Poker world

The gambling game that it is, the player must bet on something (ante), just to start the game.  Later all the players bet in the pot. At the end of each hand, the highest hand wins the pot. During the play there are three decisions for a player to make; call, raise and fold. The player may call out ‘Open’ when he wants to place the initial bet.  In the first round it is called Opening the pot. Some variations have rules which allow the player to open only if he has Jack or anything better to open. In case no one opens the bet, a player can pass or ‘Check’ which means zero bet. In case, all the players decide to Check, then one round of betting is over, without any additional money added in the pot. This is called the Free round. ‘Call’ is when the player places the bet which is actually higher than the last time he bet. Raise is when you further increase some amount to the calling amount, there is some limit usually. Fold is when a player drops out of the current hand and he is not required to place any bets in the pot. A player may tell verbally that he needs to fold or he can discard face down cards hand into the ‘muck’, which is where all discarded cards are kept. Betting continues till everyone calls or folds after an initial bet. It is a game which relies on the skill of a gambler and luck and chance has a little role to play. A very skilled player of poker is unbeatable.

There are different variants of the game. Poker games differ in how cards are dealt, how the hands are formed, how many betting rounds are allowed, limits on betting etc. Broadly there are three categories of poker games; straight, stud, drawn and community which is a variation of stud. Straight is the oldest of the  poker family. In Stud, the players are dealt with some face-up and some face-down cards in some combination. Seven-card stud and five-card stud are the most popular. In the Draw, face-down cars are dealt to players and after betting the players can change their cards by being dealt new cards and by discarding unwanted cards. The 5-card draw is a type of this game. The Community is a variation of stud where players are dealt face-down cards and face-up cards are placed in the centre which can be used by players to make a five- card hand. Most common of these is Texas hold’em and Omaha hold’em. In Lowball poker, the lowest hand is awarded the pot like Razz and 2-7 triple draw. There is another variant called Anaconda where players can pass the cards to each other. Sometimes for the sake of history, players may play with the Stripped deck. Poker can have mixed formats too which can have many different variations of games played for a specified number of hands or time. A very common example is H.O.R.S.E. which stands for Texas hold’em, Omaha hold’em, Razz, seven-card stud and seven-card stud eight or better.

Poker is played with 52 cards, that is one deck, but sometimes it uses multiple decks also.
The cards are ranked from high to low starting from Ace to King and going down till 2. Ace can be either high or low, usually it is high. A poker hand always has 5 cards and the highest hand is the winner. Sometimes, wild cards are used which can be jokers, or few others as specified. There are various types of hand ranks; where, Five of a kind is the highest possible hand like five of aces, five of kings etc. This involves use of a wild card. The straight flush is a simple hand where the all the 5 numbers are in a series. Depending on the sequence the ace can either be high as with king or low with the number 2. A Royal flush is the highest natural hand where ace is high. A Full House is a three of a kind and a pair.  When all 5 cards of a hand are of the same suit, regardless of the sequence, then it is called a Flush. The Three of a kind has three of a kind and two other cards but they need not be same otherwise it would be Full House. Two Pairs have two pairs of a kind and a single card. Pair is when there is only one pair which is of the same rank and three different cards. In case there is no clear hand, or a tie, the highest card wins and is called High Card hand.

In poker there is no House edge as you are playing with other players. Casinos make money by taking a small amount from the ‘Pot’. A player does not have to place bet if he is not happy with the cards he has been dealt. Also, it is a low limit game as one can play with 30$ stacks of chips also. Dealing cards rotates among players. In casinos, house dealers handle the cards and dealing, betting goes in a clockwise direction. The dealer shuffles the cards and the player sitting on the right side of the dealer, cuts. The cards are dealt by the dealer either face-up or face-down depending on the variant of the game. After the deal, betting begins usually with a very low chip. Players are to make forced bets; ante or blind. Bets or chips are placed in the front of the player from where dealer collects them and put it in the ‘pot’. Bets are gathered in the ‘pot’ at the end of each round. In a betting round if one player calls a bet and all other do not call the bet (that is match the bet) and fold, then the bettor wins and takes the pot. He is not required to show the cards and this is how bluffing was introduced. At the end, if there is more than one player left behind, then there is a showdown. Players have to reveal the previous hands which are evaluated to decide on the winner. Best hand is chosen according to which variation of poker game is played.

Poker is a family of card games that have betting rules and usually hand rankings. The origin of the word Poker is very debatable. Some say it derived from the Irish word poca or French word poque while others say it could have come from the Hindi word Pukka. It could also have come from the slang word ‘poke’, a term used by pickpockets.  As the name, even the game evolved from a number of games. There was a Spanish game ‘Primero’ which had bluffing, betting as an integral part of the game. From it evolved a French game ‘Poque’ and German game ‘Pochen’. Even before that, there was a game called ‘As Nas’ played by Persians, which had 25 cards and had betting rounds. So the history of Poker is quite vague as it is not known to have evolved from one single game. The French introduced the game in Canada when they reached there in the 18th century. It was called as ‘cheating game’ initially. It was around 1834, that Jonathan Greene mentioned it in his book and wrote about it. The game described by him was played with 20 cards with only aces, jacks, kings, queens and tens. In US, a saloon with a poker table became a common sight and it became popular thereafter. After 20 cards, the game started using 32 cards and in the modern day it uses 52 cards.  Joker was introduced as a wild card in 1875. Now, poker game is played in casinos and card rooms. It is regulated by gambling laws. It is a very popular game today and competitions and tournaments are held regularly.