Since I made the decision to learnhow to play casino poker , I have been sharing my experiences withyou. After entering the lowlimit tournament to get some table experience so I would feelcomfortable sitting down in a live game it was time to put it all togetherin the card room. This week I will discuss some points you need to know tojoin a casino poker game and relate some things I learned during my firstsession.

I chose to play my first session at the in Connecticut. It is alittle smaller and more intimate than the larger where I had played in thetournament. On Friday March third I made my first foray into the pokerroom.

When you enter the poker room you must signin at the desk. You tell the host what game you are interested in playing.If there is an immediate opening you will be seated immediately. If thetable is full they will take your initials and call you when there is anopening. I chose the $3-$6 Hold'em game and was told there was an opening.Before sitting down I purchased my chips at the counter to take to thetable with me. In other poker rooms you might be seated first and theywill bring you your chips or you might purchase them from the dealer.

The minimum buy-in for the $3-6 game is$30.This is not very many chips if the betting gets aggressive. The lastthing you want to do is be short of chips when you have a good hand.

In casino poker you play for table stakes.This means that you play with the chips that you have on the table. You'renot allowed to go into your pocket for more money in the middle of a hand.If you run out of chips you announce that your are All IN and you willonly be eligible for the money in that pot up to that point. Anyadditional bets made by others will be put in a side pot. You will not beeligible for this pot even if you have the best hand. I chose to buy-infor $100 which is about 15 times the largest bet.

In some card rooms when you first sit down atthe table you must post a bet equal to the big blind if you wish to playimmediately. If not, you wait until it is you turn to be the big blind andenter the game then. I chose not to enter right away. By waiting it givesyou a few hands to watch the other players and see how they are playing.If you find yourself on the waiting list to get into a game, it is alsoadvisable to watch the table where you will be playing.

Once in the game you want to observe propertable etiquette and be careful not to make any of the commonbeginner mistakes I discussed in Part five. The most common is bettingout of turn or making an improper raise. If you are going to raise youshould announce raise when it is your turn. If you don't call raise, youmust put the bet and the raise in at the same time. If you put in the betand then go back to your stack for the raise you can be called for astring bet which is not allowed and your raise will not be honored. Whenyou are making a bet you place the chips in front of you. You don't throwthem into the pot like you would at home.

I decided on my game plan before I ever satdown at the table. I would play a tight game using the startinghands that could be played in any position. I chose to limit my firstsession to an hour and a half to make sure I practiced discipline andmaintained the concentration needed to stick to my game plan. Here aresome highlights along with a lesson I learned after making a couplemistakes during my play.

Next pageMyFirst Game] Page 2,3

Until next time,remember:
Luck comes andgoes...Knowledge stays forever.

NOTE: This is theoriginal series of articles that was written in 2000 as I learned to playthe Texas Hold'em. It documents some of my experiences during my firstyear of playing casino poker. I have tried to keep the links to outsidesites updated where possible.This series of articles is not part of my book,