You've watched the World Series of Poker on TV and now all you can think about is getting a little piece of the action. Who couldn't use an extra million?! You've watched the pros play and tried to pick up some good strategy. Problem is, it doesn't make sense what they're doing. In fact, they often times look like a bunch of crazy bluffers. You've read every poker book imaginable to try and understand. Each book gives you different advice on how to play the same situation. Each author tells you his way is the best way.

One thing that can be agreed upon is there is no sure answer and your playing style will determine how you play the game.

How do you learn your style? Practice. Where do you practice? If you're lucky you could practice in Las Vegas, NV where a game is always there. You could also lose your shirt while you're at it.
Most likely you don't live near a casino or a live card room anyways. There's poker software like Wilson Software's Tournament Texas Hold'em you could buy, but even that doesn't emulate the
often-random nature of a live opponent. So what do you turn?

Online poker is the way to go. In fact, when you're starting out, the $1 sit and go tournament can't be beat. What's nice about this level sit and go format is you can play against six to ten other players for a small amount of money. If you lose, it's only a $1 and another game is available almost instantaneously. This is a great time to practice your skills and get a better sense how opponents will react. This is also a great time to get a feel for escalating blinds and tournament play. Even at the $1 level opponents are more conscious about losing money. If you play the free sit and go tournaments or the free rack games, you'll find a lot of people just going all-in every hand with nothing. That's not poker, that's who can get luckier. Luck is the only factor for them winning.

You will learn nothing. You will also wait a long time between games.

Free roll tournaments are a great practice tool too, but you still run into the "all-in all the time players" and the tournaments can easily run 3 or 4 hours because of the size of the tournaments.
You will find yourself competing against 1500 or more opponents.

So entering a $1 sit and go is a smart choice. The games will last roughly an hour and you will learn rapidly. When you're starting out, avoid the turbo games, which take the typical 10-minute
blinds progression and lower them to less then five minutes. The game depends more on luck, than who is playing the best. You'll see this accelerated format more and more because those games can be played in half the time of a
regular game.

Regardless, sit and go tournaments are available continuously and maximum wait times are less then five minutes. So play one today and who knows, maybe with a little practice, you too could be a millionaire.