HE has the perfect poker face, remembers each card, calculates all the odds and can think 20 moves ahead.

There are many types of poker games. While poker was originally played with each player receiving five cards and only one betting round, it has expanded to include hundreds of variants. Currently, the most popular one is Texas Hold’em, but other variants are very popular.

Here are some common rule variations:

1. High-low split: the highest and lowest hands split the pot. Generally there is a qualifier for the low hand. For example, the low hand must have 5 cards with ranks of 8 or less. In most high-low games the usual rank of poker hands is observed, so that an unsuited broken straight (7-5-4-3-2) wins low (see Morehead, Official Rules of Card Games). In a variant, based on Lowball, where only the low hand wins, a straight or a flush does not matter for a low hand. So the best low hand is 5-4-3-2-A, suited or not.

2. Players can pass cards to each other. An example of this would be Anaconda.

3. ‘Kill game’. When a fixed limit game is played and a player wins two pots in a row, the stakes are doubled.

4. Wild cards are added. This can range from simply making deuces wild to the wild 7-stud variant of baseball.

5. A twist round in which players can buy another card from the deck. If a player does not like their card, they can purchase another one by adding money to the pot. This is sometimes called a “Tittle.”

6. A stripped deck may be used. Poker was first played with only 20 cards. In the spirit of poker history, players will sometimes only play with a stripped deck. A popular poker game in Spain is played with cards 8-A. It is played similar to hold’em, except that one card is dealt at a time and you must use both of your hole cards.

7. Each player is dealt a certain amount of cards. Then there is usually a number of community cards that all players can use. When forming a poker hand a player may use cards from his hand and the “community cards”. Examples of community card poker include Texas hold ‘em and Omaha hold ‘em

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

Set of 52 French style playing cards with two jokers

A playing card is a typically hand-sized rectangular (in India, round) piece of heavy paper or thin plastic used for playing card games. A complete set of cards is a pack or deck. Playing cards are often used as props in magic tricks, as well as occult practices such as cartomancy, and a number of card games involve (or can be used to support) gambling. As a result, their use sometimes meets with disapproval from some religious groups (such as conservative Christians). They are also a popular collectible (as distinct from the cards made specifically for collectible trading card games). Specialty and novelty decks are commonly produced for collectors, often with political, cultural, or educational themes. One side of each card (the “front” or “face”) carries markings that distinguish it from the others and determine its use under the rules of the particular game being played, while the other side (the “back”) is identical for all cards, usually a plain color or abstract design. In most games, the cards are assembled into a “deck” (or “pack”), and their order is randomized by a procedure called “shuffling” to provide an element of chance in the game.

Some typical Anglo-American playing cards from the Bicycle brand

Reference

• Parlett, David. The Oxford Guide to Card Games. 1990. ISBN 0-19-214165-1.

Paul Cézanne – The Card Players, 1895

Links

References and further information

• Information on card games at www.pagat.com
• Online Tarot and Playing Card Museum
• Playing Cards Online
• Names of the court cards
• History of the design of the court cards
• Courts on playing cards
• Andy’s Playing Cards
• Manchester University research

Major manufacturers

• Carta Mundi
• United States Playing Card Company

Resources

• Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) playing cards. Licensed under the LGPL

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

Poker is going head to head with religion at this weekend’s Conservative Political Action Conference. For the first time, the superstars of the pro card-playing circuit have a booth at the annual gathering.

A poker tournament with rich rock legends?!? Perfect! Deal us in! Anthrax guitarist and professional poker player Scott Ian has teamed up with online poker website UltimateBet to host an exclusive online tournament, “Scott Ian’s Home Game.” Metallica’s Kirk Hammett, former Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash, Pantera’s Vinnie Paul, and Alice in Chains’ Jerry Cantrell are all in on the game, …

A man who went to Oxfordshire’s police headquarters to report a burglary says he was stunned when he was asked if he was there to play poker.

The game of poker as played today requires that players agree before play on allowable amounts for betting (called limits), and the use and amount of forced bets. These are collectively called the betting structure of the game.

The betting structure of a poker game is a more significant factor in its balance of luck and skill than the game variant being played. Higher forced bets and smaller limits increase the influence of chance. Smaller forced bets and larger limits increase the element of skill. Good games are carefully balanced so that skillful players will win in the long run while recreational players can win often enough for the game to be exciting to them.

