My first time was when I was 14 years old and it was at the house of a friend who explained to me the value of each hand, a passion that has been for almost 16 years for this great sport!

In 2010, at Full Tilt Poker. My first 10 dollars!

I don't remember the truth, but I learned to play online out of curiosity

My first time playing poker, and not something my friends and I might have done while pretending to play, was on a Saturday night in our den with my parents before we watched Gunsmoke.

First time was with my cousins... They taught me the game and at the time I didn't care much to be honest.... Although a few years later I start getting in the game again .
I guess I was too young at the time to appreciate it.

I started playing poker as a kid. I always saw in movies or shows people playing so when i got the oportunity to buy a chip suitcase i started playing with some friends. It was fun, but we did not play for long, so i just recent started playing again online

my colleague at work played poker and once won a tournament and bought a car, i decided to start playing poker too. but couldn't buy a car lol

At my grandparents house. I was like 9 and my uncle thaught me and my brother how to play.

The first time I played poker was when I was 15 years old on a social network, I did it after watching a broadcast of a tournament on TV.

Originally Posted by Maxmustdie

my colleague at work played poker and once won a tournament and bought a car, i decided to start playing poker too. but couldn't buy a car lol

A car? your friend is a genius then. It is very difficult to have great results in this game. tell him to show you his strategy a bit.

Was very good, I don't remember where was, but I had the first time luck.

Cool responses so far; I've got a "story" to tell as well

I never had much of a "thrill" with gambling like some claim and it never appealed to me in the slightest. I'm not dead-set against gambling as some people are; it is their own money and people can spend it pretty much however they want. If someone gets a "thrill" or experience out of it, then I respect that, but gambling is something I never cared for. Lottery is so horrible statistically-speaking. Slot machines are not much better and can be programmed to win more or less often at the whim of the casino and games like Blackjack are rigged for the casino to win more often (since dealer has different rules than the player).

What baffles me is how many people willingly throw their money away - knowing the approximate odds that are common knowledge! Ask someone why they play the lottery. Usually the response is something like: "Well, I might win."

Yes, you MIGHT, but you also MIGHT get struck by lighting, die by a shark attack, or get killed by a vending machine falling on you. By the way, all of these unlikely scenarios are more likely than winning the Mega Millions lottery and many other popular lotteries!

Anyhow, I never cared to learn poker because I just never fazed interest enough to learn...

That brings me to 5th grade (so roughly 10 years old). Relax. A 10-year-old doesn't have money for poker. Besides, my school had a policy against gambling on school grounds anyway.

One of my friends saw poker on tv and explained how cool it looked. They wanted people to play "poker" with (I put this in quotation marks because it isn't really poker, but we didn't know that at the time). They asked the teachers several times if they could play "poker" and eventually they said yes if we didn't play for money or "bet" anything.

Looking back, I'm sure the teachers only allowed us to play because:

-they realized we knew nothing about poker and didn't know how to play

and

-it kept us quiet amongst a classroom of somewhat rowdy kids.

As I mentioned, that friend of mine wanted people to play poker with. They convinced me into grudgingly playing if I was willing to learn the rules from them. As a favor to them, I agreed and we got about half a dozen fairly regulars to play.

The "rules" was mostly what hands beat what. We had enough trouble identifying Flushes versus Straights and sometimes we would even have to pause the game to ask the teacher which beat which again. We knew nothing about "position" in poker - nothing about blind levels (I think we effectively played with a small ante and no blinds) and didn't even understand how kickers or side pots worked!

This is why I said "poker" in quotation marks. It wasn't really the same game. Without kickers utilized, we thought One Pair could only be beat by Two Pair or better and if we both had the same pair then we split the pot (Ace kicker or Deuce didn't matter, we chopped! xD). We did know about higher pairs though, so we did know about a pair of sevens beating a pair of sixes.

Basically, it was a bunch of 10-year-olds quietly sitting on the classroom floor with MASSIVE piles of the cheapest plastic chips (the thin dollar store kind) and bluffing with every other hand. We had fun, but looking back: this wasn't even close to what poker actually is.

I only played with them for the rest of the school year and then all of us kind of stopped and moved onto other games like Battleship or Connect 4 (which I am super great at by the way ).

It wasn't until years later - after high school actually, that I remembered those times. I was half asleep, but waking up one Saturday morning. You know how sometimes those random ideas just come to you? Well, I always had a knack for psychology and reading people (in college excelling at advanced psychology classes), but then it randomly occurred to me:

"Huh, I bet I could be good at poker."

