Tag Archives: suit
How To Play Poker Cards and Their Rankings.
In order to explain how to play Poker – I am going to start out explaining the cards and the Card Rankings then move on to the various types of Games and what the differences are between them. The aim of the game in Poker – is to beat your opponents hands by holding a better ranked hand than they do. The cards rank from Two to Ace (although bear in mind that the Ace is allowed as both a Low and a High Card)
Single Card – This is the worst hand available and is where there is no common ground between any of the cards in your possession – They are not all the same color, not all the same suit and do not have any pairs of the same Marked Number.
A Pair – This is when two of the cards are the same Face Value – with a Pair of 2’s being considerably worse than a pair of Ace’s.
Two Pair – when you have two sets of pairs available to you – although beating a Pair – this is still not a strong hand and unless you have High Cards (Jack through Ace) you should be wary about betting highly.
Three of a Kind – This is when three of the cards available to you are all linked by the same Marked Number. E.g. Three 6’s or Three 10’s.
A Straight – This is when the cards get better and the Term stands for five sequential cards e.g. 4,5,6,7,8 but not all belonging to one suit. The best available Straight is the 10,J,Q,K,A.
A Flush – This is when all the cards are different Marked Numbers but all belong to the same suit – e.g. They are all Diamonds or are all Spades e.t.c. This is generally considered a strong hand and betting heavily on this would be expected. Be aware that the Highest Card of the Flush is the most important card as a 2,3,7,9,Ace would beat a 7,9,10,Q,K!
A Full House – This is a very good hand and is defined as a Pair and a Three of a Kind combined. That means in the five cards used – there are 2 matching numbers and 3 other matching numbers. Again the Three Card medley out-values the Pair should two players have the same hands.
Four of a Kind – A rare delight – when you have drawn this you are expected to bet heavily. This means that four of your cards all belong to the same Marked Number e.g. Four 8’s or Four Queen’s. The fifth card is only important should two players have the same identical cards – an unlikely event with this hand.
A Straight Flush – This is very rare and should be used to full effect when betting. This term applies to a hand of 5 cards – all consecutive numbers and all with the same suit. For example – 3,4,5,6,7 of Hearts would be termed as this and any player lucky enough to get this should bet heavily with it.
The Royal Flush – I have titled this appropriately as it is the hardest hand to get in the Game and should anyone be lucky to draw this at odds of 1 in 649,740 – you should be looking to bring every player into the game and bet all the chips available to you. This means that you have got the 10,J,Q,K,A of the same suit.
Online Bridge and Its Variant Casino Card Games
For card game fans, bridge is more than a game. Its a sport on its own with websites, blogs and columns exclusively dedicated to the game. Online casinos offer a whole lot of classic bridge and variant versions for free download and play. Since this is essentially a game of contract bidding, it involves playing for money. Bridge remains one of the most difficult card games to play. Only people who understand the nuances well, can keep in step with complicated strategy manage to win.
Whist is a variation thats been checked in popularity by bridge but nonetheless an interesting game. It lets you beat the opponent in a visual manner but there is no bidding involved. Having evolved from a game called Ruff and Honors, Whist was popular through the 18 and 19 century. The classic whist is a trick game for four players who begin with fixed partnership. A deal can use two card packs and 13 tricks are played.
In whist a 52 pair is used and game is held clockwise with cards ranking from highest card- the ace to lowest, the card 2. Whist has different variations including Knockout whist, Solo whist, Bid whist and Minnesota whist. Suit whist is a Belgian adaption of Solo whist while bid whist is a partnership game where bidding is done. There are no trumps in Minnesota whist so its quite close to Norwegian whist. Israeli whist is linked to Oh Hell, where player attempt to bid on tricks.
Bridge has another popular variation called Spades which is quite simple. Spades is played on jailhouse rules wherein tactics like point based sandbagging are penalized and there are many options in house rules. At a time 2 to 5 people can play either solo or in partnerships. A young game, spades is already popular online. Unlike in whist, this game is based on the premise that spade suit is trump. Different variations employ different rules.
One version of online Spades uses only a set whereas another uses two joker cards- big and little in addition to the full cards set. Spades scores on basis of hands, requiring winner to attain a fixed figure in points which is decided on before game starts. A 200 point target is considered short game and longer games can go up to 500 points. Game is opened by player on left of the dealer, with others following suit.