Poker
Poker is a family of comparing card games in which players wager over which hand is best
according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, but in some places the rules may
vary. While the earliest known form of the game was played with just 20 cards, today it is
usually played with a standard deck, although in countries where short packs are common, it
may be played with 32, 40 or 48 cards.[1] Thus poker games vary in deck configuration, the
number of cards in play, the number dealt face up or face down, and the number shared by all
players, but all have rules that involve one or more rounds of betting.
A game of Texas hold 'em in progress. "Hold 'em" is
a popular form of poker.
In most modern poker games, the first round of betting begins with one or more of the players
making some form of a forced bet (the blind or ante). In standard poker, each player bets
according to the rank they believe their hand is worth as compared to the other players. The
action then proceeds clockwise as each player in turn must either match (or "call") the
maximum previous bet, or fold, losing the amount bet so far and all further involvement in the
hand. A player who matches a bet may also "raise" (increase) the bet. The betting round ends
when all players have either called the last bet or folded. If all but one player folds on any
round, the remaining player collects the pot without being required to reveal their hand. If
more than one player remains in contention after the final betting round, a showdown takes
place where the hands are revealed, and the player with the winning hand takes the pot.
With the exception of initial forced bets, money is only placed into the pot voluntarily by a
player who either believes the bet has a positive expected value or who is trying to bluff other
players for various strategic reasons. Thus, while the outcome of any particular hand
significantly involves chance, the long-run expectations of the players are determined by their
actions chosen on the basis of probability, psychology, and game theory.
Poker has increased in popularity since the beginning of the 21st century (2001) and has gone
from being primarily a recreational activity confined to small groups of enthusiasts to a
widely popular activity, both for participants and spectators, including online, with many
professional players and multimillion-dollar tournament prizes.[2]
History
While poker's exact origin is the subject of debate, many game scholars point to the French
game Poque and the Persian game As-Nas as possible early inspirations.[3] For example, in the
1937 edition of Foster's Complete Hoyle, R. F. Foster wrote that "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." However, in the 1990s the notion that poker is a direct derivative
of As-Nas began to be challenged by gaming historians including David Parlett. What is certain,
however, is that poker was popularized in the American South in the early 19th century, as
gambling riverboats in the Mississippi River and around New Orleans during the 1830s helped
spread the game. One early description of poker was played on a steamboat in 1829 is recorded
by the English actor, Joe Cowell. The game was played with twenty cards ranking from Ace
(high) to Ten (low).[4]
In contrast to this version of poker, seven-card stud only appeared in the middle of the 19th
century, and was largely spread by the US military.[5] It became a staple in many casinos
following the second world war, and grew in popularity with the advent of the World Series of
Poker in the 1970s.[6]
Texas hold 'em and other community card games began to dominate the gambling scenes over the
next couple of decades. The televising of poker was a particularly strong influence increasing
the popularity of the game during the turn of the millennium, resulting in the poker boom a
few years later between 2003 and 2006. Today the game has grown to become an extremely
popular pastime worldwide.
Gameplay
Straight flush
Four of a kind
Examples of top poker hand categories
In casual play, the right to deal a hand typically rotates among the players and is marked by a
token called a dealer button (or buck). In a casino, a house dealer handles the cards for each
hand, but the button (typically a white plastic disk) is rotated clockwise among the players to
indicate a nominal dealer to determine the order of betting. The cards are dealt clockwise
around the poker table, one at a time.
One or more players are usually required to make forced bets, usually either an ante or a blind
bet (sometimes both). The dealer shuffles the cards, the player on the chair to their right cuts,
and the dealer deals the appropriate number of cards to the players one at a time, beginning
with the player to their left. Cards may be dealt either face-up or face-down, depending on the
variant of poker being played. After the initial deal, the first of what may be several betting
rounds begins. Between rounds, the players' hands develop in some way, often by being dealt
additional cards or replacing cards previously dealt. At the end of each round, all bets are
gathered into the central pot.
