The basics
Though television depictions seem otherwise, online poker is a relatively easy game to learn. You simply need to play a few rounds to develop a quick grasp of the game.

Played with the standard card deck of fifty two cards, poker has several variations. Some of the variants may require more than the standard deck – these may include wild cards and or jokers. The four suits all have equal value. And the cards range from ace to king. The ace can have the value that is higher than the king or lower than the two. Wild cards have the power to substitute any rank of card.

Betting in poker
Poker is a combination of luck, skill and psychology.
To participate, players have to place a bet prior to the cards being handed out. This first bet is called the ante. The ante may differ between games.
During the progress of the game, players need to place their bets into the pot. The game ends when one player is left. This is determined by the player with the most valuable hand who hasn’t folded. The winner takes the pot.

Hand are played in a clockwise direction. The round starts with the first person to the left of the dealer. At each turn the player has a decision to make. His choices range from:

• Placing a bet. The bet is delivered directly to the pot and must be within the game's limits.
• Call. This term indicates the player chooses to bet the same amount as the first player's bet.
• Raise. This term indicates that the first players amount will be played with an addition to it.
• Fold. By folding a player is indicating that he or she believes that he or she has no chance of winning. For this reason they don't want to add additional money to the game.

The odds and rank
The purpose of the game is to win by obtaining the highest possible rank. It is therefore imperative that the players know what the odds are for building such type of hands.

Five of a Kind:
The most valuable hand is correspondingly also the most unlikely to be achieved. To build a five of a kind, all of the identical suit is the highest poker hand possible. An example of this is 10, J, Q, K and A of Spades. The chances of achieving five of a kind are 1 in over 600,000. This hand is usually only possible in games that include wild cards.

Four of a Kind
This is the third most valuable hand. It includes four cards of equal rank and from each suit. The chances of this hand are 1 in 4, 000. An example of four of a kind may include 9S, 9C, 9D, 9H.

A Full House
This hand includes a three of a kind plus a pair. The chances of constructing a full house is one in 694. A full house may look something like 2D, 2S, 2C, QS, QH

A Flush
This is a hand that contains five cards from the same suit. Such a hand as the probability of one in 508.

A Straight
Five cards in consecutive numerical value are known as a Straight. The cards don’t have to be from the same suit.

Three of a Kind
Three cards of identical rank is called a three of a kind.

Two Pairs
This is exactly as what it sounds like– when a player holds two pairs of differing value.

One Pair
One pair hold the lowest value, and has the correspondingly highest possibility.

Limits
All players should be well aware of the meaning of set limits and their implications for the game may entail. This section is crucial for the strategies and psychologies of playing.
‘No limit’ means that betting has no limits, ie, a person can bet as large a sum as he or she desires. Nevertheless, a player’s personal limit will be the number of chips he has.
A ‘pot limit’ indicates a ceiling to the bet value that a person can make.
A ‘fixed limit’ means there is a certain structure to the betting. A fixed limit may look like $5/$10. This means the initial wager cannot exceed $5 and wagers following this cannot exceed $10.

Low hands

There is a system that is used for weighing up players' hands. The following method is the most commonly used for determining the value of other players hands. In this system all the values are inverted. Therefore, all the high cards are considered low and all the low cards are considered highest. This method of weighing up a players’ hand is the most widely used. The following are basic issues that all players should keep in mind when playing poker: According to this system of play, hands with pairs and triplets are looked down upon – a hand with no pair will win over a hand with a pair. Similarly, a hand with one pair will win over a hand with two pairs.

Cards of superior rank are less in de mand than those of lower ranks. Therefore one of the best hands would be A,2,3,4,5. This hand is known as a wheel.

Other desirable hands are lower ranking cards with little order, no sequence and connections between suits. The lower the rank of the sequence the more desirable the cards.

The high low split:

This version works on the same idea with a few differences. Such variations are generally played in home games and not hosted by casinos. To qualify into a round a player needs a low card, generally considered around the 8 or 9 high. Should a player hold this hand, it is quite possible that he will take home the upper and lower half of the pot. When this occurs it is usually known as ‘scooping’. In some place it is also called ‘hogging the pot’.

As already mentioned above, the classic example in these types of games is the A-2-3-4-5. This hand can be played as both a high straight flush and a low one. The chances of getting this hand without a joker or wild card are almost impossible.  

Community card poker games

Increasingly one of the favorite poker card games is Texas Hold'em poker. Borne in the 1970’s the game has already undergone several rounds of modifications. Its ever increasing popularity is due to rules that are easy to understand and follow. Nevertheless, luck and strategies are still necessary factors to win in this game.

There are several versions of the game in this category:

In each version of these games, both online and actual, the players are dealt incomplete hands. In order to complete the hand, the players use community cards, or hole cards, which are dealt face up onto the table. A complete hand combines the community cards with the dealt cards.
Community cards can be laid out in a straight in a line or to a particular pattern. Each new hand begins with the dealer handing out the cards starting with the person directly to his or her left.

Different games will each contain different limits. Flash casinos are known to have fixed limits. While on the other hand, home games are known to spread their limits. Of course, there are home games with no limit. While the no limit game is a very uncommon sight to see, it does make for interesting play. The general rule of thumb that you should remember is that earlier betting has lower limits than the later betting.

In most community card poker games, lowball game cards mean losing the round. In some cases, a high-low split may give a player some luck and advantage and may win the player both halves of the pot. In some cases a minimum qualifier hand is expected from the high-low split.  

Texas Hold’Em

An amplified look at the rising poker game reveals the basic rules and tricks.

