Marcus Bell

Marcus has spent years coaching complete beginners, which is exactly why he's good at it — he remembers what it feels like to not know what a straddle is. He writes our rules, hand-rankings, and glossary coverage, breaking every concept down until a first-timer can sit down at a live table and play the hand correctly. If an explanation would confuse the person he taught last week, it doesn't ship.

Marcus's favourite moment is still watching a nervous first-timer stack their first real pot and realise the game is learnable after all. He's allergic to jargon for its own sake, and he'll happily spend three sentences on something a seasoned player would wave away — because that player forgot they once didn't know it either. Patience, he'll tell you, isn't a personality trait; it's a skill you can practise.

• How to play
• Hand rankings
• Poker terms