A DECK OF PLAYING CARDS-just being silly
5 Friends that have a sense of humor and are willing to play with a beginner.
Poker Chips 3-colors (WHITE, RED, BLUE) or you can be creative and get designer poker chips. I actually hand-painted my own poker chips which are collectors items.
To begin you need to practice shuffling the cards. There are several ways of doing this. Shuffling the cards is an art and the more experienced you are at this the more professional you will look. When real money is involved people take everything you do very seriously, which include but are not limited to, insisting the seal of the deck of cards be broken at the start of the game to making sure all bets are made in order. We will talk about the strict rules of poker off and on throughout the learning process.
Right now we are going to focus learning the very basics. It is very important to be able to shuffle without anyone seeing the face of the cards during this process. There are more than two ways of doing this but for the beginner I will try to teach you the easiest ways. If you know someone that knows how to deal this would be a great person to help you learn. To describe it is quite difficult but I hope this will help you some. Practice makes perfect.
Shuffle #1
- Divide the deck in half or close to it, keeping the face cards as low to the table as you can at all times.
- Next using your thumbs you flip them together approx. 1/4th of the length of the cards length letting them flow together A few from each half of the deck.
- Placing your 4 fingers under the outside edge of deck and thumbs on top to stabilize the top of the cards, arch the cards and let them flow together.
- Do this 3 times or so. It's up to you on how many times you shuffle but don't overdo it as this can irritate people.
- Always let the person to your right have the opportunity to cut the deck. A good poker player will only cut them in half. Someone cutting the deck several times is not professional and when playing with people that really take poker seriously they do not think it is cute.
- Divide the deck by eye in half keep both halves flat on the table.
- Take the corners of each pile moving them together and using your thumbs flip them together flipping the corners of the cards into each pile.
- Without picking them up push the piles together and repeat this step 3 times total at least.
Practicing shuffling cards several times prior to playing a real poker game can make you look like you know what you are doing. Most people can shuffle a deck of cards and have learned how to do this in their own way. Do what makes you feel the most comfortable. Even in poker games with friends there are "gentleman's rules" you should follow. There is always one in the crowd that is inpatient with people that do not play in an orderly fashion and follow the unspoken rules. Poker can be exciting and fun and I want you to learn how to play by instinct so you can concentrate on having fun. That is what it is all about and of course if you win it makes it that much better. Get ready for lesson 2 "dealing the cards".