Texas Hold'em is designed for a game of 10 players. It comprises four rounds. These are known as: pre-flop, after flop, after turn and after the river.

Several additional terms should also be learned:

Dealer button: this is usually made from a white puck, it is used to indicate which player is the last one to play for a particular round. At the beginning of each round the dealer button moves one place to the person on the left.
Blind structure: Those bets wagered before any cards have been dealt.
Small blind: The bet made by the person sitting immediately to the left of the player with the dealer button.
Big blind: The player located immediately to the left of the small blind.
Under the gun (UTG): This is the title that refers to the first player who makes a move in the first round of the game.
Fold: already familiar with this term from regular poker, when a player decides his hand is not good enough to win, or even to continue playing, he folds. This is done by placing the cards on the table and forfeiting any bets he may have placed.
Option: When the big blind chooses to play without placing a bet first.
Fourth Street: The term for the 4th card that is placed on the community board. This takes place after the flop round.
Fifth Street: As for 4th street, this is the 5th card on the community board. It is also placed after the flop round.
Rake: This occurs when the house takes a commission from the winnings. This is usually a set commission.

The running of Texas holdem goes as follows:
Prior to dealing, the big blind and small blind have to place their bets. If the big blind bet is set at twenty dollars then the small blind bet must be ten dollars.
As we have established, the first round is known as the ‘pre-flop’. In this round each player receives his or her two cards. The first player immediately to the left of the big blind is the first to move. He can choose from several options what to do. For example he has the option to raise the big blind's bet or to fold. If he folds, he loses nothing. Following this, each player gets their turn in order of seating. This carries on until the play returns to the big blind. The Big blind is the last player of each round.
The next round begins. The dealer button is shifted along one place to the left. This time each player is dealt three cards. These cards are dealt face up onto the community board. Again each player will receive his turn until the circle is completed.
From this point and on till the end of the game the small blind becomes the first person to play and the player with the dealer button is the final person to play.
The third round, also known as ‘After the turn’ then commences. Fourth Street, or the 4th card, is then dealt face-up onto the community board. The betting then follows in the same manner as the previous rounds.
After the river, or the fourth round, then commences. In this round the 5th card (Fifth Street) is placed face-up on the community board. The betting then takes place. The end of this round is the end of the game. The cards are all displayed and the player with the highest hand wins the pot.  

Pineapple Poker, Tahoe Poker and Crazy Pineapple

The above lists of games are all various versions of Texas Hold'em. The foundation of these games is replicated in each one. Minor differences occur during the play. These differences include, for example: players are dealt three cards at the start rather than 2. In Pineapple, they then have to discard one of these cards. In Crazy Pineapple, following the second round, the third card is then thrown out. In Tahoe Poker, players can keep all three cards until the end of the game, but they cannot count all three. They have to use a certain number of cards on the community board to calculate their outcome.

Draw poker

As one of the slowly disappearing games, draw poker now rarely appears in online casinos or tournaments. Nevertheless it is still played in homes. It is designed for anywhere between two and eight players.

Several examples of games that fall into the draw poker category are:
1.Spit in the Ocean Poker
2.California Lowball Poker
3.Shotgun Poker (Roll'em Out and Skinny Minnie)
4.High/Low with Declare
5.Q-Ball Poker
6.Four-Before Poker
7.Johnson Poker (and Jacks Back)
8.Draw Poker Variations
9.California High/Low Split
10.Gardena Jackpots (Jacks to Open)
11.Pass the Trash / Anaconda Poker
12.Double Draw and Triple Draw Poker

To commence the game, the dealer deals the cards. The cards are dealt to each player face down and one at a time. The first cards are dealt to the player immediately to the dealers left. When the dealer has finished dealer all the cards to everyone, players are then permitted to look at their cards. It is integral that they do not reveal any signals about the value of their hand to the rest of the players. Play then commences once the betting has taken place. There needs to be at least two players at the end of this round in order to reach the draw phase.

At this point players have the opportunity to exchange cards they would prefer to replace. The discarded cards are known as ‘burn cards’. These cards are set aside. Play then continues. Note: players all maintain the same number of cards throughout play.

A general rule amongst online casinos is the practice of not giving an individual player more than four consecutive cards. Thus, if a player chooses to change five cards, he will first be dealt four, then the other players will receive their cards, and following this he will be dealt the fifth card. In cases where the other players don’t want cards, a burn card will be discarded before giving a player his fifth card.

Since players may have seen the last card of a deck which may give them some advantage, it is taboo to deal the last card in the deck. When a situation arises that the bottom card is to be dealt, the player is given the option of randomly selecting the card from the deck of cards cast aside.

Stud poker games

In stud poker games, the cards are dealt face up and face down according to a series of combinations that occur during the various betting rounds.

Unlike most other poker games, the player that begins play is the one with the best combination of face up poker cards. The five card and seven card version of stud poker is the basis of several other poker games that fall into this category. Others include:
1. General Stud Poker Variations
2. Auction Stud Poker
3. Baseball Stud Poker
4. Chicago Stud Poker
5. Cowpie Stud Poker
6. Draft Stud Poker (or Socialist Poker)
7. High-Low Stud Eight or Better
8. Kentrel Stud Poker
9. Mexican Stud Poker
10. Mississippi Stud Poker
11. Razz Stud Poker (and London Lowball Poker)
12. Six-Card Stud Poker

Setting up structures for poker games depends entirely on the number of online betting rounds. Spread limit games with fixed structures are more suitable for higher number of rounds,. Those with lower number of rounds can be played with a pot limit or no limit at all.

Stud poker games are named according to the number of cards in a player's hand.