All the rules » Card games

Poker Terms

admin — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 13:37:42 +0000

Want to be a good poker player? You should know the poker language.
All In: See ‘Tapped Out’.

Betting Round: If any cards of players’ hands are up, betting usually begins with whoever is showing the highest hand. Some people play that in high/low games, the first round of betting starts with the lowest showing hand and all later rounds start with the highest. If no cards are showing, the betting should start with a different player each round, beginning with the player to the left of the dealer and rotating to the next player clockwise each round. A round consists of a series of bets until everyone has called or folded.

Declare: Announcing whether you’re trying for the high hand, low hand, or both. Typically, this is done by secretly putting no chips in your hand if you’re going low, one chip if you’re going high, or two chips if you’re going both. Everyone then opens their fists simultaneously.

Down: Face down, so that the value of the card isn’t showing. Also known as ‘In The Hole’.

Exchange: Discard cards from a hand and replace them with different cards, usually from the top of the deck.

High/Low: The highest hand and the lowest hand split the pot. In many high/low games, it is possible to win the entire pot by having the highest and the lowest hand (accomplished via wild cards, or by using different sets of 5 cards), but only if you declare that you’re trying for both. If you try for both but don’t win both (that is, someone else has the highest or the lowest hand), you win neither. When playing high/low, hands are compared against all other hands, not just the hands which are going the same way. Thus, if someone going high has a better low hand than all of the people going low, nobody going low wins (so the high hand gets the whole pot). If someone goes for both and fails, say by winning high but losing low, the high half of the pot goes to the low winner– it doesn’t go the second best high hand.

In The Hole: See ‘Down’.

Natural: Without wild cards.

Perfect low: A perfect low is usually A-2-3-4-6. However, it can also be A-2-3-4-5 if you play that straights don’t count when you go low, or it can be 2-3-4-5-7 if you play that Aces are always high, or 2-3-4-5-6 if you play both of the above.

Rank: Value of a card. There are 13 ranks in a deck of cards.

Roll: Flip a down card up.

Rolling Showdown: A showdown in which cards are stacked and revealed one at a time with a round of betting after each card is revealed.

Rotating Bet: Each round of betting starts with the next player clockwise. Typically, the player to the left of the dealer starts the first betting round. The 2nd round would thus be started by the player to his left, and so forth.

Showdown: The process of revealing hands and determining the winner.

Tap Out: This happens whenever a player bets all of his or her remaining money. If only that player and one other are still playing the hand, then the remaining cards for the hand are dealt out and no more bets are placed. If more than two players are still playing the hand, then a separate pot is created to hold the bets for the players who are not ‘Tapped Out’. Betting continues as normal for those other players in the new pot. When the hand is over, if the player who tapped out wins, then that player gets the first pot and the player with the second highest hand gets the second pot. If the player who tapped out does not win the hand, then the winning player get both pots. Also known as ‘All In’.

Trick: A set of cards, one card from each player, played one at a time in sequence around the table. Tricks are usually found in games like Hearts and Bridge, not in true Poker games.

Trump: One suit which is stronger than other suits. The lowest ranking card of a trump suit beats the highest ranking card of any other suit. Trump suits are used in trick-taking games and are not found in true Poker games.

Up: Face up, so that the value of the card is showing.

Know you know the poker language. It’s a time to practice. You can start with real players, but it is recommended to begin to play in online casino to learn the basics of poker and get girst experience.

Playing in online casinos for real money you’ll learn faster.

The Rules of Blackjack

admin — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 23:07:13 +0000

Blackjack (also known as Twenty-one) is one of the most popular card game. It’s a game of chance, skill and tactic.

Basics

The main aim of the game is to have a hand value that is closer to 21 than that of the dealer, without going over 21. The hand values of other players at the table are unimportant for you. Your hand is strictly played out against the hand of the dealer. The rules of play for the dealer are firmly dictated, he can’t make any decisions. For that reason, there is not a problem with the dealer or any of the other players at the table seeing the cards in your hand.

