A little over twenty years ago, with an assist from Lynne Loomis, I wrote four short beginners book which we called the Fundamentals. They covered the subjects of craps, blackjack, video poker, and of course poker. And over the years, we have produced several updates to these books with the latest one for the Fundamentals of Poker just being completed.

Our current plan is to produce the latest version of our beginner’s poker guide in our magazine and then to keep it on www.twoplustwo.com in an effort to help any new players that may come here looking for some guidance as they start their poker careers. So without further ado, here’s the first section of the Fundamentals of Poker.

Introduction

Poker, in its many different forms, is one of the premier gambling games throughout the world. It offers excitement and action, demands great skill from an expert player, and contains a certain element of luck. But most of all, it’s fun to play.

This book discusses various aspects of the many different types of poker that are popular in casinos and public cardrooms. Emphasized most, however, are seven-card stud and Texas hold ‘em in both the limit and no-limit forms, as these are the most widely played. Other games covered in the Fundamentals of Poker are Omaha hold ‘em, Omaha eight-or-better, pot-limit Omaha, seven-card stud eight-or-better, razz, ace-to-five lowball draw, and deuce-to-seven triple draw.

In addition, we’ll talk about some basic ideas which are important to all forms of poker. These include the ranking of hands, poker etiquette, and elemental poker concepts.

In today’s cardrooms, the stakes range from very small to extremely large, where thousands of dollars can cross the table in the course of one hand. But to help you get started, we have concentrated on the low-limit games. In fact, if you choose to play on the Internet, games exist where you can play for pennies in addition to games where only play money is used. These are excellent places for someone new to poker to start.

Poker tournaments also have become popular in recent years. The most prestigious is the World Series of Poker, which is currently held at The Rio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, where a new World Champion is crowned each year. Major poker tournaments also are hosted by the large card casinos throughout the world, and countless small events are regularly scheduled in legal cardrooms throughout the United States, in many foreign countries, and on the Internet.

The wide array of live-action games and competitive events available continues to promote the increasing popularity of poker. And since the game is not only fun, but also potentially profitable once you gain enough skill, it’s well worth learning to play.

The material in this book covers play in live cardrooms as well as on the Internet. However, some of the advice, such as “Protect your hand,” clearly applies to only one of these locations – live cardrooms. We’ll leave it to the reader to discern when the advice only is applicable to one specific place and when it applies to poker in general.

If you want to learn more about poker than what the Fundamentals of Poker offers, we have included a chapter on “Recommended Reading” at the end of this book. However, be forewarned that some of these books can be quite challenging. But if you become a serious poker player, many of them are certainly worth reading and you might discover that improving your poker game is a challenge that can last a lifetime.

In addition, there are many websites on the Internet where poker information and poker discussion is available. Our favorite is www.twoplustwo.com. It’s the home of the largest poker community on the Internet and contains over 100 discussion forums pertaining to many different subjects including a large number of forums devoted to specific aspects of poker. But we also need to let you know, so that there is full disclosure, one of the authors of this book is the primary owner of this site.

The authors wish to thank the following for their advice and assistance: Jim Albrecht, Binion’s Horseshoe; Mike Byrne, Fort McDowell Gaming Center; Donna Harris, and John Sutton, formerly of The Bicycle Club. Also, special thanks to Terry Cannon, Dan Harrington, David Sklansky, Ray Zee, and Ed Miller.

And finally for this “2+2 Internet Edition,” which is also the fifth edition of this book, we want to give a special thanks to David Sklansky. Some of the newest material that appears came directly from him, and with David’s help this book is now more complete.

January 31 2012, PokerNews Staff

Hello and welcome to this week’s edition of the PartyPoker Weekly where we have details on the ever-popular Card Rush promotion returning, the superb Rake-Free Tournaments coming to an end, a World Poker Tour event on the horizon and how to grab yourself a free $50 bankroll. Keep reading to discover more!

Rake Free Tournaments at PartyPoker – One Day Remaining

The fantastic Rake-Free Tournaments promotion has almost run its course though there is still some time left to take advantage of 100% rake free tournaments. Players have until 23:59 tonight to take advantage of this amazing promotion that has seen prize pools swell and players save hundreds and even thousands of dollars in tournament fees.

It is not only the rake-free tournament promotion that is ending but also the exclusive reload bonus too! Make a deposit of at least $5 using the bonus code “RAKEFREE” and PartyPoker will match your deposit amount up to $100, but you need to reload before 23:59 tonight (Jan. 31) otherwise you will miss out.

If you do reload in time, or make your first deposit, then you will also be granted a seat to the Depositors Freeroll which has a massive prize pool of $50,000! This freeroll will take place at 1100 EST on Feb. 5 and the first prize should be thousands of dollars!

Card Rush Returns!

One of the most popular promotions on PartyPoker in recent times is the superb Card Rush where literally millions of prizes are given away, 1.8 million to be exact. Between Feb. 01 and midnight on Feb. 28 players will receive an instant win card for every 15 PartyPoints they earn though PartyPoker are giving every player thir first card for just 5 PartyPoints!

Prizes range from 10-25,000 PartyPoints, freeroll entries worth between $2,000 and $20,000 and even instant cash prizes of between $1 and a staggering $5,000! That’s right, you could win $5,000 in cash by earning just 15 PartyPoints!

In addition to these amazing prizes players can also be awarded Card Rush Race points that could win a $9,000 cash prize! There is a Card Rush Race points leader board that will pay out the top 200 Card Rush Race points earners between $200 and $9,000! Also, PartyPoker will also be awarding $50 to every 20th spot between 220th place and 2,000th place so everyone stands a chance of some free cash!

This will be the biggest and best Card Rush promotion PartyPoker have run. Will you be a part of it?

Qualify For WPT Vienna

The Vienna leg of the World Poker Tour is sure to be one of the highlights of Season 10 and thanks to PartyPoker you could be rubbing shoulders with some of the biggest names in the game by winning yourself an exclusive WPT Vienna package worth $7,000.

From Jan. 23 to Mar. 25 satellites will be running in the PartyPoker lobby that award $7,000 packages to WPT Vienna. Each package consists of:

• The $4,700 WPT Vienna Main Event buy-in
• Hotel accommodation for six nights
• $900 spending money
• PartyPoker’s legendary hospitality

A total of 555 players participated in Season 9 with Dimitry Gromov walking away with the huge “447,840 first place prize. Could it be your name being engraved on the Champions Cup in the Austrian capital?

Get a Free Poker Bankroll

If you had a free $50 bankroll, you could start qualifying for WPT events and could even turn a small investment into millions of dollars at the Winter Million.

Thanks to the special relationship between PokerNews and PartyPoker, you can do just this when you cash in on a free $50 poker bankroll.

All players need to do is sign up for a PartyPoker account through PokerNews, and you will get an immediate free credit of $25 into your account. When 200 PartyPoints are earned, you will receive an additional $25! It really is that easy.

To receive your free bankroll, head to our Free $50 No Deposit Page and use the bonus code “PN50Free” as outlined in the walkthrough guide.

If you experience any problems with this or any of our promotions, please contact our Ticketed Promo Support System.

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