Poker
Poker is a family of
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
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
This article should include a better summary of History of poker. (April 2018) |
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.
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 World War II and grew in popularity with the advent of the World Series of Poker in the 1970s.[6]
Gameplay
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
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
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
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 three-card brag, a very popular gentleman's game around the time of the American Revolutionary Warand 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.
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.
Another game with the poker name, but with a vastly different mode of play, is called
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
See also
References
- ^ Parlett (2008), pp. 568–570.
- ^ "Top 10 moments in poker history". casinocitytimes.com. Retrieved 2021-02-24.
- ISBN 9780762473519.
- ^ Cowell (1844), p. 94.
- ISBN 9780762473519.
- ^ "World Series of Poker Retrospective: Horseshoe History". gaming.unlv.edu. Retrieved 2019-01-13.
- ^ Richard D. Harroch, Lou Krieger. Poker for Dummies. John Wiley & Sons, 2010
- ISBN 1-85744-272-5
- ^ Sklansky, David. The Theory of Poker. Two Plus Two Pub, 1999.
- (PDF) from the original on 2015-01-22.
- ^ Gill, Victoria (2015-01-08). "Computer program 'perfect at poker'". BBC News. Retrieved 2022-02-10.
Literature
- ISBN 978-0-141-03787-5
External links
- Poker at Curlie