CARD
BASIC common to all poker games:
Poker
uses a standard pack of playing cards, 52 cards. There
are some poker games that uses more or less cards depending
on the variations such as adding wild cards like jokers.
The card ranking from the highest to the lowest is as
follows: Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5,
4, 3, 2 , Ace. As you can see the Ace can be the highest
or lowest card of the game depending on the variation.
Usually the ace is the highest though.
There
are 4 suits (spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs). All
suit have equal value. All poker hands contain five
cards, the highest hand wins.
The
use of Wild Cards depends on the variations> Wild
cards as their name indicates take on whatever value
in rank or suit you want it to take. A wild card can
either be a seperate card added like a joker or it can
be a certain card in the standard deck that you'll specify
to be wild like dueces, or whatever else.
The
number of cards dealt is dependant on what type of game
you are playing: 5 card stud, you are dealt five cards
and 7 card stud, you are dealt seven. Five card draw
is the standard poker game where 5 cards are dealt to
each player face down.
Ranking of the Poker hands:
FIVE
OF A KIND - needs wild cards for it, is the
highest possible hand. If more than one hand has five
of a kind, the higher cards wins, five Aces will beat
five kings, which beats five queens, and continues on
by the ranking of the cards.
STRAIGHT-FLUSH
- is the best natural hand. A STRAIGHT-FLUSH is a straight
(5 cards in order, such as 7-8-9-10-J) that are all
of the same suit. As in a regular straight, you can
have an ace either HIGH (A-K-Q-J-T) or LOW (A-2-3-4-5).
You can not use the Ace in to link highest ranking cards
to the lowest ranking cards, for instance: K-A-2-3-4,
which is not a straight.
An
Ace high STRAIGHT-FLUSH is called a ROYAL
FLUSH and is the highest natural hand.
FOUR
OF A KIND - Four cards of the same rank like
four Aces or Four Jacks. If there are two or more hands
that qualify, the hand with the higher-rank four of
a kind wins.
FULL
HOUSE -is a three of a kind and a pair, such
as J-J-J-4-4. When there are two full houses the tie
is broken by the three of a kind. An example would be
J-J-J-5-5 would beat 6-6-6-A-A. If for some reason the
three of a kind cannot determine the victor then the
highest pair wins (only possible in a game with wild
cards). An example of this would be K-K-K-J-J would
beat K-K-K-9-9.
FLUSH
- is a hand where all of the cards are the same suit,
such as k-Q-9-7-5, all of Hearts. When flushes tie,
follow the same rules as for High Card.
STRAIGHT
- 5 cards in rank order, but not of the same suit (it
can be any combination of the four suits). For instance:
2-3-4-5-6. The Ace can either be high or low card, either
A-2-3-4-5 or 10-J-Q-K-A. Wraparounds like K-A-2-3-4
are not allowed. When two straights tie, the highest
straight wins, Q-J-10-9-8 would beat 5-4-3-2-A. If two
straights have the same value, Q-J-10-9-8 vs Q-J-10-9-8,
the pot is split.
THREE
OF A KIND - 3 cards of any rank with the
remaining cards not being a pair (that would be a full
house). Once again the highest ranking three of a kind
wins. K-K-K-2-4 beats Q-Q-Q-8-9. If both are the same
rank (only possible in a wild card game), then the High
Card rule comes into effect with the remaining two.
TWO
PAIRS - Two distinct pairs of card and a
5th card. Like J-J-4-4-6 The highest ranking pair wins
ties. If both hands have the same high pair, the second
pair wins. If both hands have the same pairs, the high
card wins.
PAIRS
- 1 pair and three distinct cards. J-J-1-4-9 Highest
ranking pair wins. High card breaks ties.
HIGH
CARD - if a hand doesn't fall into any of
the types listed above, nobody has even a pair or better,
then the person holding the highest ranking card wins.
If there is a tie for the high card then the next high
card determines the pot, if there's another tie it continues
down till there is no nore ties. The High card is also
used to break ties when the high hands both have the
same type of han .
BETTING -In most poker games you start the betting
with an ANTE just to get the cards dealt. The ante depends
on who you are playing with and where you're playing.
The money is put in the center of the table and is called
the pot. At the end of a hand the highest hand, of the
players that remain (some may have folded), wins the
pot.
BETTING
proceeds in clockwise order: (3 possible bets)
CALL - betting enough to match what has been
bet since the last time you bet. An example would be
if you bet 50 cents and somebody then bid 60 cents when
to you you would owe 10 cents . If you Call then you
would put the amount that you owed into the pot in order
to stay in the hand.
RAISE
- first put enough in the pot to match what has already
been bet and then you raise the pot by putting an additional
amount. Lets say the initial bet was 1 DOLLAR, you would
have to put in 1 DOLLAR and then say I'll raise you
another DOLLAR. Now the other players will either CALL,
RAISE, or FOLD.
FOLD
- dropping out of the current hand and losing the possibility
of winning the pot. You don't have to put money in and
you would only lose the ante, if its on the first turn,
or whatever you put in the pot later. As the Kenny Rodgers
song says, "you gotta know when to fold them."
Sometimes it is just better to get out then waste good
money on bad cards.
Five
Card Draw (one of the most popular and known kind
of poker)
The
ante is put and five cards are dealt face down to each
player. Then a round of betting occurs. The player can
discard up to three cards (4 if your last card is an
ace or a wild card, this rule is set by the players)
and get from the deck as many new cards as he discarded.
Then there is another round of betting, and then hands
are revealed and the highest hand wins the JACKPOT.
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