The reason that higher forced bets with smaller limits increases the luck factor is simple enough. With a lot of money in the pot due to the antes, the small forced bet is getting high odds – it is, therefore, worthwhile calling with any hand.

For example, in Texas Hold ‘em, suppose the antes are $10 per player, and the blinds are at $5 and $10. With nine players the pot is $105 before the first player to act has to decide whether or not to call the $10 big blind. That first player is getting odds of 10.5 to 1 on a call – this makes any hand worth playing.

Consequently, various skills such as hand selection and reading player’s hands are reduced in value and the game becomes a dice-shoot.

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

Video: Poker Betting guide. Free hold em betting tips,poker betting

The 30-year-old professional poker player had previously been described by investigators as a ‘person of interest’ in the brutal beating of his parents.

Celebrities who play poker:

Robbie Williams has been spending his free time playing poker, since coming back to the UK.

Pokerspecs are a new design of sunglasses, invented by Graham Hiew, and made especially for poker players. They débuted at the World Poker Series in July 2005. Pokerspecs work by tilting the lenses so that a poker player is able to see his cards, but not reveal his eyes to his opponents.

Links

• The Official Pokerspecs Website

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

North Carolina’s brief foray into video poker brought on charges of corruption and influence-peddling, years of acrid debate and culminated in machines being banned and a sheriff landing in prison. Now, after many thought the gambling issue had finally faded away, it’s emerging again amid legal uncertainty. A judge’s decision this week to strike down North Carolina’s ban on video poker machines …

dark

Describing an action taken before receiving information to which the player would normally be entitled. I’m drawing three, and I check in the dark.

dead blind

A blind that is not “live”, in that the player posting it does not have the option to raise if other players just call. Rarely used.

dead button

A dealer button placed in a position where there is no player. This occurs in some casinos when the player who would otherwise be entitled to the button leaves the game (other casinos move the button forward to the next player). This occurs frequently during poker tournaments, due to player elimination.

dead hand

A player’s hand that is not entitled to participate in the deal for some reason, such as having been fouled by touching another player’s cards, being found to contain the wrong number of cards, being dealt to a player who did not make the appropriate forced bets, etc.

dead man’s hand

A dead man’s hand is the famous hand Wild Bill Hickok was holding when he was shot and killed in 1877, consisting of a pair of aces and a pair of eights of the black suits (spades and clubs); but often refers to any two pairs of aces and eights.

dead money

1. Money placed into a pot that does not represent equal bets and calls by active players in the pot. This can be the earlier bets of players who have folded, or money placed in the pot before the deal.
2. By extension, it is used as a derogatory term for money put in play by unskilled players who are legally eligible, but unlikely, to win it back. Can also refer to the player: Let’s play that stud game–Joe and Diane are dead money.

deadwood

The muck.

deal

1. To distribute cards to players in accordance with the rules of the game being played.
2. A single instance of a game of poker, begun by shuffling the cards and ending with the award of a pot. Also called a “hand” (though both terms are ambiguous).
3. An agreement to split tournament prize money differently from the announced payouts.

dealer

The person dealing the cards, or the person who assumes that role for the purposes of betting order in a game, even though someone else might be physically dealing. In the latter case, that player is often marked with a button, and may be called “the button”.

dealer’s choice

A version of poker in which the deal passes each game and each dealer can choose, or invent, a new poker game each hand.

declare

To verbally indicate an action or intention.

decloak

To raise after having sandbagged for a time (making it clear that you were, in fact, sandbagging).

deep

Describing a large amount of money, either in play or having been lost. How deep are you? (meaning “How much money do you have”, in anticipation of making a very large bet). I won that large pot, but I’m in much deeper than that.

defense

1. Playing to minimize investment or loss rather than maximize a win; for example, with a drawing hand that is risky but that you think should call an opponent’s bet, you might make a smaller “defensive bet” yourself that you think your opponent will just call, rather than checking and calling a larger bet, or showing weakness.
2. Occasionally calling with weak hands to discourage opponents from bullying, especially when in the blinds.

deuce

1. A 2-spot card.
2. Any of various related uses of the number two, such as a $2 limit game, a $2 chip, etc.

deuce-to-seven

A method of evaluating low hands.

