Poker is fun.  It need not be a gamblers game. It can be a game that you play with your family members on holidays and weekends.

While there are many forms of Poker, the simplest form is the five card draw or regular poker game. It is played with a pack of 52 cards.

Players must know the cards and their values.  The highest card is Ace. This is followed by King, Queen, Jack, 10,9,8,2,6,5,4,3,2. All suits have equal values.

Each player will be dealt five cards. The players must then aim to get the highest valued hand.

The highest valued hand is the Royal Flush in which the player has 10, Jack, Queen, King and Ace of the same suit. The Straight Flush contains cards of the same suit in numerical order. The hand with the highest numerical order wins the round. Four of a Kind is a hand that contains four cards with the same number and one card of a different number. The cards can be from any suit.  The highest ranking hand wins the suit.  Full house is a hand in which three cards have the same numerical value and the other two cards share their numerical value. For instance the player can have three queens and two kings in their hand.  Flush comprises of five cards of the same suit without regard to their numerical value. The hand with the highest numerical value wins.

Straight contains cards in a numerical order even if they do not belong to the same suit. For instance a player can have 7 and 8 of hearts and 9 and 10 of spades and Jack of diamonds.

Three of a kind is a hand that contains three cards of the same numerical value and two random cards.

Two Pair contains two pairs and one random card.

One pair contains a set of two cards that are a pair and three cards that are random. For instance a player can have two 8s irrespective of their suit and three cards that are 3, 6 and 9.

High card is a situation where none of the players have any cards of value. Then the person holding the highest value of card is the winner. Ace is the highest card.  If there is tie for Ace then the Ace of spade is declared the highest.

Playing the game.

All players place their bets in the ante. A betting limit is decided. You can use money or tokens from games like Monopoly to represent money.

At the start of the game each player places his bet in the ante. Then the cards are dealt face down clockwise to the dealer.  The rest of the deck is placed in the middle of the table. Everyone looks at their cards and the first player calls out his or her bet. If no one makes a bet, the pot may be opened—which means the dealer makes the first bet. Players who do not want to make the opening bet can call check—which means the player wants to hang around for the rounds but does not want to make an opening bet.

If someone makes the opening bet, the other players have three options. You can “see” their bet or match their call.  When you “raise” the bet you increase the amount. If you fold, it means that you are giving up and must place your cards face down on the table. This means you lose the game early and retire.

Once the first round of betting is over, players are allowed to pick three cards from the pile and discard three unwanted cards. The discarded cards are placed face down and cannot be picked by other players. Once all players have picked new cards, the betting begins again. The game ends when there are no more raises because everyone has “seen” everyone’s bets or everybody folds except the winner.

Thereafter, everyone turns up their cards to see how they fared. The player with the highest hand wins the game.

Game Strategies

Bluff is to pretend that you have better cards than you really have.  The purpose is to scare other players and drive them to fold.  Aggressive play is to bet high early and force others to abandon their game. Conservative play is to bet cautiously and to fold if the cards are not favourable.