Playing poker online / on PC

juvenal

Hi,

Total newbie here.

I've only ever played a few hands of Texas Hold 'em with friends, and seeing as how I've some time on my hands during the day, I was wondering what's the best way to learn to play properly online or on the PC.

Obviously for the experts here, you are playing for money in online tournaments etc. I'm just looking for a good site, or software program, where I can play at my leisure and get to know what I'm doing!

Any advice appreciated.

Cheers,

J

RoadSweeper

Every site has a play money section. Just download what ever poker sites software you fancy and go to the play money section and play a few hands and you'll begin to learn!

mistabutta

pokerstars.com is probably the easiest and has best support and doesnt crash and everything is straightforward enough when it comes to putting real money on to it

Slash/ED

Greenjokerpoker lets you deposit and withdraw by laser without charge and deposits are instant so is probably the best to deposit a tiny amount and playing tiny stakes with it. Play money is a waste of time, you wont learn anything on it as everyones just moving all in every hand

SuperHans

Pokerstars is good in terms of software(easy on the eye) and game selection(lots of players and many different games). Some good Irish based sites out there which have the advantage of being able to deposit and withdraw via lasercard such as GreenJokerPoker, BoylePoker, BetdaqPoker. Devilfishpoker have been running some good promotional tournaments of late aswell and they accept laser(Ithink).

I'd agree with Slash about not playing play money. Just make a minimum deposit of €10 or whatever you would feel comfortable losing(Assuming you lose, you might just win!).
Single table tournaments are a good place to start and some of the sites I've mentioned have these for as low as 10c entry.

5starpool

Welcome to the poker forum. Firstly I get the impression that you have no intention at this point of playing for money, so what I would suggest is that you download and install 2 or 3 poker clients (Pokerstars, Full Tilt and Paddypower are a good selection) and just use the play money tables there. Read the stickies at the top of this forum for some basics and links to threads that go over some important concepts. Maybe spend a few hours doing that to see if things make sense before you play a hand.

Then once you are comfortable that you know something, open a play money table and just play. If you lose your chips you can reload (free of course). Learn the differences between games (no limit, pot limit, limit, tournaments, cash games, single table tournaments). There are also freeroll tournaments that you can enter that you can actually win cash in, and some sites give you some free $$$ if you register usng proper bonus codes, which you can use to play low buyin games for real money without putting in any yourself.

As with any form of gambling, of course know what you are prepared to spend if anything until you get to know something about the game. Don't expect play to be any good at the freeroll or play money tables though. Usually they are really terrible and don't resemble the game when it is played for real money, even if very small amounts. As some have said, play money is rubbish but it does help you get a feel for the software, the buttons, how to bet etc, and can be useful from that point fo views for a total beginner.

Lastly, if you have any questions feel free to ask. There is a thread for newbies to ask questions in the holdem strategy subforum. THere may be good questions in there alread answered that might help you.

Good luck.

H8GHOTI

Or you can play against Daisy Duke here:
http://www.gamesolo.com/flash-game/texas-holdem.html

*She's crap, so you should beat her but she doesn't take her clothes off! :mad:

All good suggestions above. But if you don't want to download software or make an account (this actually isn't that hard or time consuming), there are plenty of flash based games like this around the place. You'll learn the basics anyway.

roryc

Most sites have decent play money sections, Paddy Power etc. Also, if you do end up playing for cash, Paddy Power and Green Joker Poker would be the most common for 'newbies'... all games are played in dollars ($) though.

If you wish to play in Euros (€), Devilfish is probably your best choice.

juvenal

Many thanks for all your replies; that's plenty of info to get started! I'm not going to be throwing money around from the start for fun, but hopefully once I get the gist of it I'll be a betting player.

I'll check them all out and let you know how I get on.

Cheers. . .

shanethemofo

I'd Recommend the software PKR (www.pkr.com) if your only doing it for a bit of fun. Keeps you entertained.
Only thing is your computer does have to be powerfull enough to run it on high settings, but there is an option for lower spec'd machines.