Basic Poker Rules
Posted on May 9, 2008
Filed Under Pocker
The basic rules of poker might seem complicated to someone who has never seen the game played before, and although some parts of the game can take longer to pick up than others, pocker is not all that complex really. There exists a list of hand rankings which apply to most variations of poker and this part is the most important part to remember because this is how the winning hand is determined each time.
At the bottom of the hand rankings is a high card, this means no pairs, or any cards matching to make a higher hand, next up is one pair, which is pretty self explanatory, two numerically matching cards with the other cards in your hand not matching each other. Next is two pairs, then 3 of a kind where 3 cards are matching, for instance, a 5 card poker hand of (2,4,J,J,J). Then the straight which is all cards in a numerical running order such as (5,6,7,8,9) suits here don’t matter. Following the straight is the flush which is all cards of the same suit regardless of value. beating all those mentioned so far is the full house which is 3 of a kind and a pair all in one hand.
Next up is four of a kind, for instance (7,3,3,3,3) in your hand. Then the straight flush is next highest which is all cards of the same suit and also in running numerical value, a royal flush tops the list and is effectively the highest possible straight flush of (10,J,Q,K,A) all the same suit. Once you understand these rankings all you need to know in terms of basics, is how to bet, saying ‘check’ means you do not wish to bet (although if someone else does raise, you must match this bet, or ‘call’ as it is known, to continue).
You must always wait for your turn to act in a poker game and the action always moves round the table clockwise, when it is your turn, you can choose to check or raise or match a bet if there has already been one made, often there are rounds of betting at different points during each hand but these vary each type of poker game.
Once you have understood these basic aspects of poker you can sit down and play pretty much anywhere, although your chances of winning will not be good until you take the time to master the more difficult aspects of the game, such as, bluffing (betting with nothing to force other players to fold) and reading (using intuition and any information available to judge the strength of an opponent’s hand) with all these skills up to standard you should begin to do well at poker, and with dedication, time, and practice you could one day find yourself an extremely formidable poker player indeed.
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