Today, I am going to share with you the most frequently asked questions about poker. These questions have been asked a lot of times by the players who are still at the beginning of their careers or by the common people who are about to play poker.
I decided to make a list of frequently asked questions about poker and put all the questions together and answer them for you. So that you don’t have to visit 100 other articles to get your answer for the same.
These questions won’t be related to the rules of the game. Instead, I have put up questions that ask other aspects of the game like tournaments or if you can make money in poker.
Here are the top 12 Frequently Asked Questions about Poker.
Table of Contents
Top 12 Frequently Asked Questions About Poker
1. Should I learn poker to make money?
This is one of the most frequently asked questions about poker. To begin with, poker is a game that you can make a career out of it. A lot of people play poker thinking they can earn a lot of money in a short duration of time. YES. This is true. But, you need to also consider the fact that you might end up losing a lot of money in a short duration.
And nobody likes to be in this position where you have lost a lot of money by playing badly. YES, there is a luck factor in poker. But, it almost becomes zero as you play a lot of hands. It becomes more of a skill game than luck at this point.
So, to answer the question, yes, you need to learn poker to make money. There are a few things that you have to learn in order to become a really good poker player.
- Learn the rules of the game and be thorough with it.
- You must be disciplined at the table, near the table, and away from the table. People may tell you that poker is a game of bluffing, reading people or math, but primarily, poker is a game of FOLDING. So, you must be disciplined enough to fold hands in tough situations.
- You need LUCK. Not because poker is a game of luck, but because you may need to win early to stay in the game.
- Learn how to make good decisions. You’ll have to be wise enough to know that understanding your emotions and how they affect your decisions is often far more important than your raw skill at the game.
If you’re a beginner, then you need to take a look at these Tips for Beginners to get you started with.
2. How much of poker is skill and how much is luck?
This is one of the most frequently asked questions about poker. To answer this in simple words, Poker is a game of skill and not luck. Here are some other reasons why poker is a game of skill and not luck.
- Poker is a game of probability and odds – Any game involving probability is not luck anymore.
- Poker is a game of skill in the long run – The more number of hands you play, the more skill the game becomes.
- There are good and bad players in Poker – There cannot be luck involved if there are good and bad players in a game
- Poker is a game with the expected value – With expected value, you can calculate the odds in your head and play accordingly. This is now more of a skill-based than luck.
These are some of the reasons why poker is a game of skill and not luck. I have written a detailed article explaining the same. Go check it for yourselves.
3. How is poker similar to life?
This is one of the most frequently asked questions about poker. There are a lot of similarities with poker when it is compared to everyday lives. Here are the similarities.
- In life, things can start well, but it can all go horribly wrong if you take that for granted. In poker, aces are great but you’ll lose a lot of money if you take it for granted you’ve won.
- Both in life and poker, nobody likes to lose.
- The game is not always fair in both life and poker.
- In life, no two days are the same. Similarly, in poker, no two hands are the same.
- You always do better when you put yourself in the other person shoes, in both life and poker.
- The element of the unknown keeps the game fun in poker like it keeps life interesting as well.
These are some of the similarities of poker with life. You can check the full list from here.
4. Who are the best professional poker players in the world?
This is one of the most frequently asked questions about poker. I’ll list down the list of best professional poker players based on their earnings till now.
- Bryn Kenney: $55.5 Million
- Justin Bonomo: $45 Million
- Daniel Negreanu: $41.8 Million
- Dan Smith: $36.7 Million
- Erik Seidel: $35.7 Million
- David Peters: $33.1 Million
- Fedor Holz: $32.6 Million
- Stephan Chidwick: $31.1 Million
- Jason Koon: $30 Million
- Daniel Colman: $29 Million
5. Can I make money playing poker?
This is one of the most frequently asked questions about poker. To answer the question, Yes, absolutely! Poker is a game of skill and how much money you make depends on the skills you have acquired and the stack you play i.e, the table SB/BB. And yes, loosing is also dependent on the same.
If you’re a casual player and just plays the game once or twice a week, then it’s difficult for you to make a living out of it. Or to win any money at all. You need to play regularly for about 6-7 hours a day to make something in poker. It is really very difficult.
So, the question you need to ask yourself is whether you’re ready to play for a long durations consistently without any breaks. This is the only way to earn something in poker. Good luck.
6. What is the major difference between online and live poker?
This is one of the most frequently asked questions about poker. Now, there are several differences between playing online poker or live poker. Here are some of the major differences between them.
- When playing online poker, you can take part in more number of hands per hour. This is a result of the automatic dealing, the shot clock, and the shallower stack sizes.
- While playing online, you can play multiple poker tables at once. This is not possible while playing live poker.
