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Card game

"Poker player" redirects here. For the magazine, see Poker Player

A game of

Texas hold 'em in progress. "Hold 'em" 💳 is a popular form of 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.

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 20th century

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 [ edit ]

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 [ edit

]

Further information on betting rules: Betting in poker

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 [ edit ]

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.

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 [ edit ]

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 2024 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]