Values of the cards

An Ace can count as either 1 or 11. The cards from 2 through 9 are valued as indicated. The 10, Jack, Queen and King are all valued at 10. The suits of the cards do not play any role in the game. The value of a hand is the sum of the point counts of each card in the hand. For example, you have tree cards in your hand 5+Queen+6 theirs value is 21. The Ace can have value 1 or 11. You don’t need to specify which value the Ace has. It’s assumed to always have the value that makes the best hand. For example: the beginning hand has Ace+7. It can be either 8 or 18. You can stop there and in this case the value of your hand will be 18. But you can continue and draw another card to the hand and now have Ace+7+2. Your total hand is 20, and in this case the Ace is counting as 11. But if that you had instead drawn a third card which was an 9. The hand is now Ace+7+9 which totals 17. Now the Ace must be counted as only 1 to avoid going over 21. When your hand contains an Ace is called a “soft” total. It means that the Ace can be counted as either 1 or 11 without the total going over 21. For example Ace+8 is a soft 19. The title “soft” comes from the fact that the player can always draw another card to a soft total with no danger of “busting” by going over 21. The hand Ace+8+10 is a “hard” 17, because in this case the Ace must be counted as only 1, otherwise the total will go over 21.

The deal of the cards

At first all the players make the bets. After that the dealer will deal two cards to the players. He’ll make two passes around the table starting at his left. One of dealer’s cards is always over, exposing its value. After dealing the cards, play proceeds around the table from the first seat to the dealer’s left, or “first base”. Each player in turn says to the dealer how he will play the hand. The dealer completes his hand the last, and then pay or collect the player bets.

The dealer’s play

The dealer plays his hand in a special way. He has no choices. There are 2 popular rule variations:

“Dealer stands on all 17s”: This is the most popular rule. It means the dealer must continue to take cards (“hit”) until his total is 17 or greater. An Ace is always counted as 11 if possible without the dealer going over 21. For example, Ace+7 would be 18 and the dealer would stop drawing cards (“stand”); Ace+6 is 17 and the dealer will stand; Ace+5 is 16, so the dealer would hit. He will draw cards until his hand’s value is 17 or more: Ace+5+7 is only 13 so he hits again; Ace+5+7+5 makes 18 so he would “stand”.

“Dealer hits soft 17”: This rule is the same except for a soft total of 17 (Ace+8, Ace+6+Ace, Ace+ 5+ 3) The dealer “hits” these hands, and “stands” on soft 18 or higher, or hard 17 or higher.

Blackjack

A blackjack (or natural) is a total of 21 in your first two cards(!). A blackjack is your first two cards which are an Ace and any ten-valued card (10, Jack, Queen, King). If your hand’s value is 21 but consists of three or more card (Ace+8+2 or 10+6+3+Ace+Ace) this is not a blackjack, but simply a total of 21. The distinction is important, because blackjack beats any dealer total other than a dealer’s blackjack, including a dealer’s regular 21. If both a player and the dealer make blackjack, the hand is a tie or push.

The Player’s Choices

Surrender If you can surrender, you’ll be paid half of your original bet. You must decide before taking any other action on the hand. For example, once you draw a third card, or split, or double down, surrender is no longer available. Hitting/Standing The basic actions in this game is drawing another card to the hand (“hit”), or stopping at the current total (“stand”). Doubling Down Doubling Down can only be done with a two card hand, before another card has been drawn. This action allows you to double your bet and receive one, and only one, additional card to the hand. Splitting Pairs When you are dealt a matching pair of cards (Ace+Ace), you have the ability to split the hand into two separate hands, and play them independently. For example: your hand is 8+8 for a total of 16. (16 is the worst possible player hand, since it is unlikely to win as is, but is very likely to bust if you draw to it). If you get additional pairs (in the first two cards of a hand), you can resplit, making yet another hand. The most common rule allows a player to split up to 3 times, making 4 separate hands, with 4 separate bets. Fine point is that you are allowed to split any 10-valued cards, it means you could split a (King+10) hand. However, as a rule this is a unsuccessful play. Keep the 20.

Insurance and Even Money

If the dealer’s up-card is an Ace, the dealer will offer “Insurance” to the players. Insurance bets is made by betting up to half your original bet amount in the insurance betting stripe in front of your bet. After that the dealer will check to see if he has a 10-value card underneath his Ace, and if he does have Blackjack, your winning Insurance bet will be paid at odds of 2:1. You’ll lose your original bet (if not you also have a Blackjack). The “insurance” seems to protect your original bet against a dealer’s blackjack. If the dealer does not have blackjack, you’ll lose the insurance bet, and still have to play the original bet out. If you have a Blackjack, the dealer offers you “even money” instead of the insurance bet. This is just the same insurance bet with a simplification thrown in. For example the bet is $10 and you have a Blackjack. You would generally collect $15 for this, unless the dealer also has a blackjack, in which case you push or tie. Let’s suppose that the dealer has an Ace up, and you decide to take insurance for the full amount, or $5. Two things can happen: 1) The dealer has a Blackjack. You tie with the $10, but collect 2:1 on the $5 insurance bet for a total profit of $10. 2) The dealer does not have Blackjack. I lose the $5, but collect $15 for my Blacjack. Total profit, again $10.

