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Poker rules and strategy
Poker is one of the most thrilling and fun game availiable, and has become one of the most popular games in any casino. if you ever played poker you understand why it is the world's most popular card game. In poker it's not only what's in your hand that counts, but also what people think is in your hand..
Poker is played with a standard deck of 52 playing cards. The card values are ranked from the highest card being the Ace, then King, Queen, Jack, 10 down to the 2. The ace can be high or low. The cards are also separated into 4 suits. The four card suites are spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs and they all rank the same, no suite is higher than the other.
Each player is dealt five cards and this is called a “hand”. The objective of the game is to end up with the highest-valued hand. The hand with the highest in ranks wins. From best to worst, hands are ranked in the following order:
Straight flush Five cards in sequence and all of the same suite. A straight flush with the Ace top is a “Royal Flush”. This is the highest natural hand you can ever make.
Four of a kind Four cards of the all the same rank and another random card. If there are two or more hands that qualify, the hand with the highest-ranking Four of a Kind wins.
Full House
three cards have the same numerical rank, plus a “Pair” card also have the same lrank.
Flush
This hand consists of cards all of the same suite, regardless of their numerical rank.
Straight
A hand where all Five cards are in sequence, regardless of their suits.
Three of a kind
Three cards all of the same rank, and two random cards that are not a pair.
Two pair
Two sets of pairs, and another random card.
Pair
One pair and three random cards.
Basic Rules
- Each player places an ante into the pot. Once everyone has placed their ante, the dealer deals the cards face down around the table, starting at the player to his left and continuing clockwise. The dealer always deals to himself last. The dealer deals everyone their first card, then goes back around the circle to deal the second, and so on. As soon as everyone has five cards, the remainder of the deck is placed in the middle of the table, and play begins.
- After players look at their cards, the first player places a bet. Then on the next hand, the person to his left will bet first, and so on around the table for each new hand.
- Players have several options as far as the first round of betting goes. If no one has made a bet yet, you have two choices:
Open: If no betting has begun when your turn comes, you may "open" the pot. This simply means that you make the first bet (any amount up to the betting limit).
Check: When a player checks, it means that he or she doesn't want to open the betting, but doesn't want to quit either. The "check" only occurs if no one has yet opened the betting when it comes time for you to decide what to do.
If someone opens the betting You got three options:
See: It means that you match their bet. So if someone bets $1 and you want to stay in the game, you have to "see" their $1 by putting $1 of your own into the pot.
Raise: it requires you to first "see" the previous bet, and then increase the bet.
Fold: giving up and placing your cards face down on the table. You lose whatever you've bet so far. Use this option when you think your hand is too weak to compete.
- Now it's time for all the players who haven't folded are allowed to get rid of the cards they don't want and take some new cards. A player is permitted to get rid of up to 3 unwanted cards and receive up to 3 new ones from the deck (as long as the player always has 5 cards total). No one sees what anyone else discarded (threw away) or drew (got as a new card). It's all done face down.
- After every player draws 0 to 3 new cards, the betting begins again. You have the option of opening or checking, and once someone opens, you can see, raise, or fold. The game ends when there are no more raises, or everybody folds, except for the winner, of course.
- At this point, everyone to turn their cards over. The player with the highest hand wins the pot.
The only way to stay in the game is to not fold. If you have a bad hand and want out quick, then you'd seriously consider folding. If you have what you think could be a good hand (if you could take a few new cards and get good ones), then you would seriously consider staying in. If you have an outstanding hand, then you'll definitely want to stay in.
BUT you don't want everyone to know you have a great hand, or else they'll all fold, letting you win the tiny ante pot. The trick is to make everyone else bet a lot, and win even more money. It's all about being a good liar and a good actor.
Poker strategy
Your goal is to win big pots, not just getting the highest hand. A lot of psychology involved during a game of poker, psychological strategy is very important. A poker player faces some tough decisions and needs to establish the approximate expectation of each possible move and choose the one that has the best return, if any, or simply fold.
The most important thing a poker player must do is NOT to form a pattern of play. A good poker tactics is sometimes to 'Bluff', not just for the sake of bluffing. Your goal is to make it harder for the other players to be able to 'read' your cards or guess your intentions when it matters.
Second, is body language and talk. Both of these can reveal a lot of how strong or weak your hand is. Over the time players can develop the ability to 'translate' your body language and what you say, into meaningful insight of what hand you might have.
Third, is position, which often your best friend in poker. In late position you can enter pots with far weaker holdings because you will have so much information to act on in later betting rounds. You can also put tremendous betting pressure on the small and big blinds, and steal a lot of pots simply with a show of strength, and whether or not that strength is justified is irrelevant. The tighter a game the more important position becomes.
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