Rants & Raves: That's Not Real Poker

How many times have you either heard or even said the phrase, "That's not Real Poker!" Everyone says it, and everyone's heard it about their Poker game of choice.

Cash players say about Tournaments, "That's not Real Poker. It's all preflop, and it's for players who can't play Poker."

Tournament players say about Cash games, "That's not Real Poker. It's a full of players throwing money around, and playing Bingo."

No Limit players say about Limit Poker, "That's not Real Poker. Nobody ever folds, and you can't bluff."

Limit players say about No Limit, "That's not Real Poker. You just shove you're chip into the middle, and flip a coin."

That's also what everyone says about Pot Limit Omaha.

So I think we need to come up with a definition for "Real Poker". When you need to define something, the best place to start is a dictionary.

According to the Merriam Webster dictionary, Poker is "Any of several card games in which a player bets that the value of his or her hand is greater than that of the hands held by others, in which each subsequent player must either equal or raise the bet or drop out, and in which the player holding the highest hand at the end of the betting wins the pot".

What sticks out to me about that definition is the phrase "several card games". The game of "Poker" actually describes many different games. Rummy is the same way, with at least 2438 different versions of Rummy.

So if there are so many versions of Poker, then which one is "Real Poker"? Here is the definition that I've come up with:

Real Poker is the game that I play and enjoy. The other games that I don't play, or even like, are not Real Poker.

So let's not be so judgmental about Poker game that we don't play, just because we don't like or understand them. If you want to become a better Poker player, then many Pros say you should step out of Comfort Bubble, and try some of the different games. You may not like them all, but that doesn't mean that they're not "Real Poker".