Poker is one of the friendliest games under the sun!

Play a round of poker at any online poker room. With various kinds of online poker sites hitting the internet, you’ve hardly got a reason to worry about. There are many online poker forums, where new players sign up everyday, and once here, players get to interact with others in the live chat room, and contest for the biggest jackpots. Log on to these sites for knowing how to go about. Members are also entitled to exclusive benefits.

Players have plenty to look forward to here, with the following interesting features:

• Free rolls
• Periodic tournaments
• Side games
• Attractive promos

Market research has revealed the fact that online poker gambling at casinos and poker rooms is one of the growing forms of wagering that seems to rule the Internet. The main fuel to this hype has been the various televised tournaments aired on Travel Channel’s World Poker Tour, ESPN along with the 2004 World Series of Poker (WSOP) and Bravo’s Celebrity Poker. The popularity of the game seems to be growing and on the rise just about everywhere.

Numerous poker tournaments are held at the various online casinos are becoming more and more popular everyday. A lot of the people are getting turned away waiting as long as 2 to 3 hours to get to the tables on the weekends. Land based casinos are promoting poker tournaments in order to capitalize on the growing trends of the game. But then even though the cut for the house is pretty slim, they report increasing revenues by the number of patrons who play other games.

Quite interestingly such steps allow the houses to attract new players who are mostly twenty-something men and women, which helps in expanding their customer base. With the huge piles of money that people are likely to win, more and more are getting into the game of poker. The 2005 WSOP championship boasts a $6,000,000 first place prize and anyone making the final table will be a millionaire.

The 2004 WSOP winner turned a $600 entry fee into a massive $5,000,000 check and so many endorsements that the winner quit his job as a patent attorney. Isn’t that quite lucrative? There are huge growth prospects for online poker gambling which is not just interesting but rewarding as well.

In fact, poker in casinos is one of those few games that are played on bets. Players bet on the combination of the cards – the hand – by placing a bet into a central pot. The winner is declared on basis of the player who holds the highest hand as is specified by the hand rankings hierarchy, or one who stays in the hand after others have folded on making an uncalled bet.

Poker is one of the most frequently played UK games, and is played in a number of variations. The poker hands, in the variants, are formed on the basis of the concealed cards, or on the way the community and concealed cards are grouped. You can also play at some of the best online casinos on the internet like Rushmore, Virgin Casino etc. Beste poker spieler tells you how you can do the math when playing out your cards.

A hand should always have five cards. On some games with more than five cards are available to each play, the best five card combination of the said cards must be played. The ranking is not affected when you have cards that do not belong in the hand.

Individual cards are being ranked by A as the highest, and follows, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, and 2 as the lowest card. The A can appear low if the A is part of a straight or straight flush. Individual cards are being used to rank the cards on hand which are on the same category.

Hands should be ranked first by category, followed by individual card ranks which even the lowest hand that may qualify on some categories that defeat the hands in all lower categories. Take note that only between the two hands on the same category are cards ranked. This is used to break ties.

Hand Categories

Straight flush is a kind of hand that contains 5 cards in sequence, all of the same type. Such hands are being compared by their card which is to be ranked to be the highest. We can consider it a tie if a straight flush on each player has the same suits (e.g. 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 of hearts ties with 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 of clubs). Aces can be played either low or high in straight flushes. For example, A, 2, 3, 4, and 5 is considered as a 5-high straight flush or can be called as steel wheel. A, K, Q, J, 10 of any type is known as the royal flush, which is rather considered as the highest ranking standard poker hand.

Four of a kind or “quads” is another type of poker hand which consists of 4 cards of the same rank, and one unmatched card of any rank. Quads which have higher ranking cards will defeat the lower ranking ones. There is a possibility that two or more players can obtain the same quad which acts as a kicker. If two hands have the same kicker, they call it a tie and the pot is split.

Full house or full boat is a hand which contains three matching cards of one rank, and two matching card of the same rank. In between two full houses, a hand wins if the three cards have the higher rank than the other (e.g. 10, 10, 10, 4, 4 defeats 2, 2, 2, 4, 4). If two hands have the same three cards, the winner will be determined if a player with a higher pair wins (e.g. 3, 3, 3, 10, 10 defeats 2, 2, 2, 3, 3).

Flush contains five cards of the same type, but not in the rank sequence. If they have high card hands, they usually compare it to know which one is the winner. If the two flushes contain the same five rank cards, they declare it as a tie and split the pot.

Straight contains five sequential cards but not determined by their suit. The two straights with the same high card have equal value.

Three of a kind which can be called trips or set, is a hand which contains three cards of the same value, plus any two unmatched cards. The higher value three of a kind defeats the lowered value of another three of a kind (10, 10, 10, 2, 3 defeats 3, 3, 3, 5, 7).

Two pairs is a hand which contains two cards with same value and another two cards with the same value and any one unmatched card. When determining the winner between the two hands, the higher rank of each hand is first compared (e.g.10, 10, 5, 5, 2 defeats 5, 5, 3, 3, 10). If both hands contain the sane top pair, they compare it to the second one (e.g. 10, 10, 7, 7, 2 defeats 10, 10, 5, 5, 3). And if both hands have the same two pairs, the kicker is compared to determine the winner (e.g. 5, 5, 4, 4, A defeats 5, 5, 4, 4, 10).

One pair is a hand which contains only a pair and three unmatched cards. Higher pair defeats the lower pair. If the two pairs have the same value, the kicker is used to determine the winner.

High card or no pair is a hand which no cards have the same rank, not in sequence, and not have all the same suit. High card can win if the other players fold or even do a showdown. Two high card hands are being ranked by comparing the highest ranking card. Online poker gives you strategies on how to play the poker game.