At any time during a betting round, if one player bets, no opponents choose to call (match) the
bet, and all opponents instead fold, the hand ends immediately, the bettor is awarded the pot,
no cards are required to be shown, and the next hand begins. This is what makes bluffing
possible. Bluffing is a primary feature of poker, distinguishing it from other vying games and
from other games that use poker hand rankings.
At the end of the last betting round, if more than one player remains, there is a showdown, in
which the players reveal their previously hidden cards and evaluate their hands. The player
with the best hand according to the poker variant being played wins the pot. A poker hand
comprises five cards; in variants where a player has more than five cards available to them,
only the best five-card combination counts. There are 10 different kinds of poker hands, such as
straight flush and four of a kind.
Variants
2006 WSOP Main Event
table
Poker has many variations,[7][8] all following a similar pattern of play[9] and generally using
the same hand ranking hierarchy. There are four main families of variants, largely grouped by
the protocol of card-dealing and betting:
Straight
A complete hand is dealt to each player,
and players bet in one round, with
raising and re-raising allowed. This is
the oldest poker family; the root of the
game as now played was a game known as
Primero, which evolved into the game
three-card brag, a very popular
gentleman's game around the time of
the American Revolutionary War and
still enjoyed in the U.K. today. Straight
hands of five cards are sometimes used
as a final showdown, but poker is almost
always played in a more complex form
to allow for additional strategy.
Stud poker
Cards are dealt in a prearranged
combination of face-down and face-up
rounds, or streets, with a round of
betting following each. This is the next-
oldest family; as poker progressed from
three to five-card hands, they were
often dealt one card at a time, either
face-down or face-up, with a betting
round between each. The most popular
stud variant today, seven-card stud,
deals two extra cards to each player
(three face-down, four face-up) from
which they must make the best possible
5-card hand.
Draw poker
Five-card draw: A complete hand is
dealt to each player, face-down. Then
each player must place an ante to the
pot. They can then see their cards and
bet accordingly. After betting, players
can discard up to three cards and take
new ones from the top of the deck. Then,
another round of betting takes place.
Finally, each player must show their
cards and the player with the best hand
wins.
Community card poker
Also known as "flop poker," community
card poker is a variation of stud poker.
Players are dealt an incomplete hand of
face-down cards, and then a number of
face-up community cards are dealt to
the center of the table, each of which
can be used by one or more of the
players to make a 5-card hand. Texas
hold 'em and Omaha are two well-known
variants of the community card family.
There are several methods for defining the structure of betting during a hand of poker. The
three most common structures are known as "fixed-limit," "pot-limit," and "no-limit." In fixed-
limit poker, betting and raising must be done by standardized amounts. For instance, if the
required bet is X, an initial bettor may only bet X; if a player wishes to raise a bet, they may
only raise by X. In pot-limit poker, a player may bet or raise any amount up to the size of the
pot. When calculating the maximum raise allowed, all previous bets and calls, including the
intending raiser's call, are first added to the pot. The raiser may then raise the previous bet
by the full amount of the pot. In no-limit poker, a player may wager their entire betting stack
at any point that they are allowed to make a bet. In all games, if a player does not have enough
betting chips to fully match a bet, they may go "all-in," allowing them to show down their hand
for the number of chips they have remaining.
James Garner as fictional poker
player Bret Maverick and Jack Kelly
as his brother Bart Maverick from
the 1957 television series Maverick
While typical poker games award the pot to the highest hand as per the standard ranking of
poker hands, there are variations where the best hand, and thus the hand awarded the pot, is
the lowest-ranked hand instead. In such games the best hand contains the lowest cards rather
than the highest cards; some variations may be further complicated by whether or not hands
such as flushes and straights are considered in the hand rankings. There are also games where
the highest and lowest hands divide the pot between them, known as "high low split" games.
Other games that use poker hand rankings may likewise be referred to as poker. Video poker is
a single-player video game that functions much like a slot machine; most video poker machines
play draw poker, where the player bets, a hand is dealt, and the player can discard and replace
cards. Payout is dependent on the hand resulting after the draw and the player's initial bet.