- While playing live, you have a wider range of information about your opponents. You can assess their body language, you can listen to the tension in the voices and you can see how much they’re drinking. This can be used as a strategy to win more hands against them. But again, this is not possible while playing online.
- While playing online, there is software available to access the stats and gather information about the player stats at the spot. This is not possible while playing live.
7. Is poker really gambling?
This is one of the most frequently asked questions about poker. If you ask the question to the majority of the people, they would say yes. And this is sort of true. But, professional players don’t believe that poker is gambling. This is because of these two reasons.
- In poker, you are not playing against the house as such. While the house does take a cut, it is the other players from whom you directly win money. Therefore the maxim that the house always wins is less relevant to poker. Sure, the house does always win, but some players can always win too, in the long term at least.
- Poker is a game of skill and not luck. While there is obviously luck involved in the short term, the best players will win money from the weaker players in the long term. Hence poker could be considered more like a sport than gambling.
So to answer your question, in practice poker is viewed as “gambling” by authorities, but in terms of the mechanics of the game, it is closer to a game of skill.
8. What are some great Poker movies to watch?
This is one of the most frequently asked questions about poker. I’ll mention top 5 poker movies for you guys to watch. All these movies are more centered towards poker and about the life of the players playing it.
- Rounders (1998) – Mike McDermott, a reformed gambler, turns back to his old life when his friend, Worm, asks him to help pay a loan shark the money he owes him.
- Cincinnati Kid (1965) – An up-and-coming poker player tries to prove himself in a high-stakes match against a long-time master of the game.
- California Split (1974) – Carefree single guy Charlie Waters (Elliott Gould) rooms with two lovely prostitutes, Barbara Miller (Ann Prentiss) and Susan Peters (Gwen Welles), and lives to gamble.
- The Grand (2007) – Jack Faro (Woody Harrelson) is the grandson of a casino legend and a former poker champ himself, until he lost it all, including the casino he inherited, to liquor and alimony.
- The Gambler (2015) – Jim Bennett, a literature professor, is addicted to gambling. His dangerous fixation soon lands him in trouble and pits him against his worst enemies.
9. Why do people like poker?
This is one of the most frequently asked questions about poker. There are several reasons why people like poker. I’m going to mention some of the main points why it is.
- By playing poker you can mingle with other players and have a great time.
- You can make money by playing poker.
- People play poker just to have a great time and pass their time.
- Some people just enjoy taking a skill and honing it to where they’re better now than they used to be. Since poker is a zero-sum game, it’s an obvious choice for someone who wants to really improve himself.
10. Is online poker legal?
This is one of the most frequently asked questions about poker. To answer this question would be difficult per se. This question entirely depends on the Country you’re living in. Some countries are against playing online poker, while some countries allow playing poker online.
While in some other countries Online gambling laws are not much transparent in and you need to be careful while playing online. So, make sure to check the online gambling laws before you start playing online.
11. How many people are needed for a good game of poker?
This is one of the most frequently asked questions about poker. Even I asked this question several years ago. What is the perfect amount of players that you can enjoy with? To answer this question You need to ask yourselves what sort of player are you.
I’ll mention some of the scenarios with different players playing the game.
- The more players in the game, the less you’ll be involved directly in the action.
- At 2-4 players, you’ll be playing a lot of hands and if it’s a fairly competitive game it will require most of your attention, so there probably won’t be a lot of socializing taking place.
- At 5-7 players, you’ll still be involved in the action enough that you shouldn’t get bored in that sense, but will also fold more hands, as will others, and you will have more time in between decisions, so this will allow for more social interaction.
- 8-10 players will mean less involvement in the game and more socializing and observing.
12. How do poker tournaments work?
This is one of the most frequently asked questions about poker. I’ll explain this question in a step by step manner.
- To get started with, Poker tournaments can be single-table or multi-table tournaments.
- In single table tournaments (Sit & Go’s), normally 9-10 players are sat in a table. Everybody must pay a fixed amount to get in (buy-in) and in return, they get a fixed amount of chips to play the tournament.
- If a player loses all his chips, then he must leave the tournament. No player is allowed to leave as long as there is at least 1 chip left on his stack. If he were to go the dealer should take the blinds out of his stack when it’s his turn until he blinds out.
- When one player has amassed all the chips, he is the winner.
- Multi-table tournaments are essentially the same, but more people are playing, therefore the prize pool gets much bigger.
- The payout structure is different in every tournament, but normally 10-20% of the field gets in the money. Normally the winner gets around 10-20% of the prize pool.
These were the popular Frequently Asked Questions About Poker by the people. If you have any more questions for the same, feel free to comment below.
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I am the owner of the site rohithebbar.com. I love playing poker and other card games.
