Poker: All About Pocket Card Deals
|Poker is any of many card games where players bet over which hand is most likely to win based on the rules of the game. The most basic poker strategy is to try to determine the odds of a hand being all-or-nothing. For instance, a player may bet early in the game and then look at his opponents’ hands later in the game. If he notices that his opponents have a stronger hand than he has, it is a good time to fold. But if he notices that his opponents have a weak hand than he has, he may stay in the game and try to turn the odds in his favor.
There are two kinds of bets in poker: blind and no-limit. Blind bets occur during Texas Hold’em poker tournaments when there is a fixed amount of chips (the ‘buy-in’) that each player can use to buy out his opponents’ winning cards. As a result, there is a pre-determined amount of chips from which the players cannot withdraw, meaning that there is no such thing as a blind bet in no-limit Texas Hold’em poker. In poker, it is called a blind position. Some examples of no-limit poker tournaments include Cash Seat Poker, the World Series of Poker, and the World Poker Tour.
All-in bets are what most beginners learn how to play before trying their hand at more complicated games. An all-in bet involves a player betting the same amount of chips that his remaining hand has (including any cards that he has in his pocket) and then putting all his chips into the pot. Sometimes a player may raise all of his chips and then put the same amount of money into the pot that he has in his pocket. All-in bets are used mainly to bluff other players.
Another type of poker term is raised, which refers to the action of raising the betting total to a pre-determined amount, usually double what the player has raised. A low card, called an Ace, can also be used to raise, but is rarely used because an Ace raises aren’t as “high card” as a high card, such as a King. Because of this, in no limit Texas Hold’em games, the rule is that you only need one high card to make a raise.
The pot size in no limit Texas Hold’em is known as the starting pot. This refers to the amount of chips that will be dealt out to the players at the start of the game. Most players start out with one chip, which increases each time the player makes a successful bet. A player doesn’t necessarily have to win the entire pot to become the winner; rather, the player with the highest winning hand is the one who finishes with the highest total chips in the pot.
A bad beat in poker is when a player beats the dealer, or his partner, by dealing with the highest hand. Bad beats are frequently referred to as “trades” and are not subject to the betting rules in Texas Hold’em. Trades occur when a player trades two cards of the same rank, namely the Ace and the King, for three cards of a lower rank, namely the Ace and the King’s thumb. The player who deals the best hand may stay in after the flop if they have a strong hand, so long as their three cards match up. If they do not, then the other players can stay in and the dealer has to deal another hand.
A straight flush in poker is a hand consisting of five cards, four of a kind, three of a kind, and a two of a kind. In a straight flush, there is always a high card in play, which is referred to as the high card. A straight flush occurs when all of the high cards come up, forming a straight line. Another type of straight flush is a four of a kind flop, where the last card in the pack is either a four of a kind or a five of a kind.
A full house in poker is a hand consisting of all seven of a kind and a single five of a kind. In a full house, the person with the most chips wins. In some Texas Hold’em games, the player who raises the most hands at the end wins. In other words, a full house in poker is a winning hand if all of the other players have folded, except for the one who raised the most hands.