Complete Guide to Poker

Poker is one of the best-known card games in existence. Early versions of poker were first played in the 19^th century, and the game has certainly evolved over the years. Playing poker is now a very popular pastime among people all over the world. It can be played simply for fun, like most card games, but the real appeal is in playing for real money stakes.

There are many variations of poker, each one having its own set of rules and strategies. Learning how to play the games is relatively easy, but mastering them and learning how to win is much harder. It takes time and effort to become a successful poker player, and not everyone is cut out for the job.

However, it’s a lot easier to test your skills at the game than it used to be, thanks to the advent of online poker. These days it’s possible to play over the internet, for real money, and against real players. You can play any time of the night or day without having to leave the comfort of your own home.

We’ve produced this poker guide to teach players everything they could possibly ever want to know about the game of poker, including playing online. We’ll help you get started if you’ve never played before and we can help you win too. We explain all the important aspects of how online poker works and also make recommendations for the best places to play.

This page details everything our guide has to offer, and we would suggest reading through it all. If you’re looking for something in particular, though, you can head straight to the relevant section.

The very fact that you are reading this page suggests that you are thinking about starting to play poker, or are possibly even playing the game already. Either way, it’s very important to understand that there are risks involved when it comes to playing poker. There’s always a chance that you’ll lose money during a game and it’s important to be fully prepared for that reality.

A lot of people choose to play poker because it’s gambling against other players rather than against a casino or bookmaker. Casinos always have the advantage in casino games due to the house edge and bookmakers always have the advantage because they get to set the odds for the wagers they take. Poker is more of a level playing field, with all players essentially having the same chance to win. That doesn’t mean it’s easy to win though, and in fact, it can be quite the opposite.

That’s right, most people that play poker lose money. You’re sadly mistaken if you think that it’s possible to just learn the rules of the game and then sit down and take money from all the other players. It’s far more likely that they’ll be taking money from you, particularly when you first start playing. You might win money some of the time, but the likelihood is that you’ll lose more often than not.

Some people accept that they’ll lose money and choose to play poker purely as a form of entertainment. These players tend to view poker in much the same way as they do casino games; a fun activity which offers a chance to win some money. They try to win if they can, but they don’t mind losing as long as they enjoy themselves. They basically just want to gamble and hope they get lucky every now and then.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with approaching poker in this way. Plenty of people enjoy playing in the casino even when they know they’re probably going to lose, so there’s no reason why people can’t do the same with poker. If you just want to have some fun, then you should go for it but please make sure that you set a budget and gamble responsibly.

The key difference between poker and casino games is that you don’t have to accept the fact that you’re going to lose money. It’s up to you how you approach the game. You can just play for the fun of it if you want, knowing that it’ll probably cost you money, or you can try to do something to increase your chances of winning.

Whether you win or lose is, to some extent at least, within your control. There’s nothing you can do to guarantee that you’ll win every time, but you can certainly put the odds in your favor. If you’re prepared to spend the necessary time and effort to learn everything there is to know about the game and all the strategies involved, then there’s nothing stopping you from making money from poker.

Please note, though, that even the best poker players in the world have losing streaks. It doesn’t matter how good you become, the element of luck in the game means that there’s always a chance of losing to players who aren’t as good. Setting a budget and gambling responsibly is still important, even as a skilled player.

How you choose to approach poker is entirely up to you. That’s part of the beauty of the game. It appeals to those just wanting to have some fun and it also gives those who want to play for a profit an opportunity to do so. No matter what approach you take, you’ll be sure to find the rest of this poker guide very useful.

If you’re completely new to poker, then our section on the basics of poker is the best place to start. It explains a number of things that you should really understand before playing, and it can help you decide whether poker is the game for you. We look at the pros and cons of this form of gambling, plus we have included a list of do’s and don’ts that are very helpful if you do choose to play.

There are articles on each of the following topics too. Although these articles are all written with the beginner in mind, an experienced player may even find them interesting.

Poker is fundamentally a simple game. The different variants, formats, and structures do make things a little more complicated though. You don’t need to learn how to play each and every variant there is, as you can choose to stick to just one if you want. However, there are some things that are essential to learn before you start playing.

Initially, you’ll need to understand the two main formats of the game. These formats are cash games and tournaments, and we’ve explained each one of them in detail in the following two articles.

You also need to understand all of the different betting structures and limits, such as no limit and fixed limit. We’ve explained all of these in the following article.

