[  Putting fun back in your game of poker (part 2) ]

Okay, so you have read part one…

The game has begun, this is not like any online poker event where a new player can remain anonymous; my friend is sitting in front of real people who may or may not be able to beat him. So far, he has the right attitude. While visibly anxious to me, it seems that he is faring well with the other players.

After all, it doesn’t matter that you are nervous, as long as the others can’t detect it. That is part of poker. You don’t have to have the best and to win; you have to convince the other players in the game that you do have the best hand.

As we get into the event and things get into full swing, I notice that my friend has good moments and bad moments, but he is clearly having a good time. A much better time than he would probably be having if I followed through with my …I’ll catch up to you later speech. He was definitely having a better time than he would be cruising aimlessly through a casino wondering about playing while I was actually playing. After all, this was a tourney that cost a little more than twenty bucks to get in on.

Her raise with a dramatic pause works like a charm. She rakes in enough chips to give her an above-average stack and she smiles and for the first time. You can see the stress escape from her body and she quickly moves into girly flirting mode, running over the middle-aged men who are drinking heavily at 9:30 a.m. She's still kicking herself for not wearing that skirt.

Was I responsible for creating a fun time for my friend or was my friend responsible for creating a fun time for me. Whatever the case, together, we put the fun back in poker.

I guess the moral of this article that I want the readers out there to understand is that poker can be fun too, it is not always about winning a crap load of money. Leave that up to the pros – unless you are trying to go pro.

So, back to the tourney action, I was lucky enough to catch my friend using my tips for playing to good use. During one hand I witnessed him doing well after raising the pot three different times in the big blind, my friend even fired at a flop with what I'm sure did nothing for him. His caller in this hand was an aggressive poker player who was sure he could outplay my friend. While his caller was reading him – or trying to do so – I could only imagine what has going through my friends head at this exact moment.  He later told me that he was remembering when we were back at that poker table watching those other players and I said that it was a good idea to bet after the flop if he raised pre-flop - most definitely when the pot is only being contested by two players and he was holding nothing.

Before I knew it there were only like 5 players left in the tourney and I wasn’t one of them – but my newbie friend was. Oh, talk about putting the fun back in poker.

Be sure to read part 3 for the rest of this fun tale.

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