Birth of Poker Flash Cards for Texas Hold 'Em

A few years ago, most of my poker playing was done in Atlantic City. Now, a few card rooms have opened in NYC and more online poker sites are available, but back then, if I was going to play poker, I pretty much had to hop on the bus for the 3 hour ride to the Taj Mahal in AC.

I was playing a lot of 7 Card Stud, and winning pretty consistently, but didn't feel like I had the odds down pat. If I had four cards to a flush on 4th st, I didn't immediately know if the odds against making my hand were 1.25 to 1 against or better or worse. And I didn't fully understand what "1.25 to 1 against" meant.

For the record, playing 7 Card Stud, if you have four cards of the same suit on 4th street, the odds against making a flush are 1.25 to 1 against. That means that you will make the flush a little less than 50% of the time.

So, in order to memorize the odds for the various situations that come up all the time, I created some flash cards, just like the ones I created in high school to learn my Spanish vocabulary. On the way to AC, I'd run through all my cards, and then when I sat down to play poker, the odds were fresh in my head and I could focus on the other players rather than trying to recall the odds.

The first time I used my home-made cards, I booked my biggest win in Atlantic City.

A while later, I showed my flash cards to a buddy of mine, and he thought they were a great idea. But he wanted to play Texas Hold 'Em. So we created a set of Poker Flash Cards for Texas Hold 'Em. I analyzed a lot of situations that come up all the time in Hold 'Em -- like flopping a pair with an overcard, or a gutshot straight draw with a pair, and more -- and did the math. What are the odds against improving your hand when you hold -----? Then we designed the cards so the lessons would be on a working deck of playing cards. 52 lessons, 52 cards. We created lessons that helped teach players about pot odds, implied odds, hand values, and more. We created a poker learning tool unlike anything else on the market, one that can immediately help any player get a better understanding of the odds that come up all the time when playing poker.

We formed a company, created a website (www.pokerflashcards.com), filed Patent and Trademark paperwork with the government, and printed the cards. You can buy them on our site using PayPal, from Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/097650250X/qid=1106345001/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-7145324-6631303?v=glance&s=books), or buy them in a bunch of stores. We're having a lot of fun with the company, and are even going to attend a trade show in Vegas in April (more on that down the road).

We're selling the cards for $6.95 per deck. If you're a poker player who plays $3 - $6 limit Texas Hold 'Em, that's about one big bet.

I used the cards to memorize the odds, and I use them on a regular basis to keep the odds fresh in my mind. If I'm playing poker and take a bad beat, sometimes I'll go for a walk and run through the Flash Cards just to get myself back in the right mindset (rather than go on 'tilt').

This blog isn't about Poker Flash Cards for Texas Hold 'Em, though I do think anyone who checks out the cards will be a better poker player.