Yes, it’s not a bad dream anymore, school really has begun and summer is now just a fading memory. But don’t lose all hope; you can still find fun and exciting activities to do in between your stressful college schedule. This article, which will run biweekly, will give you various ideas for activities and sports to break up the monotony of the school year. The sport that will be covered in this first article is the poker game No Limit Texas Hold’em.

Now surely a great number of you are scoffing and asking “How in the heck is poker considered a sport?” Recently on a televised poker tournament a player who had been holding back his bowls for a long period of time, jumped from his seat mid hand and sprinted to the bathroom all the while hurdling over ropes and other barriers. The announcers had a good laugh and said “Maybe he’s running to show the world that poker is a legitimate sport.” Despite the humor from the advocates, poker is considered a sport, not a traditional physical sport like football, or baseball, it is a sport in the sense that it requires a great deal of stamina and mental fortitude to play for any extended period of time. In some big tournaments participants may have to play 12 hours a day for a solid week, which can be mentally and physically grueling.

For those who are still interested now is the time to lay the rules on you. For those who haven’t played before and want to give it a try, pick up some cards and poker chips and get started. First, the group of players picks a person to be the dealer and that player deals two cards face down to each player starting from the left of the dealer. The players leave their cards face down and check them out; this is followed by a round of betting. Next the dealer burns one card from the top of the deck (leaves it face down on the table) and flips three cards face up which are community cards. This is called the “flop” which is followed by another round of betting. After the betting is over the dealer burns a card and deals another face up; this is the “turn”. Another round of betting ensues. Finally the dealer burns another card and deals the last community card which is called the “river”. The last round of betting takes place and whichever players are still playing the hand flip their two cards over. The object of the game is to take the two cards dealt to you and the community cards and try to make the best 5 card poker hand. In the order of best hands high card (Ace high), pair, two pair, straight (five consecutive cards ie 5, 6, 7, 8, 9), flush (five cards of the same suit), full house (pair and three of a kind), straight flush, four of a kind, and the illusive royal flush (10, jack, queen, king, ace of the same suit).

What makes this poker game unique to others and probably the most exciting is the fact that at any time in the game a player can “go all in” which means that the player can put all his chips in at any point in the hand and force others to call him. This is the most dangerous and beneficial aspect of the game. If you other players call the all in the player can more than double the amount of chips he went all in with. If a player is forced to go all in and looses then that player is eliminated and out for the rest of the game. This is also the most powerful tool in the bluffing aspect of the game. If a player goes all in on a bluff and the other players believe that the player has a good hand they will fold and the player will collect all of the money put into the pot up to that point. This is probably why No Limit Texas Hold’em has been dubbed the “Bluffers Paradise”.

Currently America is in the middle of a poker bomb. More new players have picked up this game than ever before. No one knows the definite cause for this boom but perhaps it is due to the extensive ESPN coverage of high stakes poker tournaments with young kids and amateurs going against all odds and winning millions of dollars against old farts who have been playing for years. Maybe the aspect of being lucky enough to get into one of these tournaments and taking home the gold is the main appeal or perhaps a large number of people have found the recreational value of the game and have picked it up with a group of friends as a weekend past time. Whatever the reason, it seems that poker will be a big part of American culture, at least for the time being.

Despite any delusions of glory you might have after reading this article there are a few things you should take into consideration before you pick up a deck of cards and begin blowing wads of cash on the game. “Beginner’s luck does help but it doesn’t last forever, sooner or later you will need some level of skill to stay in the game” says Andrew MacDonald, a 19 year old amateur player who started about 4 months ago but has quickly picked up the skill aspect of the game and now lays players to waste without breaking a sweat. “In my experience poker is about 60% percent skill and 40% luck” says Andrew, “you can’t just play the cards you have to play the players.” Even a professional can lose to a beginner who catches 4 of a kind on the river, but you need a great deal of skill to get that far. Some ways to “play the players” is to observe their tells and exploit them. Some things to look for are things as subtle as breathing patterns, wandering eyes, twitches, how long it takes a player to bet etc. Tells vary from player to player and are few and far between as you play with more experienced players. So if this article gave you an inclining to try this great poker game keep a good poker face and good luck (but not too much).