Author: FreeOnlinePoker.net (20.05.2012)
While it may take you longer than a minute to read this article I’m certain that by the time you’ve finished reading the following few paragraphs you’ll be fully equipped to play in your first game of poker. The best way to think about the game of poker is from the top down so I shall start by outlining some of the overarching aspects of the game such as the overall objective of the game and hand rankings to the a step-by-step guide through the workings of a hand.
The sole objective in a game of Texas Hold’em Poker is to make a better hand than your opponent or opponents. Now this can occur in one of two ways: either you have the best five card hand when you make it to a showdown or you bet your opponent off their hand and steal the pot without showing your cards.
So which hands beat which? In ascending order from best to worst they are:
Royal Flush
Straight Flush
4 of a king (Quads)
Full House (Full Boat)
Flush
Straight
Set (Trips)
2 pair
1 Pair
High Card
So how do you make these hands? Well, obviously you need some cards and each player is dealt two cards each face down in order to start a round of poker. These two cards are know as your hole cards and remain concealed (except to you) for the duration of the hand.
Your job is to then match your hands with the community cards that are dealt in the middle of the table and make the best possible five card hand. Players can use both of their hole cards and three on the board or just one of their hole cards and four from the community cards in the middle.
Players can also play the board which means that they feel that the best five card hand, for example a flush, is made up of the five community cards. Let’s look at an example of how this works:
Player A Player B
Ah Kh 9s 9d
Community Cards
Jh, 9h, 3s, Th, 2c
In this example player B has made a set of nines but player A has made an ace high flush which ranks higher than a set and therefore makes player A the winner of this pot. In cases where two or three players have a similar ranked hand the highest value of that rank wins:
Player A Player B
Ah Kh Qh Jh
Community Cards
Th, 8h, 2h, 3s, 5d
Player A is the winner because their Ace high flush is greater than player B’s Queen high flush.
