In poker, a drawing hand is a hand that is not yet “complete”; that is, one which does not yet rank highly, but which may do later, depending on what cards a player receives. This contrasts with a “made hand” – a hand which is already somewhat strong.
An illustrative example from Texas Hold ‘em: if Alice holds A♣ K♣, Bob holds 6♦ 7♦, and the flop comes 5♠ 8♠ K♥, then Alice has a fairly strong “made hand” (a pair of Kings, with an Ace kicker), while Bob has a drawing hand: an open-ended straight draw. If allowed to see the final two community cards, Bob can expect to catch a 4 or a 9 (thus completing his straight and winning) about a third of the time.
Whether to continue with a drawing hand is usually a function of pot odds and implied odds. Typically, if a player with a strong “made hand” suspects another player of being “on a draw”, the player with the made hand will make a strong bet, so that it is mathematically incorrect for the other player to “chase”.
The World Poker Tour (WPT) is a collection of poker tournaments featuring most of the world’s professional players. It was started by attorney/television producer Stephen Lipscomb who now serves as CEO of WPT Enterprises (WPTE), the firm that controls the World Poker Tour.
The tour had its debut season in the latter part of 2002 and early part of 2003, climaxing with the WPT Championship in April 2003 at the Bellagio Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. The first season aired on the Travel Channel on American cable television in the spring of 2003. The show made its network debut on February 1, 2004 on NBC with a special “Battle Of Champions” tournament, which aired against CBS coverage of the Super Bowl XXXVIII pre-game show.
The World Poker Tour is a collection of Texas hold ‘em poker tournaments held internationally and on board cruise ships, but mainly in the United States. The television show has led to a boom in the table game across American homes, local casinos and poker rooms, and online. It is perhaps not surprising, therefore, that the key sponsors of the tour are casinos and online poker sites. The show, which is syndicated internationally, is co-hosted by World Series of Poker winner Mike Sexton, and actor Vince Van Patten. Former model Shana Hiatt served as the show host and sideline reporter in its first three seasons. Former newscaster Courtney Friel took over the host role for the fourth season in 2005-06.
First exemplified by the long-running World Series of Poker main event, a poker tournament gives each player an equal amount of chips to start, with colors representing different values. Play continues, typically over several days until one player has acquired all of the chips. When that occurs, that player has won the game and captures the grand prize, approximately 30-35% of the total prize pool. The resulting winner’s check can exceed one million dollars. All other competitors finish with no chips, but win a portion of the prize pool according to the order in which they left the tournament. The last player to lose all of his chip-stack finishes in 2nd position, typically worth approximately 20% of the prize pool.
The drawing power of the WPT, like any poker tournament, is that anyone who can pay the “buy-in” (an entry fee usually worth a few thousand dollars) or win a “satellite” tournament is able to compete against the top professional players, such as Phil Hellmuth, Doyle Brunson, or the top 2004 tournament money and multi-WPT tournament winner, Daniel Negreanu.
Fans of the show find it interesting due to technical innovations such as the ability to see the players’ hole cards through a small camera in front of them on the poker table (an innovation first seen on the UK programme Late Night Poker). Due to the success of the show, special programs, such as the “Hollywood Home Game”, featuring celebrities playing for charity, and “Ladies Night”, where six of the top women played against each other, were developed.
In 2004 the World Poker Tour created a Walk of Fame, inducting poker legends Doyle Brunson and Gus Hansen as well as actor James Garner.
Now in its fourth season of broadcast, it still remains among the highest rated television programs on cable. It airs Wednesdays on the Travel Channel. The first three seasons of WPT are also available on NTSC DVD. (The second season DVD set features audio commentary by several of the players. The third season is only available in a “Best Of” format, featuring just half of the episodes.)
A series of spin-off tournaments, titled the Professional Poker Tour, began filming in 2004. No episodes have as yet been broadcast, partly due to a dispute with the Travel Channel over rights. In the fall of 2005, WPTE announced that “a cable channel” (believed to be ESPN) had withdrawn from bidding for the PPT series, and that WPTE was negotiating with the Travel Channel to air the series.
