The rise of online poker has contributed to it becoming one the most popular card games
in the world, but 🏵 there are so many different types of poker that it can seem daunting
to the beginner.
Here, Telegraph Betting introduces you 🏵 to the broad concepts that
unite all forms of poker and shows you how they fit together to play one 🏵 of the game’s
most popular variants, Texas Holdem.
We’ll also discuss the four main types of poker
under which all poker 🏵 games can be categorised.
Then, once you’ve got to grips with the
basics, you’ll find our guides to the specifics of 🏵 how to play the most popular types
of poker at the bottom of this piece.
How to play poker: concepts common 🏵 to most types
of poker
Poker-hand rankings
All games of poker are based around common poker-hand
rankings which are used to decide 🏵 which player’s hand wins in a game of poker.
Some
poker game types will use the common hand ranking in different 🏵 ways, such as making the
lowest value hand the most desirable (low-ball poker).
Learn the order of strength of
poker hands 🏵 on our poker-hand rankings page.
Bluffing
It’s possible to win poker hands
without holding the best hand by bluffing your opponents.
Bluffing usually 🏵 involves
projecting confidence in your hand by betting in a manner that suggests your hand is
better than it is, 🏵 in the hope that your opponents will believe you and fold rather
than risk taking you on in the showdown.
Forced 🏵 bets
Most forms of poker require some
form of compulsory bet at the beginning of a hand usually referred to as 🏵 the ‘ante’ or
‘blind’. Many forms of the game feature a small blind and a big blind, with the latter
🏵 generally twice the size of the former.
The dealer
Whether you’re playing physical
poker at home, at a bricks-and-mortar casino, or an 🏵 online casino the role of the
dealer determines the order in which the blinds are put up and players make 🏵 their bets.
The game usually unfolds in a clockwise direction starting with the dealer.
In both
physical and online casinos the 🏵 dealer is generally not one of the players so a token
denotes which player is nominally the dealer for each 🏵 hand. This then rotates clockwise
from one hand to the next.
Betting options
Following the forced bets, the first round
of betting 🏵 begins. Players usually have the following betting options to use depending
on their confidence in their hand.
Call — Matching another 🏵 player’s bet or raise
—
Matching another player’s bet or raise Raise — Increasing the size of your existing bet
in 🏵 the same round of betting
— Increasing the size of your existing bet in the same
round of betting Fold — 🏵 To withdraw from the hand, sacrificing any bets already made.
—
To withdraw from the hand, sacrificing any bets already made. 🏵 Check — Until the first
bet in a round of betting is placed, players can choose to check (decline to 🏵 make a bet
while reserving the right to bet later in the round).
— Until the first bet in a round
🏵 of betting is placed, players can choose to check (decline to make a bet while
reserving the right to bet 🏵 later in the round). All in — When a player doesn’t have
enough chips left to call a bet they 🏵 can play all their remaining chips. Subsequent
betting takes place in a side pot and the all-in player can only 🏵 win the amount of
chips in the pot when they went all-in in any subsequent showdown.
Rounds of betting
In
poker, each 🏵 round of betting offers a chance to utilise the betting options outlined in
the previous section, based on your confidence 🏵 in your hand and your perception of the
quality of your opponents’ hands. The latter can chiefly be gauged by 🏵 seeing how much
they are betting or raising.
All types of poker feature at least one round of betting,
while the 🏵 vast majority feature at least two.
These rounds usually take place before
and after game events such as the dealing of 🏵 the flop in Texas Holdem and allow for
degrees of strategizing by players as the hand progresses. Texas Holdem and 🏵 Omaha,
which are so called ‘community card’ games, can feature up to four rounds of
betting.
How to play in a 🏵 poker in a nutshell: a game in brief
Here we illustrate how
to play a game of poker in a nutshell. 🏵 This is how to play the world’s current most
popular type of poker, Texas Holdem.
Dealer deals each player two cards 🏵 The small blind
is placed, followed by the big blind. The first round of betting ensues, players bet
according to 🏵 confidence in their hand Dealer deals three ‘community cards’ face up. The
second round of betting begins Dealer deals the 🏵 fourth community card, also known as
the turn The third round of betting begins Dealer deals the fifth community card, 🏵 also
known as the river The final round of betting ensues. If two or more players still
haven’t folded, all 🏵 remaining players show their cards. The winner is the one with the
best hand according to the poker hand rankings.
Betting 🏵 structure/limits
There are
various different ways in which betting can be structured in poker. The three
structures below are the most 🏵 common in online poker and are usually listed alongside
the type of poker in online poker lobbies.
Pot limit (PL) — 🏵 A player may bet or raise
any amount up to the size of the total pot.
Fixed limit (FL) — Betting 🏵 and raising must
be done by fixed amounts.
No limit (NL) — A player can bet all of their chips any 🏵 time
it’s their turn to bet
The four main poker variations
The many different types of poker
can generally be classified as 🏵 falling into one of the following four
categories:
Community card poker
Players are dealt a number of cards less than a
complete 🏵 five-card poker hand. A number of face-up community cards are then dealt with
the objective that the players make the 🏵 best possible five-card hand with some
combination of their own cards and the community cards.
Famous varieties include: Texas
Holdem, Omaha
Straight 🏵 poker
The earliest form of poker, each player is dealt a full
hand of five cards. A round of betting ensues 🏵 in which players can raise and reraise
until the game concludes.
Famous varieties include: five-card brag, three-card
brag
Draw poker
Another poker variation 🏵 in which players receive all five cards at the
beginning of the game, draw poker then allows them to attempt 🏵 to improve their hand by
discarding cards and being dealt replacements.
Famous varieties include: five-card
draw
Stud poker
In stud-poker games, players are 🏵 dealt their cards one by one in a
specified combination of face-up and face-down cards, typically with a round of 🏵 betting
between each card being dealt.
Famous varieties include: seven-card stud, razz
Learn
how to play popular types of poker and the 🏵 rules specific to each game
Want to know the
rules specific to popular types of poker? Check out the links below.
Ready 🏵 to start
playing online poker in the UK?
Take a look at our painstakingly researched list of the
best poker bonus 🏵 sign-up offers for UK players.
