(thing) by android Fri Jun 16 2000 at 19:10:18
Poker is an extremely complex card game with many, many variations. I will explain the basic rules of the game here and spell out the different variations that I am familiar with in separate writeups.

Poker is a betting game. Players need to wager something on each hand (whether it be real money, pennies, poker chips or pretzels) or the game gets boring rather quickly. Betting plays a huge role in the strategy of the game; even if you are down on your luck you can still win by betting correctly, reading other player's bets correctly, and looking at other player's reactions (reading their 'poker faces').

The object of most variations of poker is to construct the best possible hand for yourself. Hands are almost always made up of 5 cards, although a player may have more than 5 cards available to him or her. Both rank and suit can be significant to a hand. The best hand is the straight flush; the worst hand is a hand where no other combinations are made, and there is only the high card.

Possible Hands
  1. Straight Flush: Five cards of the same suit arranged in a continuous order of rank. Example: 5♠ 6♠ 7♠ 8♠ 9♠. A ten-to-ace straight flush is called a royal flush.
  2. Four of a kind: Four cards of the same rank, plus any other card. Example: K♣ K♦ K♥ K♠ 4♥.
  3. Full House: Three cards of the same rank, plus two cards of a different rank. Example: A♣ A♦ A♥ 8♣ 8♠.
  4. Flush: Five cards of the same suit. Example: K♦ J♦ 9♦ 5♦ 2♦.
  5. Straight: Five cards in continuous order of rank. Example: Q♣ J♣ 10♣ 9♣ 8♣.
  6. Three of a kind: Three cards of the same rank, plus any other two cards. Example: 7♣ 7♦ 7♥ K♣ J♣.
  7. Two pair: Two cards of the same rank, two cards of a different rank, plus any other card. Example: 4♣ 4♦ 3♣ 3♥ A♥.
  8. Pair: Two cards of the same rank, plus any other three cards. Example: K♣ K♦ 10♦ 9♥ 7♠.
  9. High card: If none of the above combinations are made, the hand takes the value of the highest card. For example, the follwing hand would be called high-card king: K♣ 9♠ 6♠ 4♠ 3♠.
Poker Variations

Besides the usual Five Card Draw poker game, there are several interesting variations on the game: You also might want to check out Poker Terminology and Slang in progress.
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