The foundation and key to success of mastering any skill is to learn basics, whether we’re talking about macrame, or much more excitedly, poker. The game is one of a kind (or is that two of a kind?) which – after the luck of the draw, relies most heavily on strategy in order to rack in the wins.
Below, we’ll cover those all-important poker basics including winning poker hands. This primer will give players the necessary foundation to successfully and eventually evolve into poker pros. Hey, even Phil Ivey had to start somewhere…
Before we jump into those poker basics, though, we thought we’d round up some of the best online poker rooms that you can practice and play at. At any of these poker rooms,you can access poker lessons by some of poker’s best players, learn top poker strategy skills, play and follow poker tournaments, cover poker tours and circuits (WSOP, PokerStars, APPT, WPT, etc), chat with poker pros, and more importantly, play your heart out. As well, these top-rated poker rooms offer up great benefits, including hefty poker welcome bonuses for signing up, promotions, and much more.
Going to these online poker rooms will be kind of like a really fun pop quiz after you’ve run through the poker basics further down. The kind of pop quiz where you stand to make some bank.
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Bodog |
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PokerStars |
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Cake Poker |
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Ultimate Bet |
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Full Tilt |
All of the online poker rooms above are top-notch and leaders in the industry. Whether you’re a poker beginner or poker pro, each of these online poker rooms will cater to your every skill level.
As promised, let’s cover some poker basics:
The playing cards in Poker are ranked from high to low, with Aces always high, with King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, and 2 following.
The object of poker is to end up with the highest-valued hand. Below is a listing of poker winning hands, in order from best to last:
The hardest hand to achieve is the Royal Flush, which is hand all of the same suit, consisting of 10, Jack, Queen, King and Ace, all of the same suit.
A Straight Flush consists of five cards in numerical order and of the same suit.
In the event that there are <em>two</em> straight flushes, then whoever has the hand that has the highest card value wins.
Four of a Kind is a hand that contains four cards of the same numerical rank. Again, if there are two or more Four of a Kind hands at the table, the hand with the highest-ranking Four of a Kind grouping wins. For example, a Four of a Kind hand of 6s loses to a Four of a Kind hand of 8s.
If your hand consists of three with the same number value, and two with the same number value, you have a full house.
A Flush consists of a hand of five cards all of the same suit.
A Straight is a hand of five cards in numerical order.
A Three of a Kind is a hand that consists of three cards of the same numerical value, with two random non-paired cards,
A hand that consists of two sets of pairs.
Consists of one pair and three random cards.
In the event that none of the poker players have hand of value listed above, then the player holding the highest-valued card wins. This is known as a “High Card” winning hand.
