I consider myself a smart guy, so it was hard to admit that I sucked. Granted, it was no more expensive over that time span than a dinner out, or a couple of movies, so it wasn’t like I was breaking the bank, but it was frustrating. fake dollars apiece, I found myself down almost 40. Nevertheless, during the first few days of the quarantine, I lost early and often, to the point that even though the games were only five. I knew the game, and all its rules, so it wasn’t like hold ’em was completely foreign to me. For lack of my usual entertainment options, I began playing with a group of friends on Pokerstars (the group is about 30-strong, at this point), some of whom were newbies like me, and some of whom were very good, very experienced players that have played poker for a living in the past. I’m one of the rookies, and my game is Texas hold ’em.

It’s no surprise that in the past month, in the midst of our national lockdown, online poker has boomed to the tune of a roughly 43% overall increase, with a 255% jump in first-time poker players.

Odds of poker hands on flop