• Introduction
• Hand Rankings
• Texas Holdem
• Card Play
• Betting

Introduction

There are many varieties of Poker, the most popular of which is Texas Holdem. This is the game played at the Main Event of the World Series of Poker, at most tournaments across the world and is the one you will see B Grade celebs embarrasing themselves at on your TV most nights.

Holdem is a community card game, meaning that there are certain cards shared between all the players on the table. Other families of poker game include stud games, where players have their own individual cards but some of them are exposed for the whole table to see, and draw games, where players may exchange a certain number of cards for new ones.

One thing all these games have in common however is that when it comes to a showdown at the end of the hand each player has a five card hand which must be ranked against that of the other players to determine the winner. The ranking of possible poker hands is therefore the first thing we need to learn.

Hand Rankings

High Card

The lowest possible hand in poker is one where there are no pairs, matching suits or consecutive cards and the hand is ranked on it's highest card. The above hand is king-high and would beat a similar hand which contained only a queen as its highest card.

Pair

Beating a high-card hand we have a single pair. The above hand contains a pair of nines. This would beat any lower pair (with aces counting as the highest pair and twos the lowest).

If both players have the same pair the next highest card (or kicker) comes into play. This hand is a pair of nines with a queen kicker which would beat a pair of nines with any lower card.

Two Pair

Two pairs in your hand beat any single pair. The higher pair counts first to rank against other two-pair hands. This hand which is eights and threes with a jack beats. fives and sevens, for instance. The jack kicker comes into play only if both players have the same two pair.

Three Of A Kind

Three cards of the same denomination beat two pairs. Three jacks here would beat a lower three of a kind and if two players both have three jacks (trust me it is possible) then the kicker comes into play. My three jacks with a seven therefore would be beaten by your three jacks with a 9.

Straight

A straight is five consecutive cards (not necessarily of the same suit). This straight is 9 high and would be beaten by a straight which had a greater high card.

Flush

A flush is any five cards of the same suit (not in consecutive order). In the event of a tie the highest card dictates the winner so the above flush with an ace would beat a flush whose highest card was a king. There is no ranking of suits in poker.

Full House

Three of a kind plus a pair makes a full house. The above full house would be beaten by one whose three cards were higher than a three.

Four of a Kind

Speaks for itself really. These would be the lowest with aces the highest. You're unlikely to get to that sort of showdown though!

Straight Flush

A straight flush is a hand consisting of five consecutive cards, all of the same suit. As with a standard straight the highest card counts in the case of a tie. The highest example of a straight flush therefore is a ...

Royal Flush

Nothing beats this. But don't hold your breath to get one.

Texas Holdem

Having found out what beats what we need to know how we arrive at those final 5 cards. A game where we dealt five cards to each player and then gave the chips to the best hand would be totally based on luck and not very interesting.

In Texas Holdem however, a poker variety which dates back to the beginning of the last century but which has only in the last few years become ubiquitous, we start by each player being dealt two cards face down. They then have to bet on the expected value of their hand once the remaining cards have been dealt.

The best possible two-card starting hand in Holdem is a pair of aces. Can you guess what the worst might be? Answer

Most of the time however you will get a more mediocre hand. Let's imagine you are dealt..

This is not a great Holdem starting hand and in many cases you would fold this hand before the flop. Let's imagine we don't however and that we place (or call) a small bet. Don't worry if these terms mean nothing to you. We will discuss betting later. At the moment we are concentrating on the run of play with regard to the cards.

So we and, let's say, one other player elect to play our cards. The next cards which are dealt are the first of the community cards. Three cards are dealt face up on the table. These first three community cards are known as 'the flop'.

Your cards

The Flop

These cards, although niether of us pick them up, can contribute to both of our hands. So your hand now contains a pair of nines. This however is not the 'top pair' on the board. If our opponent has a jack they would be beating us (as would a nine and a four and various other combinations).

After a further round of betting, the next community card, which is know as 'the turn' is dealt. The game, from our point of view, now looks like this

Your cards

Community Cards

We can now take any five card combination from our starting cards and the cards on the board to make our best possible five-card poker hand.

This gives us more possibilities. Our hand still only consists of a pair of nines but the ten has given us several draws to higher hands. We have 9, 10, J, Q so either an eight or a king would give us a straight. We also have four diamonds. Any diamond would give us a flush. All of a sudden our nines look stronger than perhaps they should so we bet, as does our opponent and the next and final community card, known as 'the river' is dealt.

Your cards

Community Cards

Typical! The river hasn't helped us at all and neither of our 'draws' has materialised. We are stuck with the same pair of nines that we had on the flop. We bet anyway and our opponent calls and shows...

And their full house beats our pair. But then they were beating us from the flop onwards.

Betting