Poker
Poker
is a family of card games involving betting and individualistic play whereby the
winner is determined by the ranks and combinations of their cards, some of which
remain hidden until the end of the game. Poker games vary in the number of cards
dealt, the number of shared or "community" cards and the number of cards that
remain hidden. The betting procedures vary among different poker games in such
ways as betting limits and splitting the pot between a high hand and a low
hand.
In
most modern poker games, the first round of betting begins with one of the
players making some form of a forced bet (the blind and/or ante). In standard
poker, each player is betting that the hand he or she has will be the highest
ranked. The action then proceeds clockwise around the table and 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," or increase 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,
then 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 revealed and the player with the winning hand takes
the pot. 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
significantly involves chance, the long-run expectations of the players are
determined by their actions chosen on the basis of probability, psychology and
game theory.
Poker
has gained in popularity since the beginning of the twentieth century, and has
gone from being primarily a recreational activity confined to small groups of
mostly male enthusiasts, to a widely popular spectator activity with
international audiences and multi-million dollar tournament
prizes.
History of
poker
English
actor Joseph Cowell reported in his memoirs that the game was played in New
Orleans, Louisiana in 1829, with a deck of 20 cards, and four players betting on
which player's hand was the most valuable. Jonathan H. Green's book, An Exposure
of the Arts and Miseries of Gambling (G. B. Zieber, Philadelphia, 1843),
described the spread of the game from there to the rest of the country by
Mississippi riverboats, on which gambling was a common pastime. As it spread
north along the Mississippi River and to the West during the gold rush, it is
thought to have become a part of the frontier pioneer
ethos.
Soon after
this spread, the full 52-card English deck was used and the flush was
introduced. The draw was added prior to 1850 (when it was first mentioned in
print in a handbook of games). During the American Civil War, many additions
were made including stud poker (specifically five-card stud), and the straight.
Further American developments followed, such as the wild card (around 1875),
lowball and split-pot poker (around 1900), and community card poker games
(around 1925).
Modern
tournament play became popular in American casinos after the World Series of
Poker (WSOP) began, in 1970. Notable champions from these early WSOP tournaments
include Johnny Moss, Amarillo Slim, Bobby Baldwin, Doyle Brunson, and Puggy
Pearson. Later in the 1970s, the first serious poker strategy books appeared,
notably Super/System by Doyle Brunson (ISBN 1-58042-081-8) and Caro's Book of
Poker Tells by Mike Caro (ISBN 0-89746-100-2), followed later by The Theory of
Poker by David Sklansky (ISBN 1-880685-00-0). By the 1980s, poker was being
depicted in popular culture as a commonplace recreational activity. For example,
it was featured in at least 10 episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation as a
weekly event of the senior staff of the fictional ship's crew. In the 1990s,
poker and casino gambling spread across the United States, most notably to
Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Poker's
popularity experienced an unprecedented spike at the beginning of the 21st
century, largely because of the introduction of online poker and hole-card
cameras, which turned the game into a spectator sport. Not only could viewers
now follow the action and drama of the game on television, they could also play
the game in the comfort of their own home.
Following
the surge in popularity, new poker tours soon emerged, notably the World Poker
Tour and European Poker Tour, both televised and the latter sponsored by online
poker company PokerStars. Subsequent tours have since been created by
PokerStars, such as Latin American Poker Tour and Asia Pacific Poker Tour, as
well as other national tours.
In 2009 the
International Federation of Poker was founded in Lausanne, Switzerland, becoming
the official governing body for poker and promoting the game as a mind sport. In
2011 it announced plans for two new events: The Nations Cup, a duplicate poker
team event, to be staged on the London Eye on the banks of the River Thames and
“The Table”, the invitation only IFP World Championship, featuring roughly 130
of the world’s best poker players, in an event to find the 2011 official "World
Champion".
Gameplay
For more
details on betting rules, see Betting in poker.
For more
details on rules for the most common poker variants, see List of poker hands and
List of poker variants.
