Plus the "burn card", and The Devilfish's favourite tell
WHY DO YOU PLAY POKER? In the days before online Texas Hold’em was available to anyone with a PC, poker fans would get together maybe once or twice a week for a game that was as much a social occasion as serious gambling. In fact, sometimes, if you were playing with work mates or neighbours, it became difficult to win too often for fear of alienating them. I can certainly remember drawing to the occasional lucky flush, taking a hundred quid off a fellow journalist or two and being left out of the traditional friday night pub crawl like a leper. Maybe the anonymity of the web is its greatest appeal. Who could ever have imagined twelve years ago being able to sit down at a poker table of ten people from all over the world, chattering away to them via electronic chat-boxes, telling them all sorts of lies about yourself, and then going to bed happily having cleaned a couple of them out of their chip stacks. And all these worthy pursuits without leaving the comfort of your own home. That’s why I play online poker. If you aren’t currently a player, this would be the right mind-set with which to start. You can upset the neighbours socially later when you’re good enough.
BURNING CARDS PROTEST Q: What exactly is the point of the “burn card” habit which seems to persist in organised social games of poker? I’m only a new player but I’ve never been able to see the reason for it? Seems like mumbo jumbo. A: The Rules of Poker are quite clear on this and for good reason. A dealer is required to burn a card after each betting round before dealing again. This simply means he discards a card face down which won’t be used in the upcoming hand. The need to “burn and turn” as the old expression goes is to be sure that any cards sitting on top of the deck can’t be recognised due to creases or marks which may have come about innocently or deliberately. Card marking still goes on in some quarters but much of it is very subtle and high tech these days requiring “reader” glasses. Players caught using reader glasses in a major casino would be in heaps of trouble. It’s another security issue you don’t need to worry about when playing web-based poker games. You can’t mark an online electronic card.
TELL OF THE DAY This one belongs to the legendary “Devilfish” Ulliott who mischievously suggests that one of the best “tells” to look out for is when two players at a table are raising and re-raising one another. He insists that if you get a look at the cards after the showdown and review the previous events in your mind you’ll usually pick up something instinctive and of interest about the players involved. Devilish, say I!
