Hectic start of 2005

I at least expected to have some freetime so I'd be able to learn the basics of Poker. Now that 3 weeks passed by I haven't got anywhere regarding this matter except for surfing some poker forums to relieve stress. I didn't bother to read anything about strategy etc. though - just book recommendations. I guess it's the best idea to start off with a good book about Poker basics instead of blindly wasting money here and there.
I decided to pick up "Hold 'em Poker by David Sklansky". It's recommended all over the place as a beginner-friendly book about Hold 'Em Poker. I'll see if it was a good choice when I actually get to read it... January sucks!

While I was at it I also ordered Rounders, a movie about Poker with Matt Damon and Edward Norton. It's supposed to be mediocre at best but shows some general Poker ideas. Speaking about stress relief... *sigh*

Poker hands

Before reading up more on Texas Hold'Em I thought it's better to put a ranking of Poker hands first as this goes for all Poker types (I think). I found a great article on Poker hands at Wikipedia.

When talking about Poker hands, "hand" refers to a set of 5 cards.
I knew most of the names of Poker hands from movies but didn't recall how they rank in Poker. These are the hands which occur in Poker, ranked strongest to weakest:

Royal Flush: Ace, King, Queen, Jack and 10 of the same suit. Also called "ace-high straight flush". Basically this is a special type of straight flush.
- Example: 10d-Jd-Qd-Kd-Ad
Straight Flush: Five cards in sequence and of the same suit. Usually, aces can count either as high or low.
- Example "Straight Flush Eight to Queen": 8c-9c-10c-Jc-Qc
Four of a kind: A hand with four cards of the same rank.
- Example "Four of a kind Fours": 4c-4d-4h-4s-9h
Full House: A hand with three cards of one rank and two of another.
- Example "Full House Eights over Kings": 8c-8d-8s-Kh-Ks
Flush: Five cards of the same suit.
- Example: Ks-Js-8s-4s-3s
Straight: Five cards in sequence.
- Example "Straight Ace to Five": 5d-4h-3s-2d-Ad
Three of a kind: Three cards of the same rank.
- Example "Three of a kind sevens": 7c-7h-7s-Kd-2s
Two pairs: Two cards of one rank, two of another.
- Example "Two Pairs Aces and Eights": Ac-Ad-8h-8s-Qs
One pair: Two cards of the same rank.
- Example "One pair nines": 9h-9s-Ac-Js-4h
High card: A hand that does not qualify for any of the other categories.
- Example "High card Ace": Ac-Js-10h-6h-3s

card suites are
h - Hearts
d - Diamonds
c - Clubs
s - Spades

If two players hold the same kind of hand, the winner is the one with the better cards in this hand. For example a "High card Ace" beats a "High card Queen" and "Three of a kind Aces" beat "Three of a kind Tens".

Poker types to choose

Eventually it turned out that there are different types of Poker. My Poker adventure seems to become more difficult than I expected it to be. I live in Europe where Poker is not exactly popular; I have been to quite a few casinos and arcade halls in Central and Western Europe and never saw a big Poker game, only Blackjack for insane amounts of money. So what I'm saying is that I'm absolutely clueless when it comes to Poker.

Anyway, the only Poker variant I watched and also played as a kid is "Five-card draw poker" (or "Draw 5 Poker"). I don't want to go into details here because I don't even remember all of the rules but basically you can return unwanted cards in exchange of new cards from the dealer. I guess this is referred to as the "Draw". However, my little web research showed that this type of Poker aint even available in most of the online Poker rooms.

From a "money point of view" I want to choose the Poker type with the most players to get ahold of the "stupid mass"... My decision is final:
The game of choice is Texas Hold'Em Poker.

Looks like I'll spend some time reading :)

YAPB: Yet Another Poker Blog!

I'm thinking about learning Poker for a while now and since this thought would just get lost without any 'action' I just created my own 'learn to play Poker blog' which will mainly serve me as a reminder of anything poker related.
Thus I'm joining the crowd of approx. 10,000 Poker Blogs on the web :-)

So let's see how this works out...