Hand Ranking

Almost the entire family of poker uses the standard 52-card deck.  The majority of the games remove the jokers.  For Texas Hold’em, the hand ranking is as follows:

Royal Flush:  This is the best possible hand and it contains a 10, Jack, Queen, King, and an Ace, all having the same suit.

Straight Flush:  All the cards have the same suit, but and in sequential order like Ace, two, three, four, and five.

Four of kind:  Any four cards that have the same numerical number, like two, two, two, two, in different suits.

Flush:  All five cards have the same suit.  They may be in any order.

Straight:  Five cards of any suit, but in sequential order, i.e. Ace, two, three, four, and five make up the straight.

Three of Kind:  This is any three cards that have the same numerical matching.

Two pair:  The same hand having two different pairs.

Pair:  Any of the two numerical-matching cards in a hand is a pair.

The Ace is considered as the highest card and two is the lowest card.

Poker Terminology

Play always starts in clockwise direction with player seated next to the dealer.  To the left of the dealer, the two players must post big and small blind.  Once the betting is finalized, the pot is filled.  The play starts with each player having cards face-down.

As the game progresses, the player either calls, i.e. matching the amount of the big blind, raises (the bet amount is increased), or folds (close the play).  The community cards are dealt once the play is complete.

The final round is called as the showdown, where all the players must declare and show their cards.  The player with the strongest hand wins the pot.

Players

The number of players in any poker tournament varies from two to ten.  Over a multiple number of tables, the tournament can be structured and can have an unlimited number of players.  These tournaments are also called multi-table tournaments.  Poker can be either multi-played or single, where players have to pay a minimum entry fee.  All the players compete with one another until a single player remains.

The betting limits have three categories, fixed, pot and no limit.  In fixed–limit, the player usually bets for a fixed amount.  Pot-limit would be generally the size of the pot, but this may be raised exponentially.  In no–limit betting, a player can bet any amount.

In poker, you first place your bet.  The amount you bet depends on the limit of the game.  As the game proceeds, all the bets will be made into the pot that is in the middle of the table.  A round is won by the player that has a hand that is not folded when everyone else has folded, or the guy with the best combination.

Betting in poker is done systematically.  For instance, it can be done in a clockwise manner.  When it is your turn to bet, you have four options, bet, call, raise, or fold.  The four options can be further explained as follows:

Betting

Players bet an amount that is set by the type of poker game they are playing.  The amount that is bet goes into the pot, in the middle of the table.

Call

A call in poker means that you simply match the amount that has been bet by a player before/adjacent to you.  This means that if the player before you bet five dollars you will bet five dollars as well, which is put into the pot.  If another player then raises your bet, you will have to match what he asked for.  For instance, if you bet five dollars and a player raised your bet by betting eight dollars, you will owe three dollars.

Raise

In poker, when a player before you places their bet, you will be required to first match their bet, and then you raise the poker bet by an amount that you wish.  There are no guidelines or restrictions as to how much you can raise a player’s bet, it solely depends on you.  If you wish to raise in poker when the player before you bet five dollars, you will first have to place a bet of five dollars, and then, if you wish, you can raise the bet by three dollars, taking the total bet to eight dollars.

Fold

In poker, when a player folds, this means that this player has dropped out of the current hand.  Folding will mean that you have given up all the rights of winning the pot, however, you will not be required to place any bets in that same pot.

The odds of getting, say, a royal flush are quite slim, a probability of 1/650,000.  This is because there are only four ways in which a royal flush can be made.  On the other hand you can get a hand with, say, a single pair or no pair at a probability of 1/2.36 and 1/1.99 respectively, because there are and over a million ways in which you can get such a hand.

The following is a table that shows the probabilities of each type of hand that can be obtained in poker, as well as, the number of different ways the same hand can be achieved.

Looking at the table above, it is quite clear that the odds of getting a royal flush are rare, thus the low probability.  This is due to the fact that there are only four ways in which you can get a royal flush.  The odds of getting a straight flash seem to be better, with its probability being about nine times greater than that of getting a royal flush.  The probability of getting a straight flush is higher than that of getting a royal flush, because there are 36 different ways in which you can get a straight flush.

As you go down the table, you will find that the odds of getting the hands becomes an almost obvious event as the number of ways the hands can come out increases.  For instance, the odds of getting a hand with five different cards have a probability of 1/1.99, which is almost a 50 percent chance that you will get cards that are all different.  In the case of a royal flush, it is so hard to achieve that some players may never get a royal flush in their lifetime.

Objective: Out of seven cards, each player keeps the best five, and the player with strongest hand wins the pot.

