What are they playing?

In November 2001 my husband and I went to Las Vegas for the first time. We had a budget of $100.00 each per day for all of our expenses including gambling. We pretty much stuck with five dollar blackjack and some slots.

One day we were walking around Binion’s Horseshoe Casino when we passed by the poker room. My husband used to play Stud every Sunday with a group of friends when we were first married. He wanted to check it out. They weren’t playing Stud though it was some game called Omaha and Hold em. We didn’t have a clue what these games were and how to play them. We watched for a while but were too chicken to play.

After we arrived home from our trip the interest in what they were playing was still there. At this time poker on the internet was just getting up and running. My husband researched the games and found that a game called limit hold em was becoming popular. He learned how to play the game and signed up at Party Poker. I was too worried about security for my money and nervous about playing. My husband kept nagging me to learn so that we could play together. After awhile I gave in and said okay. He taught me the basics of the game and would beat me every time we played together. I would have given it up if not for the competitiveness between us. He tends to beat me at most competitions such as Jeopardy, cards, scrabble etc.

A few months later we heard that the casino across the river from us was opening a small poker room. We decided to give it a try. It really wasn’t a poker room so much as a couple of tables in a roped off area. They only had 5/10 limit hold. That was a little steep for me but it was the only choice for live poker. We each sat down with $100.00 each. I was very nervous and sat by the dealer so that he could help me with betting etc.

I made lots of mistakes and got yelled at by the dinosaurs who made up the rest of the table. I let their words flow around me. One of the first things my husband said was that I would need a tougher skin to play poker. I had to learn to put up with the snide comments about my play, being a women etc. I did river my husband a couple of times which pissed him off. I told him I was going to play him just like everyone else from the beginning or I would be too intimidated. Underneath it I was thinking “Yeah baby, I finally found a sport I can beat you at.”

We both went home with double our buy-in. That was it for me I was hooked. I would practice every chance I could get. We would play poker once or twice a week. I would watch poker on tv and try to copy what the pros were doing. I subscribed to Card Player and read it from front to back. I stuck with the articles on hold em. I read Super System and drove my husband nuts with all of my questions. I was on my way to being a poker player.

Next time I will talk about winning my first tournament.
Lisa "Shion" Torres