Poker is more popular than ever and every day millions of people play a game of poker. If you are really good, you can win staggering amounts of money in a short time, and the possibility of winning lots of money is one of the reasons why poker has become so popular. There are so many different websites where you can start playing poker online, and if you are a beginner in the game of poker and want to get started this article is perfect for you because you can find everything you need to know about the world of poker!
The ground rules
There are many different types of poker but luckily they all share some ground rules. The value of the cards you have on hand is the same in each game and therefore, it is important that you know which collection of cards (so-called “hand”) is the best.
- The best hand is Royal Flush, which consists of the five highest cards in the deck of cards: 10, Jack, Lady, King and Ace. To have a Royal Flush, all your cards must be of the same suit.
- A Straight Flush is the second best hand, and it consists of five cards of the same suit in a row, for instance two, three, four, five and six. If two players both have a Straight Flush, the one with the highest card row is the winner.
- Four of a kind is the third best hand, and it consists of four cards of the same value.
- A Full House is when you have three cards of the same value, while you also have two other cards of the same value, for instance 3xfours and 2xKings.
- A Flush consists of five cards of the same suit, but they do not have to be in order. The highest card of the Flush determines how good the flush is.
- A Straight is when you have five cards in a row, but they are not the same suit.
- Three of a kind means that you have three cards of the same value.
- Two pair means that you have 2×2 cards of the same value, for instance 2xKings and 2xAces.
- If you have One pair it means that you have two cards of the same value. 10. If you don’t have any of the hands mentioned above, that is called a High card and each high-card-hand is ranked first by the rank of its highest-ranking card, then by the rank of its second highest-ranking card, then by the rank of its third highest-ranking card and so on. These are the basic rules – there is only one exception: If you play a game with wilds, Five of a kind will be the best hand. Now that you have the poker rules in place, it’s time to decide what type of poker you want to play.
Five Popular Poker Games You Need to Learn
The five different types of poker are Five-Card Draw, Five-Card Stud, Seven-Card Stud, Omaha and Texas Hold’em. There are different rules in each type of poker and we will help you understand them now.
- Texas Hold’em is the most popular poker game in the world. When playing Texas Hold’em each player gets two cards on hand. The dealer places community cards on the table, first three cards, then one card and one card again. In this way there will be five cards on the table, and from these and your own two cards you must form the best poker hand consisting of five cards. Bets must be made continuously.
- Omaha is similar to Texas Hold’em, the only difference is that you get four instead of just two cards. You still have to make the best five-card poker hand, three of the cards from the table and two from your own hand.
- Seven-Card Stud starts with two cards face down and the third face up. After getting seven cards dealt – three face down and four face up – you choose the best five-card combination and the player with the highest combination of five out of the seven cards wins.
- Five-Card Stud is practically the same as Seven-Card Stud. But in this game you only get five cards.
- Card Draw is actually the original way of playing poker. In this game all players receive five cards. Once the cards are dealt, everyone gets the opportunity to bet, and then the players can swap one or more cards with new unknown cards. Then a new bidding round starts, and then everyone can replace their cards again. In the end the highest hand wins. Now you’ve got all the rules for poker and hopefully you want to start playing. If you like we have even more simple beginner tips for people with interest in poker here or you can find out How To Turn Your Under-the-Gun Play into a Win. If you want to read books we help you find the 21 best poker books of all time here.