Poker
Information
Poker is a family of card games
that share betting rules and usually (but not
always) hand rankings. Poker games differ in how
the cards are dealt, how hands may be formed,
whether the high or low hand wins the pot in a
showdown (in some games, the pot is split between
the high and low hands), limits on bets and how
many rounds of betting are allowed. In most modern
poker games, the first round of betting begins
with some form of forced bet. The action then
proceeds to the left. Each player in turn must
either match the maximum previous bet or fold,
losing the amount bet so far and all further interest
in the hand. A player who matches a bet may also
raise, increasing the bet. The betting round ends
when all players have either matched the last
bet or folded. If all but one player fold on any
round, the remaining player collects the pot and
may choose to show or conceal their hand. If more
than one player remains in contention after the
final betting round, the hands are shown and the
winning hand takes the pot.[1]
With the exception of initial
forced bets, money is only placed into the pot
voluntarily by a player who, at least in theory,
rationally believes the bet has positive expected
value. Thus, while the outcome of any particular
hand is determined mostly by chance, the long-run
expectations of the players are determined by
their actions chosen based on probability and
psychology.
General rules
The following rules apply to the ranking of all
poker hands.
A hand always consists of five
cards. In games where more than five cards are
available to each player, the best five-card combination
of those cards must be played. Any cards not included
in the hand do not affect its ranking. For example,
if player A holds 3? Q? and player B holds 3?
A?, and five cards 4? 5? 6? 7? 10? are available
to both players, the players hold equally ranking
3-4-5-6-7 straights despite the fact that the
player B's ace ranks higher than the player A's
queen.
Individual cards are ranked A
(highest), K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2
(lowest). Aces can appear low when part of an
A-2-3-4-5 straight or straight flush. In the poker
variants ace-to-five and ace-to-six lowball, the
ace only plays low, and only plays high in deuce-to-seven
lowball. Individual card ranks are used to rank
hands that are in the same rank category.
The suits of the cards are used
to determine whether a hand forms a flush or straight
flush. In most variants, suits do not have an
associated value, and play no part in determining
the ranking of a hand. Sometimes a ranking called
high card by suit is used for randomly selecting
a player to deal. Low card by suit usually determines
the bring-in better in stud games.
Hands are ranked first by category,
then by individual card ranks; even the lowest
hand that qualifies in a certain category defeats
all hands in all lower categories. For example,
2? 2? 3? 3? 4?, the lowest-valued two pair hand,
defeats all hands with just one pair or high card
(such as A? A? K? Q? J?). Only between two hands
in the same category are card ranks used to break
ties.
A poker hand has the same hand
ranking regardless of the order in which it is
arranged by the deal, by a description, or by
a picture. So a hand arranged as 10? 8? 10? 6?
10? is ranked the same as 10? 10? 10? 8? 6? even
though in the first hand the three of a kind is
not immediately obvious.
If there are multiple hands of
the same rank at the showdown, the pot is divided
equally between the winning players.
There are 311 875 200 ways (5-permutations)
of being dealt five cards from a 52 card deck,[Note
1] but since the order of cards does not matter,
there are 5! = 120 5-permutations giving any one
hand, so there are only possible distinct hands.
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