Prathima's Miles & Milestones

Poker is a game of inspiring exhilarating cards. There’s no right or wrong way of playing poker. There’s not one method that will guarantee success. But there are ways and means to maximize your chances of winning. There are good habits and bad habits, situations to avoid & situations to seek who have the knowledge to exploit them. It’s a game of math and precision

Let’s learn to play the game for the game’s sake.

Mechanics

1. Goal — To win your opponent’s chips.

How? Having the best cards or betting and forcing all other players to fold.

Fold — When a player folds, they are discarding their hands since their hands are not strong enough to win the pot.

First-round — Every player gets two facedown. Players must combine their 2 cards with the community cards laid face up on the table.

At the end of the hand, if 2 or more players remain, cards are shown and the player with the best 5 card poker hand will win the chips.

Hand Ranking

There are various forms of poker but they all use the same hand ranking. Remember the best poker hand is made with 2 of your cards + the 3 Community cards on the table.

1. ROYAL FLUSH

• Five cards of the same suit + In sequence

2. STRAIGHT FLUSH

• Five cards of the same suit + In sequence

3. FOUR OF A KIND

• Four cards of the same value + One random card

4. FULL HOUSE

• Three of a Kind +One Pair

5. FLUSH

• Five cards of the same suit but not in sequence

6. STRAIGHT

• Five cards in a sequence

7. THREE OF A KIND

• Three cards of the same value + 2 random cards

8. TWO PAIR

• Two pairs +One random card

9. ONE PAIR

• Two cards with the same value + Three random cards

10. HIGH CARD

• Ace + Four unmatched cards

Small Blind, Big blind

• These are the forced bets which encourage further betting.
• The size of the blinds depends on the game being played.
• Big blinds are usually TWICE of the small blind.
• The player that posts the blinds is determined by the dealer button.
• The player on immediate left of the Dealer is the Small Blind.
• The player left of the Small blind posts the BIG Blind.

Dealer

• The dealer button determines the sequence of play.
• The button moves clockwise around the table after every hand so that everyone takes a turn posting the blinds.
• Posting the blinds is COMPULSORY.
• Motto — If there are chips in the middle, someone wants to win them all!

4 rounds of betting + Left of the big blind decides to Check, Call, Raise or Fold.

• CHECK — A check means that the action passes to the player on our left without us making any wager. Checking is only possible when no-one has made a bet on the current street.
• FOLD — Giving up the cards holding no chance to win the pot. It doesn’t cost anything though.
• CALL — A call matches the bet of the previous player & keeps you in the game.
• RAISE — Increase the bet & force anyone else to pay chips to continue in the hand.

At the end of Round1 of the bet, the three community cards become the FLOP.

First-person to act is left by the dealer.

• RIVER CARD
• VAULT
• BLUFF
• KICKER
• SHOWDOWN

I hope the basics explains to you to get started in learning & mastering the skill-based Poker games & all of their variations.