How Long Does It Take to Learn Poker?

Do you want to know how long does it take to learn poker? The answer, of course, differs from person to person. When learning the game, there are numerous considerations to be made. The majority of the time, it takes 6 to 12 months to gain enough poker knowledge to defeat other players. The fundamentals are simple, but mastering the game will take time. All you need is determination, commitment, and time. It will be difficult for you to become a successful player if you lack these qualities.

Poker is simple to learn but challenging to master. You may not realize it right now, but once you try the game, you will. There are several strategies, hands, and ideas you must learn before you try the game out in a casino. One of the best games to play and earn big is Poker.

Also, the best thing about poker is that there is no house edge whatsoever, making it the casino game with the lowest house edge ever. It is a game of skill and is played between players. There is also no certain person who deals with the cards, players in the game take turns in becoming the dealer. In this guide, we will be explaining to you the amount of time it takes for casual players, complete beginners, and players with coaches to learn poker. You will also understand the right way of learning poker in steps that will help you immensely.

How Long Does it Take to Learn Poker?

Dealer shuffling the cards

Poker is not at all difficult to learn, in fact, it is far easier than many other games. A sharp-minded and quick-witted person might learn how to play Poker in as little as 5 minutes. The most difficult aspect of poker is mastering it, not learning it. The rules may appear complicated at first, but once you understand how they operate, you’ll find that learning poker is a breeze. Card casino games, in general, are far less difficult than board casino games such as Craps. It’s a lot simpler.

The time to learn poker depends highly on how much time you spend learning Poker and how good you are at picking up new games. The rules are very simple to learn and do not consume much of the player’s time. However, learning effective strategies, bankroll management, and other tricks is what is going to take a lot of time. You will need a lot of practice, and the more you practice, the faster you are going to learn how to play poker professionally. Since poker is a game of skills, you can not jump into the battleground knowing just the basics. The more skilled one is bound to defeat you in Poker. Hence, make sure you have spent enough time learning and mastering poker before putting your money at stake.

In poker, new moves are continually being developed. That is why even the most experienced poker players, some of whom have been playing for almost 50 years, are continuously learning the game. However, after researching and conducting several surveys we were able to find out how long does it take to learn poker for different types of people.

For Normal Casino Players

If you are someone who already knows about some other casino card games and now wants to learn poker, it will take as short as 5 minutes to learn the basic rules. However, to gather enough skills to win the game it might take as long as 4 to 6 months. And, you will still need more time to master it. Please note that in this time span, you will be able to start winning matches; it does not mean that you will master it.

Most casino players do not find it hard to pick up on the game as they are already familiar with other such games and have spent enough time learning casino rules. Depending on how much experience they have with casino card games, they can become a winning player in a shorter time than those who are complete beginners.

For Complete Beginners

Complete beginners who are not familiar with many card games might find it challenging to learn Poker. Just learning the basic rules can take up to an hour for them. However, if you have high cognitive talents and a keen memory, you will undoubtedly learn the game faster. The better your brain’s functions operate, the easier it is to learn new games, and the better your brain’s functions work, the more you utilize your brain to acquire new abilities. It’s like a never-ending cycle.

Complete beginners will likewise take longer to become comfortable with poker than those who have some prior expertise. Furthermore, unlike other players who need 4 to 6 months to become a winning player, total beginners might take up to 12 months.

For Dedicated Players

The amount of time it takes to master a game is highly dependant on the player’s dedication to mastering it. A player who is committed to studying poker and already has some past experience can learn enough abilities to become a winning player in as little as 3 to 4 months. Complete novices who are highly dedicated to learning the game, on the other hand, may take up to 6 months to ultimately start winning matches in a casino without relying on luck.

Dedication is essential while acquiring new skills, activities, or interests. Some people desire to learn poker only for the sake of having fun with their friends and family. These players are unlikely to take the game seriously. Others who see poker as a way to make money may be more serious about learning than you believe. Needless to say, individuals who play for fun will most certainly learn faster than those who merely play for fun. When it comes to learning a casino game, the capabilities of your mind and the amount of practice you put in go hand in hand.

Players With Coach

There are many misconceptions going around about poker that it is a very easy game. Correction: it is a game whose rules a simple and easy to learn, but it is quite difficult to master. You may even become a winning player but not be a master at playing poker. If you would like to get the title of professional poker player in a short time then you must hire a coach. Otherwise, it can take multiple years to get that title no matter how experienced you are. You can ask any professional poker player you know about how much time it takes to master the game, and they will reply to you with something like” It is a never-ending process”.

