Where are all of my Preston Mills Apartment poker players?  Considering the growth in popularity of the game over the past few years, I’m sure there must be at least a few.  I started playing the game a few years ago after watching players win millions of dollars at the World Series of Poker on ESPN.  Who wouldn’t be interested in winning millions of dollars playing cards?  Now, I can honestly say that poker has become my favorite game, hobby, recreation and everything in between.  I try to play at least twice a week.

Poker, particularly the Texas Hold ‘Em version, is a very easy game to learn, yet a very difficult game to master.  Each player starts with two unseen cards (called “hole cards”).  There are three rounds of cards dealt face up for every player to use (“community cards”) with betting after each round.  Three cards come in the first-round (“the flop”), followed by two-rounds of single cards (“the turn” and “the river”).  The best 5-card hand using any combination of the five community cards and their two “hole cards” wins whatever bets (made with poker chips) were made during the course of the hand.  Follow this link to see a the official poker hand rankings.

Trust me, it’s a lot of fun.  There are actually nightly tournaments played in Newnan at local pubs and restaurants like The Alamo (19 West Court Square On the Square, 770-683-2526).  It’s absolutely free to play and if you win, you can take home some cash!  The company that runs the game is called Aces & 8′s.  You can visit their website at acesand8spoker.com to find out more info and their weekly schedule.

Sure, there is an element of luck to the game, but for the most part, it takes some skill to win consistently.  If you have any questions about how to play, please feel free to drop me a comment!

(Photo Credit: tiffanyday)