To be honest, I’m not very good at card games, and I don’t know how to play that many either. However! I have someone’s story I would like to share with you…

During my freshman year of college I lived in a dorm, and one of my roommates started dating a guy. Let’s call him Pokerboy. He was quite the slacker in terms of class, but his real goal was to be a poker star. A full-time professional poker player. We all scoffed at him, and my personal input to him was, “You should really finish college first so you can have a degree to fall back on, just in case.” I didn’t forget to add in, “But if you do win a lot of money, don’t forget to graciously give some money to me! :D” haha. So make your bets now. Do you think Pokerboy made a lot of success, or did he end up a penniless bum, or did he finish college first?

And the result is…success with poker! …so far, at least. I am not a close friend to Pokerboy, but I did hear of his triumphs and during one contest he won over 150,000 dollars. Wow!!! It’s amazing isn’t it? He’s my year, so he is my age. That means he became a really successful rookie starting already in his early twenties. I was definitely shocked in such luck and skill. I believe he used some of that money and took his family, along with his girlfriend (my former roommate) on vacation! (For a while her profile pictures on FaceBook was her swimming with a cute dolphin!) Oh that lucky girl . I remember hoping that she would not become the wife of a gambling addict who had no money. Well, that could very well still be the case in the future, but if Pokerboy plays his cards right and keeps it up, she won’t be in danger of that.

I think whether anyone hits such luck in life as Pokerboy did or not, it’s always best to approach this type of thing with a lot of caution, common sense, and modesty. It is gambling after all, and something not to be taken very lightly because it could very well ruin lives. Check out Poker Clowns for some really good tips and rules. It brings to my attention a very good reminder – that there is online gaming nowadays and it is very easy to begin gambling online. That calls for cheaper fees, and complete convenience, but it also calls for more caution for something that is so easy to access!

I think the most memorable tip that Poker Clowns listed on their site is to always keep poker as a fun thing to do! Right? It’s about having fun! If you can hit it big, that is great, but whether you’re losing or winning, it’s really important to remember why you are doing it. It’s a game. Enjoy yourself. Once you start taking it too seriously (in a bad way), that’s a slippery slope to obsession and debt.

Poker Clowns looks like a really minimalistic but informative site (well-written too, I would say) for people who are interested in playing poker and want to give it a go. They’ve got those great tips I talked about, some basic rules, etiquette, and other information.

Oh yeah, remember that little addition about donating some money to myself if Pokerboy ever got big? haha, well that didn’t happen. Perhaps I should have been nicer to him. I kid, I kid Be responsible when playing!