Poker explained

The purpose of this blog is to help me pause to think about what I'm doing at the tables. One of the areas that I could improve upon is in the assessment of my play. I should really spend time going over my hands, working out what I did right and what I did wrong. In theory I will spend more time going over my play, simply because I'm going to be actively writing about it in this Blog. Good theory huh? Yeah, I thought so too.
Anyway, for those of you that don't know, this is a basic run down of how you play Poker. To be specific, Texas Hold 'Em.

There are a number of different variations of "Poker", all of them are based around the same theme.
In Texas Hold Em, everybody is dealt two cards which they do not disclose to their opponents. Five "Community" Cards are then dealt face up in the middle. The player that wins is the player who has the best 5 card hand using a combination of their two cards and the five cards in the middle.

Hand Rankings

The hands are ranked as follows:

One Pair: Two cards of the same rank, with a pair of Aces being the top ranked pair and a pair of twos being the lowest. If two players have the same pair, then the player with the highest ranked non-paired card in their hand wins. So, for example, if player A has a pair of Aces with a King and the player B had a pair of Aces with a Ten then player A wins due to the presence of the King.

Two Pair: See the description for "One Pair", but times by two.

Three of a Kind: Three cards of the same rank. E.G three 8's. Also known as "Trips".

Straight: This is five Cards in numerical sequence, but not of the same suit. E.G 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. An Ace is both high and low, so you can have Ace, 2, 3, 4, 5 and you can have 10, Jack, Queen, King Ace. If two players have a Straight then the person with the highest card in their Straight wins.

Flush: Five cards all of the same suit, but not in numerical sequence. E.G Ace, 8, 5, 2, 10 all of Spades. Again, if two people have a Flush then the winner's mantle is handed to the person with the highest Card.

Full House: This is a combination of a Pair and Three of a Kind in the same five card hand. E.G Ace, Ace, 5, 5, 5.

4 Of a Kind: Now we're getting to the "hardly ever happen" hands. Quads, as it's otherwise know, is four cards of the same suit. The odds of hitting Quads is 1 in 4,165.

Straight Flush: You ain't going to see many of these. I've played over 50,000 hands over the last year and I've only had a Straight Flush about 3 times. It's literally what it says it is. It's a Straight and a Flush combined; five cards in numberical sequence all of the same suit. It's especially powerful if someone else has hit a Flush - you're very likely to get all of their money a lot of the time. The odds of hitting a Straight Flush are 1 in 72,193.33

Royal Flush: Here it is; the Daddy of all hands. The most famous Poker hand: The Royal Flush. It's a Straight Flush, but using the "Royal Cards": Ace, King, Queen, Jack, Ten. The odds of hitting a Royal Flush are (get ready for it) 1 in 649,740!!! I've only ever had one Royal Flush. I've only ever seen one in a live game, and I've seen four others Online. I was actually beaten by a Royal Flush once when I had Quad Aces. Horrific. To quantify how horrific this is, the odds of this happening are 1 in 165 million!!! And typically it happens to me...


So, that's the basics of the game. If that was all the game was, then it would be very boring. The aspect of Poker that makes it so intriguing is the betting, and it's that concept that I will go into in my next post.

Changes are afoot

My god, it really is, it's a post on my Blog! After a year and 10 months. Not that anybody was checking...
Anyway, I've decided to take a different path as far as content is concerned; this is now a Blog about my attempts to play online Poker and climb the stakes until I become a professional! Yes, this is a very pie in the sky dream, but everybody has to have a dream, right? Right now I am playing the lowest of the low. I am playing 1c/2c. Where you buy in for $2, sit down at a table with up to 8 other people and try and take each others money. If you lose the whole $2 then you just buy back in again. Simple huh? Yeah, it can be. It can also be incredibly frustrating.

So, that's the introduction done. Now get ready for the first post.