In 2008, the WPT started offering bracelets to its event champions. Players who won a title prior to the release of the bracelet, were given one retroactively.
Player of the Year
Points are awarded for all Open events as follows:
This award is given out to one player per season. The winners so far are:
Season 1: Howard Lederer
Season 2: Erick Lindgren
Season 3: Daniel Negreanu
Season 4: Gavin Smith
Season 5: J. C. Tran
Season 6: Jonathan Little
Season 7: Bertrand Grospellier
Below are the World Poker Tour events that have broken the record for the first prize.
Like any event or sports league, the WSOP also has corporate sponsors and licensed products, which like any leagues or events, pay fees to market themselves as an official sponor and/or licensee and exclusively use the WSOP insigina and cross-promote with their events. Besides the Harrah’s properties and ESPN, major sponsors have included Miller Brewing’s “Milwaukee’s Best” brand of beers, Pepsi’s SoBe Adreneline Rush energy drink (sponsors of the 2005 TOC), Helene Curtis’ Degree brand of anti-perspirant/deodorant, Card Player magazine, and GlaxoSmithKline/Bayer’s Levitra erectile dysfunction medicine are all official corporate sponsors. Licensees include Activision (video games for different plaforms such as Nintendo’s GameCube, Microsoft’s Xbox, Sony’s PlayStation 2 and PC featuring computer generated versions of stars like Ferguson among others), and products made by different companies ranging from chip sets, playing cards, hand held games and clothing like caps and shirts. The fees and licences bring in over a million dollars to Harrah’s.
The main event
The main event of the WSOP is the $10,000 buy-in no-limit Texas Hold ‘Em tournament. Winners of the event not only get the largest prize of the tournament and golden bracelet, but additionally their picture is placed into the Gallery of Champions at Binion’s.
There have been many memorable events during the WSOP, including Jack Straus’s 1982 comeback win after discovering he had one $500 chip left when he thought he was out of the tournament.
A few players have won the WSOP multiple times, including Stu Ungar who won in 1980, 1981 and 1997. Ungar had a drug problem that spanned decades, which makes his 1997 win all the more amazing. Since Ungar had no money to enter the tournament in 1997, his friend and six-time WSOP bracelet winner Billy Baxter gave him the entrance fee. Ungar split the $1,000,000 prize evenly with Baxter.
Johnny Chan won back to back in 1987 and 1988. Chan finished 2nd in 1989 to the youngest WSOP main event winner of all time, Phil Hellmuth. The final hand of the 1988 event between Chan and Erik Seidel would later be featured in the movie Rounders.
Chris Moneymaker won the main event in 2003 after qualifying through a $39 satellite tournament at the PokerStars online cardroom. Four players at the final table of the 2004 main event qualified through PokerStars as well, including the winner, Greg Raymer and second place finisher David Williams. In 2005, eventual champion Joseph Hachem entered the old fashioned way: with the $10,000 buy-in. After winning, he signed a contract to act as a representative of PokerStars also.
It may be that winning the WSOP makes legends out of people, but some living poker legends have tried unsuccessfully for years to win the main event, including: T. J. Cloutier (2000 and 1985 runner-up), Erik Seidel (1988 runner-up), Dave “Devilfish” Ulliott, Barry Greenstein, Men “The Master” Nguyen, and Howard Lederer.
One of the most popular games in Australian casinos is a Texas hold ‘em variant called “Manila” (also called “Seven-up” in some places). It is played with a Stripped deck in which all cards below the rank of
are removed (leaving 32 cards). Each player is dealt two private cards, and a single community card is dealt face up, followed by the first betting round. Then a second community card is followed by a second round, a third community card and a third round, and fourth community card and a fourth round, and finally a fifth community card, fifth betting round, and showdown. On showdown, unlike Texas hold ‘em (and more like Omaha), each player makes the best hand he can from both of his hole cards with exactly three of the five community cards.