Somewhat obviously, you also need to learn the rules for any variant that you choose to play. You can find the rules for a number of variants in our poker game guides. We’ve listed the most popular of our guides below and these also contain a range of other related information. We recommend starting with Texas Hold’em, as this is the most widely played game, but it’s ultimately up to you.

If you’re interested in playing poker online, then you should definitely take a look at our introduction to online poker. All of the information in this introduction has been compiled to help you fully understand everything that’s important to know when playing online and to make sure that you have the best possible experience. It features a step-by-step guide to getting started at your first poker site and answers to a comprehensive set of frequently asked questions about online poker.

There’s plenty of other useful information too. The following topics, and more, are all covered.

Due to online poker’s increasing popularity, there are a myriad of websites available that offer poker. Some of these are excellent places to play, while some of them don’t quite hit the same standards. You obviously want to play at the better sites, but it’s not that easy to determine which ones are good and which ones are not. You don’t need to worry about this though, as we are here to help.

We are constantly testing and assessing what’s available for online poker players and this enables us to recommend the best places to play. The following sites are currently our top ranked options:

Online poker offers the same options that you’re used to in your home casino or poker room, but with some added benefits. They also do have a few additional options that most brick and mortar casinos and poker rooms will not have or will only have a limited number of. We’re going to walk you through the different game options available and discuss some of the added benefits available thanks to the technologies of the internet.

Online poker rooms offer a lot of real money tournament options. A poker tournament is a style of poker where participants pay a fixed entry fee and receive a certain amount of tournament chips. Players then play until one player has all of the chips. Players are not allowed to “cash out” and must complete the tournament. Usually, the top 10-15% of the field is paid money with those towards the top getting paid progressively more.

Tournaments online differ from those live in a few ways. First, the buy-ins are typically going to be smaller (at least in relation to your major $10k+ events). A major main event online might be a $200 or $1k buy-in event, while live your main events are much more expensive. Now, you may be thinking this stinks in terms of the prize pool, but you would be wrong. Because online tournaments allow players from all over the world to play with much more convenience, the player pools get much larger which mean the prize pool does as well.

There are weekly tournaments for $200 where you can win several hundred thousand dollars for first place. There are even some tournaments for $1 where you can win five or six figures for first! Yes, this means that you’re going to have to wade through a lot more people as the field size will be larger. But it also means that your risk vs. potential reward is going to be vastly different. You’ll have a much higher potential for reward for a much smaller risk.

This will usually be a standard buy-in cash tournament where the winners are paid cash. This would be the type of poker tournament that you are probably most used to. Here are some of the different special variation tournaments that you will probably find online. We’ve attached a very brief description of each to give you an idea of how each of them works. These are incomplete descriptions, and we recommend researching these further if you’re interested in playing one of these formats.

A sit and go is a tournament with a fixed number of players that does not have an official start time. The tournament starts as soon as enough players are registered for the event. For example, if there is a single table sit and go with nine seats available, the tournament will start as soon as nine people are registered. These are great if you want to play a tournament but don’t want to wait for a scheduled event to start. These are also great because you know how many people will be in the event and can better gauge how long the tournament will run.

For example, a $10 regular (freezeout) tournament that is scheduled for 1 pm, may get 10 players or it may get 1000 players. Because of this, you won’t know roughly how long the tournament might run until registration is closed and things have started. A nine-person sit and go will ONLY ever have nine players. It will NEVER have any more or any less than that. Yes, these are occasionally run in brick and mortar settings but very rarely and with limited options. You will never find yourself a $5 sit and go in a poker room or casino. Online, though, you will have sit and gos of all levels and all game types. Most sites have sit and gos starting as low as $0.10.

A step tournament is a group of sit and gos that culminate in a grand prize at the top that is usually an entry into a major event.

In effect, they’re a form of satellite tournament that is run as a series of sit and gos. Let’s say that you want to win a $12k package to go play in the WSOP Main Event. The package includes your $10k buy-in and $2k for travel and expenses. You could play in a 10 person $1200 sit and go where the winner gets the package. However, $1200 may be a bit more than you were looking to shell out for this shot.

The idea is to work your way up the steps until you get to the top step and ultimately win that tournament. Let’s look at a quick example of how the steps might be laid out for the above satellite to win the $12k WSOP Main Event package.

The bread and butter of online poker sites are the real money cash games (sometimes referred to as ring games). These are games where you buy-in for an actual amount of money and can play as many or as few of hands as you’d like. You can cash out at any point or reload money at any point. These games are common in brick and mortar settings, but they are incapable of having as many options as are available online.