Players with coaches can learn poker enough to become winning players in just 2 to 3 months. Moreover, unlike those who learn by themselves, players with coaches have much more knowledge about poker. If you are one of them, know that you can defeat many players easily once you are done with learning from your coach. Coaches usually have learning patterns designed for you to learn efficiently. These patterns will help you start winning beginner’s poker matches in just a month. Your coach will teach you all you need to know about playing every round of a poker tournament effectively, exploiting your opponents to the fullest extent possible, and maximizing your tournament value.

Is It Difficult to Learn Poker?

Poker is a very complex card game.

Like every other casino game and especially game of skills, Poker is easy to learn but difficult to master. You can be good at poker but it would not matter if the other player has better poker skills than you. This is one of the biggest disadvantages of playing poker. No matter how much you know about poker if your strategies and skills are not good enough, you will lose. As stated earlier, poker is easy to learn. The thing about poker that is difficult is not learning it, but mastering it. Negotiation is at the heart of everything. You must understand the worth of what you have and the chances of winning. But here’s the thing about poker: it’s not about having the best hand; it’s about playing the best hand. For example, 3 kings is a good hand if disguised as a weak hand.

If people fold without betting, having a good hand is worthless. You must persuade others to act rashly because a prudent player will not lose much. Not only that, but they must feel they are far superior to what they are. Overconfidence is the most prevalent and crucial factor for a Poker failure. Because a machine can’t win at poker, it’s one of the best card games to exist.

Even though Poker is a relatively easier game to learn, a complete beginner may find it challenging to pick up the basics. It is recommended to first watch video tutorials on Youtube to learn how to play Poker before you try it out in a casino. However, if you do have some spare money you can spend in casinos just to learn Poker and get some experience, then go for it. There are many ways to learn the game and hone your skills so you can be on par with professional Poker players. Just for your ease, we will provide you with some excellent tips you can follow to learn Poker easily and efficiently.

Easy Ways to Learn Poker

Looking for an easy way to learn and master poker in the fastest way possible? Here you go! Through these steps, you will be able to become a Poker master in no time. You will not even understand how you became such a good poker player in such a less amount of time. Just focus and implement the steps.

Many people casino players who are not familiar with poker too much go around saying how difficult the game is without knowing enough about the game to make a comment. Because of this, the new players get confused and wonder how long exactly does it take to learn poker. However, you do not have to worry about anything others say because we will make sure you become a professional poker player as soon as possible.

Although it depends on person to person that how they think is better to learn, according to the research and surveys we conducted, this is how many of the successful poker players learned the game. Hence, we will give out the most successful method to master poker to you. Hopefully, this helps you to reach your goal and get decent earning out of the game.

Learn the Basic Rules

Most players would already know this but again you can not win the game without comprehending the rules first. So, one should start with learning the basic rules. Learning the rules as a beginner can take up at least an hour. If you are a serious player, you can easily grasp the rules without putting in too much effort. You do not have to learn any strategies at this point; just learning the very basic rules should be enough. For example, you must know that poker is a game with players ranging from 2 to 10 playing the game, and the objective of the game is to win a hand. If a player has the winning hand, he will win the money in the pot.

The pot is where the money of everyone’s bets on the table is put. Learn and understand who the dealer is and how he plays. There are a total of four betting rounds. The preflop, flop, turn, and river are the four main rounds in a poker game. When there are only two players left after the river, sometimes a fifth-round takes place. This round is often called the Showdown. There are other things you will need to learn before you get to other stuff.

Learn Poker Hand Ranking

Poker is hard to learn because of many reasons. It is not as simple as other casino cards games such as Blackjack. That is why it takes a long time to learn Poker. The most important thing a beginner should be able to do is to identify which hand ranks as to what. There are several types of poker games, hence, the hand ranking may differ from game to game. Here we will explain to you the hand ranking of the most commonly played poker game, Texas Hold’em.

In the game, the dealer will give you two initial cards which are also known as the hole cards. Make sure to hide these cards from others. There will be 2 cards open on the deck and three cards closed; these are the community cards. You will be using your hole cards (the initial 2 cards) and combining them with the community cards to make the strongest hand possible. You can either use 1 hole card and 4 community cards, 2 hole cards, and 3 community cards, or all 5 community cards. However, when taking all 5 community cards, the best you can hope for is splitting the pot. In case, someone makes a better hand than those 5 community cards you are taking, then you will lose the bet.

