How To Become A Gambling Pro!

The History Of Online Poker
Other types of online gambling sites were launched before the first online poker room. Online
sports books were introduced in the mid 1990’s which was also the time of online casinos
sprouting up around the web.
It wasn’t until 1998 that the first online poker forum was launched. Planet Poker,
which has since become a relatively small poker room, enjoyed the status as the sole online
poker forum for a short period of time. Other online sites entered the fray soon after. Paradise
Poker was launched in 1999 and would soon become the industry leader.
Today, there are many, many sites to choose from. A search for the most popular sites for
online poker show over 1,000 matches, and a Google search gives over 50 million matches for
references to online poker sites.
The major sites include Poker Stars, Party Poker, Full Tilt Poker, Pacific Poker,
and Bodog Poker. Many offer the chance to play with “fake money” or real money. You can
accumulate points at some sites that can be redeemed for merchandise bearing the site’s
name.
Another feature with most sites includes the offer of bonus cash with a real money
deposit. Often, you can receive a code that matches the amount of your deposit up to a certain
amount. For example, make a $50 real money deposit into your Party Poker account and you
will receive $50 free making your total bankroll $100.
It’s a matter of personal preference as to which site is best. We will remain
objective in this book and will not be able to tell you which site to go to. Each one has its
distinct features that appeal to the everyday player.
Online venues may be more vulnerable to certain types of fraud, especially collusion
between players. However, they also have collusion detection abilities that do not exist in brick
and mortar casinos. For example, online poker room security employees can look at the "hand
history" of the cards previously played by any player on the site, making patterns of behavior
easier to detect than in a casino where colluding players can simply fold their hands without
anyone ever knowing the strength of their holding. Online poker rooms also sometimes check
player's IP addresses in order to prevent players at the same household or at known open proxy
servers from playing on the same tables
How To Become A Gambling Pro!
Playing Texas Hold'em
Hold 'em is probably the best known and most popular form of poker today.
Each player starts with two hole cards. There are three rounds of community cards. These are
dealt face up, for every player to use, with betting after each round. Players make the best 5-
card hand using any combination of the five community cards and two hole cards.
Each new hand begins with a small blind, a big blind, and a round of betting. The betting rules
vary depending upon whether the game is Limit, Pot Limit or No Limit.
Once the first round of betting is complete, the dealer then puts out the first three community
cards, or "the flop". There is a round of betting. The dealer then puts out the fourth community
card or "the turn". There is a round of betting. The dealer then puts out the fifth community card
or "the river". There is a final round of betting. After the last round of betting, the pot is awarded
to the best hand.
All Hold 'em games include a small blind and big blind. These are forced bets, and are
determined by the position of the button. These bets are considered live, and every player in the
hand must either call the big blind, raise, or fold. The button moves clockwise around the table,
giving each player a turn being the button, small blind, and big blind.
In Limit Hold 'em, each betting round has a fixed bet. In $5/$10, the small blind is $2.50, the big
blind is $5, and the first two rounds of betting are in increments of $5. The last two rounds of
betting are in increments of $10. There is a maximum of three re-raises per betting round.
In Pot Limit, a player can bet any amount from the minimum bet to the size of the pot. In a
$5/$10 pot-limit game, the small blind is $5 and the big blind is $10. The first player can call the
big blind (in this case, $10), or raise to any amount up to the size of the pot. A raise must either
equal or exceed the previous bet or raise. In this case, a pot-sized raise would be $25 ($5 small
blind + $10 big blind + $10 call), meaning that, in total, player three can bet up $35. Supposing
player three makes a pot-sized raise, the total pot is now $50.
How To Become A Gambling Pro!