Poker Online - Not a lot of People Know This!

Playing poker requires focus, deep concentration and focus. Perhaps someone should have told that to Joe Macek, top professional poker player at the World Series of Poker.

Not a lot of people know this but Joe actually watched the entire box set of Sly Stallone's Rocky movies while in the middle of playing the Main Event of the WSOP. Using his headphones and mini DVD player, this somewhat obscure way of preparing was allowed under the rules as it was not proven to distract the other players due to the nature of the headphones and small screen.

Apparently Joe Macek was not the only one to use this method of preparation and he apparently borrowed it from an all-round class poker act Daniel Negreanu, who watches the entire box set before every major poker tournament he plays in. Though there was a slight oversight on the part of Joe Macek in that he watched the film during the game, and perhaps this explains why Joe doesn't win at poker as often as Daniel.

So what other obscurities can we glean from the game of poker. Well have you ever heard the term "dog track"?

It is a phrase used among professionals basically to describe a table composed of so-called 'calling stations' and players new to poker, with no regard for raises and who call with just about anything they are holding. The result for the resident poker shark is that every pot will be highly over-invested and the whole game will end up being a 'white water' ride down the river. This spells an unhappy ending for just about everyone but the poker shark, waiting for the little fish to take the bait….

Also, have you ever heard of the word "cardnage"? This is used to describe two big-time premium hands that crash into one another, with both players resulting in a heads-up, both sure that they will win, and ending up gambling everything they own, including the shirts on their backs into the pot.

The best poker gambling story I ever heard though was the one about the legendary Evel Knieval. Some of you will have heard this story, but for the newbies it is worth reiterating.

Legend has it that in his heyday Evel Knievel, who gambled just about every time he launched his motorbike across a couple of dozen buses or blazing cars, entered into a wager with the famous Amarillo Slim.

Amarillo, who enjoyed targeting wealthy 'marks' wondered what kind of poker player Evel would be and famously challenged him to a game of golf. But this was no ordinary game of golf.

Evel at the time was worth over $300,000,000 and Amarillo sought a piece of it, so he bet the stuntman that he could beat him at golf using only a carpenter's hammer against Evel's standard nine iron. Evel agreed to give Slim a stroke per hole and allowed him to play on his knees.

Slim won and the winning payout to Amarillo was so large, that Evel is said to be on record saying, that loss hurt him more than the dozen or so bones he had broken up to the time of the bet, including his back. The poker lesson? Disciplined aggression based on experience is one thing, being a risk junkie is something to be avoided.

Poker to most of us isn't about the thrill of gambling or picking out 'marks' in order to pilfer their belongings. It is about using skill and judgment and testing our wits against players from around the world. To be a top poker player requires a mathematical brain, a lot of self-control and an eye for the psychology of an opponent.

It is unlikely that someone will have all three in great strength, but it is possible for all of us to attain a certain level of ability in each discipline. Perhaps this is why poker is so addictive. It allows us to test our mental capacity, while having the added bonus of being able to win lots of cash at the flip of a card.

So before you being spending your hard earned money on online poker, why not spend some time gathering your strengths and focusing on the parts of the game that you need to improve. Find out about the mathematics and odds of poker and you will surely improve your odds of winning.