It used to be that all learning was done in the classroom, whether in school, college or, for adults, in night classes. Teachers and instructors used “chalk and talk” to get the lessons across to the students, but always with varying degrees of success. Today, a lot of extracurricular learning has gone online with “teach yourself” videos on anything you desire to learn, from a new language to a sporting or career skill and how to play or improve your poker game. There are many online poker tutorials that can guide you through the complexities of one of the most popular online casino table games to get you ready to play online poker.
Advantages of Instructional Videos
Using videos, including YouTube clips, to learn a new or enhance an existing skill has many advantages. For a start, most instructional videos are free – no signup or subscription needed and no tuition fees. That makes you a winner already!
Video content is generally engaging and interactive. Audience retention is everything when you’re creating video content. A good video makes great use of graphics, audio, lighting, sets and props to provide the viewer with the most authentic experience possible. Talking heads are boring and you may find yourself tuning out part way through the lesson, learning nothing!
Videos can be paused and rewound (but don’t fast forward or you may miss something!) and in this way you can reinforce lessons through repetition.
Choosing Your Video
There are literally hundreds of poker videos online from which to choose. First, determine your goal and expected outcome, then match those to a video for your level. Perhaps you’re starting from scratch and want to become a social player or maybe you’re looking for advanced tips – whatever your aim, you will find something to suit your needs.
Then, decide which version of the game you want to learn. Texas Hold ‘Em would be a good place to start as every online poker tournament will offer this. And we recommend becoming proficient in one version of the game at a time, before moving on to another, such as Omaha or Seven-Card Stud.
Find a training video whose presenter or players you can relate to. If someone’s voice or accent is off-putting, you will be less inclined to listen and pay attention.
Maybe look at videos in a series rather than one long lesson. That way you can break your learning up into bite-size pieces and look at different aspects in turn, including terminology, the kinds of hands you will be dealt, how to manage your bet and the different positions at the table. Once you can put all these elements together, you’re ready to get into live dealer casino games.
Make the Video Work for You
Once you’ve cued up your chosen tutorial, it’s time to focus and get started. If you’re going to play poker games online, it’s important to learn good concentration skills from the beginning, so get rid of all those distractions, grab a notebook and pay attention!
It’s a good idea to make notes during the course of the tutorial. Jot down questions that may be answered later in the video or that you can go back to later and search for the responses.
Try different videos for different points of view and for examples of different playing styles.
Use chat rooms or the interactive Q&A on the video platform (if there is one,) or contribute to the comments section with your thoughts and questions. Share with others what you learn and use their comments and queries to learn more yourself.
Teaching You More Than How to Play Poker?
As much as success at poker depends on the cards you’re dealt, it’s also a game that requires many other hard and soft skills.
The hard skills include tactical betting, managing the flops and folds, knowing the strength (or weakness) of your hand, leveraging your position at the table – whether you’re in the big blind or small blind – and all those tricks and tips that you will learn to incorporate into your game over time.
Soft skills in poker include learning how to read people. The game is premised on a certain amount of bluff and your job is to figure out who’s holding what cards and to convince the other players around the table that you’ve got more – or less – than you actually do in your hand. Don’t forget, you’re only hiding two cards, the others are all laid out for everyone to see.
Poker teaches us how to be strategic. It reminds us of some of our basic math lessons and requires us to apply those principles at the table. Poker needs analytical skills, watching what’s dealt and calculating which cards are still in play.
It’s also a game in which we are required to hold our nerve and be brave, but not foolish. It teaches patience and hopefully calm (on the surface, even if the adrenaline is pumping!)
There are lessons to be learned about being a good loser and gracious winner. When you watch some of the all-time greats of the game, you will see this demonstrated time and again.
Even if you only set out to learn the game of poker from an online video, you will likely learn a whole lot more than you bargained for!
Now you’re ready to put everything into practice and participate in some online poker tournaments or any of our other exciting casino table games.
To join us with your new-found skills, register here.
