Online Poker Basics
September 19th, 2011
Poker is a game of skill and strategy. As you may have read in many a poker blog, poker has a bunch of variants, these variants differ from each other in terms of the distribution of cards, how they are dealt and how different hands are being formed. In some of the poker games, high as well as a low hand might win at the same time whereas in others only a higher hand will win.
Most of these games are played with a deck of 52 cards (which also a standard deck). A standard deck contains 52 cards in total with 13 cards of 4 different suits which are Clubs, Diamonds, Hearts and Spades.
The basic terms that you should know before you start to play poker are:
Small Blind: It is the forced amount that the player sitting left to the dealer has to put while participating in a game. It is half the amount of the big blind.
Big Blind: It is the forced bet posted by the player who is sitting left to the player placing the small blind. The big bind is twice the small blind and the minimum bet that everyone needs to put to play in that round.
Dealer: A dealer button represents a player who is in the dealer position; the dealer button rotates in a clockwise direction. Once a hand is completed the dealer button will change its position thus changing the big and the small blinds posted by the player.
Check: Incase there are no bets placed on the table, a player in absence of a bet may choose to pass the turn to other players by saying check or by knocking on the table twice (in terms of a live table)
Call: It is the amount that one places/ has to place to match the bet on the table and to continue to play in the particular hand.
Raise: When you increase the amount of the bet that has already been placed on the table then it is called as raise. In this case the other players need to call your amount in order to stay in the game.
Fold: If a player chooses not to continue to take part in a hand the player folds and his cards are returned to the dealer. Once the player has folded his cards he can no longer take part in the game further.
Flop: The “Flop” is the name for the first three cards dealt, face-up on the board after the first round of betting.
Turn: “Turn” is the name for the fourth card dealt, face-up on the board after the second round of betting.
River: “River” is the Fifth and the final card dealt, face-up on the board after the third round of betting.
In a game of Texas Hold’em Poker the first round of betting begins with a forced bet by two players followed by other players who have an option to call, raise or fold if they don’t feel like playing in these games. All the money from a hand goes into a common pot and once the round of betting is over the flop appears followed by two rounds of betting. After each round of betting, cards will open up at the table. After the 1st round of betting 3 cards open up which is called ‘flop’ and then one card opens up at the table called the ‘Turn’ followed by the ‘River’ in which the last card opens up at the table.