What's the best way to learn how to play poker?
 

any tips?

Practice your poker face in front of a mirror first...

Online is a great way to learn the basics.

Are you referring to Texas Holdem or how to play poker in general?

Be aware that people online play very loose compared to how tight people play poker in home games or in a casino.

There's a lot of ways. Practice + Experience obviously two of the most important. If you seriously want to learn to play, 2+2 poker forum is probably a place you'd want to go. It's also good to know if you're going to play live or online. When playing online you generally have the advantage of playing more hands as well as using a hud. There are programs out there that import every hand you play into a database and spit the info back to you about how your opponents have played. IE how often they put money into the pot, how often they raise preflop, reraise preflop, etc.

You could also read some poker books. I started out with Harrington on Holdem, but a lot of players today are starting consider them outdated with how the game is played today. They'll still give you a solid foundation to work on however.

just steal their money :2 cents:

i didnt have the patience for poker. After a 6 hour stretch online, at a final table, all i thought was 'when will it end'. Everyone plays super tight at final tables ofcourse, and it's really tedious. It's fun for a few hours but after that it's as horrible as doing a job you despise.

Try zynga poker, if you have facebook.

pokerstrategy - you watch some tutorial videos, finish a quiz and get free real money to play with, enjoy :)

play for money, you will learn a lot faster

Search online,you find videos for learn,tutorials,tips of the old gamer .You can play for free and you can learn .Good luck.

It's all about LUCK...

Poker is 90% LUCK. There is no such thing as working playing poker, and no, don't come with the bullshit of those poker actors like Vanessa Rouseau and such, they all lose big time too...

Or do you think Professional Poker players have some "special mental abilities" to attract better cards than others?.. LOL...

Just sayin...

Totally agree. Free games like zynga are more like a bingo fest and you'll develop some bad habits fast if thats all you play.

An excellent ebook is Decide to Play Great Poker by Annie Duke and John Vorhaus, its a bit above beginner level but tons of good stuff in it.
http://www.amazon.com/Decide-Play-Gr.../dp/B0054DQNGI

Poker is not about the cards :winkwink:

I love playin poker with guys like you...Id clean you like a fish

luck has little to do with it....except for beginners

Practice

Poker is gambling... If you like playing, go ahead, it's a nice game to play and have some fun. But don't come with the bullshit that you can have some strategy or apply science, or some acting to bluff and win...

Otherwise everyone would be playing poker and would be millionaires.

POKER = GAMBLING...

Nothing else to add, it's pretty clear, this is not rocket science... End of discussion for me. Bye.

Drop a hundred grand or so over a period of years. Once you learn then you will know that patience is the next most important thing in playing poker.

Nope, in the long term luck evens out for all players. It all depends on your decisions. If you do the right decisions you would always have edge over other players who do mistakes. As simple as that.

Poker games like Five Card Draw or Lowball...is not 90% luck. It is 90% knowing how to play the game/playing the cards that you are delt/playing your chips/playing people...and learning a great deal of patience. When poker is played correctly 90% of the time it is extremely boring.

I haven't got the patience for It, I pretty much always win when I play tight and boring, but who wants to sit around bored as fuck for 4 hours or so and make maybe $100 at some $0.5/$1 table(easiest blind to find good tables)?

I usually do pretty good. Like the game cause you don't have to have the best hand, just need the skills to play it well and make others second guess themselves.

For years of my life I played regularly...by that I mean several times a week...but yeah after learning the patience to play correctly...it became really boring and I play very seldom now. I mostly only played in...no limit/table stakes...games. The last time I played I won 3,100 and change.

Count cards

There are aspects of poker that are luck. That is why everyone will lose at some point. If your opponent gets dealt two kings and hits two more on the flop there is nothing you can do about that. You can only hope you realize that you are beat before you lose too much.

The skill of the games comes in many forms. One is figuring out if someone has a tell. Another is just knowing the odds. Still another is knowing the pot odds and your return on a bet. You can use this information to decide if the odds favor you and if it is worth taking a risk.

Some of it is acting as well. If you can convince everyone else that you have a good hand they will lay theirs down and you win. Also, having a good hand and convincing others that you don't so they will bet is just as difficult a skill to learn.

The reason many pro poker players end up going broke is that they are compulsive, degenerate gamblers. They think because they are good at cards they are also good and picking sports bets or they are good at other things. The gambling is in their blood and they many of them can't stop themselves. Some of it is ego as well. they start to lose, get out of it mentally and start making mistakes and convince themselves to keep playing instead of just walking away from it.

I guess it depends on how much you know. If you know nothing about the game there are tons of sites that will teach you the rules and the basics. From there you can check out different books and videos about strategies and styles of play. Knowing how to bet from position and understanding the odds are both key things you will need to learn.

There is no substitute for practice. As others said, real money games is the only place you will learn while playing. You can play free games just to get a feel for the site when playing online, but when it isn't real money you often end up with people just pushing all in for the hell of it with with any hand and hoping to get lucky. People behave differently when it is cash out of your pocket.