Beginners Guide to Playing Poker

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Poker is the name of a family of card games that predominately share hand rankings and betting rules; although there are discrepancies within each variation. Which variation of poker you play is completely down to personal preference, however, there are dominant types, the most popular game type being Texas Hold’Em. Players usually learn and understand Texas Hold’Em before exploring other games, but I will explain and outline the most common variants so that you can choose for yourself.

There are four main families of poker, the oldest family is called straight poker, which finds its roots stretched back as far as the American revolutionary war. For this type a complete hand is dealt with each player face down which is then followed by a round of betting, raising and re-raising. Each hand is shown and the person with the best is deemed the winner. Modern poker however is a lot more complex.

The second oldest family is Stud poker. The most popular form of stud poker today is that of Seven Card Stud, where 7 cards are dealt with each player over a period of 5 rounds from which they must make the best possible 5-card hand. Draw poker is the next variation. A full hand is dealt with each player prior to any betting, they must then use subsequent rounds to improve their hand by discarding and drawing cards.

The final and most played in modern society is that of Community card poker, also known as flop poker. Two examples of this are Texas Hold’Em and Omaha. In Texas Hold’Em the player is dealt two cards, and then in the following rounds, 5 cards will be placed in the center of the table for everybody to use. These are the community cards and are available to all players so that they can make the best 5 card hand possible. It is up to you which poker game you approach to learn first, but bear in mind that the most played and popular variation is Texas Hold’Em.

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