• Simple Rules Of Poker For Beginners
• Rules Of Poker For Dummies 2017
• Poker For Dummies Book
• 3 Card Poker For Dummies

Like a house, poker requires a foundation. Only when that foundation is solidly in place can you proceed to build on it. When all the structural elements are in place, you can then add flourishes and decorative touches. But you can’t begin embellishing it until the foundation has been poured, the building framed, and all the other elements that come before it are in place. That’s the purpose here: to put first things first — to give you a basic understanding of what you need before you begin to play.

Poker For Dummies Richard D. Harroch, Lou Krieger on Amazon.com.FREE. shipping on qualifying offers. Poker is America’s national card game, and its popularity continues to grow.

Planning and discipline

Some poker players, and it’s no more than a handful, really do have a genius for the game — an inexplicable, Picasso-like talent that isn’t easily defined and usually has to be seen to be believed. But even in the absence of genius — and most winning players certainly are not poker savants — poker is an eminently learnable skill. Inherent ability helps, and while you need some talent, you really don’t need all that much. After all, you don’t have to be Van Cliburn to play the piano, Picasso to paint, or Michael Jordan to play basketball. What you do need to become a winning player are discipline and a solid plan to learn the game.

• Plotting a strategy: If you aspire to play winning poker, then you need a plan to learn the game. While the school of hard knocks may have sufficed as the educational institution of choice 20 or 30 years ago, most of today’s better poker players have added a solid grounding in poker theory to their over-the-table experiences. You can find a slew of information to help you learn the game — in books, magazines, and online.

• Discipline: All the strategic knowledge in the world does not guarantee success to any poker player. Personal characteristics are equally important. Success demands a certain quality of character in addition to strategic know-how. Players lacking self-discipline, for example, have a hard time ever winning consistently regardless of how strategically sophisticated they may be. If one lacks the discipline to throw away poor starting hands, then all the knowledge in the world can’t overcome this flaw.

Knowledge without discipline is merely unrealized potential. Playing with discipline is a key to avoiding losing your shirt — or your shorts.

If you can learn to play poker at a level akin to that of a journeyman musician, a work-a-day commercial artist, you will be good enough to win consistently. You don’t have to be a world champion like Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth, Johnny Chan, or Tom McEvoy to earn money playing poker. The skills of a good journeyman poker player enable you to supplement your income, or — better yet — earn your entire livelihood at the game. If you go on to become the very best poker player you can be, that should be more than enough to ensure that you will be a lifelong winning player.

The object of the game

The objective of poker is to win money by capturing the pot, which contains bets made by various players during the hand. A player wagers a bet in hopes that he has the best hand, or to give the impression that he holds a strong hand and thus convince his opponents to fold (abandon) their hands. Because money saved is just as valuable as money won, knowing when to release a hand that appears to be beaten is just as important as knowing when to bet. In most poker games, the top combination of five cards is the best hand.

Number of players

Any number of players, typically from two to ten, can play, depending on the game. Most casino games are set up with eight players for a seven-card game like Stud poker or Razz, and nine or ten players for Texas Hold’em.

The deck

Most forms of poker involve a standard 52-card deck. For Draw poker and Lowball, a joker, or “bug,” is sometimes added to the deck. It’s not a wild card per se, but it can be used in Draw poker as an additional ace, or to complete a straight or flush. In Lowball, the joker is used as the lowest card that does not pair your hand. For example, if you held 7-6-2-A-Joker, it would be the same as if you held 7-6-3-2-A.

Poker chips

Whether you use pennies or peanuts to bet with at home, nothing beats the feel of real poker chips. Originally made of clay, chips now come in a durable composite or plastic.

The plastic ones are a bit more slippery than the composite and, thus, are more difficult to handle.

Chips are available in a wide range of colors and patterns. The designs and “edge spots” you see on casino chips vary because of security reasons, but the colors generally follow a set of traditional dollar values:

If you want to add a dose of Vegas-style playing to your home game, then try using real chips. Following is a list of the number of chips you’ll need:

Texas Holdem is the most popular poker played online, in casinos and around the world in people’s homes. If you’re new to poker then this is the game you want to learn first. Read these basic texas holdem rules and you’ll be playing confidently in no time.

