Poker is usually played with a standard card deck of 52 cards. (In some poker variants, however, extra decks are used or jokers are added).
There are four suits: Clubs, Diamonds, Hearts, and Spades. No suit is higher than another. Poker hands usually consist of five cards and the highest hand wins.
Some poker variants use Wild Cards, which can be used as any card the player desires. Jokers can be used as wild cards, or another particular type of card can be declared a wild card (such as deuces).
Poker Betting Rules
In most games, before dealing with the cards, you must place an Ante. That is, to put down a minimum bet. The Ante is usually very small, such as a nickel or a quarter, but can vary by game.
All bets are made into the Pot. The pot is the pile of money or chips that accumulate at the center of the table. At the end of the hand, the person with the highest hand wins the entire pot.
Betting is usually done in a clockwise order. When it is your turn to bet, there are three things you can do:
Call
To call is to match the bets made since the last time to bet.
Raise
To raise is to first pay what you owe to the pot since the last time you bet, and then bet an additional amount. The amount that you raise the bet by is up to you, but there is usually a limit.
Fold
To Fold is to quit the current round. When you fold, you lose any possibility of winning the pot, but you don’t have to put any more cash in the pot until the next hand. When you fold, you should never show your cards to anyone. The betting continues until everyone either calls or folds.
