Online poker has become one of the most popular games on the planet. The basics of poker are easy to master, but the winning of poker involves skill and regular practice. The difference with the game of poker compared to other casino games is that the player with the best cards does not always win as most of the top players will tell you, when playing the game you are more often than not playing the person and not the cards.

In poker the cards have a ranking for each card. Starting from the highest "value" cards to the lowest are as follows; Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, Ace. The Ace has a double purpose and can be used either as a high or low card. Within the poker deck there are four suits; The suits are as follows, spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs. The one important thing to remember is that no suit is higher than any other.

The player who has been dealt the hand which has the highest ranking of cards/hand wins the pot. To mix up game play you can have wild cards or jokers. This is something that needs to be decided before a game/hand is dealt. Wild cards or jokers can be used as any suit and rank the person who has the cards chooses it to be. So for example they could use a joker as an ace or as a 5 etc..

Starting with the hands of highest value are as follows:

1. Five of a Kind (with a Wild card or Joker)
2. Royal Flush
3. Straight Flush
4. Four of a Kind
5. Full House
6. Flush
7. Straight
8. Three of a Kind
9. Two Pair
10. Pair
11. High Card

The hand of Five of a Kind is the highest possible hand any player can be dealt. To get this hand it is only possible if you are using wild cards as there are no more than 4 of any card in a deck of 52 cards. If in the unlikely situation that more than one player has the hand of "five of a kind", the highest ranking hand will win; e.g. Five queens will beat five jacks, which will beat five tens and so on ,down the rankings.

If no wild cards are used the best hand that can be acheived is a straight flush. A hand which is a straight flush will be made up of five cards in order and which will belong to the same suit. A Royal Straight Flush is a straight flush which is Ace High. This is sometimes called a Royal Flush

A Four of a kind will be made up of four cards that have the same ranking. So for example out of your 5 cards you have been dealt, "3,Q,Q,Q,Q". If two players have four of a kind the player with the highest ranking cards will win. The more wild cards you have in a game the more chances there are for multiple people to have four of a kind. If two players have the same four of a kind, the winner will be decided on the player with the highest fifth card. When hands tie in a game the winner will always be determined by the highest remaining cards.

If you have a full house this will be a hand that is a combination of cards. It will combine a pair and three of a kind.

When you are dealt a straight its simple to identify. Its a hand made up of your 5 cards which are in order e.g. "1,2,3,4,5" or "10,J,Q,K,A". It is important to remember that an Ace can be used in two ways, either as the highest card of your straight or as the lowest. A high example would be as follows "A,K,Q,J,10) or as a low combination (A,2,3,4,5)

As the name suggests three of a kind is when you have 3 cards of the same value. The one exception with three of a kind is if with the last 2 cards are a matching pair your three of a kind will now be a full house.

Two Pair is when out of the five cards dealt to you , it is made up of 2 sets of 2 cards which are matching. If two players have an identical two pair, the winner will be decided by the player with the highest fifth card.

Pair is a hand that contains one pair only.

High Card is one of the weakest hands that you can be dealt. A situation where you have been dealt a high card is when your five cards do not match any of the above combinations. If none of the players can start with a pair, the winner will then be determined by the hand that has the card which ranks the highest.

Before the real betting begins the players at the table must "ante". An ante is small amount that each player will place into the pot just to get dealt the first round of cards. After the ante has been placed in the pot, the betting starts around the table clockwise.

At this point players can choose to either start placing bets or exchange up to 3 cards from there hand to try and form a better hand. If no one wants to starts betting (ususally because the low value of there hands) the first player clockwise can either check or bet. If a player decide to "check" this means they are not choosing to bet but to move onto the next player. If at a table everyones "checks" it wil be the end of the round and the players will be playing for the pot which has been made up of the ante.

Once the first real bet has been made then the poker action begins. At each players opportunity they have three choices. They can either to "call", "raise" or decide to "fold". If a player decides to "call" this will mean that they have decided to equal the existing bet and place that bet value into the pot. When a player decides to "raise" they will need to equal the bet and on top of that, add an additional amount which the next player will need to match to continue in the game. Should a player decide to "fold" this will mean they have decided to pull out of the round and lose any existing money that they have put into the pot at this stage of the game.

An example in a game would be: If the betting had started with a £10 poker bet, if an additional player decides to raise you £20, the player would place £30 into the pot. As the action goes around clockwise when it comes back to you to continue playing you will need to place £20 into the pot to continue playing, or you could decide to re-raise. If you are confident with your hand and you want to raise to the maximum you can say "pot". This will mean that you choosing to bet the full amount of money that is currently in the pot at that time.