In casual
play, the right to deal a hand typically rotates among the players and is marked
by a token called a dealer button (or buck). In a casino, a house dealer handles
the cards for each hand, but the button (typically a white plastic disk) is
rotated clockwise among the players to indicate a nominal dealer to determine
the order of betting. The cards are dealt clockwise around the poker table, one
at a time.
One or more
players are usually required to make forced bets, usually either an ante or a
blind bet (sometimes both). The dealer shuffles the cards, the player on the
chair to their right cuts, and the dealer deals the appropriate number of cards
to the players one at a time, beginning with the player to their left. Cards may
be dealt either face-up or face-down, depending on the variant of poker being
played. After the initial deal, the first of what may be several betting rounds
begins. Between rounds, the players' hands develop in some way, often by being
dealt additional cards or replacing cards previously dealt. At the end of each
round, all bets are gathered into the central pot.
At any time
during a betting round, if one player bets and no opponents choose to call
(match) the bet and all opponents instead fold, the hand ends immediately, the
bettor is awarded the pot, no cards are required to be shown, and the next hand
begins. This is what makes bluffing possible. Bluffing is a primary feature of
poker, one that distinguishes it from other vying games and from other games
that make use of poker hand rankings.
At the end
of the last betting round, if more than one player remains, there is a showdown,
in which the players reveal their previously hidden cards and evaluate their
hands. The player with the best hand according to the poker variant being played
wins the pot. A poker hand comprises five cards; in variants where a player has
more than five cards, the best five cards play.
Variants
List of
poker variants
WSOP Main Event Table
Poker has many
variations[8], all following a similar pattern of play and generally using the
same hand ranking hierarchy. There are four main families of variants, largely
grouped by the protocol of card-dealing and betting:
StraightA complete hand
is dealt to each player, and players bet in one round, with raising and
re-raising allowed. This is the oldest poker family; the root of the game as now
played was a game known as Primero, which evolved into the game three-card brag,
a very popular gentleman's game around the time of the American Revolutionary
War and still enjoyed in the U.K. today. Straight hands of five cards are
sometimes used as a final showdown, but poker is almost always played in a more
complex form to allow for additional strategy.Stud pokerCards are dealt in a
prearranged combination of face-down and face-up rounds, or streets, with a
round of betting following each. This is the next-oldest family; as poker
progressed from three to five-card hands, they were often dealt one card at a
time, either face-down or face-up, with a betting round between each. The most
popular stud variant today, seven-card stud, deals two extra cards to each
player (three face-down, four face-up) from which they must make the best
possible 5-card hand.Draw pokerA complete hand is dealt to each player,
face-down, and after betting, players are allowed to attempt to change their
hand (with the object of improving it) by discarding unwanted cards and being
dealt new ones. Five-card draw is the most famous variation in this
family.Community card pokerAlso known as "flop poker", community card poker is a
variation of stud poker. Players are dealt an incomplete hand of face-down
cards, and then a number of face-up community cards are dealt to the center of
the table, each of which can be used by one or more of the players to make a
5-card hand. Texas hold 'em and Omaha are two well-known variants of the
community card family.
Other games that use poker hand rankings may likewise
be referred to as poker. Video poker is a single-player video game that
functions much like a slot machine; most video poker machines play draw poker,
where the player bets, a hand is dealt, and the player can discard and replace
cards. Payout is dependent on the hand resulting after the draw and the player's
initial bet.
Strip poker
is a traditional poker variation where players remove clothing when they lose
bets. Since it depends only on the basic mechanic of betting in rounds, strip
poker can be played with any form of poker; however, it is usually based on
simple variants with few betting rounds, like five card
draw.
Another game
with the poker name, but with a vastly different mode of play, is called
Acey-Deucey or Red Dog poker. This game is more similar to Blackjack in its
layout and betting; each player bets against the house, and then is dealt two
cards. For the player to win, the third card dealt (after an opportunity to
raise the bet) must have a value in between the first two. Payout is based on
the odds that this is possible, based on the difference in values of the first
two cards. Other poker-like games played at casinos against the house include
three card poker and pai gow poker.
is a family of card games involving betting and individualistic play whereby the
winner is determined by the ranks and combinations of their cards, some of which
remain hidden until the end of the game. Poker games vary in the number of cards
dealt, the number of shared or "community" cards and the number of cards that
remain hidden. The betting procedures vary among different poker games in such
ways as betting limits and splitting the pot between a high hand and a low
hand.
