The Making of a Poker Player

Author: Matt Matros
Publisher: High Stakes
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Learning to Play 3

Check-Pass rather than bet This costs nothing. If another player has already bet checking is not an option.

Bet-Put chips into the pot. Every other player must at least match the bet if he wants to remain in the hand. A player can only bet if no other player has bet when the action gets to him.

Fold-Throw your cards in the muck, conceding the pot to one of the other players.

Call-Match a bet that another player has made.

Raise-Increase the amount it costs to stay in the hand by putting even more chips in the pot after someone has bet (this is my fa vorite option, and should be yours too). Doing mis after having checked earlier is called check-raising, a powerful play that some consider unethical but is certainly not It is merely an other weapon at a poker player's disposal.

A betting round ends when each player who hasn't folded has put the same amount of money in the pot After the last betting round, if more than one player is left in the hand, the cards are exposed and the best hand wins. Many times in casino poker a player will win a pot without ever showing his hand. This result is only possi ble if everyone else folds.

During a deal of five-card draw (where everyone gets five cards and is given the opportunity to exchange some of them), a goofy player looked over his hand and said, "Tally Ho." Tally-Ho is a brand of playing cards, and as with most decks, the brand name appeared on one specific card. A quiet player looked at the goofy player and said, "Evan, do you have die ace of spades?" Evan nodded and, realizing his mistake, removed the ace of spades from his hand and showed it to us (remember, revealing cards in poker is bad). Really, he had shown us already.

One night we played Indian Poker. In this incredibly stupid variant, four cards are dealt to each player, all faceup, and then each player puts the fifth and final card on his forehead, so that everyone except him knows what he has. After four cards, I had four spades and Chris, my lone opponent, had a pair. As I put die fifth card to my forehead the