That was literally what I thought. It seemed like a cool way I could put my psychology and people-reading abilities to the test

Of course, I was perceptive enough to realize I probably had to learn the rules and that 5th grade probably was a little different (little did I realize just HOW different!).

I began by simply going onto Google and looking up the rules of poker and trying to understand the hand rankings and how action moved in betting rounds...seemed slightly complicated, but I more or less got it down. In fact, at one point, I sat alone at the dining room table dealing a deck of cards and trying to determine who goes first and such. So here I am, a college student majoring in psychology, sitting alone with a bunch of teddy bears set up at the table to represent the players (yes, I did add that for a touch of "realism" lol) and me trying to figure out how to play this card game.

I needed a poker community to ask questions and learn from, but knew nobody who played poker. I researched a little online for a poker forum community and I came across CardsChat.com I never had a need to go anywhere else - this site had all I ever wanted. I created my CardsChat account that same day.

The next few months involved me being active in the forum threads and asking lots of questions. As soon as I felt like I was confident enough in my poker abilities, I might consider playing at a casino at the lowest stakes possible just to see how I compared. Then in mid-May of 2020, I discovered the CardsChat 30 Day Course and freeroll at the end of it. I never played poker online or live at that time, but I thought it could be a good way to gain some experience. Since the course was designed for 30 Days, I had to go faster since it was already mid-May and the freeroll was at the end of the month. I went through the course in roughly two weeks time. I also studied poker in my free time, watched many YouTube videos on poker, read two poker books cover to cover during this time and lots more. Yes, when I set my mind to something, I can really stick with it and that ability has served me well in many facets of life

The 30 Day Course was great for me because so much of the information was completely new! At least I didn't have any years-old misconceptions that would hold me back. I learn something and I implement it - that simple.

Now at the end of the course, it was lots of poker studying on my free time - me reviewing the notes I took during the course and me creating an account at a poker site to participate in the freeroll and learn how to do simple things like register.

I could have an entire forum thread dedicated to that 30 Day Course Freeroll in itself, but in short, I ended up winning the entire thing! Yup, I started confident in my learning and 5 or 6 hours later I was in 1st place and the table was closing up. It felt surreal and needless to say I was excited for the rest of the night.

Back in February of 2020, I didn't know the Covid-19 pandemic would become as dominating as it has been. This is March of 2021 I'm posting this and I still never played at a real casino before. In fact, I've never even been to a casino. I'm excited to go once the pandemic safely ends and normal life may once again resume.

It wasn't until about a month after my CardsChat 30 Day course that I even learned this site offered freerolls lol (yes, it took me about 6 months to realize why so many were here xD). Between that time and now, I've placed 1st in maybe 3 or 4 freerolls and ITM in many more. I've joined the CardsChat Poker League and really been learning a lot! Hey, I'm still working diligently on my poker game In fact, I just purchased another poker book a few days ago that I'm expecting in the mail next week

Just like anything else in life, you can improve at poker if you are willing to put the time in

I'm looking forward to trying live games later this year. Perhaps in a few months time

I think the first time i played poker i was 15 years old (now i am 24) and it was at my cousins weekend house here in Buenos Aires, Argentina. One of my cousins and my uncle introduced to me the value of each hand and the rules of the game (that time it was Holdem). Since that moment i did not get into it as much i am now. I started to like it when i attented to a freeroll tournament at the Buenos Aires Casino back in 2019. I experienced the taste for the game, the chips, croupiers, bets, bluffs and it think it was really cool so i started to play freeroll and micro limit online. Hope you like my history, feel free to contact me if you want to share your thoughts. Regards from Argentina

For me it was in the university.

With my grandma! She used to teach me 5 card stud and 7 card stud.

Originally Posted by fullclock

My first time was when I was 14 years old and it was at the house of a friend who explained to me the value of each hand, a passion that has been for almost 16 years for this great sport!

Twelve years ago at a friend's house, I was playing for the first time and I lost like five dollars, But I liked the live game, Shortly after I found a game called zynga poker on facebook and there I began to understand poker his hands, when to bet When not, the luck that many have and sometimes I am also lucky, this game is complicated because one thinks that he has the winning hand while your opponent also thinks the same as you, Sometimes the one who cheats the most wins.

