Hi Eleanor, I've been playing poker for a couple of years, at some point quite seriously. I don't really want to teach you poker but I can givr you some tips.

What's your objective? Do you want to play with friends for fun? Do you want to play in casinos and online? For fun or to  earn money? Do you want to just learn the rules or do you seriously want to become good at poker? Do you want to play tournaments or cash games?

Be aware that you WON'T be making any money the first few months that you play. So you should start at very low stakes, which is hard in the Geneva region (Annemasse and St Julien offer 2/4 No-Limit Hold-Em, but you can easily lose 400 Euros or more there in an evening). You can play online but that's a whole different game. Perhaps your best approach is to enter some tournaments, since in that case your potential loss is limited to the buy-in (the money you pay to enter), which is normally between 100 and 500 Euros.

If you really want to learn poker, it's easiest to read a book first. Getting Started with Hold'Em by Ed Miller is the best if your knowledge is zero.

Amazon link:

http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/Peter-Fenn/2011/02/02/tea-party-funding-koch-brothers-emerge-from-anonymity

Wrong link (oops), try this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Getting-Started-Hold-em-Miller/dp/1880685345/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1312616819&sr=1-3

Well, while you're totally right about asking these questions, I don't think casino's are even an option at that point, except if it's someone really wealthy who just want to try there for fun (actually, there are many people in casino's who do that, which makes it profitable despite the high rake).

I'm not sure if reading a book first is really the solution, I feel you should play 1st at some low limits to better understand the concepts of a book.

A decent solution online is pokerstrategy as they offer you a 1st small deposit but you need to learn some basics 1st, there are articles and a quiz: http://www.pokerstrategy.com/uCP44D (not my affiliate link took a friend's one, but you can remove it if you prefer ,) ))

GL :)

Rémy

To learn the rules (hand strengths, order of play) you can probably just look for a video on YouTube. If you want to you can go to an online site such as Pokerstars.com, download and install the software, register, and play for 'play money', i.e. free. But poker without money takes away all emotion from the game which makes it pointless to learn strategy.

After that - read the book I recommended. It will give you a huge edge over other starting players, and even many experienced ones.