Have you seen "Rounders", starring Matt Damon? Extraordinary movie, indeed. What is it about? Poker, of course. Do you know that this card game has the distinction of being the most ancient form of gambling?
But, before throwing your life's savings on the green table, take a while to learn about the basic rules of this game.
Poker is, at its very essence, a very simple game. You must understand the cards and their values when playing it for the first time.
Poker is played with a standard deck of 52 playing cards. The cards are ranked from high to low from Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2. Aces are worth more than Kings, which are worth more than Queens, and so on. The cards are also separated into four suits, as follows: Clubs, Spades, Hearts and Diamonds.
The suits are all of equal value, meaning that no suit is more valuable than another, so in its essence, poker is a very democratic game. When you play this game, you are dealt five cards.
The object of the game is to end up with the highest-valued hand. The best hand is considered the Royal Flush and the worst hand is the High Card. Between these two we encounter the Straight Flush, Four of a Kind, Full House, Flush, Straight, Three of a Kind, Two Pair and One Pair.
Royal Flush is, as I said before the most valuable and hard to get hand in all of poker. It is composed of 10, Jack, Queen, King and Ace, all in the same suit.
A Straight Flush is made of five cards in numerical order, all of the same suit, for example 4, 5 ,6 ,7, 8 of spades. If there are two Straight Flushes on the table, the player who has the highest card value wins.
Four of a Kind means four cards of the same numerical rank and another random card. This random card has no value because, if there are two or more hands that qualify, the hand with the highest-ranking Four of a Kind wins.
Full house - from the five cards you have in your hand, three have the same numerical rank, while the other two remaining must also have the same numerical rank. The three of a Kind are important in a tie, followed by the Pair. For example, K-K-K-6-6 beats Q-Q-Q-A-A which beats Q-Q-Q-5-5.
A Flush is made of five cards of the same suit, regardless of their numerical rank. In a tie, the player who has the highest ranking card wins.
Straight means holding in your hand five cards in numerical order, regardless of their suits. In a tie, the player whose card reaches the highest ranking card, wins.
Three of a Kind means holding three cards of the same numerical rank and other two cards which are not a pair.
Two Pair means two sets of pairs, and another random card
One Pair means holding one pair and three random cards. If more than one player holds a pair, the player with the highest ranking pair wins.
High Card means none of the players have anything of value. In this case, the player holding the highest-valued card wins, with the Ace as the highest card and the 2 as the lowest. If there are two or more players holding the same card, you move to the next highest card and continue.