Because of the stripped deck, a flush beats a full house. Also, an ace may not be played low for a straight (that is, the hand A-7-8-9-10 is not a straight in Manila). Manila and its variants are rarely played high-low split (in fact, very few stripped deck games are ever played low).
Common variations involve dealing three cards to each player, one of which can either be discarded at some point (like Pineapple, above), or else held to the end, but maintaining the requirement that each player play exactly two of his own cards with exactly three of the board. The three-card variant is sometimes played with s being restored to the deck, making it 36 cards.
Just as Oxford stud is a mixed stud/community card version of Texas hold ‘em, Billabong is a mixed version of Manila. Each player is dealt two downcards and one upcard. Low upcard starts the betting with a Bring-in if you are playing with one, otherwise high card starts the betting. Next, two community cards are dealt, followed by a second betting round, beginning with the player with the best exposed partial poker hand (counting the community cards, as in Oxford stud). Then a third community card is dealt, followed by a third betting round. Finally a fourth community card and fourth betting round and showdown. Each player plays the best five-card hand he can make from the three in his hand plus the four on the board in any combination.
Shanghai is the same game with an extra hole card, but no more than two hole cards play. That is, the game begins with each player being dealt three downcards and one upcard; each player must discard one of his hole cards at some point during the game as determined ahead of time. The most common variation is to discard immediately as in Pineapple; the second most common is to discard just before showdown as in Tahoe.
A chip race is an event that takes place in poker tournaments, especially those with an escalating blinds (such as Texas hold ‘em), in which chips of denominations that are no longer needed (as the current and upcoming blinds are more easily played with larger chip values) are removed from play. This has the effect of reducing the number of physical chips in front of any player, and makes it easier for the players to count their stacks and their bets.
In a typical chip race:
All players color up their lesser-valued chips into greater denominations. For example, if the blinds have increased to a level where $5 chips are no longer needed to post blinds, each five $5 chips will be exchanged for a $25 chip. Players will temporarily keep any leftover chips that cannot be fully colored up to larger chips (less than 5 $5 chips in the above example).
All leftover chips are counted, and equivalent chips in the larger denomination are presented to the table. Continuing the example, if there are 15 $5 chips remaining among 6 players, 3 $25 chips are prepared. In the event the remaining smaller chips do not add up to a whole larger chip, an extra larger chip should be added as long as the leftover smaller chips total more than half a single larger chip.
Each player with leftover chips in the smaller denomination will receive one card for each chip. The cards are typically dealt face up, starting from the small blind position for the upcoming hand. Each player due to receive cards will receive all of his cards before the next player, rather than a “traditional” card deal; the player on the little blind, for example, who is due to receive three cards for his three chips, will receive all three of his cards before the big blind receives any.
The larger chips are issued to the players with the highest single cards showing (poker hands do not count). No player is issued more than one chip. Ties (cards of the same rank) are broken by suit, using the same bridge (ascending alphabetical) order of the suits: Spades are highest, followed by Hearts, Diamonds, and Clubs. All remaining lesser-value chips are removed from play.
A chip race cannot eliminate a player from the game. In the event a player’s last smaller-denomination chips are removed from play as part of the chip race, he automatically gets one colored up chip if one is available. Any leftover colored up chips go to the winner(s) of the chip race as described above.
Another variant of Texas hold ‘em that is quite popular and complex is Omaha hold’em. Briefly, each player is dealt four cards to his private hand instead of two. The betting rounds and layout of community cards are identical. At showdown, each player’s hand is the best five-card hand he can make from exactly three of the five cards on the board, plus exactly two of his own cards. Unlike Texas hold ‘em, a player cannot play only one of his cards with four of the board, nor can he play the board, nor play three from his hand and two from the board, or any other combination. Each player must play exactly two of his own cards with exactly three of the community cards.
The most popular form of the game is high-low split, called “Omaha/8 or better”, or just “Omaha/8″. Each player, using the above rules, makes a separate five-card high hand and five-card low hand, and the pot is split between the high and low (which may be the same player). To qualify for low, a player must be able to play an 8-7-6-5-4 or lower. A few casinos play with a 9-low qualifier instead, but this is rare. This game is generally played at fixed limit.