This is where we would normally give you a table showing where you could play texas holdem, but every single site offers it so instead let us direct you to our top poker sites for the best places to play online.

The Button and Blinds

The order the players receive their cards in is determined by the clockwise rotation of a ‘dealer button’ which is usually referred to as simply ‘the button’. The two players to the left of the button place out a bet before the cards are dealt. These bets are known as ‘the blinds’, and are designed to create action. After all, if there is no money in the pot, who wants to play? The player immediately to the left of the button is called ‘the small blind’ and posts an amount typically equal to one half the minimum bet. The player to their left (two seats left of the button) posts ‘the big blind’, equal to one full bet. So, in a limit game with stakes of $2/$4, the blinds would be $1 and $2 (in a no-limit game the blinds would be $2/$4). The dealer button moves one seat to the left (clockwise) with each new hand that is dealt.

Pre-Flop

Players receive two cards face down that are known as their hole cards, beginning with the small blind and ending with the button. When all cards are dealt out the betting action begins with the player to the left of the big blind. This position has a special name in poker – Under the Gun. This round of betting is known as Pre-Flop. Each player acts in turn in a clockwise direction and has the option to call, raise or fold. Most poker rooms will limit the number of raises that can be made in each round, usually to three or four raises. When the action reaches the small blind they have the option to fold, raise or complete their blind. The big blind is the last to act pre-flop and they can ‘check’ (take no action), raise or fold.

Beginners’ Tip: When you are in the big blind and have a less than ideal hand it is recommended that you just check. Some new players will fold their cards when they have already placed a bet! It’s best to stick around and see what happens next.

The Flop

The dealer burns one card (burn cards are in place in casinos to prevent collusion) and deals out three cards in the center of the table. These cards are ‘community cards’, meaning they are shared by all players in the hand, they are also known as ‘the board’. The first three cards are known as ‘the flop’. In this round (and the two subsequent rounds) betting begins with the player immediately to the left of the button and continues in turn in a clockwise direction. Players have the option to check if the there is no bet in front of them, call a bet that has been made, raise a previous bet or fold.

Beginners’ Tip: If the action has been ‘checked to you’, and you have a hand you think might be hopeless, don’t fold! Just check as well if you do not have to call a bet. You never know what the next two cards will bring. Look at it like a ‘free card’ and hope your hand improves.

If there is a raise, all players who have acted prior to the raise are given a chance to act again. For example, if everyone in the hand checks to the button and the button chooses to bet, the play will continue clockwise around the table again giving all players a chance to call the bet or re-raise.

The Turn and River

After betting on the flop is completed the dealer burns another card and places one card out on the board, known as the ‘turn card’. The turn card is followed by another round of betting that follows the same procedure as on the flop. When betting on the turn ends the dealer burns one last card and places a fifth card on the board, which is called ‘fifth street’ or, more commonly, ‘the river card’. This card is followed by a final round of betting in the same method as the flop and turn rounds. When all betting is complete, it’s time for the showdown! Players turn their hands face up to show their best possible five card hands using any combination of their two cards and the five cards on the board.

Beginners’ Tip: Don’t forget your ‘kicker’! A kicker is the nickname for the card that is ‘left over’ when a player has made a hand. They are used to decide the winner in the event two or more players have the same hand. Make sure you have a high ranked kicker to ensure you can beat someone with the same hand as you!

The Winner

A player can win the pot outright or a pot can be split (also called a ‘chop’) among two or more players. Because players can use both, one or none of their hole cards to make a hand, you will occasionally run into a situation where players are ‘playing the board’, meaning the best hand they can make is the five community cards. Of course, a hand does not have to go to a showdown to be over. Sometimes a player will bet or raise and everyone else in the hand will fold. This ends all action in the hand and player who bet or raised is the winner.

Simple Rules Of Poker For Beginners

Let’s take a look at some examples of winning hands:-

Rules Of Poker For Dummies 2017

Poker For Dummies Book

These are just a few examples of situations that you will encounter. Every hand plays out a little differently, and there are many outcomes. Keep in mind that it’s always the best five card hand possible of all seven cards.

3 Card Poker For Dummies

Good luck at the tables!