Online casinos will have every game variation and every stake level you could ever want. You can literally play as low as $0.01/$0.02 if you want somewhere to work on your game for real money. Having all of these different stake levels is great because it allows you to make much smaller jumps as you move up the ranks. If you’re playing in a brick and mortar casino, you are forced to usually start at $1/$2 which is way too high for most people just beginning. After this, your next step up is $2/$5. Online, though, it’s common to see a $1.50/$3 step and then $2/$4. These additional steps are a great way for you to move up the ranks without having to take a huge jump all at once that could put you too far out of your element or playing for too much money than you’re comfortable with.

This goes by a lot of different names online, so we decided to come up with our own name for it that is the most descriptive. “Fast poker” is a game where as soon as you fold your hand you are moved to a brand new table and given a new hand. There is a pool of players playing, and they create a new table every time you fold your hand. This means you can get an insane amount of hands in while you’re playing. This will NEVER be available in a brick and mortar casino because it would look like the craziest game of musical chairs and would just never be able to work…not even a little bit. The best way to understand this format if you’re still confused is to hop online and give it a shot.

When we’re talking about real money here, we don’t mean the highest stakes they have. We don’t even mean the most popular stakes. Most of this becomes true the second any money is put on the line. Don’t ever feel like you have to play higher stakes than you are comfortable with. Just remember that the game will change as you move up.

As we’ve already beat like a dead horse, the play money tables are a terrible place for you to practice any sort of strategy you ever plan to use for real money. The only way to truly see what is going to work and what will not is to employ those tactics for real money. In a game where pressure from the fear of losing money is the driving force, it only works when that fear actually exists.

It’s pretty clear that you can’t make any money using play money. While you also can’t lose any money, poker is a skill game that can be bested by the best in the game. Most players’ ultimate goal in poker is to get better and be able to start making some extra money or possibly take things a step further and play for a living. Obviously, you are going to need to be playing for real money if you want to make that happen. Last we checked, play money chips don’t pay bills.

A great perk of playing poker online for real money is that you get the ability to take advantage of a lot of great promotions that they use to bring in new customers and retain existing ones. While there are too many different types of promotions to list them all, we wanted to give you a preview of some of the more popular and poker specific promotions that you will see. Remember, promotions are great, and bonuses are even greater, but they should never be the driving force for why you pick one poker site online over the other.

Your main priorities (and ours when we select sites to recommend) should be security, the integrity of the site, and the quality of the software. You should never sacrifice your safety or the quality of your gaming experience for a few bonus dollars. That all being said, if you are trying to decide between two great sites, the bonus promotions could be what helps to make the tough decision for you.

A freeroll is a poker tournament that you can enter into completely free but has real prizes. These prizes might be cash, tournament entry tickets, or some sort of swag. These are a great way to get some money online and get your feet wet without depositing any money.

Now, keep in mind that freerolls are usually going to have a zillion people in them fighting for a few bucks. There are times that freerolls get a lot sweeter if the criteria to enter are higher, but usually, that is not the case. Typically, freerolls are reserved for new players or sometimes those that have made any deposits on the site.

Rakeback is a type of promotion that has become extremely popular with online poker. Sometimes it is referred to as cash back or some other term, but they all usually mean the same thing. You get back a percentage of the rake that the site takes from you. It’s basically a refund of sorts.

Why is this great? Well, rakeback allows you to make money playing poker even if you are not beating the games. Let’s look at a quick example. If you play $1/$2 online and you break completely even for the week, you’ve made $0 in profit. Now, let’s say you have a rakeback deal where you get 10% of your rake back. If you raked $1000 that week, you would be getting $100 from the site. You are now profiting on the game even though you are a break even player.

Hopefully, this is one that you only need to take advantage of once (because you’re winning and never need to deposit again). Deposit bonuses are free money that the casino gives you when you make a deposit. Usually, it is a match percentage up to a certain amount.

For example, a common number we see is 100% deposit match bonus up to $600. This means that if you deposit $600, the site will match that and give you another $600. If you deposit $200, they will give you $200. Now, something important that we have to point out. The money they give you is bonus dollars. These turn into real cash as you play more and more on the site. If they just gave you $600, people would deposit $600 and cash out immediately all day long. They require you to play a certain amount, and they will release those bonus dollars to you. Honestly, if this upsets you, it shouldn’t. It’s completely fair and is much better than if the sites didn’t give you any free money at all.

There are many poker etiquette rules you just don’t know until you break them. Let’s dive in to some of the rules of poker etiquette that ALL players should know about. There are others, of course, but these are the MAJOR ones. If you can avoid breaking the following rules, you should do just fine at the poker tables.

