If you want to learn poker and become a pro so that you can join in on all the fun with online poker sites, with the added perk of winning money on the side, you should first learn poker by the basics. Despite what you may see on poker games in the TV, they are not as easy to pick up and play and involve a lot of rules and strategy. There are several variations to be studied if you want to learn poker like a pro, but if you want to learn poker right now, you need to start with the most famous variation - Texas Hold'Em, which is the poker game in which other variations are derived from.

In Texas Hold Em Poker, up to 10 players and 1 dealer are seated around a table. The player who is currently acting as the dealer has a round disk or button in front of him. This is the dealer button, and it determines the order of betting. The dealer button moves to the player on the left side of the current dealer after each hand, the player who ends up with the button becomes the new dealer.

Before cards are dealt at the start of a hand, the first two players to the left of the dealer must place a bet before getting cards, this is called posting a "blind". The player on the immediate left of the dealer button posts a "small blind", which is equal to half of the minimum bet. The next player on the left then posts a big blind, which is exactly the same as the minimum bet.

After posting blinds, the first round of cards are dealt to the players. Each player is given two facedown cards called "pocket" cards. Only the player who owns the pocket card is allowed to see them. The first round of betting then takes place, which starts on the player sitting on the left of the big blind, and continues in a clockwise direction. There is a fixed bet amount and they can only climb up to 3 times in each betting round.

After the betting stage, three cards are dealt in the middle of the table face up, these cards are called "Flops". The flop cards are community cards and can be used by all the players to complete their hand. After the dealing of the flop cards, another betting round takes place with the same rules as before. After the second betting stage, a fourth community card called the "Turn card" is dealt face up in the middle of the table, followed by another betting round.

After the third betting round, the fifth and last community card called "River card" is dealt in the middle of the table followed by the last betting round. Once all the bets are placed, players are then left to make the best five card hand that they can create using any combination of the pocket cards they hold and the community cards. The player who comes up with the best hand will win the pot, which are all the bets combined.

After the round is completed and the round's winner has collected the pot, the dealer button will be moved one player directly to the immediate left, and a new round begins.

That is the basic rules you need to learn poker's oldest variation. As with any game, skill and strategy will give you a lot of advantage but don't forget that luck will also be a big factor, so stock up on horseshoes and four leaf clovers beforehand.