When high hands only are used, the game is generally called “Omaha high” to avoid ambiguity. This game plays particularly well at pot limit, called “PLO”.
Another variant is to deal each player five cards instead of four. The same rules apply for showdown: each player must use two of his cards with three of the community cards.
In the game of “Courcheval”, popular in Europe, instead of betting on the initial four cards and then flopping three community cards for the second round, the first community card is dealt before the first betting round, so that each player has four private cards and the single community card on his first bet. Then two more community cards are dealt, and play proceeds exactly as in Omaha.
This is the most popular community card game today. Each player is dealt two private cards, after which there is a betting round. Then three community cards are dealt face up (in no particular order or pattern), followed by a second betting round. A fourth community card is followed by a third betting round, a fifth community card and the fourth and final betting round. At showdown, each player plays the best five-card hand he can make using any five cards among the two in his hand and the five on the board.
Texas hold ‘em does not play well high-low split (Omaha hold’em is probably the best high-low community card game). It plays very well at no limit, and in fact the “main event” of the World Series of Poker, the tournament generally considered to be the world championship of the game of poker, is the $10,000 entry no limit Texas hold ‘em event.
Pineapple (and Crazy Pineapple, Tahoe)
These are variants of Texas hold ‘em in which each player is initially dealt three cards instead of two. In Pineapple, each player then immediately discards one of the three cards he is dealt, and the game proceeds exactly as in Texas hold ‘em. In Crazy Pineapple, the players discard their third card after the second betting round, before the fourth community card is dealt. In Tahoe, players keep all three cards through showdown, but may not use all three of them to make a hand—each player may use none, one, or two cards from his hand, combined with those on the board, to make his final five-card hand.
Crazy Pineapple and Tahoe are often played high-low split, and play reasonably well that way, though plain Pineapple does not.
Double-board hold’em
A split-pot variant that can be applied to many games (but that is generally only applied to normal hold’em) is “double-board”. For double-board hold’em, two separate five-card boards are dealt, and the high hand using each board takes half of the pot. For example, after the first betting round, three community cards are dealt to each of two separate boards; after the second round, another community card is dealt to each board; and before the final round, a fifth community card is dealt to each board (so there will be in total ten community cards, comprising two separate five-card hold’em boards).
This variant of Texas Hold’em is sometimes called “double-flop hold’em”, which is a bit of a misnomer, since there are not just two flops, but also two turns and two rivers.
Probably starting about the time of World War II, many modern poker games used community cards (also called “shared cards” or “widow cards”), which are cards dealt face up to the center of the table and shared by all players. In these games, each player is dealt privately an incomplete hand (“hole cards”), which is then combined with the community cards to make a complete hand. The set of community cards is called the “board” or the “widow”, and may be dealt in a simple line or arranged in a special pattern; rules of each game determine how they may be combined with each player’s private hand.
The canonical community card game today is probably Texas hold ‘em (and variants thereof), originating sometime in the 1920s. That game is described in great detail in its own article, while most of the descriptions below are brief and refer to that more detailed article (a few other games merit their own article as well, such as Omaha hold’em).
In home games, it is typical to use antes, while casinos typically use only blinds for these games. Fixed limit games are most common in casinos, while spread limit games are more common in home games. No limit and pot limit games are less common, but some games play particularly well with those structures. As with stud poker, later betting rounds often have a higher limit than earlier betting rounds. Each betting round begins with the player to the dealer’s left (when blinds are used, the first round begins with the player after the big blind), so community card games are generally positional games.
Most community card games do not play well with lowball hand values, though some do play very well at high-low split, especially with ace-to-five low values, making it possible to win both halves of a pot. When played high-low split, there is generally a minimum qualifying hand for low (often 8-high), and it is played cards speak.
The game of poker has many variations, most of them created in the United States in the mid-1900s. The standard order of play applies to most of these games, but to fully specify a poker game requires details about which hand values are used, the number of betting rounds, and exactly what cards are dealt and what other actions are taken between rounds. Any game may also use any betting structure.
