HOW TO PLAY POKER

The first part of this section explains Poker in general and Texas Hold’Em. Further down, we explain different hands and what beats what.

The main game that we concentrate on at TopPoker.com.au is Texas Hold’Em – the most popular way of playing poker in the world. You can play this online for real cash right now through our site.

TEXAS HOLDEM (Texas Holdem Rules)

The most popular of casino poker games, Texas Hold'em (usually shortened to just Holdem) is a community card game where each player gets two cards while sharing five community cards with all players. The person who can combine their cards to make the best five-card poker hand wins -- unless a worse hand bluffs the better hands into folding during the four betting rounds.

Along with the dramatic increase in popularity of poker in general, and Texas Holdem in particular, comes a tidal wave of new players who may not be newbies to poker itself, but definitely are beginners in comparison to experienced players. These beginning players have been influenced significantly by what they have seen on television. While this is cool and all, from a practical standpoint it has some disastrous implications for the beginners.

To be blunt, if you watch Tiger Woods hook a three iron around a dogleg, over a sand trap, and then stop it on a dime on the green, well, don't try this at home, kids. That's not to say that all poker shown on television is Tiger Woods-like. Far from it. Some of the TV play is hopelessly bad -- if only because even the best players sometimes make terrible plays.

The thing newbies need to remember is that the poker hands we see on TV do not well represent what makes a great poker player. First and foremost, the truly great players in all game disciplines master the fundamentals. Ted Williams, Magic Johnson, Earl Anthony, Cheryl Miller, Joe Montana, Martina Navratilova... all these folks spent hours and hours on fundamentals even AFTER they were superstars. In fact, great players devote much of their time to improving at those fundamentals they aren't particularly good at.

Like any other game, Texas Holdem has fundamental/basics that aren't very flashy or readily apparent, but must be mastered (and continually mastered) before excellence can be achieved.

Discipline. No skills matter if you don't have the wherewithal to follow through. If you know you shouldn't tilt, but tilt anyway, you suck at discipline. And, you suck as a poker player compared to the poker player you could be. You may still be better than average, but you are a shadow of what you should be. It is almost impossible to work too hard on your discipline.

Bets. The bet is the atom of poker. Chips are electrons and protons, but the bet is the building block of everything good and bad that takes place in poker -- if you play for money, that is. If you play to satisfy ego urges, rather than to win money, then you have different priorities, and you've blundered onto the wrong website. All ring game poker concepts revolve around the bet. (Tournaments are different. Surviving and being the lone winner are tournament concepts that don't transfer to ring games.) You are not trying to win pots. You are trying to get the best of it on bets. You are trying to wager money, make bets, with a mathematically favorable expectation. This involves having as a coincidental goal the winning of pots, but that is not the main goal, and certainly not the focus of our efforts. We simply want to get our money in with the best of it. Win or lose, good luck or bad luck, that really is not the point. Let the bad players fixate on the results. You should fixate on doing the right thing.

Having the discipline to do the right thing all the time (more or less) is the basic of the basics.

The blinds. Poker is a thinking person's game. When bets are made without thinking, either by bad players or when "forced" via game rules (as blinds or antes), this is the fundamental money at stake in the contest. Thoughtful play must significantly focus on the bets that are made thoughtlessly. Attack the bad players, and attack the blinds. Thoughtful players have an edge over semi-thoughtful players, but thoughtful players have enormous edges over bets made without thought (again, either by thoughtless/bad players or by any player because they are forced by the rules to make the bet).

Limit versus No Limit. Most of the Holdem on television is No Limit tournament poker. This is about as different from Limit ring game poker as two things of the same species can get. Many of the winning tactics used in No Limit tournaments are either useless or counterproductive in Limit Holdem ring games. Chainsaws may cut most things better, but butter knifes are more appropriate for some tasks. Just because you saw a skilled lumberjack cut down a tall oak tree with one doesn't mean you should use a chainsaw to cut butter.

Fundamentals win ballgames and poker games and games of every sort. Let the suckers try to buy lunch with their egos. You should focus on the basics of making thoughtful bets when you have the best of it, and then you can focus on buying lunch with your profits -- profits courtesy of the bad players, the ego players, and the players who simply don't work on the fundamentals enough.

