How Did You Learn to Play Poker ?

[Enthusiast]

I started playing poker after learning about it from a TV transfer and then signed up for poker stars and their school as well as browsing various videos on YouTube and reading books

 

[Orman Nelson]

I'm still learning.
I learned hand rankings from my grandparents writing them down. This was reinforced by my dad. I played in family home games until I was 17 when I was invited to play in neighborhood men's night game. Always dealer's choice(typically stud variants). Played more games like this while in the military. In retrospect, I played pretty well for having no actual training.
I played in a 7-stud game at a casino in Nevada and got smoked(at that time hold'em was just gaining popularity, there were more stud games running than hold'em). It was at this point that I decided these guys knew something I didn't. Then I read my first book "play like the pros". It was a goofy Helmuth book that compared players to animals.
That book led me to others and I found poker school online(a pay subscription with access to a lot of poker content and play money tournaments with prizes like tourney entries to their cash site). The play on that site was pretty solid. It was kind of like what the cardschat freerolls aim to achieve, quality play from players who care and seek to improve even though there isn't really money involved.
I wound up reading a lot of material. Played a lot of live limit hold'em(once upon a time the belief was that no limit couldn't survive as a cash game and limit would get more popular).
That leads to here, where I am on cardschat and finding articles to read here and there and trying to learn more. I don't think you should ever stop trying to learn if you want to be successful at this game.

 

[haiiG]

Not much of my friends play poker so I had to do it by myself. So I've learned all from internet.

 

[James_Moria]

As for me, I learnt to play poker with my friends while playing it at home. Then I got interested in it so much , so I streted to read different information about it in the Internet and watch different videos. Now, I think that the best teacher is our experience, so play more as you can!

 

[rakspin_vr]

From Internet. I started playing freerolls.

 

[frnandoh]

I've ever liked to search random information on internet, and I had remembered in a lot of american movies that I watched when I was a kid there were somes characters playing a game of cards, poker. I thought: all my whole life I have heard talking about poker, poker, poker... What the hell is this? And wrote in Google search 5 letters that it would change my life.

 

[SprMnd]

First I saw poker on TV when I was 14 or 15. It was The Big Game Show with Hellmuth, Tony G and others. I was so inspired and interested in this awesome game. After I learned basic rules and started to play on pokerstars for playing money. And even now after years of delight of this game I still want to learn more and more about poker develop and improve my knowledges. However my bankroll is empty now I truly believe I can reach the top in this game.

 

[boonvech]

learning make more profit

I learned from a cousin of mine I literally teaching the basics of poker. Then I started playing Freerolls at Pokerstars and I realized that was not playing enough to ensure some Spiked . I decided to find out more about the game , and learned some techniques on websites , youtube and twitch of team pros . I still think I have a lot to learn in poker, but this contact with the internet helped me a lot .

After start learning i gradually increase my bankroll bit by bit so i am continuing play freerolls as much as i can and play some small buy-in mmt.

 

[getnupe]

throw off the link to a good site for learning MTT strategy

 

[charlesdenis]

my first game was at a party, we did not have chips only the deck, then the bets were for drinks, you bet one dose, another went there bet two doses ... then started playing on sites with money fictitious, pokerstar and I'm trying to live in poker

 

[sSAINTSs]

I learned from my 2 older brothers and other family friends. We would play every Friday night. When it got late and everybody was drunk it would turn into all in until we had a winner. LoL!:burnout:

 

[jfitzg414]

wow I feel old my dad taught me after WW2 then we played in NAM for baht

 

[CforChampion]

I learnt by watching EPT's on television then actually playing but I still want to learn more, that's why I joined this forum.

 

[8bod8]

I still don't know how to play.
but...the little I know: the poker play you see on tv does not work in freerolls

 

[LevySystem]

I still don't know how to play.
but...the little I know: the poker play you see on tv does not work in freerolls

Its because on TV you dont allways see all the hands, that would be pretty boring for most people + people in freerolls often play very poorly. Wich makes bluffing way less profitable. On the bright side you can actually get a lot of chips out of your valuehands because people will call you down with 3rd pair, shove A5o for 100bb utg and so on.


edge + volume = profit, even in freerolls.

 

[MadMurkin]

Its because on TV you dont allways see all the hands, that would be pretty boring for most people + people in freerolls often play very poorly. Wich makes bluffing way less profitable. On the bright side you can actually get a lot of chips out of your valuehands because people will call you down with 3rd pair, shove A5o for 100bb utg and so on.


edge + volume = profit, even in freerolls.

And you think this is only on freerolls where they call down a5 off for 100 bigs? Gees, let me play on your site please. This is never going to happen on ACR. 265$ tournaments you get called down 200 bb shoves and they show k3offsuit(yanks of course).

 

[BlackMamba]

I was taught to play poker by my father. And I am grateful to him for that.

 

[LevySystem]

And you think this is only on freerolls where they call down a5 off for 100 bigs? Gees, let me play on your site please. This is never going to happen on ACR. 265$ tournaments you get called down 200 bb shoves and they show k3offsuit(yanks of course).

If they were only regs at higher stakes noone would play it right? The ratio between regs and recs will be different at different stakes tho.

 

[Ranish625]

Learned the rules of the game - it hasn't yet learned to play in front of lots of trial and error, and maybe in a few years you learn to play

 

[lulu pk]

In the hard way

 

[Mikeloti13]

I played with my father and my grandfather when i was very young, like 11 years old. I think my experience is huge because of that.

 

[Argonaut]

I learned to learned to play poker from my wife. I did know the sequence of winning hands before, and played some "penny" poker w friends. However, she told me about things like: position, odds, and thinking about other players hands. Then I started to play online, read about the game, and even watch it on TV.

 

[Herkstwin]

I was retired for 5 years when a friend invited me to play in a small stakes weekly home game he was starting up. Watching Texas Holdem on TV from time to time made me interested, so I joined his game. I understood the hand ranking and how to bet. As for pot odds, equity, variance, and most other poker language - I knew nothing. So, I turned to books and online training programs.
Today, I am still learning. They say that you can't teach an old dog new tricks, and some days I think they are right.

 

[Igor An]

I started playing after watching poker on TV. Studied on the site of the school pokerstars, read the theory, watched the video, passed tests

 

[kened2112]

I learned in a cyber some chamos playing poker gave me curiosity and they started teaching me