Casino Poker Instruction
Casino Instruction explains the rules of Poker and the strategy you should follow for the best success. Poker has become the hottest casino game played over the last few years. It is different then other casino games in that you are actually playing against other players and not against the casino.
If you play poker, or want to play free poker, you can do so at Full Tilt Poker where they also have the best poker bonus:
Playing Poker
Poker’s popularity continues to climb. Players bet on the value of their hand by placing chips into the pot. The winner is the player with the best hand based on hand rankings or if that player is the last one in the hand if everyone else has folded out.
Poker is not a single game, but a name referring to a collection of card games.
Poker games are played with concealed cards, so that only the player knows exactly what his hand is. Many of the games involve community cards that can be used by everyone in the game in addition to their own personal concealed cards to make the best five-card hand.
In the casino or when you play poker, the house has a dealer which runs the game as efficiently and fairly as possible, but has no vested interested in who wins. They rake a few dollars out of every pot regardless of whom or how much is won.
The dealer button symbolizes who the dealer is and where the cards begin being dealt from and this button rotates clockwise around the table each hand. This also determines the order of betting throughout the hand.
In community card games like Texas Hold’em and Omaha, forced bets take place before the hand is dealt to the two players to the left of the dealer. These forced bets are called the blinds, small blind and big blind. In other games like Seven Card Stud, all players usually ante a small amount to build a pot before play begins.
The initial deal takes place and the first of several betting rounds occurs. After the betting round, all bets are gathered into the central pot.
Next, the players’ hands develop by adding additional cards such as community cards in flop games. Another round of betting takes place, then additional cards, and this continues for 4-5 total betting rounds depending on the game.
During a betting round, if a player makes a bet, opponents have to choice to fold their hand and give up, call the bet, or raise and make the bet bigger.
If nobody calls the bet, the hand ends and the better wins the pot without having to show his hand. This allows for the possibility of a player to bluff their way to winning the pot. Bluffing is what makes poker special, it is the act of betting with a weak hand hoping that opponents all fold allowing the bluffer to win a pot that he or she did not have a good enough hand to have won otherwise in a showdown.
After the last betting round, is the showdown, which is when the players reveal their concealed cards and all hands are evaluated to see who has the best hand, that player wins the entire pot.
Forms of Poker
Draw Poker: where players each receive five concealed cards. After a betting round, players can choose to replace one or more of these cards. The number of times this occurs depends on the game being played.
Texas Holdem Poker: Each player is dealt two cards and five community cards are used to make the best possible hand.
Omaha Poker: Each Player is dealt four cards and like Texas Holdem, they use five community cards to make their best hand. The big difference between Omaha and Texas Holdem is that in Omaha, a player must use 2 cards from his hand and three from the board to make his best 5 card hand. On the other hand, in Holdem, a player can use 0, 1, or both of his hole cards to make his best hand.
Stud Poker: Players start with a couple of concealed cards and one face up card, after each betting round an additional face up card is dealt to each player. Usually the final card for each player is dealt concealed to the player.
Poker Strategy
Of all casino games, poker is by far the most complex, most challenging, and most exciting. The amount of strategy involved is much greater then other games because of the many variations of poker games, the complexity of playing against a table of other players, and tough decisions as to when to fold, call, raise or bluff.
The best place to learn how to play poker for free is at Full Tilt Poker or Pokerstars. Both of these poker rooms offer great sign up bonuses, safe and secure play, exciting big prize pool poker tournaments, and variable stakes from free play to tables in excess of $100 per bet. For a complete review of poker rooms, check out Google Holdem.
Another great resource to learn the rules and strategy is from a World Series of Poker champion, Brett ‘gank’ Jungblut, who teaches how to play the different games at his Pro Poker School. Pro Poker School uses video and audio to explain the different poker games and the tactics, strategy, and style to have success playing poker