Where did you learn to play?

learned?
hmm i'm stil a baby when whe talk about poker
but i'm learning real quick
my beast place was 2 in my favourate poker room
i improve my skils with flops and bad hand's
for the moment

I started playing cards with my grandparents [like everyone else]. Originally with good old fashioned war, then branching out to crazy things like Gin and Rummy, and Gin rummy.

Then, one fateful day in 6th or 7th grade I read a Stephen King story entitled "Hearts in Atlantis". It was about how the card game hearts ruined the lives of a group of college kids, causing them to flunk out, etc, from playing so much. The story intrigued me. I wanted to learn the game that ruined these characters' lives.

Just so happens that every microsoft windows program comes with Hearts. So I taught myself how to play [it took a while]. Then I went on yahoo.com and learned every other card came I could. Euchre, spades, canasta, cribbage, sheepshead and somewhere in there, poker. I've been playing ever since, for better or worse. Although I have been playing a LOT more these past few years because it is all of a sudden "cool".

What a great story. I could never learn pionocle though. Hard game.

Online, at Party Poker, with my mentor's support!

I learned at Vegas Nights. You only had to be 18 to gamble, and the blackjack was too low limits ($5 max bet). Vegas nights used to be held by Catholic churches, clubs, etc as fundraisers.

I could tell you but.... then i'd have to kill you. But seriously, the best education I got was having to wait an hour to be able to get more play money. So instead of being paitent to get more coins I learn to be paitent to play what I thought were the right hands. Funny game it is, a million and one ways the cards will fall and a million and two correct ways to play em.

Learnt this and that from watching it on the tele, then picked up the rest from friends.
Then learnt the rest from hours on the internet and many books.

I started to play when my two brothers really got into it a few years back. Funny enough, I normally hate sports (even though poker probably isn't a sport in some people's minds) that they got into, but I did like poker. Something about it made me want to get better at it. Then once the poker boom started, well I played more online. I got off it a bit, when they shut down most sites to US players, but now getting back in it again. So, anyone with tips for me, more than welcome, I always listen to others' opinions, as long as they seem friendly enough.

I learned to play from the best... my dad

Well i kinda taught myself how to play read a few books, practiced etc etc, play with friends but thats half drunk lol, fun times!

stripokergirl, i hope he didnt teach you strip poker! they should call that Louisiana hold em. just joking

from my friend mike, who i am now better than. after that i practiced on pokerstars.

I still don't know how.lol I been playing alot with parents,brothers and sisters. I learn to play texas holdem online. now i am hooked

i learned playing on pokerstars when it just came out, i was just playing computer games and a few nerds challenged me to play cards so i went with em, it was really fun gaming with them in a different scenario from wars and stuff so we all got into it thinking we were going to become better players

oh yah after lossing about 200 playing a the local poker club i decided to read a few of Doyles books, super systems i think gave me the basic knowledge i needed to play at an average level.

I learned how to play poker by playing poker with my family ...We play everyweekend ..it is fun and its a good way for family to get together .

Im associated in a poker club from Brazil (Clube do Poker) and play freerools and play money. Now, 8 months after, I play real money and win a lot freerolls over the poker sites.

I started playing on-line as well. Started with play money, but that did not last long. It's not really gambling unless your winning and losing money. Preferable winning.

i learned at absolute poker on the free area and it sucked cause people don't play the same for free as they wil for money

I learned at about the age of 14, playing with a roll of quarters once a week with 4 or 5 friends. We quickly learned all the different poker variations and played "dealer's choice" format for a few years before finally settling into hold'em.

We played all the time until college separated us, and now I use online games to keep my interest in the sport going.

I have always enjoyed gambling and make the occasonial visit to my local (Indiana) riverboat. Got interested in hold-em by watching TV like a bunch of y'all. I decided to try my luck and opened an account at Noble Poker and found that I loved playing. At that time I did not have a home computer, so I played at work in the evening and on week ends...lucky I did not get fired. For Christmas a year ago my wife bought me a computer so I would stay home and not spent so much time at work. Be careful what you wish for...you may just get it....now I spend every free moment playing poker....I love it !!

