What is poker?
Without a doubt, poker is the most popular card game in the world. It is a game that began back in the 19th century and grew increasingly popular during the 20th century. This growth accelerated ten-folds in the late 20th century as tournaments began taking place in casinos across the United States and the world. In the present day, it’s not just casinos where people play poker now, it’s virtually everywhere,including on mobile phones.

The overall aim in poker is to win the money in the pot that all other players have contributed to. To do this, the player has to have the best hand or make the others believe that they do. At the end of the game, the player has either won by having the best hand or convinced the others to fold and exit therefore forfeiting the money they put into the pot. The best hand refers to the best 5 card combination between the two cards a player holds and the cards on the table.

The funny thing about poker is that the fundamentals of it can be applied to real life. It’s all about decision-making. To achieve success, a player must think about the following:

1. Consider risk vs reward
2. Avoid risk with large consequences
3. Be open to taking risks when prepared, when there are low possibilities of failure, and when not taking the risk will make you worse off.
4. Stick to a process

How to play poker
While there are different forms of poker, the most simple and popular is Texas hold’em. You can explore poker rules in more depth, but here is a basic walkthrough of the game.

Stage 1 — Dealing
Imagine you have 6 players at the table. Three buttons are distributed starting with the ‘dealer’, and then to the left is the ‘small blind’ and ‘big blind’. These two buttons then proceed to move around the table for each new round.

In casinos, the dealer is fixed and distributes the cards. The small and big blind are obliged to bet before any cards are dealt.

Each game has fixed ‘table stakes’ which define the amount the small and big blind must put in each time.

The small blind begins with the smaller table stake bet and the big blind has to double it with the bigger table stake requirement. The bet made by the big blind is the minimum bet that each of the players can make.

The dealer then goes round the table handing each player a card one at a time until each player has two cards. These are known as hole cards. This then sets up the first betting round where players decide whether or not to play.


Stage 2 — First betting round (known as ‘pre-flop’)
The first round of betting begins with the player left of the big blind. They have 3 choices.

• Call — match the bet of the previous player (in this case, the minimum bet of the big blind)
• Raise — double or increasing the amount bet. They can also choose to go ‘all-in’ which is raising the stakes by betting all a player’s chips.
• Fold — Forfeit the round and do not sacrifice any chips but they are then out of the game. This is often when a player feels they have a bad hand and feel it’s not worth risking.

All players then proceed to make the decisions on bets. This continues until all players who haven’t folded have put the same amount of stakes into the pot.

Stage 3 — Second betting round (known as ‘the flop’)
The dealer adds 3 community cards to the center of the table that players can use in combination with their hole cards.

To begin this round, the first player left of the dealer begins. Their choices are;

• Check — pass the opening decision onto the next player.
• Bet — bet the amount put in by the big blind or the previous player.
• All-in — bet all of your chips.
• Fold — exit the game and therefore surrender any chips put into the game.

All players, once the first person has played, must then continue as before. They either call, raise, go all-in, or fold.


Stage 4 & 5 (known as ‘the turn’ and ‘the river’)
When the dealer reveals the fourth community card. The same rules from the previous round then commence.

The fifth community card is then shown and players make their decisions like before.

The winner is the player with the best 5 hand combination from the 7 cards in total (2 cards from hand and 5 community cards).


Ranking the hands in poker
The aim of poker is to get to the final round and have the best 5 card combination. The best hands are in the following order;

1. Royal flush — Here is the best hand. The cards consist of the highest cards for each rank and are of the same suit (E.g. ace, king, queen, jack, and 10, all of the spade suit)
2. Straight flush — This is when a player has cards that follow one another in order and are of the same suit (E.g. 3, 4, 5, 6, and a 7, all diamond suit).
3. Four of a kind — For this, a player needs to have all four suits of the same rank (number) (E.g. four aces from all suits).
4. Full house — This is a combination of having a three-of-a-kind and a pair.
5. Flush — This is achieved by having any 5 cards of the same suit (E.g. all cards are hearts).
6. Straight — This is when a player has 5 cards that go in order (E.g. they have a 2,3,4,5, and 6)
7. Three of a kind — Here, a player has 3 cards of the same rank (number).
8. Two pair — When a player has two sets of pairs of the same rank. (E.g. a pair of 2s and a pair of kings)
9. One pair — When a player has two cards of the same rank (number).
10. High card — No pairs. If none of the remaining players have no pairs, the one with the highest card wins.

Poker is a great game, hence the popularity, and is relatively easy to get playing straight away. There are plenty of tips for beginners to help them get started. These are things like learning the lingo, playing in ranges instead of hands, and learning about poker odds. Even listening to poker podcasts can be a great way to learn more about it.

Mastering poker is another feat altogether but understanding the basics of poker is the first step. All pros had to begin somewhere.