December 8th, 2011 | 
Author: The game of poker has seen such a rise in popularity lately that it can be seen all over television and is talked about by millions of people around the world every moment of every day. Most people who play the game do so to have fun and the chance to make some extra money. However, there are a fair number of professional poker players who play the game for many hours every day for a living, whether on the internet or in the casino. To the recreational player who has won a few dollars in a short amount of time playing poker for a living might seem like an easy way through life. This is not the case. Playing poker for a living is far from easy and has several drawbacks to go along with its benefits.
The problem for the person who plays casually is that it is very possible and sometimes quite easy to win a lot of money when gambling in the short term. It is when you play the game for many hours day after day that the laws of probability kick in and you start to suffer from massive down swings along with your upswings. This is not to say that you can’t be profitable when playing poker over the long run. In fact, poker is one of the few forms of gambling where you can achieve a large advantage because you are playing against other people rather than against the house who has a fixed edge.
The problem arises when you are unable to handle the down swings mentally and it begins to affect the way you play the game. It takes a very strong player to not let the loss of money get to them, especially when you are depending on that money to make your living. You need to have extreme discipline in order to play poker for a living and this is anything but easy. Poker is often referred to as the “Hard way to make an easy living.”
Making sure you have the proper bankroll is critical because if you do not leave yourself room to grow your bankroll in addition to your living expenses then you will be stuck grinding out the same stakes without the ability to move up and make more money in the future. Unfortunately, many people who play poker for a living are also husbands or wives with children and houses who are forced to grind out their living month by month with little money left over. This is anything but an easy living.
Posted in You know poker inside and out. You know all the best starting hands, you know all the sure fire tells, and you can play trash cards like they’re the nuts. But the one thing you can’t do is look cool at the poker table.
Now we have all seen the dashing poker players on TV. They are full of confidence play little games with their chips as they wait. Rolling, shuffling and doing the butterfly are just a few of their little tricks. This gives them the cool look in the poker games.
One thing about poker, it tends to attract people with big egos that, no matter what they say, want to look cool. And one of the most popular ways to look cool at the poker table is to show off how well you can handle your poker chips. Here’s a list of four poker chip tricks that anyone can master with minimum effort.
The Pullover
This little trick is like the shuffle. First stack up 6-8 poker chips, then put your hand over it. Your pointer finger and thumb should be placed on one side of the stack and the rest of your fingers on the other. Take one of the stack and set aside, then flip the other1/2 on top of the stack with a smooth and easy move. Now this will impress your friends!
The Finger Flip
Here is another trick which is simple easy and impressive. You will actually just flick a poker chip over a pile of poker chips that you have. The best way to start is with a stack of three chips.
So how do you do this? Take a small stack of 3 chips in your hand. Place your forefinger and thumb in the center of the chip, with the rest of your fingers at the side. Using these fingers glide the back 2 chips downwards using your thumb to support them and prevent them from falling. When they slip down make the front chip jump to the back with your forefinger. Remember that this little ploy takes some practice, so perfect it before you show it off to your friends.
The beauty of these two poker chip tricks is that they’re simple and repetitive so you can sit at the table and fiddle with your chips to your hearts content. When you get really good at this, we’ll move on to lesson two: Irritating your friends for fun and profit.