In
most modern poker games, the first round of betting begins with one of the
players making some form of a forced bet (the blind and/or ante). In standard
poker, each player is betting that the hand he or she has will be the highest
ranked. The action then proceeds clockwise around the table and 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," or increase 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,
then 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 revealed and the player with the winning hand takes
the pot. 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
significantly involves chance, the long-run expectations of the players are
determined by their actions chosen on the basis of probability, psychology and
game theory.
Poker
has gained in popularity since the beginning of the twentieth century, and has
gone from being primarily a recreational activity confined to small groups of
mostly male enthusiasts, to a widely popular spectator activity with
international audiences and multi-million dollar tournament
prizes.
History of
poker
English
actor Joseph Cowell reported in his memoirs that the game was played in New
Orleans, Louisiana in 1829, with a deck of 20 cards, and four players betting on
which player's hand was the most valuable. Jonathan H. Green's book, An Exposure
of the Arts and Miseries of Gambling (G. B. Zieber, Philadelphia, 1843),
described the spread of the game from there to the rest of the country by
Mississippi riverboats, on which gambling was a common pastime. As it spread
north along the Mississippi River and to the West during the gold rush, it is
thought to have become a part of the frontier pioneer
ethos.
Soon after
this spread, the full 52-card English deck was used and the flush was
introduced. The draw was added prior to 1850 (when it was first mentioned in
print in a handbook of games). During the American Civil War, many additions
were made including stud poker (specifically five-card stud), and the straight.
Further American developments followed, such as the wild card (around 1875),
lowball and split-pot poker (around 1900), and community card poker games
(around 1925).
Modern
tournament play became popular in American casinos after the World Series of
Poker (WSOP) began, in 1970. Notable champions from these early WSOP tournaments
include Johnny Moss, Amarillo Slim, Bobby Baldwin, Doyle Brunson, and Puggy
Pearson. Later in the 1970s, the first serious poker strategy books appeared,
notably Super/System by Doyle Brunson (ISBN 1-58042-081-8) and Caro's Book of
Poker Tells by Mike Caro (ISBN 0-89746-100-2), followed later by The Theory of
Poker by David Sklansky (ISBN 1-880685-00-0). By the 1980s, poker was being
depicted in popular culture as a commonplace recreational activity. For example,
it was featured in at least 10 episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation as a
weekly event of the senior staff of the fictional ship's crew. In the 1990s,
poker and casino gambling spread across the United States, most notably to
Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Poker's
popularity experienced an unprecedented spike at the beginning of the 21st
century, largely because of the introduction of online poker and hole-card
cameras, which turned the game into a spectator sport. Not only could viewers
now follow the action and drama of the game on television, they could also play
the game in the comfort of their own home.
Following
the surge in popularity, new poker tours soon emerged, notably the World Poker
Tour and European Poker Tour, both televised and the latter sponsored by online
poker company PokerStars. Subsequent tours have since been created by
PokerStars, such as Latin American Poker Tour and Asia Pacific Poker Tour, as
well as other national tours.
In 2009 the
International Federation of Poker was founded in Lausanne, Switzerland, becoming
the official governing body for poker and promoting the game as a mind sport. In
2011 it announced plans for two new events: The Nations Cup, a duplicate poker
team event, to be staged on the London Eye on the banks of the River Thames and
“The Table”, the invitation only IFP World Championship, featuring roughly 130
of the world’s best poker players, in an event to find the 2011 official "World
Champion".
Gameplay
For more
details on betting rules, see Betting in poker.
For more
details on rules for the most common poker variants, see List of poker hands and
List of poker variants.