Some would say I don't know how to play. But mostly online and watching TV. Can't find a live game in the cornfields of southern IN.

i started out playing small $5 tourneys with friends, eventually we started making buyins more and then i just recently started playing poker online and at the casino

My father loved to play cards, and taught me to play pinochle when I was still in my teens. My parents and other family members would hold Rook tournaments--they'd keep the same score sheets for years.

In grad school I played spades, hearts, and a little bridge. When I got married, hubby and I would play rummy with his parents. But poker didn't come into my life until just a few years ago, when I started watching the WSOP on TV. I then went online and started playing in the free areas. It didn't take me long to realize that what goes on there is not really poker . I opened an account and played for a while for cash, but closed it out after stupid Congress passed the stupid law .

Hubby and I took a trip to Atlantic City last fall, and I played in my first casino game. I was hooked . Fortunately here in Oklahoma we have a wide variety of casinos within a reasonable driving distance of my house, and I found one I enjoy tremendously where I now play every weekend.

I've read a few books (Dan Harrington's is my favorite), but most of what I've learned is just from plugging away at the tables. Betting is still the weakest part of my game, but I'm getting better at taking a few chances now and then .

RA

Party Poker.....heheee Don't think I'm kidding either...I used to play 7-card Stud over there.

I learned how to play poker when I was little from my dad.
I learned how to play holdem from the internet,television and dvd's.

I learned to play online the started playing with family and friends so I basically taught myself how to play.

I play more on Bodog than any other site. I like the site and how the people play on it.

I use to play poker when I was 9 years old with some friends. I'm 36 now and I am a whole lot better.

Good Luck everyone!

i learned too play at hunting camp and i learned you can lose alotta money or win alot too when i was 18 working at burger king id get my check and lose it all every week i think they had cards up there sleeve though

i first played and learned poker in games grid and absolute freerolls

I started playing poker back in high school with some friends when we would skip school we would have a very low stakes cash game at someones house. I didnt play much after I got out of high school until a year or 2 ago playing small tournies with my friends. I know play mostly online pretty much because i'm too lazy to go play live games and it's just more comfortable playing from home.

From my pops, 7 card stud, sat in on some games at his work. Still have a fondness for stud. Frequent the stud tables at Poker Room and FT. Fairly new to Holdem.

Holdem is an emotional rollercoaster, helps to be bi-polar.

Cheers,

I learned from PartyPoker after my friend introduced me to the game. I played in countless free rolls and finally managed to win one with about 16000 other people in it and that started my real money account. I then started using the real money i won to teach myself how to play cash games, and recently ive started to play more real life cash games to get a new experience. Havent really read a lot of books though, just gained what i know through experience

i saw varkoni (or however you spell his name lol) win the WSOP and i was hooked. Then I started playing on partypoker.com and thats were a learned.

mostly by myself, and watching alot of poker shows

Basically, stayed up late one night after a sort of house party poker with a couple of guys, and watched on Challenge or one of those channels, the World Series Of Poker, this really peaked my interest and the next day, one of the lads who already played set about teaching us how to play, and we had our first competitive games (Sit N Go's with like £5 entry).

I didn't win that first day but made second place a couple of times, and moved onto micro limit internet poker, since then I've been paying regular visits to a hotel over here which is the ONLY place where you are allowed to have big poker games, and have just improved and improved.

I regularly beat my mentor now and fleece him out of his wages.

I played the odd game of seven card stud with workmates a few years back but was always a lover of 9 card Brag.
Then one day shortly after we became fashionable and went online the Enemy said she had seen DREAM poker advertising $10 free. We downloaded and the rest is history.
I read magazines and watch a bit on telly which helps but I say you learn the most at the table.