It's very easy to get set up and there's a game running at every and any imaginable stakes any time of the day or night.
Online poker is indeed very entertaining and the billions of dollars it attracts every year is surely testimony of that. Much like casino gambing, the overwhelming majority of players don't mind dropping various sums of money on it providing that they enjoy the hunt, in spite of it being, again like casino games, a hunt they are doomed to fail at.
With so many people losing money, someone has to make money though. At casinos it's the house of course who rake in all the profits and there's plenty to be had. The city of Las Vegas is testimony enough to that. With poker though the interesting thing is that instead of being a game of chance with the odds stacked against you, where you're guaranteed to lose over time, poker is over time essentially a game of skill, where good play wins the money over bad play over the long run as sure as the casinos win the money from their players in the long run.
Still though, the vast majority of online poker players play badly and not only have the odds stacked against them, but accelerate the negative odds much more than they would at casino games. If you were a perfectly average player, you would simply lose the "rake," or the house's small take of every hand and your losses would be modest. There a a great many players though who play worse than this, and many far worse, accelerating their losses dramatically.
Where does this money go? Well depending on your level of skill above the average player, you will make your share of the money they are losing, and if you're any good at all, you'll make far more than the house's small take from your winning hands. In fact, there are plenty of players who in their comfort of their own home make a very good living at this, taking advantage of the weak and often reckless play of others while they play smarter, and the smarter they play, the more they make.
There are numerous books on playing poker and those who do take the time to read some of them do have a very big advantage over the uninitiated. This does help for sure but most of these books concern face to face games and at a much higher level of skill overall than is seen or even is desirable online, so they can only help the player so much. There are also some sites you can visit which can provide some rudimentary tips for the beginner and even some decent intermediate stuff if you look very hard but high quality material is really lacking and you really have to look hard to find any. The good news is that you are here and you have indeed found some.
Playing online poker in itself is plenty entertaining but when you beat your opponents and make money doing it, believe me it is much more entertaining. The skills required for this go well beyond knowing when to hold them and knowing when to fold them, as it's a mental game as much as everything and if you're really looking to get the most out of your play you need to be good at every aspect of it. However, surprisingly, you don't need a lot of "natural talent" as many may suppose to be really good at this game. All that is required is a decent amount of sensibility, the right knowledge, and a strong desire to succeed.
The sensibility and desire you already have in large part since you're here and looking to do a little work to improve and get the advantage over your opponents and make online poker a better experience for you. In terms of the knowledge there's really only two ways to gain it, either from trial and error over a very long time, or to take advantage of the experiences of others who have been successful at it, using their accumulated knowledge to fast track the process and indeed take you to levels of success you would not reach otherwise. This is what I offer you here.
I've been playing poker for many years and the entire time it's been online (almost 10 years now as of 2008). Once the online craze hit it became a mother lode of bad players to play against and take their money, and things really have changed little since. There's more decent and good players now but a lot more real bad ones as well, although the trick is to avoid the better ones and beat the crap out of the bad ones. This isn't because you're not better than the good ones, you simply make more money against weaker competitition, and the weaker the better. This is in fact the most critical part of the game, and if you're up for the challenge, I am going to show you exactly how this is best accomplished.
Along the way, as more sites opened up, I got to the point where I decided to quit my job and pursue online poker full time. I will tell you if you're thinking of making this a career yourself that it does take a lot of mental toughness to play for hours on end each and every day and isn't for everyone, but on the other hand it really doesn't take any kind of real natural talent to succeed at it either. After a few years of this I've since moved on to sports handicapping where I now have the luxury of sitting home and only needing to work an hour or two a day, but I still enjoy playing casually and very likely always will.
I started this site 4 years ago because I felt that among the countless poker sites on the internet there wasn't even one really good site for advanced poker instruction, and after all this time even though things have improved a lot there still isn't. The real good players don't have the time or the inclination to do it, as it requires a lot of work and takes away from their playing time and their profits. I'm out of the rat race of professional poker now though and actually have time on my hands, but the reward for me is seeing all the players that I've helped along the way and seeing their success stories and sharing in their glory. As well, I just plain like the idea of trying to have the best poker instruction site in the world and this drives me toward looking to make it better and better.
