The Poker Players Alliance is an advocacy group for American poker players. It was founded in 2006 after laws were introduced that made it nearly impossible for Americans to play online poker. The laws made it illegal for American financial institutions to transfer funds to online gambling sites. This made it virtually impossible to open an account and greatly reduced the number of Americans playing online. Since then the US government has shut down quite a few poker sites which has made it even harder to play online. The Poker Players Alliance was founded to get these laws overturned.

It did not take long after its founding for the Poker Players Alliance to collect a huge membership, it took just a matter of weeks to get over six hundred thousand. There are now well over a million members which does give the group a pretty strong voice in Washington. That being said they have met with fairly limited in success in getting online poker back into the United States.

The Poker Players Alliance used two strategies in the hopes of changing the laws. The first is by lobbying Congress to get laws passed or overturned so that online poker will return to being legal. The other strategy that they have been using is to make legal challenges of the laws that are in place. Given how little interest Congress has in changing the laws this seems like the most likely approach. The fact is that the laws about online gambling are far from clear and most legal experts seem to agree that the federal government has overstepped its bounds. The problem is that using the courts to challenge laws is a slow process that can take years before there are any results.

The other thing that the Poker Players Alliance has been doing is launching media campaigns that support the rights of people to play poker. They realize that the best chance of getting anything to change is to get enough support that the politicians will have no choice but to overturn the laws. Again this is a slow process and it will take years before there is enough support that it will force the politicians to act. That being said there has been good progress made so there is hope that in the not too distant future Americans will once again be able to play poker online.

Have Fun

Whether you are playing poker for leisure or for some money, always remember that poker should be fun. Poker time should be good times! When everyone is happy then the other players will surely be more than glad to play with you again, even if they end up losing some money against you.

Go hard

If you want to rake in the chips then you must know to play it hard and aggressive during tournaments. Meek poker players might bring home some money but aggressive ones are often the last man or last woman standing.

No dead money

When you are involved in a pot, make sure you do everything ton increase your chances of winning. You will not win the pot every time but you should maximize all the possibilities.

Know who you play against

You may not know who they are when you play with them but you must be able to size up and read your opponents. Never underestimate anyone on the table. Never assume that one is a donkey.

Lesson is over

Zip it. That might be the best thing to do to avoid giving out anything about your game. You are not in a poker tutorial and other players really do not need what you know about the game. Teach them something and they might just know how to beat your game.

Because gambling involves a heck of a lot of randomness, people will often chalk it all up to luck when they win but really, it is not all luck all of the time.  While there are some things that are really lucky, there are other things that you can actually do to ensure that you win and that is paying attention.

When you pay attention to the other players as well as the cards, you will definitely improve on your game!

When you are playing poker – what is the very first thing that you need to learn?  For me, it was all about bluffing.  When I was first learning how to play poker, I was told that bluffing is by far the most important thing and the most important skill that you should develop and you know what … they weren’t lying! 

The ability to bluff in poker is definitely needed, for you need to be able to hide the truth from your opponents.  Poker is all about deception and if you can deceive your other poker players, you have done your job well and you will go very, very far in the poker world.

Bluffing is not easy though, it is something that you need to work at and something that you need to perfect.

The eyes of poker players may or may not be the windows to the soul, but they are definitely the windows to motives. If a player sneaks a quick peek at his chips, he likely has a strong hand.

Online, as mentioned, there are tells as well. A lot of tells involve the time it takes a player to make a move. For example, during a limit game, duration is everything. A quick call when there are two straight or flush cards showing, it may mean a draw.

Players who take forever to think and who seem like bad players are probably thinking about whether or not to call or to fold, indicating a weak hand.

If you are patient and observant, you will be able to spot those telltale twitches and signs. Of course, you may also want to make sure that you do not give away any of your own.

Poker tells are commonplace. They can, in fact, occur during live games and in games which are played in online casinos. Naturally it may be harder to pinpoint tells in games on the internet, but it is possible.

For now, however, we are going to focus primarily on the tells players betray in live games. For instance, a poor player may put his hand over his mouth. He does this typically because he wants to hide a smile when he has a strong hand. Other players may reach for a drink when they have a bad hand — their mouths are dry because they are nervous, and thus easy to lead.

Checking can only occur when no player has opened the bet and you have to make the decision. When you check, you are basically saying that while you do not want to be the one to open the betting, you still want to play. Otherwise, you would have folded.

Matching an opponent’s bet is called seeing it. Naturally, a raise means you raise the bet.

Most of us know the actions defined these terms, we simply did not realize what all of those actions were called. Remember, you have to talk the talk and walk the walk in this game.

For instance, a lot of poker variations begin with an ante, also known as a token bet. In some games, these are replaced by blinds. In either case, the point is to make sure that there is something in the pot for whomever wins the hand.

After the ante comes the deal. The finer aspects of the deal depend on the variation of the game being played. Sometimes there are community cards (Texas Hold ‘Em, et. al.), sometimes not. Sometimes the cards are face up, sometimes they are face down, sometimes there is a mixture.

Regardless, once the cards are dealt, the players take a look at their hands, and make a bet based on what they find. A round of betting follows. Depending on the game, the players may or may not have a chance to discard and get new cards.

More next week, so stay tuned — we’ll be getting to the meat soon!

Some of these new fans are not quite sure how to play, though.  It would take a whole lot of time to explain the rules of every single variation, but we are going to start out by explaining some of the basic fundamentals.  The beginning of this series might as well be entitled Poker 4 Dummies, so pros, bear with us.  Heck, I didn’t know a lot of this until I researched it!

Let’s start out with the cards. We know the suits, most of you also know that the Ace is always high, no matter what. So, what are the hands you are playing for in poker? The highest is the Royal Flush — very rare. The suit must be the same, and you are looking for 10 J Q K A. A straight flush has all cards in the same suit, there are no wrap arounds (i.e., no Q K A 2 3), but it does not have to be face cards.

Four of a kind is, well, four of a kind. A full house is one pair plus three of a kind. A flush and a straight are like the above, but do not have to be in the same suit. Three of a kind, two pairs, and one pair: pretty self explanatory.

Poker Stars is extremely famous for online poker playing. Many professional players started their careers on Poker Stars, and thousands of people login everyday to enjoy a few hands on Poker Stars. Whether you are a beginner or a pro, Poker Stars has a game going on right now that is the perfect level for you! Right now, Poker Stars is offering a 100% bonus on top of whatever you as a new member deposit into your Poker Stars account.

Party Poker is another well known online poker room. While Party Poker may not have as many of the professional poker players playing on it, there is still plenty of money to be made gambling on Party Poker. Many beginners chose to begin at Party Poker due to it’s easier levels of poker and the great 100% deposit bonus, up to $500!

Poker Room is famous for online poker players. It was one of the original online poker rooms. They offer some great games of Texas Hold Em poker that will challenge the toughest of players. However, Poker Room really is more for the higher class players. Beginners may find it difficult to play against some of the experienced players that Poker Room has.

My favorite? Full Tilt Poker! With their excellent player base, and Full Tilt Rakeback – it really is a players poker room!

Whether you are looking at beginning to play poker, or just want a more challenging scenario, there are thousands of online poker rooms. Poker Stars, Party Poker and Poker Room provide great challenges to anyone looking to play some great poker online!