Good headline submitter.

nekom, i call you all in.

Who's gonna hear you fondling virtual chips in your mom's basement?

Very nice headline.
I used to play poker with a bunch of friends on Thursdays and there was one guy that would always do that stupid shiat right as it was his turn to bet. If you know how to do the good ones more power to you but if all you can do is stack them and pound the stack on the table don't even bother betting.

yeah, but where's the idiots guide to successfully hitting on a cute dealer?

"so uh hey...you come here often?"

Yeah, I'm pretty decent at riffling (it's not really called shuffling in poker circles). It's a lot easier if you have the right chips. The Bud Jones chips are great, which is the brand used (or that was used) in the WSOP. Bud Jones is out of business now, though, and the chips go for insane prices on eBay. Some of the cheaper clay stuff is too sticky and not slippery enough to riffle well. One warning though: it can cause or exacerbate carpal tunnel syndrome if you're not careful.

Is that whole poker craze still going on in the states? I was there for new years and everyone played, and had their own sets of poker chips and what not. It wasn't that way when I left.

Now make a di spin in your fingers by blowing on it like Joe Pesci did in Casino. It takes some practice, but after a while, you can really get it going... of course it has to be a larger, hard-edged casino di to work correctly.

Is this a nervous habit or something? Why would anyone want to shuffle poker chips? I suppose it distracts (read: annoys) the other players.

Poker IS NOT a sport...

and has not business being on ESPN...

or any show for that matter.

Is this a nervous habit or something? Why would anyone want to shuffle poker chips? I suppose it distracts (read: annoys) the other players.

Could be all of the above. The idea of it though is to intimidate the other players. The more "shuffling" tricks you have, the craftier you are.

yeah, my buddy had his own table and everything a few months ago. he said he wanted to start playing every weekend. of course, we were all poor so we had a $1 buy-in...after an agonizing 7-hour ordeal, I ended up winning a crisp, clean fye dollah bill y'all. needless to say, that was the end of that little experiment.

the way to win that game is to know how and when to gamble. fark all those people who focus on "tell's". seriously guys, you're just kidding yourselves.

I'm not into poker, but the manipulation tricks are cool. I'm really getting into card flourishing. Check it out.

Card flourishing.

Is that whole poker craze still going on in the states? I was there for new years and everyone played, and had their own sets of poker chips and what not. It wasn't that way when I left. -psyduck

God help us, it is. I've gone from being a slight oddity because I knew the rules and played occasionally, to being an oddity because I'm not playing watching or talking about it every second.

Yay! We always try to have Saturday night poker at our house. Except my wife is getting too good at it,and kicks all of our asses. ;(

riceguy7: The idea of it though is to intimidate the other players.

Actually, it has very little to do with intimidation. The reason poker players mostly do tricks is because they are BORED. Poker is hours and hours of boredom interrupted by a few moments of excitment. You can literally go more than two hours without playing a hand...in the meantime, why not shuffle chips?

daveydave: That was very cool. Thanks.

Forsythe P. Jones:

Yay! We always try to have Saturday night poker at our house. Except my wife is getting too good at it,and kicks all of our asses. ;(

She cheats.

/not really talking about poker

I play allot of poker, as to wether or not its effective to reley on "tells" is a matter of what game your playing. Tells are far more effective in low limit games or in high tourist areas where you are more likely to encounter less expiereinced players. Even then its just another factor to consider, its rarly a blatent give away. When I'm putting someone on a hand, its about 95 percent betting patterns and 5 percent body language.

Forsythe P. Jones

I bought the dvd he has for sale and it's mindblowing. He also does XCM, extreme card stuff. They light the cards on fire and all sorts of craziness.

TheOther: Hehe. No,really,our 18 year-old daughter taught her on the sly,and she started sitting in on our games. Maybe it's because while we're all drinking beer and passing the bong around and she's drinking coffee,she's probably got an advantage. :)

Laugh, if it weren't for chip tricks I would be bored out of my mind at the table. I have about 5 tricks in my repetoire(sp), and if it weren't for them, I would fall asleep, laf.

anyone play on party poker?

I won like 100 bucks, then lost 80 ):

We have a 20 dollar buy in game at my "crib" on Thursday nights. Usually like 5 or 6 of us...so the winner stands to take home over a hundred dollars. Not a bad night...play cards for 5 or 6 hours and only stand to lose at most 20 bucks (if you don't buy back in after busting out). And poker is, in the long run, a game of mostly skill with a little luck. You have to constantly think on your feet, watch how others play their cards and bet, keep track of which players play which cards from particular table positions, and always know what the "nuts" or best possible hand is. For those that think it doesn't require skill, I hope you play poker and I hope I meet you in a casino.

I checked a big-stakes poker show last week, some a-hole was fidgeting and scratching himself all the time---through the best of cards, through the worst of cards---the exact opposite of a poker face!

He took home about $3 mill, not too shabby; never thought I'd live long enough to see $1.5 million bet on a pair of threes, let alone have it win in a 7-handed game.

Also saw an interview with a mousy little housewife, semi-cute and kinda drab--by design; she says she nails prospective hustlers an average of $5,000 an evening, not too shabby.

Sure beats working. . . . .

nekom: Who actually watches these poker shows? That's only a slight tick above golf on tv.


Golf gets very good ratings.

Actually, I did enjoy the poker show; golf is dull as watching paint dry, but it was interesting watching these professional fakers swindle each other out of hundreds of thousands of dollars, jacking the bet to ridiculous levels when they weren't holding squat.

