Poker
Information
Poker is a family of card games
that share betting rules and usually (but not
always) hand rankings. Poker games differ in how
the cards are dealt, how hands may be formed,
whether the high or low hand wins the pot in a
showdown (in some games, the pot is split between
the high and low hands), limits on bets and how
many rounds of betting are allowed. In most modern
poker games, the first round of betting begins
with some form of forced bet. The action then
proceeds to the left. 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, increasing 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, 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 shown and the
winning hand takes the pot.[1]
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 is determined mostly by chance, the long-run
expectations of the players are determined by
their actions chosen based on probability and
psychology.
History
The history of poker is the subject of some debate.
One of the earliest known games to incorporate
betting, hand rankings, and bluffing was the 15th
century German game Pochspiel. Poker closely resembles
the Persian game of As Nas, though there is no
specific description of nas prior to 1890.[2]
In the 1937 edition of Foster's Complete Hoyle,
R. F. Foster wrote: "the game of poker, as
first played in the United States, five cards
to each player from a twenty-card pack, is undoubtedly
the Persian game of as nas."[3][4] By 1990s
some gaming historians including David Parlett
started to challenge the notion that poker is
a direct derivative of As Nas.[3] There is evidence
that a game called poque, a French game similar
to poker, was played around the region where poker
is said to have originated. The name of the game
likely descended from the Irish Poca (Pron. Pokah)
('Pocket') or even the French poque, which descended
from the German pochen ('to brag as a bluff' lit.
'to knock').[5] Yet it is not clear whether the
origins of poker itself lie with the games bearing
those names. It is commonly regarded as sharing
ancestry with the Renaissance game of primero
and the French brelan. The English game brag (earlier
bragg) clearly descended from brelan and incorporated
bluffing (though the concept was known in other
games by that time).[6] It is quite possible that
all of these earlier games influenced the development
of poker as it exists now.
Harry Truman's poker chipsA modern school of thought
rejects these ancestries,[7] as they focus on
the card play in poker, which is trivial and could
have been derived from any number of games or
made up on general cardplay principles.[8] The
unique features of poker have to do with the betting,
and do not appear in any known older game.[9]
In this view poker originated much earlier, in
the early or mid-1700s, and spread throughout
the Mississippi River region by 1800. It was played
in a variety of forms, with 52 cards, and included
both straight poker and stud. 20 card poker was
a variant for two players (it is a common English
practice to reduce the deck in card games when
there are fewer players).[10] The development
of poker is linked to the historical movement
that also saw the invention of commercial gambling.[1][11]
English actor Joseph Crowell reported
that the game was played in New Orleans 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).[12] During the American Civil War,
many additions were made including stud poker
(the five-card variant), 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).
The game and jargon of poker have
become important parts of American culture and
English culture. Such phrases and clichés
as ace in the hole, ace up one's sleeve, beats
me, blue chip, call one's bluff, cash in, high
roller, pass the buck, poker face, stack up, up
the ante, when the chips are down, wild card,
and others are used in everyday conversation,
even by those unaware of their origins at the
poker table.
Poker Room at the Trump Taj Mahal, Atlantic City,
New JerseyBeginning in 1970 a series of developments
led to poker becoming far more popular than it
was previously:
Modern tournament play became
popular in American casinos after the World Series
of Poker began, in 1970.[13] 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 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).
In the 1990s, poker and casino gambling spread
across the United States, most notably to Atlantic
City, New Jersey.[14]
In 1998, Planet Poker dealt the first real money
online poker game.
In 1999, Late Night Poker debuted on British television,
introducing poker for the first time to many Europeans.[15]
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 camera, which turned the game into a
spectator sport. Viewers could now follow the
action and drama of the game, and broadcasts of
poker tournaments such as the World Series of
Poker and the World Poker Tour brought in huge
audiences for cable and satellite TV distributors.
Because of the increasing coverage of poker events,
poker pros became celebrities, with poker fans
all over the world entering into expensive tournaments
for the chance to play with them. This increased
camera exposure also brings a new dimension to
the poker professional's game—the realization
that their actions may be aired later on TV.
Since 2003, major poker tournament
fields have grown dramatically, in part because
of the growing popularity of online satellite-qualifier
tournaments where the prize is an entry into a
major tournament. The 2003 and 2004 World Series
Of Poker champions, Chris Moneymaker and Greg
Raymer, respectively, won their seats to the main
event by winning online satellites.[16] After
the passage of the UIGEA in October 2006, attendance
at live tournaments as well as participation in
live and online cash games initially slowed, however
they are still growing and far more popular today
than they were prior to 2003. The growth and popularity
of poker can be seen in the WSOP which had a record
6,844 entrants to the main event.[17].
General rules
The following rules apply to the ranking of all
poker hands.
A hand always consists of five
cards. In games where more than five cards are
available to each player, the best five-card combination
of those cards must be played. Any cards not included
in the hand do not affect its ranking. For example,
if player A holds 3? Q? and player B holds 3?
A?, and five cards 4? 5? 6? 7? 10? are available
to both players, the players hold equally ranking
3-4-5-6-7 straights despite the fact that the
player B's ace ranks higher than the player A's
queen.
Individual cards are ranked A
(highest), K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2
(lowest). Aces can appear low when part of an
A-2-3-4-5 straight or straight flush. In the poker
variants ace-to-five and ace-to-six lowball, the
ace only plays low, and only plays high in deuce-to-seven
lowball. Individual card ranks are used to rank
hands that are in the same rank category.
The suits of the cards are used
to determine whether a hand forms a flush or straight
flush. In most variants, suits do not have an
associated value, and play no part in determining
the ranking of a hand. Sometimes a ranking called
high card by suit is used for randomly selecting
a player to deal. Low card by suit usually determines
the bring-in better in stud games.
Hands are ranked first by category,
then by individual card ranks; even the lowest
hand that qualifies in a certain category defeats
all hands in all lower categories. For example,
2? 2? 3? 3? 4?, the lowest-valued two pair hand,
defeats all hands with just one pair or high card
(such as A? A? K? Q? J?). Only between two hands
in the same category are card ranks used to break
ties.
A poker hand has the same hand
ranking regardless of the order in which it is
arranged by the deal, by a description, or by
a picture. So a hand arranged as 10? 8? 10? 6?
10? is ranked the same as 10? 10? 10? 8? 6? even
though in the first hand the three of a kind is
not immediately obvious.
If there are multiple hands of
the same rank at the showdown, the pot is divided
equally between the winning players.
There are 311 875 200 ways (5-permutations)
of being dealt five cards from a 52 card deck,[Note
1] but since the order of cards does not matter,
there are 5! = 120 5-permutations giving any one
hand, so there are only possible distinct hands.
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