Poker 101

Last year, when I got back from my WSOP trip, my father informed me that he “dutifully followed my blog updates faithfully, even though he didn’t understand a word of them”.

So, for my non-poker-playing friends and followers, here is a (relatively) brief tutorial / glossary.

Texas Hold’em: the game that I will mostly be playing. At it’s most basic, every player gets two cards (that only they can see), followed by three community cards (the flop), another community card (the turn) and finally a fifth community card (the river). There are betting rounds between each deal, and at the end the best 5 card poker hand (out of the seven total cards) wins.

Tournaments vs. Cash Games: Cash games involve sitting down at a poker table with a certain amount of money, and playing with that money. If you lose your money, add more. If you want to leave, leave.

A tournament, by contrast, does not use “real money”. You pay an entry fee, and are given a certain amount of chips. You then play until you either lose all your chips, or have everybody’s. The prize money is distributed based on where you are eliminated – 1^st place wins a lot, last place wins nothing. Generally 10% of the field receive some share of the prize money.

Blinds / Antes: To “force some action”, every hand has some mandatory money added to the pot. The big blind (BB), the small blind (SB), and the Ante. As time goes on, the amount of the blinds increases. This ensures a tournament comes to an end at some point. When you see me describe a level as 1000/2000/100, I’m saying that the SB is 1000, BB is 2000 and the antes are 100.

The Bubble: A point in a tournament where there are few people left before a major milestone. The next person out, for example, will be the last person who doesn’t get paid. Or with the next elimination the final table (FT) will be created. To Bubble a tournament means that you were the unfortunate person who was eliminated in that spot.

Position: Position is very important in poker, as it dictates how much information you have before acting. Being in early position means that you act before others, with less information. Late position is beneficial to you in a hand.

Some random acronyms you may see in my updates:

ITM: In the money. This means the bubble has burst and the remaining people get paid. I hope to use this one frequently.

Runner Runner: When two consecutive cards come on the turn and river (that build on each other) to win the pot.

Go All-In: When you bet all of your chips. Also known as pushing or shoving.

Busto: To go bust – be eliminated from a tourney. But for one person in each tourney, this will happen.

Obviously there are a million intricacies to poker, and I’m sure that non-players will still be confused by some of my updates, but I’m hopeful that this will help you (dad) understand some of my updates.