Learn to Create the Best Hand

An incomplete and offset Royal Flush

Another thing you must do is learn to create the best possible hand from the two hole cards you have and the 5 community cards on the table. In Texas Hold’em, there are 10 possible types of hands you can create from the 7 cards in front of you. The first and most powerful hand is the ‘Royal Flush‘. It includes A, K, Q, J, 10 in the respective order with all five cards belonging to the same suit. The royal flush of the same suit is the strongest hand you can create in poker.

In terms of the best hand ranking, a ‘Straight flush‘ is second only to the royal flush. It can contain any number in the same suit in a sequence. For example, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5 of the spades or 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 of the diamonds. On the third position, we have the ‘four of a kind‘. This hand contains any four cards of the same rank i.e. four cards of the number 6 and a random card (6, 6, 6, 6, 3). The fourth strongest hand is the ‘Full house‘. This hand has any three cards of the same number or rank and a pair of two cards with the same rank. For example, three kings and two queens. Now, note that if several people have a full house, the player with the highest rank of the cards wins the game.

On the fifth rank, we have the ‘Flush’ with any five cards of the same suit. These cards do not have to be consecutive or in any sequence. A ‘Straight‘ hand ranks after the Flush. This hand includes any five consecutive cards of different suits. Next, there are ‘Three of a kind‘, ‘Two pair‘, and ‘One pair‘ ranking 7th, 8th, and 9th respectively. Lastly, we have a ‘High card‘ that includes random cards. When several players have a high card hand, the hand with the highest-ranking card wins.

Understand the Preflop Ranges

Checking the hole cards in the pre-flop round

The Preflop is the first round of poker. In this round, the dealer distributes the first two initial cards to everyone on the table and the players check their cards and decide what to do for the next round. After seeing their cards, players must decide whether to ‘call’ to stay in the game with the same stakes as the big blind, ‘bet’ to raise the stakes, or ‘fold’ to exit the game with the same stakes as the big blind.

Study Three Betting Strategy

The three bets strategy is the best strategy you can learn as a beginner. It is easily executable and increases your odds of winning. Before we tell you why it is important, let us briefly explain to you how the three-bet strategy works. The term three-bet refers to the third bet put in a betting sequence. The one-bet is the blind bet that players put before the game start. The two-bet occurs when a player decides to raise in the preflop round. And, the three-bet takes place when the person, after the one who raised bets in the pre-flop match, decides to re-raise.

3-betting is one of the best ways to get rid of weak hands on the table as early as possible. With fewer people on the table, the competition will reduce and equity of your range will increase.

Is Poker Hard to Play?

Poker is relatively harder than most casino card games. It is a game whose outcomes largely depend on how skillful the players are. Not to forget that you will not find many novices playing the game. People who get into poker know how hard the game is so they do not take unnecessary risks and proceed with caution. There are also many people who are actual professionals and they hide in cloaks to fool and loot the beginners. There is a significant difference between a new player’s ability and a professional’s ability to calculate every odd and chance of the game while remembering 8 opponents’ betting patterns and appearing calm and in control.

Is Poker Harder Than Chess?

Chess is also a game that requires fast and strong cognitive abilities

The answer to this question varies from person to person. If we compare how long does it take to learn poker with how long it takes to learn chess, poker is definitely harder to learn. Although both games require extremely intelligent minds to win the game, poker has many more functions and rules to it to learn. The question of whether chess is more difficult than poker is debatable. Some people find chess more difficult than poker, while others find poker more difficult than chess. Chess is a game that combines pattern recognition, calculation, and opponent preparation.

Poker, on the other hand, combines cooperative and productive rationale with mathematics, calculation, interpretation of action records and their meanings, and observation of behavior patterns and body language, all of which have been honed to the point where your mind works on its own.

Summing It Up

To sum it all up, it takes from 3 to 12 months to learn poker enough to get some wins. Mastering poker is the most difficult aspect of the game. Card casino games are generally easier to play than live board games.  The amount of time it takes to learn poker is highly dependent on how much time you devote to the game and how quickly you learn some new games. The rules are simple to understand and do not take up a lot of the player’s time. However, to become a winning player you’ll need a lot of practice to learn how to play poker professionally, and the more you practice, the faster you’ll learn.