Poker is a card game played by two or more players and involves a mix of skill and luck. It is a game that can be played in cash or tournament formats and many of the same strategies apply to both. Writing about Poker should be engaging and informative while also including personal anecdotes and techniques used during play, such as reading other player’s tells (unconscious habits that reveal information about a player’s hand).
To begin a hand each player is required to place a forced bet, typically an ante or blind bet. The dealer then shuffles and cuts the cards and deals each player one at a time. After a single round of betting, the highest hand wins the pot.
Once all bets are made it is possible to fold a hand, call a raise or make an additional bet. When a player is raising, they must either match or raise the amount of the previous raised stake (this may seem logical but historically this has led to players who cannot meet the last raise having to fold).
Let’s say that you dealt yourself a pair of kings off the deal (not great, but not bad) and the betting starts. Alex ‘checks’ (a player who doesn’t raise their bet and thereby doesn’t owe anything to the pot) and Charley calls. Dennis then raises a dime, and so on. This means that at the end of the hand, whoever has the best five-card hand wins.