Learning to Play Poker in Minutes

The rules that have to be followed when playing poker vary a little bit depending on which variation of the game you are playing at the time. The variation of poker being played really matters very little as it does not change the rankings of the hands that will be dealt.

One someone decides that they want to learn how to play poker they need to make sure that they understand the deck of cards that is going to be used to play poker with. All poker decks will have 4 different suits in the deck. All of these different suits will have some kind of numerical value on it. The numerical values will be queen, king, jack, ace, and the numbered cards 2 through ten.

After one starts to play poker a bit they will see that the main objective is similar to the majority of other card games in that the object of the game is to have the cards in your hand beat the other players cards. The major difference being that in other cards games different hands will be given different strengths and different weaknesses. Lets do a rundown of the different strengths and weaknesses of poker hands.

Royal Flush: In poker there is not a hand that is higher then the royal flush. Since it is the highest hand it is also the hardest hand to get. Quite a few poker players will play their whole lives with never seeing this hand dealt to them. This hand consists of the ace down through the ten and all must be of the same suit.

The Straight Flush: The straight flush is different then the royal in that the numerical value of the cards does not have to be ace through ten. It does have to be 5 cards in order of the same suit though, and this hand is just beaten by the royal flush along with a higher straight flush of course.

A Full House: The full house consists of three cards of the same number along with two cards of the same number. An example of this would be jack, jack, jack, ten and ten. The full house is a very strong hand and is only beaten by a higher full house, straight flush and royal flush. While drawing this hand is not to uncommon don’t count on seeing full houses a lot.

The Straight: This hand will have five cards that are in numerical order and that can be any suit. It could look like 2 of diamonds, 3 of clubs, 5 of spades, 6 of diamonds, and 4 of hearts. The weakness or strength of the straight is determined by the highest numbered card in the straight and suit is not considered at all in this hand.

Flush: This hand has all five cards being the same suit. The numerical value only matters in this hand when two players are holding a flush and the winner will be determined by whose flush has the highest numerical value card in it.

Three of a kind: This hand is also referred to by poker players as trips or a set. This hand is pretty straight forward in that it consists of three cards consisting of the same numerical value.