What's the Deal?
By Sharla Lehrmann

For the next topic of this new column, I would like to address the word 'INTIMIDATION.' All of the emails I've received seem to have this common thread for both men and women alike. While trying to build up a certain level of confidence, the fear of playing in a game in a real card room could make a freight train take a dirt road just to escape the potential of embarrassing itself.

We all have a set of self-limiting beliefs when we start a new hobby, job or sport. To best thwart the magnitude of these beliefs, preparation is our ally. Nothing can be more fear provoking than to finally muster the courage to plant oneself firmly in a chair at a real poker game only to find that we have overlooked the most daunting weapon the other players use, intimidation.

Poker etiquette is an all-encompassing part of implementing the "intimidation factor," as I will call it. Can you imagine sitting at a game, with all eyes on you, and "string betting?"

"What is that" you ask yourself?

OK. You finally have a hand, you have taken a few deep breaths, and you are ready to jump in with both feet. The play has reached you, you must call with $2 to stay in the game. You reach into your chips, and put the $2 out in front of you, and then reach back into your chips for 2$ more.

Oh my, this is so exciting, you are going to raise for the first time ever in a real game. You gingerly slide the 2$ out and say, in a rather crisp and confident tone, "RAISE $2." Suddenly, as if the world had come to an end, the table erupts and ranting begins, "STRING BET, STRING BET!"

Do you think this could put you on a bit of a tilt? Crawling under the table is more like it. In order to keep ourselves from begging to be intimidated, I am going to define string bet for you, and then, suggest that poker etiquette be the very first thing you attempt to learn outside of the game of poker itself.

String Bet An illegal bet in which a player puts some chips in the pot, then reaches back to his stack for more, without having first verbally stated the full amount of his bet.

A good place to start to learn poker ediquette would be to go to poker info section here on the pokerpages site and familiarize yourself with poker terminology.

Send questions to me in the What’s the Deal section of the Women’s Forum about any situation you might have experienced and or potential intimidation factors you would like to know about.

I look forward to hearing from you! Until then, Stacks of Racks to Ya!