Let me put you at ease in saying I'm not looking to sell you anything here, although I do use my experience in recommending a few things like sites and a product or two. Membership in our site is free, although in order to pay for the site I do make a little bit of money, and I do mean a little bit, by referring players to various poker sites. This is all based upon personal recommendations though and I can do this with any poker site so the recommendations are completely honest and based upon my own experiences and the experiences of others playing there.
So after looking around and sampling some of the material, if you wish to join us as a member of King Cobra Poker, you will be asked a small favor in return which is to sign up at one of my recommended poker sites to help out here a bit. This is a one time thing though and this is all it takes to become a lifetime member of the site, with access to all the lessons in addition to personal advice from me when needed.
The great thing though is that it is to your advantage to sample out the better sites on the internet, as this adds to the amount of games available to you at any given moment. As well, for various reasons, some players tend to be more successful at one poker site than another, and the only real way to know this is to try out various ones. In addition, this allows you to collect bonuses which is particularly important if you only have a modest amount of money to play with.
Click on the lessons tab to sample some of our lessons, keeping in mind that these are the most introductory and the instruction in the members area is more advanced of course. You're also welcome to stop by and post on our forum although I had to change forum software recently and start over from scratch so it's pretty empty at the time of this writing. I'll respond personally to any of your posts, questions, or suggestions though. I've also added a new chat room and in the future I'm planning on scheduling some sessions there.
Once you've decided you want more, then simply click on the "join" tab at the top of every page. You'll be given instructions on how to become a member. Whether or not you join us though I wish you all the best at the poker table and best wishes in life as well.
Ken
Online poker is indeed very entertaining and the billions of dollars it attracts every year is surely testimony of that. Much like casino gambing, the overwhelming majority of players don't mind dropping various sums of money on it providing that they enjoy the hunt, in spite of it being, again like casino games, a hunt they are doomed to fail at.
With so many people losing money, someone has to make money though. At casinos it's the house of course who rake in all the profits and there's plenty to be had. The city of Las Vegas is testimony enough to that. With poker though the interesting thing is that instead of being a game of chance with the odds stacked against you, where you're guaranteed to lose over time, poker is over time essentially a game of skill, where good play wins the money over bad play over the long run as sure as the casinos win the money from their players in the long run.
Still though, the vast majority of online poker players play badly and not only have the odds stacked against them, but accelerate the negative odds much more than they would at casino games. If you were a perfectly average player, you would simply lose the "rake," or the house's small take of every hand and your losses would be modest. There a a great many players though who play worse than this, and many far worse, accelerating their losses dramatically.
Where does this money go? Well depending on your level of skill above the average player, you will make your share of the money they are losing, and if you're any good at all, you'll make far more than the house's small take from your winning hands. In fact, there are plenty of players who in their comfort of their own home make a very good living at this, taking advantage of the weak and often reckless play of others while they play smarter, and the smarter they play, the more they make.
There are numerous books on playing poker and those who do take the time to read some of them do have a very big advantage over the uninitiated. This does help for sure but most of these books concern face to face games and at a much higher level of skill overall than is seen or even is desirable online, so they can only help the player so much. There are also some sites you can visit which can provide some rudimentary tips for the beginner and even some decent intermediate stuff if you look very hard but high quality material is really lacking and you really have to look hard to find any. The good news is that you are here and you have indeed found some.
Playing online poker in itself is plenty entertaining but when you beat your opponents and make money doing it, believe me it is much more entertaining. The skills required for this go well beyond knowing when to hold them and knowing when to fold them, as it's a mental game as much as everything and if you're really looking to get the most out of your play you need to be good at every aspect of it. However, surprisingly, you don't need a lot of "natural talent" as many may suppose to be really good at this game. All that is required is a decent amount of sensibility, the right knowledge, and a strong desire to succeed.