At the point where all the raising has stopped the poker betting will end and it will now be down to all the players to show there cards. The playert who at this point has the highest ranking card will win the game.

Just before Texas Holdem, the game of seven card stud is one of the most preffered games in poker rooms and home games. The cards are dealt in the following way, every player at the table will be given seven cards of there own to make up there hand. You will have one card that will be face up and an additional two cards that will be in the hole. After the cards have been dealt this way the players will make a starting bet. After the first bet has been made an additional three cards will be dealt to the player face up, as each card is dealt there will be on poker betting round, and then with the final bet there will be a final card in the hold. Each player can then make up his hand by using any 5 out of the seven cards that they now have. The player with the highest ranking hand will now win the pot.

This game is one of the casino table games, a player will find it played on a table that is very similar to a black jack table. This game is based on the standard 5 card stud poker game and is played with a standard 52 card deck. In recent years many of the casinos especially in vegas and atlantic city have offered a progressive style jackpot which is won to the player with very high ranking hands.

With caribbean stud poker similar to black jack you are playing against the dealers hand and not one of the other players. Like all other poker games to start the game each player must make a starting bet. If the casino is giving the option to compete for the progressive jackpot, each player at the table will have the option to place an additonal £1/$1 bet. Depending on the hands that are dealt, the players have the opportunity to win part of or the whole progressive jackpot. You will need to have been dealt the following hands to win a progressive.

They are as follows:

• Royal Flush
• Straight Flush
• Four of a Kind
• Full House
• Flush

For regular play for players that are not looking to win a progressive the game starts in a the same way with the first round of poker betting. After this has happened the dealer will deal out five cards which are all face down to the players at the table. The dealer will also deal himself 5 cards but the difference being he will leave his fifth card face up for all the players to see. This is the start of the game and at this point the players at the table can either choose to fold or to place a bet which is equal to the opening bet.

Once all the players made their decisions, the dealer will open his or her cards. The dealer's hand must contain an Ace-King or better to qualify and challenge the players hands, otherwise the dealer folds and only the 'ante' wagers are paid, at 1:1 irrespective of ranking. The 'play' bet is returned to the player.

If the dealer's hand qualifies with an Ace-King or better, then the players cards are opened and compared against the dealer's. If the dealer's hand is better than the player's hand, then the player loses both, the 'ante' and 'play' wager

After the betting has started the dealer will overturn his remaining 4 cards. For the dealer to start playing against the other players he will need to have an Ace-King or higher in comparison to the other players hands that have been dealt when all of there remaining cards are shown.

If any of the players at the table have a higher ranking hand than the dealers, the player will have won two bets. He will have won the opening bet and there second initial bet. The odds are different between the opening bet and the second bet. For the opening bet the player will win with odds of 1:1. For the second bet the player will win at different odds depending on the ranking of the players hand

Each casino will determine there own odds but as a rough estimation we have found the following odds to be the average:
Tens or better: 1 to 1
Two pair: pays 2 to 1
Three of a kind: pays 3 to 1
Straight: pays 5 to 1
Flush: pays 8 to 1
Full house: pays 11 to 1
Four of a kind: pays 50 to 1
Straight flush: pays 200 to 1
Royal flush: pays 1,000 to 1

Pai gow poker is based on a combination of traditional poker and one of Chinas oldest games, Pai Gow. Unlike traditional poker games it is played with 53 and not 52 cards. The additional card is the joker and this joker card is similar to a wild card as can be ranked as an Ace or if necessary to help form a Straight or a Flush

Each player is dealt seven cards. The cards are arranged into two hands: a 2-card hand and a 5-card hand. Rankings are like the classic poker. The highest 2-card hand is Aces and the highest 5-card hand is a royal flush.

The game begins by every player being dealt 7 cards from the dealer. These seven cards are split into two separate hands. The first hand will be five cards and the second hand will contain the remaining two cards. Just like traditional poker the rankings of the hands remains the same. For for a two hand card, the top four highest hands will be
AA
KK
QQ
JJ.

For the remaining 5 card hand to be of the highest ranking it will need to be a royal flush.

The 5-card hand must be higher than the 2-card hand. For example, if the 2-card hand is a pair of fours, the 5-card hand must contain a pair of fives or better

The objective for the player in this game is to have both of the sets of hands be higher than the dealer or banker. Should the player have one hand that wins against the banker and an additional hand that loses this is referred to as a "push" no money wll change hands at this point. Different to other casino games should the player have a hand that is equal to the dealer, its a draw but the dealer will win the betting. The odds for Pai Gow are 1:1 for all of winning hands a player has less a commission. The standard commission that is charged is usually 5%.