Only chip tricks I do are the shuffling chips and bouncing the top chip in the stack off the table and have it land back on the top of the stack.

I'm pretty sure that fidgety guy the other poster was refering to was X22. He is a math prof, and does all kinds of weird crap. Quacks like a duck, bites his tongue, makes faces, etc. He does it in an attempt to distract, but he ends up looking like a jackass. Funny to watch for a couple of hands though.

So I learned pool by getting my ass beat repeatedly, but I never really put money down on those games. How can I learn to play poker well without losing my lunch money?

/please don't make fun of me

Forsythe P. Jones:

TheOther: Hehe. No,really,our 18 year-old daughter taught her on the sly,and she started sitting in on our games. Maybe it's because while we're all drinking beer and passing the bong around and she's drinking coffee,she's probably got an advantage. :)

Sorry, I was projecting. Ex-wife cheated at cards (and everything else).

Poker IS NOT a sport...

and has not business being on ESPN...

or any show for that matter.

Neither is golf.

Start a .01 cent minimum .02 cent maximum bet game and get some friends together. You could just play with chips, but even tiny stakes makes it a more real experience. Play with people at your skill level first for a while and see how you do. There are also lots of books out there that teach mostly technique such as how to play certain hands. Poker is super easy to learn and impossible to master. Good luck.

You can get more information by joining a poker forum than by reading the books. Don't get me wrong, books are great, but you'll learn just as much from an IRC chatroom.

yeah, my buddy had his own table and everything a few months ago. he said he wanted to start playing every weekend. of course, we were all poor so we had a $1 buy-in...after an agonizing 7-hour ordeal, I ended up winning a crisp, clean fye dollah bill y'all. needless to say, that was the end of that little experiment.

7 hours? Holy shiat. You are starting with way too many chips.

So I learned pool by getting my ass beat repeatedly, but I never really put money down on those games. How can I learn to play poker well without losing my lunch money?

You can't really. I'd start by playing online, or PS2, or CD-ROM. That'll help you figure out how to recognize the nuts (it sounds easy, but trust me, it takes practice.), and basic strategies and overall feel. Then play with some buddies for small buy-ins $2-$5. It also helps to be really good at math.

NEL1st:

Poker IS NOT a sport...

and has not business being on ESPN...

ESPN shows incessant poker reruns because it is their own original programming, and they don't have to pay license fees like they do when they show old football games or other, actual sports that they don't own the rights to.

You can't really. I'd start by playing online, or PS2, or CD-ROM. That'll help you figure out how to recognize the nuts (it sounds easy, but trust me, it takes practice.), and basic strategies and overall feel. Then play with some buddies for small buy-ins $2-$5. It also helps to be really good at math.

Whatever you do, DO NOT play the "practice" tables online. It will teach you the WORST poker and will take you FOREVER to "unlearn"

Your BEST course of action is to scrounge up $20-50, put it into pacific poker (888.com) and play their .05/.10 limit tables. You will learn MUCH more there than any "home game".

NEL1st: Poker is not a sport. Of course, the whole question of whether something is a "sport" or not is stunningly irrelevant. X is a sport, X is not a sport - who cares? It has nothing to do with whether it is entertaining to watch, fun to play, or difficult to master.

Also it's pretty stupid to say poker has "no business" being on ESPN - ESPN has found that a lot of people who like to watch their sports programming are also into poker, gambling, etc. and so they televise poker and make their advertising dollars. ESPN doesn't have some kind of God-given mandate to put sports on TV. I, being one of the many TV watchers who like both sports and cards, am pleased that they air poker games.

I've been doing this for years...picked it up while I was a cashier at a casino. I'm up to where I can riffle 16 chips without even thinking about it.

It may not intimidate, but it certainly shows other players that you know your way around a poker table.

Poker is the best fad that has come around in a long time, its fun to play and i love having 7-10 friends over..putting down $5-$20 and playing cards for about 3-5 hours, and winning money, cheaper then going to the bar, and its a fun time.

and that X22 guy..i think he has tourets(SP) or something, he is odd, but i think he has a condition.

ratpack
NASAM
DreamWeaver

Thanks much. Sorry bout the threadjack and all that, I just needed some help with learning more than just what hand beats what.

...and your poker game will still suck.

I cant wait for the Baccarat fad to happen. Ill bet on the house.

max ive done is 22...twice...

/lucky if i still have chips to shuffle

I'm really enjoying Hold 'Em but Party Poker is not the place to learn. There's always some asshat who goes all in (bets his entire stake) on the first hand, usually bluffing and loses. Sometimes it's two asshats. Then the rest of the table is short stacked and has to change their game plans. Find a small casino (or reservation that allows card games) and shell out $20 for a buy in and have some fun.

"I'm just curious. I saw you shuffling your checks with your right hand. Can you do that with both hands?"

if you want to learn to play poker, the best place for beginners is online at Party Poker. They have very low stakes where you still get a good feel for how to play.

The guy above is correct, in the practice games or play money games all you learn is bad habits because nobody cares when they are playing for free. Don't ask me why, but playing for 5 cents or a quarter feels much different than for play/fake money.

If you want to learn, Party Poker will give you $25 for free if you set up your account using the bonus code: allin4free. You can't beat free cash! Plus, they always have about 100,000 people playing at any given moment. I've played there with people from all over the world. It's pretty cool.

http://www.partypoker.com/index.htm?wm=2557903

http://pokerinthehole.blogspot.com

Party Poker is horrid. Avoid at all costs IMHO.