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WINNING HANDS AND WHAT BEATS WHAT

Poker hands are always five cards. For example, even though each player in a seven-card stud game has seven cards, only the best five of those cards play. Poker has no six- or seven-card hands. Thus, the seven-card stud hand As Ad Qs Qd 6h 5d 3c beats Ks Kd 9h 9s 7s 7d 2s, even though the second hand contains three pairs while the first has two pairs. Similarly, if a Hold 'em board was 9s 9h 7d Js 7c, the pot would be split between two players holding 6s 6d and 5c 5h, even though the player with the two sixes was ahead until the river card. At the end, both players hold the two pair hand 9s 9h 7d 7c, with a jack kicker. Neither player can produce a higher kicker from his hand; neither player's pocket pair can result in a higher five-card hand than what is on the board.

These are the winning high hands in high only and high-low split games, from highest to lowest. Any hand in one category in the list beats any hand in any category below it. For example, any straight flush beats any four of a kind; any flush beats any straight.

royal flush: Five cards in sequence with all five cards of the same suit. The highest straight flush, having an ace as its high card, has a special name, royal flush.

Any lesser straight flush does not have a unique name.

In a showdown among players holding straight flushes, the hand with the highest top card wins. 10d 9d 8d 7d 6d beats 9s 8s 7s 6s 5s.

four of a kind: Four cards of the same rank. Also known as quads.

In a showdown among players holding four of a kind, the hand with the highest rank wins. Kd Kc Kh Ks 5d beats Jc Jh Jd Js Ad. If multiple hands each contain the same four of a kind (which could occur in a community card game), the hand with the highest side card wins. Kd Kc Kh Ks Ah beats Kd Kc Kh Ks Qd.

full house: Three cards of one rank plus two cards of another rank.

In a showdown among players holding full houses, the hand with the highest three of a kind wins. 7h 7s 7d 3h 3s beats 6s 6c 6h Ad Ah. If multiple hands each contain the same full house (which could occur in a community card game), the hand with the highest pair wins. Kd Kh Ks As Ac beats Kd Kh Ks Qh Qd.

flush: Five cards of the same suit.

In a showdown among players holding flushes, the hand topped with the highest one or more cards wins. When the top card is tied, the next card is compared; when the top two cards are tied, the third card is compared; and so on. Ah 8h 7h 6h 5h beats Ks Qs Js 9s 8s, and Jd 10d 9d 8d 4d beats Jc 10c 9c 7c 6c.

straight: Five consecutive cards. An ace can be high or low.

In a showdown among players holding straights, the hand with the highest top card wins. Ts 9d 8d 7c 6c beats 8s 7h 6h 5c 4c.

three of a kind: Three cards of the same rank. Also known as trips or, especially in flop games, a set.

In a showdown among players holding three of a kind, the hand with the highest rank wins. Jh Jc Js 3d 2c beats 10s 10c 10h Ah Kc. If multiple hands each contain the same three of a kind (which could occur in a community card game), the hand with the highest side cards wins. Jh Jc Js Ah Kc beats Jh Jc Jd Ah Qd.

two pair: Two cards of one rank plus two cards of another rank.

In a showdown among players holding two pair, the hand with the highest pair wins. As Ac 2h 2s 3d beats Kd Kc Qh Qs Jd. In a showdown among players holding the same top pair, the hand with the highest second pair wins. 10s 10c 8s 8c 4d beats 10h 10d 7s 7h Ad. In a showdown among players holding the same two pairs, the hand with the highest side card (also known as kicker) wins. Jh Jd 9h 9d 4h beats Js Jc 9c 9s 3s.

one pair: Two cards of the same rank.

In a showdown among players holding one pair, the hand with the highest pair wins. Ah Ad 5d 4h 3c beats Kh Kd Ac Qd Js. In a showdown among players holding the same pair, the hand with the highest one or more side cards wins. Js Jh 9d 8s 4d beats Jc Jd 9h 8c 3s.

no pair: None of the above.

If no hand has a pair or better at the showdown, the hand topped by the highest one or more cards wins. When the top card is tied, the next card is compared; when the top two cards are tied, the third card is compared; and so on. Ac 9s 5d 4c 2h beats Kd Qs Jd 10c 8h, and Jh 10c 9h 7c 4d beats Jc 10h 9s 7s 2d.

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