambled with Doc Holliday or played cards with Al Capone, both are familiar with the kitchen table introduction to America’s national card game.

Since the late 1980s, poker has undergone a renaissance, a greening, if you please. Today’s poker is clean, light, and airy, and decidedly middle class. Like bowling and billiards before it, poker has moved out from under the seedier side of its roots and is flowering in the sunshine. No matter where you live, you probably live within a few hours drive of a public card casino. Poker is all around you. Seek and ye shall find, and these days you don’t have to look very far either.

Why You Need This Book

If you’ve never played poker seriously before, you might wonder why you need a book about it. Why can’t you just sit down at the table with a few friends, or visit that friendly casino nearby and learn as you go? Well, you can learn poker that way, but there are better ways to go about it. The school of hard knocks can be expensive, and there’s no guarantee you’ll ever graduate.

Poker’s been around for a long time, and it’s never been more popular. With the advent of personal computers, a great deal of research about the game has been done in recent years and some of the tried-and-true concepts have been changing. Players who don’t keep their knowledge up to date will be left behind.

A reference book like
Poker For Dummies
explains the basic rules of the most popular variations of poker and provides a sound strategic approach so you can learn to play well in the shortest amount of time.

Icons Used in This Book

A signature feature of
For Dummies
books, besides top-notch authors and the catchy yellow-and-black covers, is the use of icons, which are little pictures we like to throw next to pieces of important text. Here’s what the icons mean:

A suggestion that can help you play better.

A note that will keep you out of trouble.

A more general concept that you shouldn’t forget.

Where to Go from Here

You’ve got your copy of
Poker For Dummies
— now what? Consider the basics of poker with Chapter 1, or head straight to Chapter 2 to get the lowdown on Texas Hold’em. If you want even more advice on poker, from participating in poker tournaments to making the most of video and Internet poker, check out the full-size version of
Poker For Dummies
— simply head to your local bookseller or go to
www.dummies.com
!

Chapter 1

Poker Basics

In This Chapter

Getting a feel for poker basics

Looking at hand rankings

Building a strong foundation for winning

Getting acquainted with general rules and etiquette

Poker is America’s national card game, and its popularity continues to grow. From Mississippi and Michigan to New Mexico and North Dakota, you can find a game in progress everywhere. If you want to play you can find poker played on replicas of 19th-century paddle-wheel riverboats or on Native American tribal lands. You can play poker in two-table, no-frills cardrooms and elegant Los Angeles County megaclubs where 150 games (with betting limits ranging from $1–$2 to $200–$400) are in progress ’round the clock.

This book targets readers who are new to poker. Even if you consider yourself to have a pretty good hand at the game, this book is bound to improve it.

Before You Put on Your Poker Face

Like a house, poker requires a foundation. Only when that foundation is solidly in place can you build on it. When all the structural elements are in place, you can add flourishes and decorative touches. But you can’t begin embellishing it until the foundation has been poured, the building has been framed, and all the other elements that come before it are in place. That’s our purpose here: to put first things first — to give you a basic understanding of what you need before you begin to play.

Planning and discipline

Some poker players (and it’s no more than a handful) really do have a genius for the game — an inexplicable, Picasso-like talent that isn’t easily defined and usually has to be seen to be believed. But even in the absence of genius — and most winning players certainly are not poker savants — poker is an eminently learnable skill. Inherent ability helps, and though you need
some
talent, you really don’t need all that much. After all, you don’t have to be Van Cliburn to play the piano, Picasso to paint, or Michael Jordan to play basketball. What you
do
need to become a winning player are a solid plan to learn the game and discipline: