The low down on how Barbara Sue, along with Grandma Baba,learned how to play poker on-line, using their computer and play money.

From the time I was small, I remember my parents, along with their brothers and sisters and their spouses, coming to our house for weekly card games. They played at our house as we were a big family, and it was easier on Mom and Dad, so they wouldn't have to find a sitter to play at different houses. I remember the games to this day, usually penny, nickels, sometimes dimes, and in those days that was a good pot builder. The games being played were, 7-card stud, 5-card stud, Jacks or better to open or trips to win,
7-card,low hole card wild..deuces wild, a turned up pair changed the wild card, etc
and the list went on.I remember the laughter and good times had by all.
As each of my brothers and sisters grew up and left home, we all started getting together for our own poker games. Usually, by this time the antes would be a quarter or fifty cents...the games were the same, with a few new ones, like
guts, match the pot with a $2 limit to put in the pot to match, no matter how big the pot was, chase the ace, and some others that we all found out about during our play nights and tried out.
Then along came hold-em poker..I hated it and still do..we played for a $20 buy in of about 2500 in chips and could buy in once more during a game..I was usually the first one out-so i would go out to the den and get on my computer--that is how I found the World Poker Tour on the travel channel on Wednesdays--I started watching it and was fascinated by some of the male players, but more so my the females, especially Jennifer Harmon, boy could she play and still does.
So when I was in the hospital, recovering from my first aortic valve replacement, I had to watch World Poker Tour or any poker games that were on ESPN, even though most of them were hold-em poker playing, I just liked to watch the players techniques. During commercials they talked about playing poker on line and how to check on the tour their also..They mentioned PokerParty.com and PartyPoker.com. I made up my mind there and then, that when I got home I was going to check out those on-line games. I was only home 10days and not feeling up to doing much of anything on the computer, when I had to be taken back to the hospital by ambulance, and another open heart surgery had to be performed. All that pretty sewing job by my surgeon had to be cut open again and I was re-worked on again. This time my stay in the hospital was two weeks, but I still had to watch any poker games I could find on my tv, even my wizard liked to watch the poker with me(you will have to read my book in order to learn about my little wizard, who in my opinion saved my life and watched over me during my bad times).
So when I finally got home and was up to getting on my computer, I entered into the world of on-line poker, using play money also.
I had told myself that I would never play for real money, except at a festival where poker is played all the time. I just did not trust using a credit card or checking account for some
poker games that were not even located in the US..
When I checked out PartyPoker.com it opened up a new world for me. Since you had to use a good e-mail addr and give yourself a user name, I decided that Grandma Baba would love to play on-line poker in my place. So that is how Grandma Baba was introduced into this new world of poker playing.After a few times of playing at this site, I decided to check out PokerRoom.com--Well, Grandma Baba just loved this site. Her favorite game by now was omaha-hi-lo, and at those omaha hi-lo tables was a character that resembled a grandma and that is where she sat each time she played there, and with her user name of Grandma Baba she made a lot of new friends. Her character wore glasses, clutched her purse in front of her and looked just like a granny should.She was happy there-the only drawback was that you could only get $2000 in play money in a 24 hour period. The Omaha tables were $25 tables and according to her, there were a lot of jerks and bullies there, who had won thousands and thousands of play money by playing like they had to outbid everyone all the time. Sometimes she accumulated a big stash, as she called it, and at last count she had about $46,00 in play money in her account.She started getting tired of having to wait around until "her spot" as she called it, was open..She said only a woman should sit there as it was a female character, but lots of the male players didn't care what characters
chair they sat in, they just wanted to play, and Grandma was too stubborn to sit in any other seat when one became available. I always tried to get her to sit in the one with the big bald man with a cigar dangling out of his mouth was characterized, but to no avail. Soon she lost interest and wanted to find another new site.She really liked the PokerRoom site because they had buttons that you could rate a player..and she had her own rating system, for a friendly player, a constant raiser, a bully, and for a complete jerk or abusive player..there was also a place where you could vote someone off the table for various reasons, and it took 6 votes from among a 10-player table to get someone booted off. To some it was a game to check for someone to be booted out, and then at the last minute take back their vote and the person could stay,etc..She also hated the people who carried on conversations with each other when they played, making the table slow up...she said sometimes it was like work just to play the game, and that took away from playing. Of course when people voted to boot someone they never knew who the votes came from, but you could only vote once for each person at the table.So she started checking on some more poker sites on-line. I will continue where I left off here, in PartII of the on-line search for more poker games using play money.(TO BE CONTINUED)

BARBARA SUE
aka Grandma Baba