Strip poker is a traditional poker variation where players remove clothing when they lose
bets. Since it depends only on the basic mechanic of betting in rounds, strip poker can be
played with any form of poker; however, it is usually based on simple variants with few betting
rounds, like five card draw.
Another game with the poker name, but with a vastly different mode of play, is called Acey-
Deucey or Red Dog poker. This game is more similar to Blackjack in its layout and betting; each
player bets against the house, and then is dealt two cards. For the player to win, the third
card dealt (after an opportunity to raise the bet) must have a value in-between the first two.
Payout is based on the odds that this is possible, based on the difference in values of the first
two cards. Other poker-like games played at casinos against the house include three card poker
and pai gow poker.
Computer programs
A variety of computer poker players have been developed by researchers at the University of
Alberta, Carnegie Mellon University, and the University of Auckland amongst others.
In a January 2015 article[10] published in Science, a group of researchers mostly from the
University of Alberta announced that they "essentially weakly solved" heads-up limit Texas
Hold 'em with their development of their Cepheus poker bot. The authors claimed that Cepheus
would lose at most 0.001 big blinds per game on average against its worst-case opponent, and
the strategy is thus so "close to optimal" that "it can't be beaten with statistical significance
within a lifetime of human poker playing."[11]
See also
Glossary of poker terms Games
portal
List of poker hands
Online poker
Outline of poker
Underground poker
References
1. Parlett (2008), pp. 568–570.
2. "Top 10 moments in poker history" (http
s://www.casinocitytimes.com/tadas-peckai
tis/article/top-10-moments-in-poker-hi
story-67088) . casinocitytimes.com.
Retrieved 2021-02-24.
3. "History of Poker" in Roya, Will (2021).
Card Night: Classic Games, Classic Decks,
and the History Behind Them. Black Dog &
Leventhal Publishers. p. 203.
ISBN 9780762473519.
4. Cowell (1844), p. 94.
5. "History of Poker" in Roya, Will (2021).
Card Night: Classic Games, Classic Decks,
and the History Behind Them. Black Dog &
Leventhal Publishers. p. 203.
ISBN 9780762473519.
6. "World Series of Poker Retrospective:
Horseshoe History" (https://gaming.unlv.e
du/WSOP/history.html) . gaming.unlv.edu.
Retrieved 2019-01-13.
7. Richard D. Harroch, Lou Krieger. Poker
for Dummies. John Wiley & Sons, 2010
8. Reuben, Stewart 2001. Starting out in
Poker. London: Everyman/Mind Sports.
ISBN 1-85744-272-5
9. Sklansky, David. The Theory of Poker. Two
Plus Two Pub, 1999.
10. Bowling, M.; Burch, N.; Johanson, M.;
Tammelin, O. (2015). "Heads-up limit
hold'em poker is solved" (http://webdocs.c
s.ualberta.ca/%7Ebowling/papers/15scie
nce.pdf) (PDF). Science. 347 (6218): 145–
149. Bibcode:2015Sci...347..145B (http
s://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2015Sci...3
47..145B) . CiteSeerX 10.1.1.697.72 (htt
ps://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summar
y?doi=10.1.1.697.72) .
doi:10.1126/science.1259433 (https://d
oi.org/10.1126%2Fscience.1259433) .
PMID 25574016 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nl
m.nih.gov/25574016) . S2CID 3796371
(https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusI
D:3796371) . Archived (https://web.archi
ve.org/web/20150122084955/http://w
ebdocs.cs.ualberta.ca/~bowling/papers/15
science.pdf) (PDF) from the original on
2015-01-22.
11. Gill, Victoria (2015-01-08). "Computer
program 'perfect at poker' " (https://ww
w.bbc.com/news/science-environment-307
18558) . BBC News. Retrieved
2022-02-10.
Literature
Parlett, David (2008), The Penguin
Book of Card Games, London: Penguin,
ISBN 978-0-141-03787-5
External links
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