Howto play poker. Hand ranks and the basics

If you want to win at poker, you need to know how to play poker.

Poker is an easy game to learn , however takes a life time to master ,

In this topic we will cover the basics to get you started  , we will have a run through of the poker hands , there rank , and community cards , if none of this makes sence to you keep reading 

There is 52 cards in the pack we would use to play poker, there is 4 suits , aces , spades , clubs , diamonds. They run from Aces right through to kings

A 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 j  q k

The aim of the game is to get the highest ranked hand you can  using the best 5 cards possible The 5 cards would be made up from any of the two cards in your hand or and of the 5 community cards on the table  , The hand / ranks are made up as follows ,

Above is the ranks of all the hands in poker , the worst at the bottom the best at the top .   The aim of poker is to make the best 5 card hand possible , using both your own cards  and three community cards ,

Each players is dealt 2 cards face down , and there will be 5 cards lay face down on the table ( known as the community cards )  , The cards your dealt are only for you to see , All the  cards on the table will become viewable to every 1 after certain rounds of betting ,  once all betting and cards are shown the best 5 carded hand of all the players still in the game would win , SIMPLES !!!!

Betting and community cards

Before we go any further i would like to explain about the dealer button , Small blind button, And Big blind button , The dealer button moves around clockwise with every new hand played , The small  blind is always one the the right , and the big blind is always the next one across ,  The small blind and the big blind are used to start the betting for each hand ,  the value they represent normally raises through out a game

Here i will run through a whole hand

* All cards dealt
*Round of betting
*Flop ( 1st 3 community cards shown )
*Round of betting
*Turn ( 4th community card shown )
*Round of betting
*River ( 5th community card shown )
*Round of betting
* card with the best 5 card hand wins

What to do during betting rounds , Your options !!

After each hand starts  and you see your two whole cards  , The small blind and big blind are posted, We hit our 1st round of betting,  Here we have a few options , Raise , Call , or Fold , Depending on your starting two cards depends on what you would do here but i will run through what each option means ,

* Call , this would mean you equal  the big blind or if some 1 has already bet you would have to match that bet ,
* Raise , this would mean you would have to put more than the Big blind , or another players highest bet
* Fold , this would end your round  without adding any chips to the pot, you would not be able to win the the pot , Or take part in the rest of the rounds in the hand

*Check . If you started As the big blind you will have the option of check if no one placed a bet higher that your big blind

After the 1st round of betting is complete.  The 1st three community cards would become available for showing , This is a good place to  see how strong your hand is  .  These options above are the same  through each round of betting ,

Strategy

As covered above the aim is to end up with the best 5 card hand you can , but there is no set guidelines to what the winning hand could be , A Majority of hands end with just a pair winning the pot , so its quite hard to explain when you should fold and when you should bet , but don't worry because  all of our supported sites  have excellent poker classrooms that are free to help you learn more,

So now you are Armed with All the basics  , have a look around our sponsored poker sites and register to play and get winning today !!!

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Starting hand  ranking :

Here is a quick chart  of starting hands And a guide as when you should play them ,





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* SB = Small blind
*BB = Big blind
*hole cards = Your starting two cards
* Call = To equal some ones bet or BB
* Fold = Drop your cards and end your participation in the hand
*Raise = To  increase the SB or a bet
*Check = If you were the BB and no one placed a bet you would have the option the check , This would allow the 3 community cards to be show without further betting