They can be divided into the following groups:
Draw poker: Games in which players are dealt a complete hand, hidden, and then improve it by replacing cards. The most common of these is Five-card draw.
Stud poker: Games in which each player receives a combination of face-up cards and face-down cards in multiple betting rounds. The most common of these are Seven-card stud and Five-card stud.
Community card poker: Games in which each player’s incomplete hidden hand is combined with shared face-up cards. The most common of these is Texas hold ‘em and Omaha hold’em.
Miscellaneous poker: Other games, or hybrids of the foregoing games.
It is not uncommon for players in home games to invent ad-hoc variants during a playing session. Such games rarely achieve the popularity of the well-known variants, for the good reason that the well-known variants have been selected for playability over many years. “Playability” varies with the players, though, so it is quite common for a single group of players with shared tastes to become accustomed to one of these variants. When joining an established group as a new player, it is important to fully understand the rules of any such game that they commonly play.
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.
While some tournaments offer a mix of games, like H.O.R.S.E. events which combine Hold’em, Omaha, Razz, Stud and Stud Eight or Better and Dealer’s Choice events, at which one may choose from a similar menu of games, most tournaments feature one form of stud or community card poker, such as seven-card stud, seven card high-low stud, Omaha Hold ‘em or Texas Hold ‘em. Both Omaha and Texas Hold’em tournaments are commonly offered in fixed-limit, pot limit, and no limit forms.
Tournament venues
Informal tournaments can be organized by a group of friends; for example, most colleges feature poker tournaments. Casinos and online gaming sites often offer daily tournaments.
However, these are not the only venues. Several World Poker Tour venues are cruise ships at sea. The 2005 World Series of Poker primarily took place in the conference hall of the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas.
Major tournaments
The two largest and most well-known tournaments are the World Poker Tour championship event and the World Series of Poker, held at Binion’s Horseshoe casino in Las Vegas. The World Series has traditionally been featured on ESPN.
The 2005 World Series of Poker was the first held outside of Binion’s Horseshoe Casino, though the final few days of the main event were held in the legendary Benny’s Bullpen. Future tournaments will be held at one of the Harrah’s Entertainment properties; 2005 saw the Rio as primary venue.
Arguably the most publicised European tournament is the Poker Million, which began in 2000 on Sky Sports, following on from the success of the Late Night Poker television show.
Poker is a card game, the most popular of a class of games called vying games, in which players with fully or partially concealed cards make wagers into a central pot, which is awarded to the remaining player or players with the best combination of cards. Poker can also refer to video poker which is a single-player game seen in casinos much like a slot machine.
In order to play, one must learn the basic rules and procedures of the game, the values of the various combinations of cards , and the rules about betting limits. Some knowledge of the equipment used to play is useful. There are also many variants of poker, loosely categorized as draw poker, stud poker, community card poker (a.k.a. “widow game”), and miscellaneous poker games. The most commonly played games of the first three categories are five-card draw, seven-card stud, and Texas hold ‘em, respectively; each being a common starting point for learning games of the type. Dealer’s choice is a way to play poker where the dealer chooses what type of poker to play.
A game of Texas hold ‘em in progress. “Hold ‘em” is currently the most popular form of poker.
References
Brunson, Doyle (1979). Doyle Brunson’s Super System, Cardoza. ISBN 1580420818.
Sklansky, David (1989). The Theory of Poker (3rd Ed), Two Plus Two Publications. ISBN 1880685000.
Vorhaus, John (2002). Killer Poker, Lyle Stuart. ISBN 0818406305.
Ernest, James; Selinker, Mike; Foglio, Phil (2005). Dealer’s Choice: The Complete Handbook of Saturday Night Poker, Overlook Press. ISBN 1585676543.
Caro, Mike (1978). Caro’s Book of Poker Tells, Cardoza. ISBN 1580420826.
A game of Texas hold ‘em in progress. “Hold ‘em” is currently the most popular form of poker.
