Introduction

This aim of this page is to give a general idea of how poker is played. For those who need greater detail on particular aspects of the rules there are more detailed pages on hand ranking, the betting process, and on the specifics of particular types of poker such as Seven Card Stud, Texas Hold'em, Omaha and Draw Poker, which are listed on the Poker Variants page.

A kicker, also called a side card, is a card in a poker hand that does not itself take part in determining the rank of the hand, but that may be used to break ties between hands of the same rank. For example, the hand Q-Q-10-5-2 is ranked as a pair of queens. The 10, 5, and 2 are kickers. DeepStack bridges the gap between AI techniques for games of perfect information—like checkers, chess and Go—with ones for imperfect information games–like poker–to reason while it plays using “intuition” honed through deep learning to reassess its strategy with each decision. Poker Hand Combinations Explained. Poker hands fall into one of ten categories. The highest is a royal flush, followed by a straight flush, then four of a kind, a full house, a flush, a straight.

Players, Cards and Objective

Traditionally, poker has been thought of as a game for 2 to 7 players, the more the better with 6 or 7 being the ideal number. However, some variants can be played by more than seven, and some versions work well for a small number of players - even with just two ('heads up'). The deal and play are clockwise.

A standard international 52-card pack is used, and in most forms of poker there are no jokers. The rank of the cards, from high to low, is A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2. In certain circumstances the ace can be used as a low card, below the 2. For the purposes of comparing hands all suits are equal.

Poker is normally played for money, but it is convenient to use chips to represent money during the actual games. These generally come in various denominations, sometimes labelled with numbers 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 500, and sometimes in colours such as white, red, blue whose values must be agreed. Players buy chips from the host before the game and redeem them for money at the end.

In outline, a game of poker is played as follows.

Players place an initial bet, if required by the game being played, by placing some of their chips into a central common area known as the pot or pool.
The dealer deals cards to the players.
Players look at their own cards, and have the opportunity to increase their bet, placing extra chips into the pot. All other players must then either put in chips to bring their contribution to the pot to at least an equal amount or fold, discarding their cards and abandoning any chips they have so far contributed to the pot.
Players who have not folded are known as active players. When all active players have contributed an equal amount to the pot, that is the end of the betting round. According to the variant being played, further cards may be dealt or players may have an opportunity to exchange some cards, after which there is another betting round, and so on.
When the last betting round has ended there is a showdown: all active players show their cards, and the owner of the best five-card hand takes the contents of the pot. If at any point only one active player remains, that player automatically wins the pot without having to show any cards.

The objective is of course to win money, and there are two ways to do this.

To have the best five-card hand at the showdown.
To persuade all the other players to fold.

It is the second possibility that creates the possibility for bluff. If everyone believes that you probably have a good hand, then when you raise the stake, they may prefer to fold rather than add chips to a pot that they will probably lose. If they all fold you win, even though your hand may in reality be much worse than theirs.

Ranking of Poker Hands

It is of course necessary to know which hands beat which. A poker hand always consists of five cards. Even though in some variants you may have more than five cards to choose from, you select the five cards that make the best hand, and for the purpose of comparing hands any other cards are irrelevant.

The ranking of hands from high to low in standard poker is as follows.

Straight Flush: Five consecutive cards of the same suit. Ace can be counted as high to make the highest type of Straight Flush, which is A-K-Q-J-10 of a suit, sometimes known as a Royal Flush. Ace can be low to make (5-4-3-2-A), but not high and low at the same time (for example 2-A-K-Q-J is not valid).
Four of a Kind: Four cards of the same rank and one other card, such as 9-9-9-9-Q. Four of a kind are sometimes known as quads or in some non-English speaking countries as a poker. The odd card - the queen in the example - is called the kicker.
Full House: Three cards of the same rank plus a pair of cards of another rank, such as 5-5-5-K-K, which would be described as 'fives full of kings'. A full house is sometimes known as a boat.
Flush: A flush consists of five cards of the same suit (not all consecutive, otherwise it would be a straight flush).
Straight: Five cards of consecutive ranks, not all of the same suit. The highest is A-K-Q-J-10 and an Ace can instead be counted as low to make the lowest straight 5-4-3-2-A, which is sometimes called a wheel. An Ace cannot be in the interior of a straight - for example 4-3-2-A-K is not a straight.
Three of a Kind: Three cards of the same rank and two cards of different ranks - for example 7-7-7-10-6. This is sometimes known as a triplet or trips.
Two Pair: Two cards of one rank, two cards of a second rank and one card of a third rank (the kicker) - for example J-J-3-3-8.
Pair: Two cards of equal rank and three cards of different ranks - for example Q-Q-A-8-7.
Nothing: A hand which does not fit any of the categories above, commonly known as High Card or sometimes No Pair. That is: five cards of different ranks, not all consecutive and not all the same suit.

Any hand of a higher type beats any hand of a lower type. When comparing two hands of the same type, the ranking is determined by the ranks of the individual cards. The most numerous rank of cards in each hand (the quad, the triplet in a full house or trips, otherwise the pair if any) is compared first; if these are equal, any less numerous ranks are compared. When two ranks are equally numerous, the highest-ranking cards are compared before the others.

Note that in standard poker the four suits are all equal, and that poker hands consist of five cards only. Therefore if two players can make five-card hands that are equal apart from the suits of the cards, there is a tie and if necessary they share the winnings equally.

Examples:

Poker Regeln Texas Holdem

4-4-4-7-7 beats 2-2-2-K-K because 4 is higher than 2, and 4-4-4-3-2 beats 2-2-2-A-K for the same reason.
5-5-5-9-9 beats 5-5-5-6-6 (these two hands could appear together in a game with shared cards or wild cards).
K-K-2-2-A beats 7-7-3-3-Q, because the higher-ranking pairs are compared first and kings beat 7's.
7-7-3-3-Q beats 7-7-2-2-A because the higher-ranking pairs are equal, and the 3's beat the 2's.
A-K-8-3-2 beats A-K-7-6-5, because 8 is higher than 7, the highest two cards in each hand being equal.
6-5-4-3-2 beats 5-4-3-2-A, because the ace must be low to make the straight.

The hand ranking above applies to standard poker. There are modifications to this in certain types of poker variant, for example:

games with wild cards - cards that can be used to represent a card of any suit or rank;
low poker or lowball games, in which the lowest ranking hand wins - also in the low component of high-low games in which the highest and lowest hands share the pot;
games with stripped decks - decks of less than 52 cards obtained by removing the lowest card.

The poker hand ranking page gives further details.

Preparation

Before starting a game of poker, it is necessary to decide what variation of poker will be played, and for what stakes.

If you