In casual
play, the right to deal a hand typically rotates among the players and is marked
by a token called a dealer button (or buck). In a casino, a house dealer handles
the cards for each hand, but the button (typically a white plastic disk) is
rotated clockwise among the players to indicate a nominal dealer to determine
the order of betting. The cards are dealt clockwise around the poker table, one
at a time.
One or more
players are usually required to make forced bets, usually either an ante or a
blind bet (sometimes both). The dealer shuffles the cards, the player on the
chair to their right cuts, and the dealer deals the appropriate number of cards
to the players one at a time, beginning with the player to their left. Cards may
be dealt either face-up or face-down, depending on the variant of poker being
played. After the initial deal, the first of what may be several betting rounds
begins. Between rounds, the players' hands develop in some way, often by being
dealt additional cards or replacing cards previously dealt. At the end of each
round, all bets are gathered into the central pot.
At any time
during a betting round, if one player bets and no opponents choose to call
(match) the bet and all opponents instead fold, the hand ends immediately, the
bettor is awarded the pot, no cards are required to be shown, and the next hand
begins. This is what makes bluffing possible. Bluffing is a primary feature of
poker, one that distinguishes it from other vying games and from other games
that make use of poker hand rankings.
At the end
of the last betting round, if more than one player remains, there is a showdown,
in which the players reveal their previously hidden cards and evaluate their
hands. The player with the best hand according to the poker variant being played
wins the pot. A poker hand comprises five cards; in variants where a player has
more than five cards, the best five cards play.
Variants
List of
poker variants
WSOP Main Event Table
Poker has many
variations[8], all following a similar pattern of play and generally using the
same hand ranking hierarchy. There are four main families of variants, largely
grouped by the protocol of card-dealing and betting:
StraightA complete hand
is dealt to each player, and players bet in one round, with raising and
re-raising allowed. This is the oldest poker family; the root of the game as now
played was a game known as Primero, which evolved into the game three-card brag,
a very popular gentleman's game around the time of the American Revolutionary
War and still enjoyed in the U.K. today. Straight hands of five cards are
sometimes used as a final showdown, but poker is almost always played in a more
complex form to allow for additional strategy.Stud pokerCards are dealt in a
prearranged combination of face-down and face-up rounds, or streets, with a
round of betting following each. This is the next-oldest family; as poker
progressed from three to five-card hands, they were often dealt one card at a
time, either face-down or face-up, with a betting round between each. The most
popular stud variant today, seven-card stud, deals two extra cards to each
player (three face-down, four face-up) from which they must make the best
possible 5-card hand.Draw pokerA complete hand is dealt to each player,
face-down, and after betting, players are allowed to attempt to change their
hand (with the object of improving it) by discarding unwanted cards and being
dealt new ones. Five-card draw is the most famous variation in this
family.Community card pokerAlso known as "flop poker", community card poker is a
variation of stud poker. Players are dealt an incomplete hand of face-down
cards, and then a number of face-up community cards are dealt to the center of
the table, each of which can be used by one or more of the players to make a
5-card hand. Texas hold 'em and Omaha are two well-known variants of the
community card family.
Other games that use poker hand rankings may likewise
be referred to as poker. Video poker is a single-player video game that
functions much like a slot machine; most video poker machines play draw poker,
where the player bets, a hand is dealt, and the player can discard and replace
cards. Payout is dependent on the hand resulting after the draw and the player's
initial bet.
Strip poker
is a traditional poker variation where players remove clothing when they lose
bets. Since it depends only on the basic mechanic of betting in rounds, strip
poker can be played with any form of poker; however, it is usually based on
simple variants with few betting rounds, like five card
draw.
Another game
with the poker name, but with a vastly different mode of play, is called
Acey-Deucey or Red Dog poker. This game is more similar to Blackjack in its
layout and betting; each player bets against the house, and then is dealt two
cards. For the player to win, the third card dealt (after an opportunity to
raise the bet) must have a value in between the first two. Payout is based on
the odds that this is possible, based on the difference in values of the first
two cards. Other poker-like games played at casinos against the house include
three card poker and pai gow poker.
