Poker Basics

The basics given below are rather general and aims to give poker beginners an overview of the game of poker. If you are a beginner, you should read this in order to fully understand the rules and strategy pages, if you are not, step right through to our poker rules page and our poker strategy page.

Poker is a combination of a card game and a betting game between 2 or more players. The game is played with a standard 4-suit 52-card deck and the cards are ranked according to standard ranking:
Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, ace (ace, both high and low)
The 4 suits (Clubs, Diamonds,Hearts, Spades) are worth equaly.

At start, each player at the table get a set of chips (buy-in), and the goal is to win as many chips as possible. The player with the highest amount of chips win. Often, in tournaments, the game continues until only one player is left with all the chips on the table.

A poker game is divided into a set of "hands", where each hand involves a set of betting rounds in where the players may bet their chips into a pot. At the beginning of each hand, each player gets 5 cards. During a given betting round, each player may do one of the following actions:

fold: surrender, or forfeit the interest of the pot
check: a zero beto that does not forfeit the pot
call: a bet equal to preceding bet in respons to another players action
bet (or raise): a bet larger than preceding bets

After a fix amount of rounds (usually 3), on the so called Showdown, the player with the best hand wins the pot. Hands are ranked accordingly:

Royal Flush: five cards of the same suit in sequence, ace top i.e. A-K-Q-J-10
Straight flush: five cards of the same suite in sequence (e.g. 8-9-10-J-Q in Spades). Ranked by the top card.
Four of a kind: four cards of the same rank and one kicker.
Full house: three cards with same rank accompanied with two cards of another
Flush: five cards of the same suite. Ranked by the top card.
Straigth: five cards in sequence. The ace may be played high or low.
Three of a kind: three cards of the same rank and two kickers of different ranks. Ranked by the three cards and then by the kickers.
Two pair: two cards of one rank and two cards of antoher and a kicker of a third rank.
One pair: two cards of one rank accompanied by three kickers with different ranks.
High card: any hand that does not match one of the above. Ranked by the top card.

A hand can end in two different ways:
1. A player wins the pot since all the other players have folded; the winner does not need to show is hand.
2. More than one player is left at the showdown; the player with the best hand wins.
3. At showdown, the top hand is tied by two or more players. Then the pot is spli equally among the winning hands.
More details about pot splitting...

More flavour is added in the different types of poker games by adding wild cards, having shared cards on the table (Texas Hold'em), extra rounds of betting, extra cards etc.

Now, enter Your Casino Corners poker rules page or the poker strategy page.

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