Before you start playing poker at genuine online casinos such as https://www.novibet.co.uk/casino, it’s important that you know all the basics about the game. Poker is a game whose margin of error is so small such that a tiny detail may be the determinant of you winning or losing. As such, in order to help you avoid the pitfalls of starting your poker playing adventure without much knowledge, we have created this beginners’ guide to playing poker.
Determining the Winner
The purpose of playing any game (poker included) is to win. As such, one of the very first things that a player needs to know before playing a game is to know how a winner is picked. When it comes to poker, the winner is (normally) the player holding the highest ranked hand. A hand refers to the cards that the player has. At the end of a poker game, there is what is called a ‘showdown’, it is during this showdown that all players reveal their hands to decide the winner.
However, it’s also possible for a winner to emerge in poker even before the showdown. When a player makes the last uncalled bet, he will automatically win even before a showdown.
Understanding a Hand
We have already stated that the winner in poker is determined by the highest ranking hand. When it comes to a hand, it’s determined by the cards that the player has. Just so you know which ones are the most valuable and which ones are the least valuable, here are the highest ranking cards in descending order: A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3 and 2.
Depending on the cards that the player has in hand, he can finish the game with any one of the following hands: (in descending order) Royal Flush, Straight Flush, Four of a Kind, Full House, Flush, Straight, Three of a Kind, Two Pair, One Pair and High Card.
How to Start Playing
When you sit on the poker table, you will sit with your opponents plus the dealer. The dealer is the one who will distribute the cards to all players. Before the game starts, there is a need to fill the pot. There are two ways of doing this depending on the poker game you are playing. In some games, the pot may be filled by the first player to bet i.e. through a forced bet (Big blind or Small blind). In other poker games, however, the pot will be filled by all players through the ante. When using the ante route, players all draw out a certain portion of chips (equal to each other’s chips) and place it on the middle of the table (the pot).
If the game starts through the calling of the Big Blind or Small Blind, the next player in line after the player who has called the blind will make his decision. Thereafter, other players in the round join in by making their decisions. When the game starts through the ante route, the player to the immediate left of the dealer will start the action and thereafter all players join in one after the other as they make their decisions.
