What is poker?

Both the Persians and Chinese have been credited with the creation of a betting game over cards or dominoes which resembled poker, but it seems likely that the French ‘poque’ gives us ‘poker’, a game played by New Orleans settlers which involved the classic traits of betting and bluffing.

Poker is a card game played with a standard 52-card deck with between wo and usually nine or ten players, involving betting by the players at each stage of each hand. At its most basic, the betting is on whether each player thinks that they will win the hand - people bet against each other and then, when it’s all over, the winning hand takes the pot.

Sounds simple? It is, but many factors make this game both challenging and interesting, not least the freedom at any point for a player to bet or fold his hand regardless of its actual strength – you don’t always need to tell the truth in poker. Bluffing is probably the most recognised aspect of the game, from the movies and even modern parlance: “I’ll call your bluff!” being what one might say matching a bet from a dubious player at the poker table, or taking someone up on a challenge you suspect may not be backed up in reality (for example, “I’ll go skydiving if you’ll go skydiving”).

Why is there money involved? The whole structure of the game of poker revolves around the placing of bets by competitors in a series of betting rounds. The plays available are folding, or passing your hand (effectively sitting out until the next hand), making a bet, matching a previous bet, or raising it. The whole point of the game is to build pots and then win them, however you can. If you play for matchsticks (or play money online) there is no incentive to ‘play properly’ - for example, why would anyone ever fold when they can all just play every hand out to the end, turn over their cards and see who’s won? The skill of poker revolves around the players’ differing abilities to exploit situations and ‘read’ players, which is at least in part related to the size and frequency of their betting. The bet, therefore, has to be of some worth, even if it’s not much. It’s surprising how much more attention people give to a game for pennies than for nothing at all. M&Ms gave my little brother and me something to fight over which we took unexpectedly seriously.

Poker Hand Rankings: All poker variants (and there are quite a few kicking about, despite the TV dominance of Texas hold’em) revolve around the creation of a final 5-card hand, which is compared to other players’ 5-card hands. The rankings of hands are as follows (from top to bottom):

Straight flush (5 sequential cards of the same suit – with 10 J Q K A of the same suit being the Royal Flush – the top hand in poker) Four of a kind (e.g. 8 8 8 8 x)
Full house (three of a kind and a pair e.g. 4 4 4 K K)
Flush (Five non-sequential cards of the same suit)
Straight (Five sequential cards, any suit e.g. 8c 9h 10h Js Qd)
Three of a kind (e.g. 10 10 10 K 4)
Two Pair (e.g. 5 5 Q Q A)
Pair (e.g. K K 5 6 9)
High Card (No pairs, but the highest single card or cards, A counting as high)

In the event of more than one player having a straight flush, or straight, the hands are compared starting with the highest card in the hand (so a straight 9 10 J Q K is beaten by 10 J Q K A).

Flushes are compared starting with high card, and if that is the same for both players, the next-highest card is examined and so on until a winner is determined. If two players have a full house, the player with the higher three of a kind wins (so 9 9 9 2 2 beats 8 8 8 A A).

When it comes to hands with the same three of a kind, two pair or pair, the winner is decided on ‘kicker.’ This refers to the other non-paired cards in the hand. So the tie is broken and 6 6 K K 10 would beat 6 6 K K 9, and A A J 8 7 would beat A A J 7 6.