How To Play Poker (Beginners)

Poker is really a simple game to learn, but like so many other games learning the rules does not make you a master of the game. However, even a world champion had to start somewhere. Before you start thinking about the structure of the game and how it is played you do need to learn some important information. This information is called poker hands. You will notice that at the top of each page on this site there are five random cards, dealt each time you load or reload the page. In most of the main variations of poker your goal is to get the best possible five card poker hand. The variation of the game you play (eg Stud, Holdem, Omaha etc.) will determine what actions you need to take to achieve the best hand. In some games such as five card draw you are given the opportunity to discard some of the cards you are dealt to try and improve your hand. In other games such as Holdem there are a pool of community cards which every player can use to improve their hand. However you play poker the one common denominator is the need to understand how good your hand is. Before you continue click here to read up on the various different possible poker hands. The rest of this article will assume you understand what hand beats what.

Types Of Poker Game

There are four main kinds of poker. First there is the home game. Generally, this game is played with a group of friends for low stakes. In such a game the purpose is more social than anything else, and low stakes often encourage poor (loose) play and the game is generally far more about luck than skill. Of course, depending on the people you associate with the game can become more serious.

The second kind of game is played at a casino card room. Not all regions of the world have a nearby card room which is why so many people play online, which is the third kind of poker. In the casino, poker is one of the few games where the house does not have an advantage. In casino poker, players play against each other and the casino takes a small charge from each game called the rake. You are effectively paying by the hour to sit at the table and play. The casino offers other games of poker such as Let It Ride, Pai Gow, and Caribbean Stud. These are casino games played against the house much like Blackjack or Baccarat. These games are not 'real' poker but merely a card game played against the dealer. Over time the house cannot lose any of these games.

The third kind of poker is the online game. It is probably this kind of poker that has really caused much of the recent explosion in the popularity of the game. Online poker has a lot of the fun of real card room poker without the hassle of driving to a card room, waiting for a table and playing for real. In online poker the game is fast and exciting, you could be playing an 18 year old from Sweden or a former world champion. Online poker rooms never close, they are open 24/7 and there is always a game online somewhere. There is also a certain amount of anonymity and ease of play online. You can't accidentally knock over your chips or mistakenly play out of turn since the game is regulated by the computer. One of the advantages of playing online is it is often a more comfortable way for beginners to enjoy the game.

The fourth kind of poker is the tournament, which can be played at a card room or online. Some people even arrange mini tournaments at a home game. The major difference between regular play (often called a ring game) and a tournament is how you win money. In a ring game you bet cash or more usually you bet chips that have a cash value during each round of the game. At the end of the hand either all players but one will have forfeited their hand or two or more players will show their cards and the best hand wins. The money that people have bet (the pot) minus the rake is awarded to the winner. A tournament game is different however. Players pay an entry fee which can vary from a few dollars up to several thousand dollars. This entry fee is then put into a prize pool and each player is given an equal number of chips. The chips have no cash value and each player will play until they have lost all their chips. By the end there will be one winner who has all the chips. Although each tournament is different, a certain number of players will be eligible for part of the prize pool. The prize pool is generally distributed such that the overall winner will get the largest percentage of the prize, then the player that came second will get a smaller prize, and so on. In a typical online tournament the top nine players will win something. The most famous tournament is the World Series of Poker held at Binion's Horseshoe Casino each year. In 2003 the winner was an online player from Tennessee who won an online tournament in which the grand prize was a buy in to the real life tournament at the World Series. His prize was $2,500,000. His buy in to the online tournament that got him there cost him $40.

Tournaments are a very enjoyable way to play, and because the entry fee is fixed you know exactly how much money you are putting at risk when you play.

The Game

One of the things that makes poker interesting is the number of variations of the game. Most of the games revolve around the same basic principles, but if you get bored with one type of game there is always another variation to master. However, as a beginner wanting to play online or at a card room, you should generally pick one of the major games such as Holdem, Stud, or Omaha and learn it well. Don't try to master them all at the same time.

The object of poker is to win the money in the pot during a round of play by having the best poker hand when all of the betting is done. It's also possible to win the pot by being the only player left, if you've made everyone else fold (resign from that round). The pot contains all of the money contributed during a hand, including all of the bets and the original 'ante' from each player. The ante (or in some games the blind) is what each player must contribute at the beginning in order to play in the hand.

