How to Play Poker
What is Poker?
"Bridge is a card game you can play for money. Poker is
a betting game you play with cards."
Popping up in movies from 'The Sting' to 'Rounders,' poker is
probably the most well-known card game in the western hemisphere -
a game of mixed skill and luck where the expert uses knowledge and
deception to win money over a series of hands played against one or
more opponents. The luck of the deck can decide in the short term
who wins and loses, but in the end it's the skill element of poker
which makes it so popular today.
Poker is played with a standard 52-card deck between two and
usually a maximum of nine or ten players. At its most basic, poker
involves players betting against each other during a series of
rounds, and then, after the final betting round, the hands are
'shown down' and the winning hand takes the pot. The simple rules
yet complex decision-making which goes along with the game as it's
mostly played today (Texas Hold'em) makes that the most played game
online, although there are many others (Seven-Card Stud, Draw
Poker, Omaha etc.). As has often, rightly, been said: it takes a
minute to learn, a lifetime to master.
Hand Rankings
There are many variations of the game of poker, but all
of them, at the core, involve making a five-card hand. Hands are
compared at the end of all betting rounds, and the winning hand or
hands share all the money which has been bet - the
'pot.'
The rankings of hands are as follows (from top to
bottom):
Straight flush
(5 sequential cards of the same suit - with 10 J Q
K A of the same suit being the Royal Flush - the top
hand in poker)
Full house
(three of a kind and a pair e.g. Q Q Q K
K)
Flush
(Five non-sequential cards of the same suit)
Straight
(Five sequential cards, any suit e.g. 8c 9h 10h Js Qd)
High Card
(No pairs, but the highest single card or cards, Ace counting as
high)
In the event of more than one player
having a straight flush, or straight, the hands are compared
starting with the highest card in the hand (so a straight 9 10 J Q
K is beaten by 10 J Q K A).
Flushes are compared starting with high
card, and if that is the same for both players, the next-highest
card is examined and so on until a winner is determined.
If two players have a full house, the
player with the higher three of a kind wins (so 9 9 9 2 2 beats 8 8
8 A A).
When it comes to hands with the same
three of a kind, two pair or pair, the winner is decided on
'kicker.' This refers to the other non-paired cards in the hand. So
the tie is broken and 6 6 K K 10 would beat 6 6 K K 9, and A A J 8
7 would beat A A J 7 6.
It is possible for two hands to tie - in
this case the pot is split equally between both players.
Download our poker client and enrol in our rewards scheme now ...