Poker: A game of skill and luck

Poker, is it a game of skill or luck? Poker is a game with a fair chance to the players pouring large amounts of money on stakes. Not a child’s play, poker is the game for someone who can smartly plan a game and outplay the remaining players. The deftest player seems to win the pot, but this remains a mystery as the game continues. Skill or luck, poker game has intrigued a many masses with its ability to gather a large popularity.

Poker is widely played offline and online in casinos and tournaments. The poker geeks glued in to the game run multi-million dollar business out of it. With lot of money on stake poker has indeed become very famous. Some of the poker games are draw poker, stud poker, and community card poker. Stud horse poker, oxford stud poker, high Chicago, low Chicago poker, follow the queen poker, countdown poker, billabong poker, Guts are other few specific variants of the game.

The game usually involves formation of hands based on the game rule. The 5 card hands of the individual players are compared and the highest ranked hand is decided to be the winner in many of the poker games, in others the lowest ranked hand may also win or tie. There are different hands such as full house, straight flush, flush and straight, four of a kind, three of a kind, two pair, one pair and high cards.

Poker is the game of betting, in a general poker game the players sitting in a circle bet in a clock wise fashion. The players in the process have many options such as check, open, fold, call or raise. These betting strategies are the driving force and factors determining the direction of the game. To choose one of these steps, sufficient brainstorming is done to analyze the movement of the cards and a little guess work. Sometimes the guess work pays, yet other times it may cost very sweetly to the players.

To check is to remain neutral without placing any bet, this is a strategy chosen when no other player has opened the betting round and you also choose not to open yet. Any player who makes the first bet is called an open bet. This way the betting round begins and the opening of the pot is also signified.

After the first bet is made, the remaining players have 3 options, either to fold, call or raise. When a call is made, the step is either to match the bet or raise. The fold option is taken to discard one’s hand and raise is a bet that enhances the previous bet

The game may or may not involve a forced bet called as Ante. In this forced bet, every player is supposed to put same quantity of money or chips into the pot to begin the deal. Another forced bet is blinds. A blind bet is nothing but the forced bet that is placed in the pot by the players.