The Rules of Poker

admin — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 13:46:40 +0000

Poker is one of the famous card games. It’s a game of chance. But you will need also a bit of skill and some psychological knowledge.

Basics

To play poker you will need a standard pack of 52 cards (in some types of poker it is used multiple packs or additional cards called jokers). All cards are ranked from high to low: Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, Ace. Ace can be high or low, but is usually high. No one of four suits (spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs) is higher than another.

All poker hands contain five cards, the highest hand wins.

Some variants of poker have Wild Cards. Wild Card is a card which can take on whatever suit and rank their possessor desires. It may be jokers or other card which were specified to be wild (deuces, one-eyed jacks, or whatever).

Descriptions of Hand Ranks

Five of a Kind (possible only in variants of poker with wild card)

A five of a kind is the highest possible hand. If more than one hand has five of a kind, the higher card wins (Five Aces beats five kings, which beat five queens, and etc).

Straight Flush

A straight flush is a straight (5 cards in order, such as 6-7-8-9-10) that are all of the same suit. As in a regular straight, you can have an ace either high (A-K-Q-J-T) or low (5-4-3-2-A). But, a straight couldn’t be “wrap around”: such as K-A-2-3-4, which is not a straight. An Ace high straight-flush is called a Royal Flush and is the highest natural hand.

Four of a Kind

Four of a kind is four cards of the same rank. If there are two or more hands that qualify, the hand with the higher-rank four of a kind wins.

(In games with wild cards, two players can have four of a kind of the same rank. In this case the one with the high card outside the four of the kind wins)

General Rule: When hands tie on the rank of a pair, three of a kind, etc, the cards outside break ties following the High Card rules.

Full House

A full house is a three of a kind and a pair, such as A-A-A-2-2. Ties are broken first by the three of a kind, then pair. So Q-Q-Q-2-2 beats J-J-J-A-A, which beats J-J-J-10-10.

Flush

A flush is a hand where all of the cards are the same suit, such as Q-10-7-K-3, all of hearts. When flushes ties, follow the rules for High Card.

Straight

A straight is 5 cards in order, such as 2-3-4-5-6. An ace may either be high (A-K-Q-J-T) or low (5-4-3-2-1). But, a straight couldn’t be “wrap around”: such as J-Q-K-A-2, which is not a straight. When straights tie, the highest straight wins. (K-Q-J-10-9 beats Q-J-10-9-8 down to 5-4-3-2-A). If two straights have the same value (10-9-8-7-6 vs 10-9-8-7-6) they split the pot.

Three of a Kind

Three cards of the same rank, together with two cards of different ranks. Again, highest three of a kind wins. If both are the same rank (possible with wild or community cards), then compare the High Cards.

Two Pair

This is two distinct pairs of card and a 5th card. The highest pair wins ties: Q-Q-2-2-A beats 10-10-5-5-K. If both hands have the same high pair, the second pair wins. If both hands have the same pairs, the high card wins.

Pair

Two cards of the same rank (a pair) plus three cards of different ranks. The higher pair wins; if two players have pairs of the same rank the highest of the other three cards are compared.

High Card

If nobody has a pair or better, then the highest card wins. If multiple people tie for the highest card, they look at the second highest, then the third highest etc. High card is also used to break ties when the high hands both have the same type of hand (pair, flush, straight and so on).

Betting

Poker is a gambling game with bets. In most variants of poker, you must “ante” something, just to get dealt cards. After that players bet into the pot in the middle. At the end of the hand, the highest hand wins the pot. Betting is typically done in clockwise order. When betting gets around to you, you have one of three choices:

Call

When you call, you bet enough to match what has been bet since the last time you bet (for instance, if you bet a dime last time, and someone else bet a quarter, you would owe fifteen cents).

Raise

When you raise, you first bet enough to match what has been bet since the last time you bet (as in calling), then you “raise” the bet another amount. Continuing the above example, if you had bet 10 cents, the other person raised you 15 cents (up to a quarter), you might raise a quarter (up to 50 cents). Since you owed the pot 15 cents for calling and 25 for your raise, you would put 40 cents into the pot.

Fold

When you fold, you drop out of the current hand (losing any possibility of winning the pot), but you don’t have to put any money into the pot.

Betting continues until everyone calls or folds after a raise or initial bet.

Bugs: Jokers that can represent any card if it helps accomplish a straight or a flush, but represent only aces (of any suit) if it goes towards some other kind of hand.