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Jan

03

2017

Travel Tunica Learns How to Have a Poker Face

 Travel Tunica Learns How to Have a Poker Face

We’ve all watched poker on TV or walked past a poker table.  Maybe you’re even like me and have played poker with family or friends at home, but until today, I’d never been given a real poker lesson in a casino.  Travel Tunica decided Hollywood Casino’s poker room was the place to learn how to know when to hold ‘em and know when to fold ‘em.  

 The dealer started by teaching us the basics and kept us laughing between every hand.  He also taught us some interesting poker expressions like an Ace-King is “Big Slick” and Queen of Hearts is a “Beautiful Lady” as well as a Jack-4 is called a “Flat Tire”.  We didn’t understand this one, so he explained saying, “What would you use a jack for?”  He also gave us the 101 on how to read other poker players and understand their strategies.

After our warm up of a few hands with the cards face up and him telling us what moves to make, it was on to betting our chips and trying our luck on our own.  In the game of Texas Hold ‘Em, the dealer gives each person two cards.  The marker (labeled with the word dealer) is moved around the table between each hand.  The blind is to the left of the person with the marker.  This person is required to put chips down first (why it’s called the blind), getting to bet half of the minimum. The next person to the left is required to bet the minimum before seeing the flop.  The third person to the left of the dealer bets first or folds before the flop is shown.  The flop is the first three of the five cards the dealer shows the players.  Betting, checking (not raising the current bet if no one else raises it either), or folding are always the options between each time cards are going to be shown by the dealer.
 Next, the turn card is shown.  This is the forth card shown by the dealer.  After all betting ends and/or players fold, the river card is shown.  This is the last card.  If there is more than one hand in play, the dealer now tells who wins the hand by showing the cards to the table, and that person wins the pot. 

Funny things to not do at the poker table?  Try not to be the first one at your table to run out of chips, or he might yell, “Player Down!” or “Dead Man Walking!” like our dealer did.  I also learned quickly that you can’t ever have two “pairs” because it is correct to say two pair.  Finally, we asked him what the worst hand dealt in poker is for the first two cards each player receives.  He said it is Ace-Ace because the player can bet too big thinking he will win, when there are eight other combinations above a pair that will beat the two aces.
Overall, poker is a fairly easy game to pick up when you have a good dealer teaching you how to play.   

Take a seat in the all new fully enclosed poker room at the Hollywood casino and and tell them Travel Tunica taught you how to learn how to hold ‘em!
Hollywood’s featured games are Texas Hold ’Em, Seven Card Stud, and Omaha, plus special high-stakes tables and tournaments. The Hollywood Casino poker room is open daily at 11am. For more information on the poker events at Hollywood call (1-800-871-0711 ext. 5005).

For more information on the upcoming World Series of Poker tournament here in tunica, click here

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