I'm 32 and the first time I played poker was when I was 14. My dad and his friends were playing at our kitchen table and I happened to walk into the kitchen while they were playing. I was familiar with 5 card draw but wasn't good at all. My dad used the restroom and let me take over his stack while he was gone. When he got back, his stack was gone and his friends were laughing. I've been in love with the game ever since.

I play poker for the first time when I was a student. I just play for fun with my friends.

Live poker was 14 years ago with my friends after I discover about poker watching wsop on tv. Online poker was on Everest Poker playing the free sitgos.

I would watch my husband play online a lot, so I decided to see what all the hubbub was about and give it a try. I believe he played at party Poker back then. I opened up my first account online at Full Tilt. I had a sheet of paper with notes and good hands to play and that was it.......I now understood why he played and loved it so much......never looked back. Now we both play and support each other pretty much every day.

I was 5 years old and we played 5 card draw poker at my aunts house over Thanksgiving, 1967. I won ten cents and fell in love with the game.

Chilling with friends

First time I started to play No-limit Holdem was way way back in 1998-1997 but had played Stud and Draw Poker long before that. So having a basic knowledge of Poker hand rankings I thought Holdem would just be as easy to pick up.
Boy was I wrong! All Poker games have their own different personalities and formats and it does not follow that you can be good at all Poker games just because you know the hand rankings.
Each game is different because you play them differently, Just compare Holdem to Omaha, in Holdem you only need to have a single card in your hand to make a flush with 4 same suited community cards, but with Omaha you have to be holding 2 same suited cards to make a flush, and many times I have come up against players on-line who seem to think if they have 4 Aces in the hole they have the nuts, when in reality they only have a pair?
So learn about the differences by playing in play money games before you invest your own cash when you want to try different Poker formats.

When the fun Stops, STOP!

I played on the pokerstars with fake money. I just lost, so when I researched on google about a strategy to win... A large world appeared on my eyes.

My first time was when I was 16, playing a tournament with my friends.

I played in jail then went to prison and learned a lot playing in there its dealing with cheaters to learning how people try to hustle yea it keeps you on toes got to know what games to join in there people will gang up on you and get all your money they will keep raising you till you want to fold or they know the person there with got a good hand

The first time I played poker on PS, in a GT tournament, I was worried and won nothing.

I played poker for the first time when I was in high school with my colleagues, I had a period of about 2 years in which we gathered and played our pocket money weekly, they rotated from one to another, it was a beautiful time, I bring fondly remember those days, poker was simpler then ... not so many strategies ..

I myself learned to play poker at the age of 16, no one taught me, I discovered the rules of the game on the Internet, and played at home on a laptop, my parents were surprised at my hobby

Originally Posted by COMIRRR

I played poker for the first time when I was in high school with my colleagues, I had a period of about 2 years in which we gathered and played our pocket money weekly, they rotated from one to another, it was a beautiful time, I bring fondly remember those days, poker was simpler then ... not so many strategies ..

When you play for fun, everything is more beautiful. When you come back we will say a little more pro, the game is another and your feelings change towards that game that made you so happy as a child. This is life, we should never grow up.

At Poker Stars, I don't remember when exactly. Then there was full tilt poker.

I started playing online and one of the first sites I played on was full tilt. Obviously enjoyed playing as I still play today ��

A underground game in Chinatown it was a 2 4 limit game

Lo recuerdo muy bien tenía unos 15 años y ya tenía la teoría de cómo jugar era un gran fanático de las películas de póquer y junto con unos amigos decidimos juntarnos y jugar me emocioné tanto que hasta ahora sigo juegalo.

I first got acquainted with poker on the Vkontakte social network and played there for a very long time !!!

I played first time online back in 2013, if I remember right

A friend taught me at my home in 2011, downloaded the pokerstars client to my computer, he wrote me poker combinations on a piece of paper and started playing for play chips. Later we learned that there are freerolls, from participation in which you can earn real money to your account

I remember it was a home game with friends. Then I regularly played poker games on my phone for game chips to understand rules and basics better.

my first time was at the PS i deposited 16.00 dollars and lost them in 15 minutes.
wonderful memory !!!

It was my first time playing poker on Everest Poker $ 10 Heads Up ... that was a very good time there

13, i saw my uncle play and won and i didnt sleep sll night because i was only watching like a Junkie how he plays and asked him also "How are u playing so good" His answer "I play only with strong hands" Ahhhh the good old days, i wish i could time travel ...

I don't remember exactly how it happened, but I was a student and played online in a student dorm))