Beginner's Guide to Playing Poker
This short guide will give you a basic understanding of the game of poker and introduce you to a few different variations of poker, all of which share some basic similarities.
The aim of poker is to win money from the other people you playing with by betting on the cards that you are dealt.
Poker follows this basic format:
- Players are dealt a hand of cards, some or all of which are concealed.
- Bets are made on the strength of the cards in rounds of betting.
- The hands develop as more cards are dealt.
- Finally the strongest hand wins a showdown or all players but one have folded.
One of the most important things to know is the ranking of poker hands. These are the same in all poker. If you don’t know what strength of hand you have then you can’t confidently bet on it.
Poker uses a standard pack of 52 cards with the jokers removed. The ace is usually high but there are some hi/lo games where it can be either high or low and used at either end of a straight.
The game moves around the table clockwise, and each player must act in turn. The dealer is changed each hand, again moving clockwise, this is usually represented in online poker games by a ‘dealer button’. Position is important and it is more advantageous to sit to the right of the dealer (“late position”), this way you can collect more information on the other players’ hands before you have to act yourself. However as the dealer changes with each hand every player gets the chance to sit in the more advantageous positions.
The two players to the left of the dealer both place blind bets to get the pot started. These are often a small blind, for the player immediately next to the dealer, and a big blind for the player to the left of them. These blind bets get everyone interested and each player must then decide whether he wants to continue. If he does he must place a bet equal to the big blind in order to continue in the hand. With each turn you have the option to check, bet, call or raise. Players can fold if they like but relinquish their right to claim the pot.
Additional cards are dealt at the end of each round of betting depending on the game you are playing. As players raise the bets the others have to call to equalise the stake or they can re raise if they want. Some games have limits to the number and value of bets etc, others have no limits.
Players are only allowed to use the chips in play at the beginning of a hand. You are not allowed to get extra funds in the middle of a hand. You are however free to get more chips between hands.
The specifics of what happens at each betting round depend on the individual poker game rules. If you’re a beginner start with low stake, limit games to help you learn the game without losing too much money. Once you’ve learnt the game you can then begin to move up to higher stake games and tournaments.
Bluffing is misleading your opponents into thinking that you have a hand different and usually stronger than the one you actually hold. This is a vital part of poker. If the best hand always won, then poker would be a simple game of chance. The keys to being a winning poker player are strategy and bluffing …knowing when to play hands to begin with, and using your judgment to gauge when to push ahead with a less than ideal hand to bluff the other players out of the pot.
