The best way to learn how to play poker

Posted by Marcus Bateman 09/09/10

I have a number of non-poker playing friends who continually ask me to teach them the basics of how to play poker which got me thinking about the various mediums potential players can use to learn how to play poker.

Many people's first exposure to the game of poker is through the television. How many interviews have you read down the years where the person being interviewed said they first discovered poker through watching highlights of the WSOP or one of the televised poker shows such as Poker After Dark.

Whilst poker on TV can be highly entertaining you must realise that the action is heavily edited so a decision that seems strange may actually have a perfectly good reason behind it due to actions in a previous hand that was not shown. As a learning aid I would not recommend watching poker on TV, but it could be used to learn the rules of the game at a push.

Books and articles are another popular way to learn the game and develop your game. Books, whilst obviously full of information, can take a while to complete and are often written on topics that were valid three, six or even twelve months ago whereas articles are usually more up to date in their concepts and theory. I am an advocate of poker books, having read dozens of them over the years but they are only effective if you practice what they preach in a real poker game.

Which leads onto the two most effective ways to learn the crazy game of poker. In my opinion the best way to learn how to play poker is to go out there and play it, either in your local casino, cardroom or online. Online poker is probably your best option as you can play for literally pennies, the hands are dealt faster and you have a plethora of tools available to help you analyse your play. If you are serious about your poker then you may want to hire yourself a personal coach who will provide one-on-one coaching, however they can be very expensive so make sure you check out a potential coach's credentials and that you chose someone tailored to your needs.