Poker is a game with so many variations that not all variations will fit in just one hand when you count them. Despite so many variations of poker, there are similar patterns of play in each variation, in the sense that once you know the basics of poker you can play the variations with ease.

Poker Basics

In Poker, cards are valued from two to the kings as their face value. Aces can be played as ones or elevens whichever is the preference of the player or whichever suits the hand best. Suits of the cards in hand sometimes matter in Poker. The objective of the Poker game is to achieve the highest possible combination of cards in one hand.

The poker hand rankings have highest possible achievements and the lowest achievements also. The highest possible hand in a poker game is the Royal Flush. The Royal Flush consists of cards from ten to the ace all of the same suit. This is the strongest possible hand in Poker and defeats all other kinds of hands. All five cards must be in order of ten to Ace and have the same suit, if there is a single card that is not of the same suit, it is just considered a straight and not a Royal Flush.

Playing Poker and Bets

• The next ranking lower than a Royal Flush is the Straight Flush. This is when you have five cards in order with similar suits but not up to the Ace. This beats all other hands other than the Royal Flush. It could start with an Ace, a two, a three, a four and a five of the same suit.
• Next is the four of a kind hand. This hand consists of four cards with the same value and a kicker card which is just used to complete the five card hand.
• The Full House is the hand with three cards of the same value and a pair of cards. The higher the value of the trio of cards the better the Full House hand. The pair only serves as kickers and has no value at all except to complete the Full House.
• A Flush is a five card hand all with the same suit but may have no order at all. The five cards do not need to follow rank; the important thing in a flush is all the cards have the same suit.
• Next in line for Poker ranking is the Straight hand. It is made up of five cards in order of value but no preferential suits. The higher the value of the hand, the better it is. The highest possible Straight value is ten to Ace.
• Three of a kind is a hand that consists of three similar valued cards of different suits with two additional cards which are just there to serves as kickers. The higher the value of the trio, the better the hand is.

A Poker hand with two pairs is the usual kind of hand in a poker game and this consists of two pairs and a card which serves as kicker. A one pair hand is the least of all rankings and consists of five cards with just one pair of similar value.

All poker bets depend on how much the table rules allow and how much the first individual bets. The rest of the players can raise the initial bet or add on it depending on how much they like their cards on hand. Betting on poker is very expensive because some players raise the bets during the first round and add more bets. If bluffing is involved, the bet on poker game becomes bigger since each card opening requires a bet.