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CARD BASIC common to all poker games:

Poker uses a standard pack of playing cards, 52 cards. There are some poker games that uses more or less cards depending on the variations such as adding wild cards like jokers. The card ranking from the highest to the lowest is as follows: Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 , Ace. As you can see the Ace can be the highest or lowest card of the game depending on the variation. Usually the ace is the highest though.

There are 4 suits (spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs). All suit have equal value. All poker hands contain five cards, the highest hand wins.

The use of Wild Cards depends on the variations> Wild cards as their name indicates take on whatever value in rank or suit you want it to take. A wild card can either be a seperate card added like a joker or it can be a certain card in the standard deck that you'll specify to be wild like dueces, or whatever else.

The number of cards dealt is dependant on what type of game you are playing: 5 card stud, you are dealt five cards and 7 card stud, you are dealt seven. Five card draw is the standard poker game where 5 cards are dealt to each player face down.

Ranking of the hands:

FIVE OF A KIND - needs wild cards for it, is the highest possible hand. If more than one hand has five of a kind, the higher cards wins, five Aces will beat five kings, which beats five queens, and continues on by the ranking of the cards.

STRAIGHT-FLUSH - is the best natural hand. A STRAIGHT-FLUSH is a straight (5 cards in order, such as 7-8-9-10-J) that are all of the same suit. As in a regular straight, you can have an ace either HIGH (A-K-Q-J-T) or LOW (A-2-3-4-5). You can not use the Ace in to link highest ranking cards to the lowest ranking cards, for instance: K-A-2-3-4, which is not a straight.

An Ace high STRAIGHT-FLUSH is called a ROYAL FLUSH and is the highest natural hand.

FOUR OF A KIND - Four cards of the same rank like four Aces or Four Jacks. If there are two or more hands that qualify, the hand with the higher-rank four of a kind wins.

FULL HOUSE -is a three of a kind and a pair, such as J-J-J-4-4. When there are two full houses the tie is broken by the three of a kind. An example would be J-J-J-5-5 would beat 6-6-6-A-A. If for some reason the three of a kind cannot determine the victor then the highest pair wins (only possible in a game with wild cards). An example of this would be K-K-K-J-J would beat K-K-K-9-9.

FLUSH - is a hand where all of the cards are the same suit, such as k-Q-9-7-5, all of Hearts. When flushes tie, follow the same rules as for High Card.

STRAIGHT - 5 cards in rank order, but not of the same suit (it can be any combination of the four suits). For instance: 2-3-4-5-6. The Ace can either be high or low card, either A-2-3-4-5 or 10-J-Q-K-A. Wraparounds like K-A-2-3-4 are not allowed. When two straights tie, the highest straight wins, Q-J-10-9-8 would beat 5-4-3-2-A. If two straights have the same value, Q-J-10-9-8 vs Q-J-10-9-8, the pot is split.

THREE OF A KIND - 3 cards of any rank with the remaining cards not being a pair (that would be a full house). Once again the highest ranking three of a kind wins. K-K-K-2-4 beats Q-Q-Q-8-9. If both are the same rank (only possible in a wild card game), then the High Card rule comes into effect with the remaining two.

TWO PAIRS - Two distinct pairs of card and a 5th card. Like J-J-4-4-6 The highest ranking pair wins ties. If both hands have the same high pair, the second pair wins. If both hands have the same pairs, the high card wins.

PAIRS - 1 pair and three distinct cards. J-J-1-4-9 Highest ranking pair wins. High card breaks ties.

HIGH CARD - if a hand doesn't fall into any of the types listed above, nobody has even a pair or better, then the person holding the highest ranking card wins. If there is a tie for the high card then the next high card determines the pot, if there's another tie it continues down till there is no nore ties. The High card is also used to break ties when the high hands both have the same type of han .

BETTING -In most poker games you start the betting with an ANTE just to get the cards dealt. The ante depends on who you are playing with and where you're playing. The money is put in the center of the table and is called the pot. At the end of a hand the highest hand, of the players that remain (some may have folded), wins the pot.

BETTING proceeds in clockwise order: (3 possible bets)

CALL - betting enough to match what has been bet since the last time you bet. An example would be if you bet 50 cents and somebody then bid 60 cents when to you you would owe 10 cents . If you Call then you would put the amount that you owed into the pot in order to stay in the hand.

RAISE - first put enough in the pot to match what has already been bet and then you raise the pot by putting an additional amount. Lets say the initial bet was 1 DOLLAR, you would have to put in 1 DOLLAR and then say I'll raise you another DOLLAR. Now the other players will either CALL, RAISE, or FOLD.

FOLD - dropping out of the current hand and losing the possibility of winning the pot. You don't have to put money in and you would only lose the ante, if its on the first turn, or whatever you put in the pot later. As the Kenny Rodgers song says, "you gotta know when to fold them." Sometimes it is just better to get out then waste good money on bad cards.

Five Card Draw (one of the most popular and known kind of poker)

The ante is put and five cards are dealt face down to each player. Then a round of betting occurs. The player can discard up to three cards (4 if your last card is an ace or a wild card, this rule is set by the players) and get from the deck as many new cards as he discarded. Then there is another round of betting, and then hands are revealed and the highest hand wins the JACKPOT.


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