Poker is a card game that involves betting and a lot of skill. While the outcome of any individual hand has some element of chance, in the long run the best players will win. Poker is one of the only games that combines a significant amount of chance with a large amount of strategic thinking and psychology.
Often the best hands will look bad on the flop, turn or river. This is called variance and it’s completely out of your control. We recommend learning how to deal with variance, focusing on bankroll management and working on your mental game to help you build resilience.
Chips: Poker chips are usually red, black, white, or blue and come in a range of values. The dealer assigns values to the chips before the game starts and then exchanges cash from players for the appropriate amounts of poker chips.
Check: When it is your turn to act during a betting round and you don’t have a good enough hand to raise, you can choose to “check” the pot. If another player raises your check, you must call the raise or fold your hand.
High Card: A player with the highest single card wins. Two Pairs: A pair is a combination of cards of the same rank, such as kings and queens or tens and eights. Straight: A running sequence of five cards in suits, such as sixes and sevens or eights and nines.