Basically, you’re given a deck of cards and you have to make the best possible hand. In general, you’ll get cards of four suits: spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs. If you have the best hand, you’ll win the pot. If you don’t, you’ll lose.
There are several variations of the game, but most involve a blind bet, meaning a player buys in before being dealt cards. The blind can be a single chip, a small stack of chips, or even a large stack of chips. Usually, the amount of chips a player buys in is equal to the amount of chips he contributes to the pot. The player who raises the first bet is considered the active player. He may also be credited for part of the pot chips required for the player who calls.
The best possible hand is a five of a kind, which is a hand of cards consisting of two distinct pairs plus a fifth card. You can make a five of a kind if you have two different suits, but if you’re playing a game where a suit is considered higher than the others, you’re out of luck.
A hand that is not a complete snooze is the trip sevens, which is a hand of cards consisting seven cards of a single suit. In a game with seven or more players, this hand should be worth at least two, four or five reds. You can also make a trip sevens if you have four whites and three blacks.
A pair of kings isn’t bad off the deal, but it’s not as good as holding a flush or two straights. There’s also the “backdoor flush” – a hand of cards that can be made from a combination of cards from the turn and the river. This is achieved by hitting some of the cards in your hand during the turn and the river.
There are dozens of variations of poker, and all of them have a few things in common. In the case of the hole card, which turned poker into a spectator sport, it was the camera. In the case of the poker table, the best possible hand is the one containing the best combination of cards, which is a combination of the cards in your hand plus the cards in the hand of your opponent.
The pot is won by the player who makes the best possible bet. This bet is based on the pot’s total amount. If you’re a high-stakes poker player, you may consider establishing a kitty, or a special fund for your poker games. The kitty is divvied up among the players still in the game, and is used to cover the cost of new decks of cards and food.
The game has an ante, which is a small introductory bet before you’re actually dealt cards. The pot reaches a “showdown” only when there are callers in the last round of betting. During this time, the dealer shuffles the cards and assembles them from the deck.