I love to play poker. I play almost every day, often for hours at a time. I’m amazed sometimes at how much good it does me to get away from the tables for a while. Especially if I’m having a bad run of cards or experiencing bad beats (remember drunkards, nobody gives a damn about your bad beats).

Do you ever notice that your aces get cracked by some knucklehead who calls your gigantic pre-flop or post-flop raise with his K9s, only to draw out to a flush, usually on the river. I recall a time when I busted out of a weekly tournament two times in a row when I went all-in preflop with pocket Kings and then the third week I busted out of the same tournament when I went all in post-flop with pocket aces. The villanous caller had pocket 77 and hit trips at the turn. It happens to all of us from time to time.

Such is this game we have the love – hate relationship with. Sometimes it just does a body good to get away from it all. Once when I was experiencing a bad run I decided to take the weekend off. I went to the Oregon Coast and spent the weekend beachcombing and doing the whole tourist thing. When I returned home I found that my game improved and the cards were definitely running better.

Some top players recommend scheduling time away from poker on a regular basis. Now, I haven’t been disciplined enough to do that but I do take time off now and then to travel. I work out regularly playing racquetball and running. I’m currently training for 5K runs during the upcoming running season. I also enjoy riding motorcycles both on the road (Harley Davidson Dyna Super Glide) and off road (Yamaha TTR 225). You see – I do have interests other than poker although poker does get more of my time than the others.

Try taking a little break when the cards just aren’t going your way. Do something else. Do something relaxing and fun. Spend time with your loved ones who you’ve neglected during long hours spent in the poker games. You may be surprised how much good it does your body, your mind and your poker game.

There are a lot of casinos in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic. The name Prague comes from the old Slavic word praga, which means a ford, in referrence to the geography of the city on the Vltava River.

The native name of the city, Praha is also related to the modern Czech word práh meaning threshold and a legend relates the city name to the Duchess Libuše, a mythical ancestor of the inhabitants.

But not a lot of poker. When Angela and I saw a banner which read Texas Hold’em just off of Wenceslass square, we went into Casino Banco to explore. There were not any games at that moment, their Czech national team was playing in the World Hockey Finals, but the manager promised us there would be a winner take all freeroll the next day for 2000 crowns ($80).

When we got to Casino Banco for the freeroll the crowd was still a bit thin. Apparently the World Hockey Finals weren’t quite over. After a delay of a half hour, the freeroll went off with nine players, all tourists with little interest in hockey. Angela played tight, and won the first post of the freeroll, I played loose and won the whole thing. The other players were mostly poor to average. There were two young guns one of which kept spewing percentages till he was out of chips. The other took second.

After the freeroll I played 100/200 crowns ($4/$8) No-Limit Holdem for a couple hours. The game was short handed, never having more than five players. The other players were the standard low limit types. One guy regularly raised pre flop, then folded to my three-bets. After the game broke, he snuck up to me wearing a big grin and commented “Those guys were all really bad!”

Sometimes even the fish get lucky. Anyway it was nice to play poker in this remote location and Prague is a very nice city to visit.

5 Card Draw is a simple poker game that reigned as the most popular version of poker in America for almost one hundred years following the Civil War.

Although today it has been overtaken by the No Limit excitement of Texas Hold’Em, 5 Card Draw holds classic appeal as a game with poker rules that are easy to learn and understand but that is still interesting to play.

The game begins with an ante, where each player places a small predetermined amount of money into the pot to get the ball rolling. Starting with the player who is to the left of the dealer, each player is dealt five cards, all face down on the table. Once the players have picked up their cards and examined them, the first round of betting takes place beginning once more with the player to the dealer’s immediate left.

After the first round of betting is complete, those who remain in the hand (who haven’t folded) are given the option to trade in one, two or three of the cards from their hand for new cards drawn from the deck. If a player has an Ace in hand, all of the other four cards can be traded in but the player must show the dealer and the other players that he or she really does have an Ace.

You don’t have to trade in any cards at this point if you don’t want to – for example, if you’ve already drawn a particularly good hand then it is probably better to “stand pat”, meaning you keep the cards you were initially dealt.

Once everyone has received their new cards after trading in and has a full hand of five once more, another round of betting takes place again starting to the dealer’s left. Finally after this round of betting players reveal the hand they have got and the best hand is the winner of the pot.

Yes this is true we both love online poker, if you are reading this blog.

I have heard about online poker in 2003 but I waited a few years before opening an account. That year was memorable for online poker, as this is the year when Chris Moneymaker won the WSOP main event, bringing this online card game to the mainstream.

An unknown to professional poker circles, Chris appeared from nowhere to get the Gold bracelet. He joined this prestigious poker event by enrolling through a $37 satellite tournament after getting his PokerStars marketing code bonus. What an extraordinary return on investment.

Chris Moneymaker, a young 27 years old playing poker on the Internet, won a $10,000 entry fee to the WSOP main event, from a satellite tournament hosted by PokerStars (36 other PokerStars players have also won their entry from other satellite tournaments). The people at PokerStars have not stopped since to push WSOP satellite tournaments as they want a share of this poker cake. The rest is history.

On Saturday, May 24 at 10:30, Chris Moneymaker won the main event of the 2003 World Series Of Poker. He became the 34th world champion and pocketed $2.5 million for his effort. This was the first time (but not last) that a winner of the WSOP main event qualified by playing on the Internet. The old timers of poker could do nothing against him, including poker pro Sammy Farha who finished second.

Chris Moneymaker lives in Spring Hill (suburb of Nashville) in Tennessee, where he is alternately accountant by profession and server in a restaurant. With his wife Kelly they were the proud parents of a three months old girl at the time when he prevailed at the final table.

His passion for poker began after seeing the movie Rounders, and to be honest he is just one among thousands like that. This is a great movie, to say the least, one of the best poker movies.

Chris had been playing poker on the Internet for only three years: he told the press that the main event of the WSOP was the first live tournament in which he had participated. Chris only knew poker tournaments on the Internet. By the way, his name is not a pseudonym for an online poker player nickname, his real name is Moneymaker, as incredible as it may sound. This is truly destiny.

Chris explained that when he won his seat to the $10,000 WSOP no-limit Texas Holdem main event at pokerstars, he wanted to sell it for $8,000 to recover some money and pay bills. But as it was not possible to sell his pokerstars ticket, he determined to go to Vegas anyway and to try his luck. He was very well inspired indeed.

For the final hand, Chris with 54 called his opponent Sam Fahra who had JT. The flop came J54; Sam hit top pair while Chris got two pairs. The turn card was a blank, but the river card gave two pairs to Sam but a full house to Chris. That was the hand of victory for the new poker champion.

Chris Moneymaker said that his earnings would be used to pay for higher education for his little girl. In addition he donated $ 25,000 (1% of earnings) for research against cancer. Chris Moneymaker later became a poker pro sponsoring the poker room pokerstars, and this was a truly win-win situation. Chris got the money he wanted, pokerstars the notoriety it needed.