BASIC PLAY FOR Seven CARD STUD

Seven Card Stud is considered the most challenging game.  This game is usually played with two to eight players and a standard fifty-two card deck.  Antes are used in Seven Card Stud, rather than blinds.  Initially, each player must put an ante into the pot.  The limit of the ante varies, depending on the game you are playing.  Generally, it is five to ten percent of the games large bet.  For example, it would be one dollar for a $5/$10 game.

Next, the dealer gives one card at a time to each player, until all the players have three cards.  The first two cards are dealt face down, and the third card is dealt face up.  This part of the hand is called “third street”.  All the face-up cards are not community cards; they are individual cards for each player.  After the cards are dealt, the player with the lowest up card is forced to bet.  This is a “bring in” bet.  If there is tie for the lowest, it is broken by the suit.  Clubs are given top priority, i.e. they are strongest, followed diamonds, hearts, and spades.    The next bet is almost half of the small bet in the game.  The game continues in the clockwise direction, after the “bring in” bet has been made.  Now the player has the option of calling, folding, or raising.

Beginning of Fourth Street, Fifth, and Sixth Street

During this street, each player is given another face-up card by the dealer.  The player with the highest hand begins the play.  Play is continued in clockwise motion until all the players have acted.  Betting is usually done in small amounts in this street.  Similar play is played in fifth one.  All the players receive an additional face-up and the play starts with player having the highest hand.  The only difference at this street is that betting and raising is done at a large level.  Once all the players finished acting in the sixth street, the dealer gives another face-up card in the sixth street to the players.  This is the last face-up card the player will receive.  Similar to the above streets, play once again begins with the highest hand and rotates in the clockwise direction.  After all the players have finished acting, the final round begins, known as “river and showdown”.

River and showdown

This is the final round.  Now, the dealer gives one face down card to each player.  Play starts with the player having the highest hand.  Once all the players act, there is showdown.  The final player reveals his cards, and then all players who challenge either muck or reveal their cards, if they are strong enough to take the pot.  The dealer determines the strongest hand and pot is awarded.

A hand with more or less than seven cards is considered dead.

There are four major internet gaming jurisdictions, Antigua, Costa Rica, Canada and the Mohawks of Kahnawake, and Australia.  In each of these jurisdictions, you will find one or more major software developers being the dominate force, and the type of casinos found in those areas are driven by those developers.  For example, most European casinos, such as the Euro Grand Casino and Europa Casino are driven by Playtech Gaming software.

Costa Rica is a favorite of many online casinos, because you there is no license fee to run an online casino in Costa Rica.  The customer service you get from the local work force is great.  Most of the sites have large customer-support facilities with easy access to managers.  There are many online casinos in Costa Rica, with estimates of over 200 online casinos.  The major software developers in Costa Rica are Real Time Gaming, Unified Gaming, and IQ Ludorm.

Antigua’s offshore casinos began because, Antigua was one of the first countries to issue online gaming licenses, which cost $100,000 annually.  The major software developers in Antigua are Microgaming, Starnet, and Bossmedia, and they all offer full turnkey systems and have downloadable applications, although Microgaming and Starnet provide java versions as well.

Canada and the Mohawks of Kahnawake are another jurisdiction where online gaming is allowed. In Canada, the major software developer is Cryptologic  In the Mohawks of Kahnawake, there is a hosting facility called Mohawk Internet Technologies, and all you have to do is pay an annual fee to the Mohawks tribe and you will receive state–of-the-art casino-hosting facilities.  The Mohawks internet technologies are pricey, but are attracting many casinos, because they offer a wider bandwidth and excellent technical-support staff.

Australia is the only first-world country that allows internet gaming and has a formal licensing procedure and regulatory process.  It is, however, quite expensive because of the license fees, the gaming tax, and the high cost of labor compared to other jurisdictions.  That is why there are only a few online casinos operating in Australia.

No two casinos are the same, and anywhere you go in the world you will find differences.  These are mainly due to jurisdictions having different regulations and different target markets in jurisdictions.  The target market of a jurisdiction will greatly determine the types of games available at these casinos, along with the minimum wagers, the minimum payouts, and the general appearance of the casino.  For example, hotel casinos are meant to appeal to tourists and will, as a result, be more spacious, have luxurious rooms, conference facilities, a wider range of games to play, higher wagers, and higher payouts.  Local casinos that are targeting locals will, on the other hand be much smaller and intimate with fewer games, low minimum wagers, and low payouts.

People no longer need to travel to Las Vegas or the local casino to be able to play casino games.  They can now do all their gambling in an online casino via the internet.  There are also different jurisdictions for online casinos, due to regulations on online gaming in different jurisdictions around the world.  There are four major locations were internet gaming is concentrated.  These are Antigua, Canada and the Mohawks of Kahnawake, Costa Rica, and Australia.  In these jurisdictions, there are major software developers who provide casino-server hosting for different online casinos.  These online casinos are available to players anywhere in the world, no matter were the site is located.