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Originally Published: May 17, 2009, 06:54 AM

Poker Strategies for Beginners

Posted By Diego | Other News | May 17, 2009, 06:54 AM |


Poker is one of the most popular games played in a casino. It does not matter if you play video poker on a online slot machine

, or real poker at a table, your goal is to win. Several strategies exist, but not every strategy is for beginners. So, if you consider yourself a beginner, this article is just the right thing for you. I will discuss the basic rules of poker, but I want to present some poker strategies for beginners too.

You should check out the basic rules of poker even if you do not consider yourself an absolute beginner. It is important to know the basic rules and the specific words used during the game; otherwise you can easily become a loser, because poker is considered a skill based game, even if you need some luck in order to win. So let us see the rules!

Poker is played with a standard pack of cards; this means there are 52 cards in the game. The suits are the usual: spades, hearts, clubs and diamonds. It is important to know that all the suits are equal. I can define the main goal of poker in only a few words: the player gets five cards and the best hand wins. But which hand is the highest? The best hand is the Royal Flush; this means that you have the highest five denominations and their suit is the same. Next one is the Straight Flush: five cards of the same suit which form a sequence. Another good hand is Four of a Kind, I think this does not need any explanation, the name says it all, the Full House, which consists of three cards of a denomination and a pair. In the middle of the ranking you find the Flush, where you have five cards in the same suit, the Straight, where the cards form a sequence, but they are different suits. The last possible combinations are: Three of a Kind, Two Pairs, One Pair and High Card. Most of them do not need any further explanation, except maybe the last one. High Card means that the hand with the highest denomination wins. This is very rare, since usually someone has at least a pair or even better. So these are the poker hand values. Now let us see a round of poker.

There are several variations of poker, but the card values are the same in every variation. Next I will describe a common poker game

, do not forget that the variations might slightly differ from the one I described. First, every player has to make a bet (it is sometimes called ante), before the cards are dealt. Once every player had placed their bets, the dealer starts to deal: he starts with the player sitting on his left side, and finishes with himself. He deals in five successive rounds: the first card for every player, the second card for every player and so on, until the fifth card. (It is important to mention that in some variations of poker bets are made after receiving a new card.) Each player looks at his cards, then the first player makes his bet. You have several choices: you can open, check, see, raise or fold. What do these words mean? You open when you are the first one to place his bet, you can bet any amount up to the betting limit. You check when no one opened the betting round before your turn. Checking means that you do not want to open the betting, but you do not want to quit either. See means that you match another players bet, so you bet the same amount, as the other player. When you raise, you increase the bets amount, compared to the previous player’s bet. The last option you have is folding: you consider your cards are not good enough for betting on them, so you decide to quit. You should put your cards face down, but you will lose any bet you have made before.

After the betting round, all players (except the ones who folded) are allowed to replace up to three cards. After each player has replaced their cards, another round of betting begins, just like it is written above. The game ends when every player folded, except the winner, or there are no more raises. The player with the highest hand wins the pot. As I already said, there are variations of poker. For example, you need to show your cards at the end if another player puts money in the pot to see your cards. In some cases every player turns their cards face up at the end of the game, or in Texas Holdem poker a few cards are common, so they are dealt face up on the table, besides them, each player receives his own cards.

Now that you know the basic rules of poker, here are a few tips and tricks. First of all, you should decide on playing in a land based casino, or playing online. This is important, because some of the strategies do not work when you play online. For instance, you can not count the cards, or can not bluff when you play online. Counting the cards is possible only when you play poker for real, and it might be a good strategy. Bluffing might come in handy in a few situations, but you simply can not bluff when you play online, and it might be risky to bluff even when you are playing in a real casino.

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