Poker Basics

The game of poker is gaining in popularity, with televised poker tournaments, online poker sites, and traditional "poker night" games being played in homes across the country. The old image of poker as a game played in smoky, dimly lit back rooms populated by con men and criminals is fading away.
In this article, we'll learn the basics of poker, how to play some of the more popular forms of poker, examine the strategies that can lead to poker success, and take a look at the shady ways of poker cheaters.

History of Poker
The origins of playing cards and poker are difficult to pin down. There are dozens of theories. Some say playing cards were developed by the Chinese as a variation on dominoes. In Europe, Tarot decks used for fortune telling are an obvious link in the lineage of the playing card. Gaming has been popular in every culture throughout history, so it is likely that different versions of the playing-card deck were developed independently by different cultures at different times.
Early French settlers who came to New Orleans played a card game called poque, which involved bluffing and betting. Persian sailors, at port in New Orleans, taught the French settlers the Persian game called as, which uses decks of cards comprised of five suits. Most likely, these two games came to be melded together into one, and as travelers spread the game up the Mississippi River, they changed it to suit their own purposes. Con men who plied the riverboats adapted the game, using it to relieve their victims of their "poke," or cash. At some point, this Anglicized version of the word poque became "poker." The first written mention of "poker" was in 1834.
In the 1800s, the game quickly spread to the western frontier. The "wild west" period of American history was a boom time for poker, with a poker table in almost every saloon.
Legendary Las Vegas casino owner Benny Binion decided to host a poker tournament for the best players in the world. In 1970, he held the first ever World Series of Poker. This $10,000 buy-in, no-limit Texas Hold'em game is now televised on ESPN.

Poker Basics
Most poker games use a standard 52-card deck of playing cards. There is no national or international regulating organization for the game of poker; the rules are simply passed down through tradition and experience. Knowing the standard poker rules gives you a good foundation, but there are dozens of house rules that may be in effect, depending on where you play. If you play on Friday nights at your cousin's house, your cousin decides the house rules. If you're playing in a major tournament at a casino, the casino's rules apply. Make sure you know the house rules where you plan to play, and don't be afraid to ask -- before you buy-in. Although the days of poker players getting shot over a big pot are for the most part behind us, it's still a bad idea to violate a house rule at the table.
In most poker games, money is traded in for chips before the game begins. The chips are what the players are actually putting into the pot. At the end of the game, they can trade their chips for money ("cashing out").
In this article, whenever a dollar amount is mentioned in relation to a hand of poker, we're actually talking about chips that represent that amount.
Poker Hands
Poker hands are ranked based on the odds against drawing them. The rarer a hand, the stronger it is.
Some poker variants use alternate hands, but the rank of hands shown below (and at right) is standard. Hands that are tied in terms of rank are decided based on the highest card in the hand. In other words, a Pair of Kings beats a Pair of Tens, and a Straight 7-8-9-10-J beats a Straight 3-4-5-6-7.
The lowest possible hand is no hand at all -- no pairs, no Straight, nothing. This kind of hand is known by the highest card it contains, so K-7-5-3-2 of different suits would be "King High."
From lowest to highest
High Card
One Pair
Two Pair
Three of a Kind
Straight
Flush(5 cards same suit)
Full House
4 Of a Kind
Straight Flush(Royal flush if ten through Ace)