I want to share with you my experience when I first started because it may be happening to you know as a beginner and you should learn how I overcame my problem and a few alternative solutions.

The problem I had was violent shaking. Every time I went to play live at a casino I shook like I had a some kind of nervous twitch. This is back when I first started playing in real casinos not online. The two experiences where much different from each other then I thought they would be. The lights, the sounds, the people talking, laughing, shuffling chips, looking over to watch you play, the slot machines ringing.

This was very overwhelming when I first started playing. I thought it was very exciting and I could not wait to play. When I sat down though, my hands started to shake. When I would bet from having a good hand I would shake. After time went by, people began to tell me that I shook when I had good hands. I took this into account and I noticed that I shook, but I could not stop.

So what did I do? Nothing much, I just played. From experience, I stopped. If people didn't tell me I probably would not have stopped, but thanks to them, I have.

I brought this story up to a friend of mine, Paul Okoli, he is one of the best poker players I know, he told me a few 'secrets' that I am going to share with everyone today (If you can call them secrets).

One thing you can do is learn to control your breathing. As when shooting a rifle, take a deep breath and hold it, when its time to shoot, let that breath out. Listen to yourself breath and keep focused on remembering your cards and the faces of your opponents. Don't keep your eyes on the flop, it will always be there.

Another tip is to take a drink of some alcoholoc beverage of some sort. Now im not saying to get drunk, but it is a know fact that it is a depressant and can calm your nerves.

Finally, there is a pill called Valerian root that you can purchase that calms nerves. It is a very low dose sleep aid used for people to calm down. It is some kind of relaxing drug. I'm not an herbal specialist so just google the word and see what comes up.

That's all he told me. Remember my strategy and the next time your in a casino just stay calm. Introduce yourself. If your playing low stakes, talk, laugh, see the flop, and just have fun. If your going in there to win big money, try to play low stakes first as practice and then move up from there.