discard

To take a previously dealt card out of play. The set of all discards for a deal is called the “muck” or the “deadwood”.

dog

Underdog; that is, a player with a smaller chance to win than another specified player. Frequently used when the exact odds are expressed. Harry might have been bluffing, but if he really had the king, my hand was a 4-to-1 dog, so I folded.

dominated hand

A hand that is extremely unlikely to win against another specific hand, even though it may not be a poor hand in its own right. Most commonly used in Texas hold ‘em. A hand like A-Q, for example, is a good hand in general but is dominated by A-K, because whenever the former makes a good hand, the latter is likely to make a better one. A hand like 7-8 is a poor hand in general, but is not dominated by A-K because it makes different kinds of hands.

donation

A call made by a player who fully expects to lose; made either out of boredom or irrational optimism.

donk, donkey

Epithet for an inexperienced, unskilled, or foolish poker player. I played that hand like a donkey.

donk (verb)

To play a hand poorly. I donked off 15 bucks on that last hand.

door card

1. In a stud game, a player’s first face-up card. Patty paired her door card on fifth street and raised, so I put her on trips.
2. Window card.

double-ace flush

Under unconventional rules, a flush with one or more wild cards in which they play as aces, even if an ace is already present.

double-board, double-flop

Any of several community card game variants (usually Texas hold ‘em) in which two separate boards of community cards are dealt simultaneously, with the pot split between the winning hands using each board.

double-draw

Any of several Draw poker games in which the draw phase and subsequent betting round are repeated twice.

double gutter, double belly buster

In games involving six or more cards, a draw to a straight that can be filled by two ranks, but that is not an open-ender. For example, K-J-10-9-7, which can become a straight with any Q or 8.

double through, double up

In a big bet game, to bet all of one’s chips on one hand against a single opponent (who has an equal or larger stack) and win, thereby doubling your stack. I was losing a bit, but then I doubled through Sarah to put me in good shape.

downcard

A card that is dealt facedown.

down to the felt

All in, or having lost all of one’s money. Refers to the green felt surface of a poker table no longer obscured by chips.

drag light

To pull chips away from the pot to indicate that you don’t have enough money to cover the bet. If you win, the amount is ignored. If you lose, you must cover the amount from your pocket.

draw

1. Draw poker.
2. To replace one or more cards in one’s hand with new ones from the deck stub, as in draw poker.
3. The act of staying in a hand in hopes of improving, usually to a straight or flush–on a draw.
4. A drawing hand.

drawing hand

In any game, an incomplete hand which is not likely to win unless future cards, received by whatever means the game specifies, improve it. For example, having four club-suited cards but no pair in a stud game, hoping that one of the cards to come will be a fifth club, making a flush.

drawing dead

Playing a drawing hand that will lose even if successful (a state of affairs usually only discovered after the fact). I caught the jack to make my straight, but Rob had a full house all along, so I was drawing dead.

drawing live

Not drawing dead; that is, drawing to a hand that will win if successful.

drawing thin

Not drawing completely dead, but chasing a draw in the face of poor odds. Example: a player who will only win by catching 1 or 2 specific cards is said to be drawing thin.

drink pot

A pot won by a player with the agreement that drinks will be bought from the proceeds.

drop

1. To fold.
2. Money charged by the casino for providing its services, often dropped through a slot in the table into a strong box.
3. To drop ones cards to the felt to indicate that one is in or out of a game like guts.

dry pot

A side pot with no money. Created when a player goes all in and is called by more than one opponent, but not raised. Bluffing into a dry pot is a play that cannot possibly earn a profit, so doing so is considered foolish. It may also be unethical, because it serves to protect the all-in player at the expense of the bettor and the other players, and so is a form of collusion.

dump, dumped

To lose a large quantity of ones stack to another player on a particular hand or set of hands in short succession. I dumped half my stack to John after he cracked my Kings.

duplicate

To counterfeit, especially when the counterfeiting card matches one already present in the one’s hand.

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

PLEASANTVILLE, S.C., Feb. 20 (UPI) — A judge in South Carolina says five people caught playing poker in a private house must pay what they owe in fines for violating state gambling laws.

Whitehall officials last night reaffirmed their opposition to plans by Governor Ed Rendell to legalize video poker machines in business establishments having liquor licenses in response to a request from a local business owner who asked that they change their minds on the issue.