Two of the questions you must be asking yourself now must be 'winning what?' and, of course, 'which is the first step?' What we are about to tell you will make you realize that indeed, winning, is pretty likely to happen. We are saying 'the first step' because we think this is the easiest way possible, the first thing you learn before passing on to more complicated things.

It's Poker we are talking about! Yes, poker, the game invented by Americans many years ago and played by people all over the world today, including the world series of poker, the highest authority in the poker world!

It's a game that millions of people enjoy making millions of dollars and euros of! And last, but not least, it is the easiest game, with not so many rules, a game you can play whenever you like, wherever you like and with whoever you like.

As for the betting, you start betting with an ante just to have your cards dealt. Now, depending on who you're playing with, you can bet as much as you like. But if you're playing with friends, the game should have an ante of a penny or nickel. In this case, we advise you to set low limits on the ante, the amount you can raise and the top amount the pot can grow to, just to be sure that you won't lose a friend over a useless quarrel for money!

When betting (handled in clockwise order) gets to you, you have three options you can choose from:

you can call, or bet enough to match what has been bet since you last bet, you can raise
put enough in the pot to match what has already been bet and raise it by putting an additional amount
you can fold, or drop out of the hand and lose the possibility of winning the pot.

If you don't put money in the pot you will only lose the ante and, trust me, it's much better than wasting much money if your cards are not so good!

The ranking of the cards is as follows: Ace, then King, then Queen, Jack, 10, 9 an so on until 2 - the smallest in rank, Ace - may also be considered the lowest card, depending on the type of game you are playing, but usually it is the highest.

There are four suits: spades, diamonds, hearts and clubs and all suits are equal in rank. Most, but not all hands contain 5 cards and the highest hand wins. You can also use wild cards and they can have any suit or rank you want it to have.

Wild card may be either a distinct card added like a joker, or you may choose a certain card in the deck to be wild like one-eyed jacks or anything else. The number of the dealt cards is dependant on what type of game you are playing: 5 card stud- you're dealt 5 cards, 7 card stud- you are dealt 7. The standard poker game is 5 card draw, where 5 cards are dealt face down to each player.

We will now give you a quick example of a game of Five Card Draw, just to see how easy it is to play: When the game begins, everyone puts in the ante and five cards are dealt face down to each player. A round of betting occurs and then you can discard up to three cards and get from the deck as many cards as you discarded.

Another round of betting occurs and then everyone reveals their cards and the highest hand wins the pot. Poker is a game with many game variations.

So, you won't get bored too soon! You will love it and you'll see how wonderful it is that you can actually make money out of your favourite hobby!