Some people believe that winning at poker is totally dependant on the cards that you are dealt. This would be true if the idea of rounds of betting had not been part of the game. The introduction of betting introduced a great deal of skill and psychology to the game. Before you can understand how to develop skill and use psychology, you must understand the basic rules and how each hand works, along with some of the unique poker terminology. This lesson will focus on getting you that information as painlessly as possible.
The game is played with a 52 card deck. Some games actually use more than one deck and some add jokers, but the basic deck is the standard one. Cards rank from the royal cards and the Ace down to the one and the Ace again. Ace can be either high or low but most commonly is used as a high card. Each deck contains four suits, Spades, Hearts, Clubs and Diamonds. Each suit includes a set of numbered cards, Aces, and the Royals. Most poker games use five cards, with the highest hand being the winner. Most games also allow the use of the Joker as a wild card, which can be used as any card in the deck, so it is possible to actually have six of one number, ace or royal. Other games allow certain types of card to be wild, like deuces, one eyed jacks or any other card.
Poker hands are simply ranked from highest to lowest. The highest hand is five of a kind. This type of hand is only possible when the game allows wild cards. The next highest hand is the straight flush. Obviously the highest straight flush will include the Ace and the Royals, of the same suit. Straight flush simply means five cards, in order, of the same suit. After the straight flush, is four of a kind. This means four of the same number or royal. Four aces, or four kings or four threes. The next hand in the ranking is the Full House. This is a five card hand with three of a kind and a pair. A flush follows this and it is five cards of the same suit, regardless of their name or number. As long as the suit is the same it counts as a flush. A straight follows and this is five cards, in order, i.e. Four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, of any suit is a straight. Next comes three of a kind. Three of any card, 3´s, 10´s, aces, or any other combination of 3 cards will count as three of a kind. The last three are self explanatory. Two pair, one pair or high card. Use of the high card is necessary because it can happen that no player will draw one of the higher ranking hands. High card simply means that the player with the highest card wins the hand.
In the next lesson we will cover what betting is, how to do it effectively and some of the more common poker terms.