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If you don't know how to play Texas Hold 'em you can view this very complete instructional video from poker pro Phil Gordon

One caveat is that he is describing No Limit Texas Holdem. The rules for limit Texas Holdem are exactly the same except each bet or raise you make is limited and the bet size doubles on the turn. For example in a $3-$6 Holdem game the first two betting rounds (before the flop and on the flop) are for exactly $3 each. If you raise you raise exactly $3. On the turn and river card the bet size is $6 so you bet or raise exactly $6 (instead of being able to bet all your chips at once).

For the absolute beginners there is nothing better than just getting out there and playing a bunch of hands with other real people to get into the swing of the game. You can sign up at any of the sites on our Online Poker Rooms and play for free (without even providing any personal information). 

Work your way down the topics listed on the home page and try to understand the reasoning behind them.  If you disagree with something--great at least you are thinking!  At a minimum look at our starting hand selections (which are geared to extremely loose play games) and then read through the betting round sections Pre-Flop, Flop, Turn and River. You will also want to look at our Articles and Essays and Traps and Pitfalls sections for lots of unique and helpful content to improve your winnings.

Real poker means adjusting to unique situations as they arise--there is no one hard and fast rule for playing.  We describe a strategy here for playing successfully in no-fold'em hold'em games (and it is a strategy that works) but it is not the only strategy. As you progress through the limits to tighter and tighter games your strategy will have to change.

After you can consistently beat a play-money table you're ready to try real money. Many of the poker rooms listed in our online poker rooms section have games as low as 1c-2c (that's one penny, two penny!) so you can ease into real money play with very minimal risk.

We also have a growing list of online funding methods to give you some information about exactly how you can put money in your poker account and detailed information on what you should look for in an online poker room.

In terms of player population, the largest sites at the moment are Party Poker, PokerStars, Carbon Poker and Full Tilt Poker, but these are not the only choices! We provide links to every online cardroom we know of (and if we miss one you can submit it) at our Playing Online section.

If you live in the United States your choices for playing online are more limited because of the 2006 UIGEA bill which caused some online cardrooms to jump ship from the US market, and then on Friday April 15, 2011 (a day known in online poker circles as "Black Friday") the US Department of Justice effectively caused the top three US serving cardrooms to stop their business with US players. US Players can still play at several very good online poker sites which include RPM Poker, Intertops Poker, DoylesRoom, Bodog Poker, and Carbon Poker.

Remember you can play at all of these cardrooms for FREE (try them out and find the one you like). And free means free--you do not have to provide any billing information to set up a play money account while you try them out.

We highly recommend you keep detailed logs of your poker sessions. Two tools will definitely take your poker game to the next level and can pay for themselves almost instantly. The first is Holdem Manager which is THE premier hand database with superb analysis features. Almost EVERY professional online player uses this tool. The second is Poker Table Ratings which will let you buy as many as a million of the most recent hands at the online poker room of your choice, which means you get more solid information on your very first hand to make informed decisions from.

You can also check out our Quality Poker Links page which contains links to some of the best poker sites on the internet (this isn't a link exchange page, we actually think these sites are worth visiting).  If we've missed one that you're fond of, leave us some feedback using our Contact Us page. Finally be sure to check out the Low Limit Poker Forum where you can get feedback on your game (and give your own tips) for a large number of active members.