The sensibility and desire you already have in large part since you're here and looking to do a little work to improve and get the advantage over your opponents and make online poker a better experience for you. In terms of the knowledge there's really only two ways to gain it, either from trial and error over a very long time, or to take advantage of the experiences of others who have been successful at it, using their accumulated knowledge to fast track the process and indeed take you to levels of success you would not reach otherwise. This is what I offer you here.
I've been playing poker for many years and the entire time it's been online (almost 10 years now as of 2008). Once the online craze hit it became a mother lode of bad players to play against and take their money, and things really have changed little since. There's more decent and good players now but a lot more real bad ones as well, although the trick is to avoid the better ones and beat the crap out of the bad ones. This isn't because you're not better than the good ones, you simply make more money against weaker competitition, and the weaker the better. This is in fact the most critical part of the game, and if you're up for the challenge, I am going to show you exactly how this is best accomplished.
Along the way, as more sites opened up, I got to the point where I decided to quit my job and pursue online poker full time. I will tell you if you're thinking of making this a career yourself that it does take a lot of mental toughness to play for hours on end each and every day and isn't for everyone, but on the other hand it really doesn't take any kind of real natural talent to succeed at it either. After a few years of this I've since moved on to sports handicapping where I now have the luxury of sitting home and only needing to work an hour or two a day, but I still enjoy playing casually and very likely always will.
I started this site 4 years ago because I felt that among the countless poker sites on the internet there wasn't even one really good site for advanced poker instruction, and after all this time even though things have improved a lot there still isn't. The real good players don't have the time or the inclination to do it, as it requires a lot of work and takes away from their playing time and their profits. I'm out of the rat race of professional poker now though and actually have time on my hands, but the reward for me is seeing all the players that I've helped along the way and seeing their success stories and sharing in their glory. As well, I just plain like the idea of trying to have the best poker instruction site in the world and this drives me toward looking to make it better and better.
Let me put you at ease in saying I'm not looking to sell you anything here, although I do use my experience in recommending a few things like sites and a product or two. Membership in our site is free, although in order to pay for the site I do make a little bit of money, and I do mean a little bit, by referring players to various poker sites. This is all based upon personal recommendations though and I can do this with any poker site so the recommendations are completely honest and based upon my own experiences and the experiences of others playing there.
So after looking around and sampling some of the material, if you wish to join us as a member of King Cobra Poker, you will be asked a small favor in return which is to sign up at one of my recommended poker sites to help out here a bit. This is a one time thing though and this is all it takes to become a lifetime member of the site, with access to all the lessons in addition to personal advice from me when needed.
The great thing though is that it is to your advantage to sample out the better sites on the internet, as this adds to the amount of games available to you at any given moment. As well, for various reasons, some players tend to be more successful at one poker site than another, and the only real way to know this is to try out various ones. In addition, this allows you to collect bonuses which is particularly important if you only have a modest amount of money to play with.
Click on the lessons tab to sample some of our lessons, keeping in mind that these are the most introductory and the instruction in the members area is more advanced of course. You're also welcome to stop by and post on our forum although I had to change forum software recently and start over from scratch so it's pretty empty at the time of this writing. I'll respond personally to any of your posts, questions, or suggestions though. I've also added a new chat room and in the future I'm planning on scheduling some sessions there.
Once you've decided you want more, then simply click on the "join" tab at the top of every page. You'll be given instructions on how to become a member. Whether or not you join us though I wish you all the best at the poker table and best wishes in life as well.
Ken
King Cobra Poker students Jason Thomas (left) and Adrian Pitt (right) at the World Series of Poker. They both did very well and outlasted many top professionals. Congratulations guys.
Welcome to King Cobra Poker
Hi, I'm Ken Stephens, President of King Cobra Poker. Since 2004, we've been offering advanced and detailed poker instruction to the poker playing public. Online poker has exploded in popularity over the last few years, with millions of people sitting down every day at their computers and being entertained.
