As I mentioned previously in my BLOG I’m trying to learn to play advanced poker games. I know how to play 5 card stud and draw. However I signed up to play Texas Hold’em in a tournament and I wanted to learn to play the game. I figure the easiest way to learn is to just find a site online so I asked a friend.

He recommended two sites: Party Poker and Poker Stars. He said Party Poker is really popular but he preferred Poker Stars because of their tournaments.

Not knowing any better I decided to check out Poker Stars. They offered a free software download so I thought I’d download it and see if it was really free. I figured they’d want me to upgrade and purchase real chips or something.

The download and installation took maybe 5 minutes. It was fast and painless. When I opened the program they asked me to register. Again I thought to myself this is where they probably ask me for money. They asked for my contact information such but they didn’t ask for any money! I did have to confirm my email and validate my account before I could play.

Within about 5 minutes I was logged into the Poker Stars system and was greeted with a screen that showed me all the open games. I was surprised that there were a TON of open games. I was most surprised to find out that there were FREE games where I could play with “fun money”. They started me with 1000 dollars worth of fun money which I could use in any of the free games.

I quickly found the fun money Texas Holdem games. Some were no limit and had high blinds. So these I couldn’t play in because I only had 1000 dollars worth of fun money. I also figured out some games were considered “high speed”. I thought this meant you had to have a high speed connection to play them. Then I discovered they were high speed because all the players knew what they were doing and you only had a few seconds to figure out what you wanted to do or you would be timed out!

Posted by in Learn Poker, Texas Hold Em, How to Play Poker