Poker is a card game that can be traced back to the early 19th century. It is thought to have originated in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Poker is a family of card games that share a general betting structure and usually hand rankings. The precise origin of poker is unknown, but it is generally thought to have evolved from other card games.
Poker games vary in the number of cards dealt, the number of shared or “community” cards, the number of cards that remain hidden, and whether the high or low hand wins the pot in a showdown. 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, fold, or raise (the amount of which equals the maximum previous bet).
A player who matches a bet can also “raise” (increase) the bet. The betting round ends when all players have either called the last bet or folded their hand.
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 occurs where the hands are revealed and compared with each other; the player with the best hand wins the pot.
In most modern poker games, such as Texas Hold’em and Omaha, each player receives two cards (known as hole cards) dealt face down. The remaining cards are shared between all players and are known as community cards. In Hold’em and Omaha, these are dealt face up in three separate stages:
* The flop: Three community cards are dealt face up at once. Players may use any combination of their two hole cards and three community cards to make their best five-card poker hand.
* The turn: A fourth community card is dealt face up on the table; this is followed by a second betting round starting with the player who made cheapest call on previous round.
* The river: A fifth and final community card is dealt face up on table; this is followed by a third and final betting round starting with same player who made cheapest call on previous round.
After all betting rounds are completed all remaining players show their hole cards and declare their best five-card poker hand using any combination of their two hole cards and three community cards. The pot is then awarded to whichever player has declared the best hand.
If there is an odd chip left over from betting it goes to whoever declared the best hand showing first; if there are no hole cards shown it goes to whoever declaredthe best hand showing first (this happens if everyone folds except for one player who declares both hole cards dead). .
If two or more players share identical hands then pot is split evenly between those players.