In games such as Stud every player makes an ante bet before the hand begins. This is their entry fee to that hand and it ensures that there is some money in the pot for the winner. The value of the ante is normally decided before the entire game begins. Games such as Holdem work differently. There is a dealer marker which is a plastic disc known as the button. The button passes around the table from one player to the next in a clockwise manner after a hand is completed. The player clockwise to the left of the player with the button is the small blind and must make a forced bet at the beginning of the hand. The next player to the left of him places a larger bet, usually twice the small blind. This is called the big blind. It is not essential at this stage to understand the difference between games with an ante and those with a blind. In either case the purpose is to get some money in the pot to avoid the disappointment of playing and winning a hand but there being no money in the pot to win.

Most poker games use a regular 52-card deck. There are four suits (hearts, diamonds, clubs and spades) and each suit contains 13 cards. These cards rank in value from highest to lowest as such: Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2. Depending on where you choose to play poker, the Ace may be interchangeable as the lowest value card. In some (usually home game variations) a wild card is selected such as the two (A.K.A. the deuce) and if you get one you may consider that card to be whatever you want it to be to help your hand. Some (rare) games may even introduce two Joker cards to the deck for this purpose. Introducing wild cards adds the potential for a hand that would be impossible in a regular game, that hand is known as five of a kind and usually beats anything else including a Royal Flush. Five of a kind would be five cards of the same rank: For example all four Aces and a wild card as the fifth card, thus the player would name this an Ace making a fifth Ace in his hand. Wild cards are rarely used in casino or online games since they add a significant element of luck and subtract a significant amount of skill from the game.

Each hand of poker is essentially a self-contained game, where the entire pot is won at the conclusion. At the start of a hand the dealer gives everyone a set number of cards (depending on which variation of the game you're playing). Then, each player in turn (clockwise from the dealer) may choose to bet (add a sum of money to the pot) or check (choosing to remain the the game with a bet of zero).

If a player makes a bet, the next player has the choice to call the bet (make a bet equal to that of the previous player), raise the bet (equal the bet and then add some more to that bet), or fold their hand. A fold means that the player has decided to forfeit the pot, seeing no chance of winning it, and lay their cards down with no further participation in that hand. A call means that the player stays in the hand by betting an equal amount to what has been bet, but not any more. A raise is the choice by the player to meet all bets to that point, and add more.

Depending on the game variation there are several rounds of betting. For example, in Holdem, there is a round of betting after each player is dealt their two hole cards (cards for their use and eyes only). Then three community cards (the flop) are dealt and another round of betting begins. Next a fourth community card (the turn or fourth street) is dealt and another round of betting ensues. Finally, the fifth and final community card (the river or fifth street) is dealt and a last round of betting starts. Clearly before each round of betting something significant has happened which gives each player more information as to their final poker hand. Essentially each player is betting based on the strength of their hand or their potential to make a good hand by the time the last card is dealt. During each of these rounds of betting every player who wishes to remain in that hand must have bet an equal amount of money to everyone else.

Of course what makes poker poker is the ability to bluff. You see, those players that are betting heavily on their hand are representing that they have a strong hand, whereas in fact, their hand might be junk. This is where yet another highly complex facet of the game comes into being. It has often been said that poker is not a card game played by people, but rather it is a game about people that just happens to be played with cards.

If you can visualize the betting concept (if not a few practice games online will give you the hang of it) you will see that the longer you choose to stay in the game the more you are likely to invest in the pot. The skill of poker (know when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em as they say) is to stay in the hands you have a good chance of winning and get out of the bad hands as early as possible to minimize your losses. The biggest mistake that beginners make is to overestimate the potential of their hands. Beginners see they need 'only' three specific cards to make a monster hand so they pay to stay in to see if they can catch these cards. Try not to be too optimistic, it will cost you in the long run. As you develop your game start learning about the odds so you can make an intelligent decision as to the likelihood of making a winning hand.

The betting ends when all who wish to call the highest bet have done so, or when only one player is left. At the end of the final betting round everyone left playing is part of the showdown. The last person who bet or raised is obliged to show their hand first, then the remaining players show their hands clockwise around the table. If a player knows they have been beaten they do not need to lay their cards down face up (they muck i.e. they do not show their hand).

The player with the highest ranking poker hand wins the pot.

Once you have understood this article, why not read about playing poker online and have a game for play money. If you want to read some more here are some good book recommendations.