How to play poker?: concepts common to most types of poker.

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All games of poker are based around common poker-hand rankings which are used to decide which player’s hand wins in a game of poker. 

Some poker game types will use the common hand ranking in different ways. Such as making the lowest value hand the most desirable (low-ball poker).

Learn the order of strength of poker hands on our poker-hand rankings page สมัคร UFABET

Bluffing 

It’s possible to win poker hands without holding the best hand by bluffing your opponents. 

Bluffing usually involves projecting confidence in your hand by betting in a manner that suggests your hand is better than it is, in the hope that your opponents will believe you and fold rather than risk taking you on in the showdown. 

Forced bets

Most forms of poker require some form of compulsory bet at the beginning of a hand usually referred to as the ‘ante’ or ‘blind’. Many forms of the game feature a small blind and a big blind, with the latter generally twice the size of the former.

The dealer

Whether you’re playing physical poker at home, at a bricks-and-mortar casino. Or an online casino the role of the dealer determines the order in which the blinds are put up and players make their bets. The game usually unfolds in a clockwise direction starting with the dealer. 

In both physical and online casinos the dealer is generally not one of the players so a token denotes. Which player is nominally the dealer for each hand. This then rotates clockwise from one hand to the next.

Betting options

Following the forced bets, the first round of betting begins. Players usually have the following betting options to use depending on their confidence in their hand.

  • Call — Matching another player’s bet or raise
  • Raise — Increasing the size of your existing bet in the same round of betting
  • Fold — To withdraw from the hand, sacrificing any bets already made.
  • Check — Until the first bet in a round of betting is placed, players can choose to check (decline to make a bet while reserving the right to bet later in the round).
  • All in — When a player doesn’t have enough chips left to call a bet. They can play all their remaining chips. Subsequent betting takes place in a side pot and the all-in player can only win the amount of chips in the pot. When they went all-in in any subsequent showdown.