Ok, it’s not strictly true to say I’m new to the game of poker. After all I’ve been playing the game off and on (mostly off) for the past thirty years. But I’ve only been playing the game that everyone’s playing nowadays  -tournament Texas Holdem- for about four years, and I’ve only been playing online for about a year. A lot has changed since my father taught me how to play poker using matchsticks for money on the kitchen table.

   Of course, in those days there was only one game: Five-Card Draw. I don’t remember when I played my first game for real money but I played only rarely until I met my wife-to-be, Pauline. She used to play Poker for small change every morning with her workmates. The game they played was Nine-Card: five cards in the hand and four on the board, turned over one at a time.

   It was not long before we got involved in some “syndicate games” with some friends and relatives. These were Saturday night/Sunday morning games played about once a month, where every player would have a turn at “hosting”. The host would collect a nice fat rake from each hand, making it hard for anyone else to make any money. Nevertheless, these games were usually alcohol-fuelled and a good time was had by all. I was introduced to a range of new variations on Nine-Card, all involving multiple groups of community cards and lots of action. But eventually we gave up on these games and Poker dropped into the background for me for many years.

   Then, about seven years ago, a friend said he wanted to start up a home Poker game, so we did; we rounded up a few keen members of our Pool Club (my wife included) and played occasional games on a Saturday night, after our regular pool games. This was dealers choice -Five-Card Draw, Nine-Card and Seven-Card- with a buy-in of about $50. Sometime during this period they started showing a new “sport” on ESPN: tournament Texas Holdem. This introduced two new concepts to me: tournament Poker and the game of Texas Holdem. It seemed like an interesting version of the game, so Texas Holdem soon became part of our home game.

   Then came the Poker boom. Tournament Poker was the NEXT BIG THING in the pubs. All the Quiz nites and Karaoke comps were out the door and everyone was playing Texas Holdem tournaments for bar tab prizes. I tried my hand at a few of these but never really got the hang of it, so I thought I’d better read up on the subject. This was a huge revelation to me. I never knew there were so many books on the subject. I read a couple and began to realise thet there was some serious strategy involved with playing Poker. I guess that’s what really got me hooked.

   Armed with my new-found knowledge and starting-hands list I marched off to the casino to check out the Poker action. For a couple of years I’d play a few games of no limit Texas Holdem at the casino over the Christmas period. I won a few but  mostly I lost. It took me a while to realise that playing for funny money at the pub was very different to playing no limit for real money. Eventually I wised up and decided to play in games that I could afford.

   By this time my home game had collapsed due to lack of interest, but new opportunities were opening up. My wife was playing in a monthly Pool tournament and some of the players started playing Poker tournaments for cash. For $5 to $10 you got up to a couple of hours of Poker action and the chance to win cash. I got into these tourneys on a regular basis and when they started playing every Friday night at a local pub Pauline and I became regulars at those games too. Then I discovered that some other pubs were playing cash games for $10 to $20 entry, usually on a Wednesday night. All of a sudden I had plenty of opportunities to play in regular, reasonably cheap Poker games. Poker was becoming my number one leisure-time activity. Then, something happened to put my Poker playing activities on a whole new level.

   In early 2011 I finally joined the 21st century and got a computer. One of the first things I did after connecting to the internet was to download an online Poker program. Now I can play anytime of the day or night. I can play in tournaments, ring games, sitngo’s, six-handed, ten-handed, heads-up, you name it. What’s more, I can play for just a couple of dollars if I want, or higher, depending on my inclination and my bankroll. I still play in live games when I can find them, but now I always have the option to play whenever I want.

   I’ve come a long way from matchsticks on the kitchen table. But the journey’s really just beginning. It could be a wild ride…