Who or what first taught you the basics or the rules of poker?
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Joined: Feb '08
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 35 (M)
Posts: 1886
We never stop learning how to play poker but someone (or something) has to give us our first lesson. Who introduced you to poker and taught you the basics of the game? I remember the first time I was told how to play poker very clearly, and even though they taught me the wrong rules and gave me the wrong idea about poker initially, I know that without that first game I would probably not be a poker player today.
Joined: May '12
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 38 (M)
Posts: 2064
I used to stay up till 3am every Friday night from when I was about 15, watching Late Night Poker on Channel 4. Got hooked on it then, and have never stopped loving it.
Joined: Apr '09
Location: Australia
Age: 40 (M)
Posts: 6483
Dads side of the family are all gamblers.. not that I got into the game in a big way until (relatively) recently (well after the 'boom') but I can remember the basic rules of poker (especially 5-card draw) since as long as I can remember, definitely as a pretty young child.
I remember as kids dad used to have a big box of coins (change) and he'd set up a roulette wheel and we'd have goes at that and usually play some draw-poker too.
heh - I don't wonder why I ended up with a gambling problem in my early adulthood!
Joined: May '11
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 58 (M)
Posts: 1372
It was television for me.
I'd always been a games geek chess, backgammon, bridge, Risk, Axis and Allies, Magic the Gathering etc. Then I saw the first season of late night poker on channel 4. Thought, "well that looks easy, I can do that". I think I may have been underestimating the complexities a little.
Joined: Nov '11
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 40 (M)
Posts: 747
i leaned to play poker as a child on an atari game known as "strip poker" lol
played alot o f card games as a child but only started playing poker properly about 2 years ago, met a crazy russian (sory latvian) wh told us he was amazig at poker, i beat him on several occations and he told me that i was good and shioud go t the casio with him, i did go with £25 and walked away with £350. been hooked ever since.
Joined: May '08
Location: Lithuania
Age: 39 (M)
Posts: 10090
i also found poker through internet- really didn't even know how to play, dad was saying that he knows how to play, but was too lazy to teach me the rules- so i accidentally bumped into some commercial, look at the site, registered for a free account and started playing with play money, that's how i started
i use to watch my dad playing 5 card draw and he was very good at it but he never really taught me how...my first poker game was online i think it was on UB.net....
Something else... Shortly after buying an iPod touch, I downloaded a poker app (WSOP poker was on "Free app a day" ) and decided to give it a try. I knew nothing about the rules, but there was a hand ranking chart available. So I just jumped in, reverse engineering the game as I went along.
I must be naturally cautious, and applied bankroll management, because I never lost my bankroll, in that game or any other (I believe I started with $500, and increased it to $6000000 in a few months, but the game was flawed, and had only computer opponents).
A bit later I started watching poker on TV, read some books, and joined BRM.
Joined: Oct '11
Location: Sweden
Age: 32 (M)
Posts: 1410
The earliest memories I have of poker is staying up every wednesday night until 2 am watching celebrity poker showdown. At that time, I can't have been much more then 10. I'm sure I was interested in poker long before that but I honestly can't recall when my first poker experience was. You could say I've been hooked all life.
Joined: Jan '12
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 36 (M)
Posts: 1204
First memories I have is when me, my sister and my brother used to stay at my days on a friday. He had a big penny jar which he would empty so we could use it for chips. I don't think we ever played texas hold em though. We used to play stud, and mad versions of brag, 3, 5 and 7 card brag. I'm sure he didn't get the rules properly right though. Still got to learn poker from that from a pretty young age though. I think I was about 10.
Joined: Apr '11
Location: Romania
Age: 58 (M)
Posts: 2432
In my case ,two years ago was a friend who tell me where to sign in for free money,where to read about poker ,how to call.He quit last year,before black friday after trying all the types of game.I still playing,most of the time freerolls
The internet ... Since a very young age I always looked for different ways to make some money. I had read on some blogs about people getting rich while playing poker so i tought, I want that to ... Read some books, watched some strategy tutorials and away I was got hooked on it ever since.
Joined: Jan '11
Location: United States
Age: 60 (M)
Posts: 3361
Like I stated in previous posts my first encounter with playing poker was in a jail cell at the young age of 17 for a can beer. I actually was taught poker lessons by a friend though. I mean besides learning a lot from here in the forum. So it's hard to say since, I feel all the Mobsters here are the one's who actually taught me alot about playing patiently, learning about position, blind stealing and I still need to learn alot about terminology and graphing my game / consistentcy.
Joined: Mar '11
Location: Croatia
Age: 43 (M)
Posts: 1738
Started by playing 5 card draw that a friend taught me when i was about 10. I can't recall everything since we were playing for fun only, betting some pieces of paper pretending to be money. I learned most of the basics of '' what beats what'' back then. Then later came the boom which caught my eye on tv, went to the internet to check it out and i'm still learning from there.
Joined: Jan '09
Location: Germany
Age: 33 (M)
Posts: 231
My brother, but, here's the fun fact, he doesn't really know how to play All he did was teaching me the "hand rankings" (pair, 3 of a kind, str8, flush, etc.). He still doesn't know anything about strategy or probability.
Joined: Nov '09
Location: Canada
Age: 55 (M)
Posts: 2387
My brother introduced me to poker and card games in general when I was 6 and he was 12. He had bought some books showing you how to play different games, and after he learned them he showed them to me and away we went. Rummy, gin, stud poker, etc. Good fun. After he hit late teens and moved out to go to university I didn't play again until I met my wife fifteen years later. Their family plays a derivative of rummy, and although the pot is only $2 each game I was hooked! That led me to online poker and then to BRM eventually.
Joined: Aug '11
Location: Portugal
Age: 39 (M)
Posts: 232
I've always played sports competitions and games since i was very young. So i had a friend from a online game which he was a clan mate and he used to play poker between 2008-2010 or something like that. When we both quit the game we played because the game was dieing and there was not much goals and money involved i looked for something else to have fun and try to win a few extra bucks. Then he told me to try poker, he won some big tournament there and was a good winning player. I never really enjoyed card games when i was young so i was kinda relutant, but after a while i created a PKR account (didn't know about BRM back then so i didn't enjoyed any promo ), and after a i read the rules of NL somewhere (lol) i played a 10 cent giveaway SNG and surprisingly i won it (donkaments all over), and never stopped since. I try to read books, watch videos/live tournaments and coaching videos, and rail a few players i like. Sometimes i get a bit frustrated since i was always competitive and good at every game/sport i played, and poker is so much different from almost everything in that sense that it gets me a bit mad when i break even or move very slowly, but well, will continue learning and wait for my time!
All he did was teaching me the "hand rankings" (pair, 3 of a kind, str8, flush, etc.). He still doesn't know anything about strategy or probability.
), and after a i read the rules of NL somewhere (lol) i played a 10 cent giveaway SNG and surprisingly i won it (donkaments all over), and never stopped since. I try to read books, watch videos/live tournaments and coaching videos, and rail a few players i like. Sometimes i get a bit frustrated since i was always competitive and good at every game/sport i played, and 
