The Basics of Poker
In Poker, players participate in a game of chance and skill. The first step is to ante, or make a small amount of money. Once the ante is made, players bet into the center pot. The player with the best hand wins the pot. Players then make bets in a clockwise fashion. Each round of betting ends when the last player raises his bet, calls, or folds.
The goal of Poker is to get the highest possible hand by using the cards in the hand and those on the table. Typically, players use one card from their hand and four cards from the table to make their hand. When a hand is created, the player with the highest score wins. Usually, the game is played in a variation of two or three-player games.
When more than one player remains, the game goes to a showdown. During this time, each player will reveal their hidden cards. Each player will evaluate his hand, and the player with the highest poker hand wins the pot. In this game, poker hands are made up of five cards, and the best combination of five cards is the best hand. Common hands include the straight flush, a flush, or four-of-a-kind.
A straight flush is the highest possible hand with a standard pack of cards. It consists of five cards of the same suit in sequence. The highest straight flush is a pair of A-K-Q-J-10. Also known as a royal flush, the royal straight flush has odds of one in nearly 650,000. The next highest hand in poker is four of a kind, which can be made up of any four cards.