The strategy section of this poker guide is an incredibly useful resource for anyone that’s interested in becoming a winning player or someone who just wants to improve their overall game. It has been compiled by experts and contains information and advice for players of all standards. Regardless of whether you are a complete beginner, a very experienced player, or somewhere in between, it’ll help you take your game to the next level.

Get those things down, while focusing on a specific game, and you’ll do just fine. Everything else you’ll pick up as you play.

Here are some additional bankroll management tips. These will not only help you build a bankroll, but also help you to avoid busting your bankroll at some point in the future.

Think about what you’ll do IF you bust your bankroll. Do you know? If you don’t have a plan, you need to create one. It can include borrowing money from a friend, getting a job, or coaching other players. Many pros go broke once or twice while they figure things out. Having a plan will reduce how much time you spend on the rail.

The guidelines above are just that – guidelines. There’s nothing wrong with having a larger bankroll than you think you need. It’ll give you the peace of mind you need to always play your ‘A’ game. It also serves as ‘insurance’ in case something goes wrong, poker-related or not.

Whatever guidelines you establish, those should be the minimum guidelines for the games and stakes you play. This means that, if your bankroll drops below that level, you too should drop down a level (or two) in stakes.

Lots of people have an ego about this. But you shouldn’t. It’s the smart thing to do. Dropping down a level gives you a chance to rebuild. Lower stakes are also great for your confidence.

And besides, you can move back up again once you rebuild your bankroll. Dropping down a level or two doesn’t mean you’ll be stuck there forever.

Getting staked is like getting a loan. You get money to play, and in return, you pay the person a percentage of your winnings. This may help if you tend to play ‘scared money.’ It may also allow you to play higher stakes than your personal bankroll can handle.

The idea is to split your time between your current level and the level above (or below) it. The reason why you’d do this is to reduce your risk while taking a shot at higher stakes or to rebuild your bankroll without fulling dropping down a level.

This should be obvious. But you’re likely to chase losses, tilt, play too high and other dumb stuff that can lead to destroying your bankroll.

Keeping records will help you figure out which games you are most and least profitable playing. You can also figure out your win-rate so you can further tweak your bankroll guidelines. If you’re more profitable than expected, you can keep less money on-hand, and vice versa.

You can your records using pen and paper, Excel or even an app like Poker Journal.

Of course, if you’re simply looking to enjoy the game of poker, there is no need to play for real money. You’ll find plenty of free poker options online. Here are some of the key advantages to playing for free:

If you’ve ever sat at a poker table, you have probably heard people say some things you didn’t quite follow. This glossary of terms will give you enough knowledge to have conversations with the more experienced players at the table:

Ace Out:

To win the pot with an ace high hand.

Ace High:

A hand with an Ace as its highest card and nothing else that would contribute to a win. No pairs, flush, etc.

All-in:

A player bets all of their remaining chips.

Ante:

A small, forced bet. This must be paid by all players before receiving their cards. Sometimes used in the late stages of tournaments.

Bet:

The first amount of money wagered by someone on that hand. After the first wager, money bet is referred to as a raise.

Big Blind:

Usually located two players to the left of the dealer. This position is the larger of the two forced pre-round bets in group play poker.

Bluff:

Betting or raising to represent a good hand when a poor or average hand is actually held.

Buy-In:

The amount of money or chips needed to join a game. In a tournament, this is how much it costs to enter. In live poker play, this would be the minimum amount of chips you can purchase to sit down and play at a specific table.

Call:

Putting in the number of chips another player has bet. This action keeps you in the hand without raising.

Community Cards:

The cards dealt for all players to use to complete their hands.

Flop:

First three community cards dealt face up on the board.

Flush:

A hand containing five cards of the same suit.

Fold:

To get rid of your cards and no longer be involved in that round of gameplay.

Freeroll:

Used in tournament play. Refers to a tournament in which no entry fee is paid to play.

Hole Cards:

Cards held by a player. These are unknown to the other players.

Limit:

The maximum amount that can be raised or bet at one time.

No-Limit:

A poker game in which there is no maximum amount that can be bet in a round. Players can bet any amount they choose.

Push:

To make an all-in bet.

Raise:

Making a bet higher in value than another player’s original bet.

Rake:

The money taken from the “pot” by a poker game facilitator. This is used to cover the costs associated with facilitating the poker game.

Small Blind:

The player one position to the left of the dealer’s button. This player has the smaller of the two forced pre-round bets.

Tilt:

Making emotional decisions regarding your game play rather than using odds or reason resulting in reckless action.