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Card Game
Poker is a card game, the most popular of a class of
games called vying games, in which players with fully
or partially concealed cards make wagers into a central
pot, after which the pot is awarded to the remaining
player or players with the best combination of cards.
Poker can also refer to Video Poker which is a single
player game seen in casinos much like a slot machine.
In order to play, one must learn the
basic rules and procedures of the game, the values of
the various combinations of cards (see hand), and the
rules about betting limits (see betting). Some knowledge
of the equipment used to play (see Poker equipment)
is useful. There are also many variants of poker, loosely
categorized as draw poker, stud poker, community card
poker (a.k.a. "widow game"), and miscellaneous
poker games. The most commonly played games of the first
three categories are five-card draw, seven-card stud,
and Texas hold 'em, respectively; each being a common
starting point for learning games of the type. Dealer's
choice is a way to play poker where the dealer chooses
what type of poker to play.
History
The history of poker is a matter of
some debate. The name of the game likely descended from
the French poque, which descended from the German pochen
('to knock'), but it is not clear whether the games
named by those terms were the real origins of poker.
It closely resembles the Persian game of as nas, and
may have been taught to French settlers in New Orleans
by Persian sailors. It is commonly regarded as sharing
ancestry with the Renaissance game of primero and the
French brelan. The English game brag (earlier bragg)
clearly descended from brelan and incorporated bluffing
(though the concept was known in other games by that
time). It is quite possible that all of these earlier
games influenced the development of poker as it exists
now.
English actor Joseph Crowell described
the game as played in New Orleans in 1829: played with
a deck of 20 cards, four players bet on which player's
hand of cards was the most valuable. Jonathan H. Green's
book An Exposure of the Arts and Miseries of Gambling
(G. B. Zieber, Philadelphia, 1843) described the spread
of the game from there to the rest of the country by
Mississippi riverboats, on which gambling was a common
pastime.
Soon after this spread, the full 52-card
English deck was used, and the flush was introduced.
During the American Civil War, many additions were made,
including draw poker, stud poker (the five-card variant),
and the straight. Further American developments followed,
such as the wild card (around 1875), lowball and split-pot
poker (around 1900), and community card poker games
(around 1925). Spread of the game to other countries,
particularly in Asia, is often attributed to the U.S.
military.
The game and jargon of poker have become
important parts of American culture and English culture.
Such phrases as ace in the hole, beats me, blue chip,
call the bluff, cash in, pass the buck, poker face,
stack up, up the ante, when the chips are down, wild
card, and others are used in everyday conversation even
by those unaware of their origins at the poker table.
Modern tournament play became popular
in American casinos after the World Series of Poker
began in 1970. It was also during that decade that the
first serious strategy books appeared, notably The Theory
of Poker by David Sklansky (ISBN 1880685000), Super
System by Doyle Brunson (ISBN 0931444014), and The Book
of Tells by Mike Caro (ISBN 0897461002). Broadcast of
poker tournaments for cable and satellite TV distribution,
such as with the World Poker Tour, has added additional
popularity to the game, as has the introduction of online
poker.
Game play
The game of poker is played in hundreds
of variations, but the following overview of game play
applies to most of them.
Depending on the game rules, one or
more players may be required to place an initial amount
of money into the pot before the cards are dealt. These
are called forced bets and come in three forms: antes,
blinds, and bring-ins.
Like most card games, the dealer shuffles
the deck of cards. The deck is then cut, and the appropriate
number of cards are dealt face-down to the players.
In a home game, the right to deal the cards typically
rotates among the players clockwise, whose position
is often marked by a button (any small item used as
a marker, also called a buck). In a casino a "house"
dealer handles the cards for each hand, but a button
is still rotated among the players to determine the
order of dealing and betting in some games.
After the initial deal, the first of
what may be several betting rounds begins. Between rounds,
the players' hands develop in some way, often by being
dealt additional cards or replacing cards previously
dealt. During a round of betting, there will always
be a current bet amount, which is the total amount of
money bet in this round by the player who bet last in
this round. To keep better track of this, it is conventional
for players to not place their bets directly into the
pot (called splashing the pot), but rather place them
in front of themselves toward the pot, until the betting
round is over. When the round is over, the bets are
then gathered into the pot.
After the first betting round is complete
because every player called an equal amount, there may
be more rounds in which more cards are dealt in various
ways, followed by further rounds of betting (into the
same central pot). At any time during the first or subsequent
betting rounds, if one player makes a bet and all other
players fold, the deal ends immediately, the single
remaining player is awarded the pot, no cards are shown,
no more rounds are dealt, and the next deal begins.
This is what makes it possible to bluff.
At the end of the last betting round,
if more than one player remains, there is a showdown
in which the players reveal their previously hidden
cards and evaluate their hands. The player with the
best hand according to the poker variant being played
wins the pot. Some deals may not reach the showdown
phase if all players drop out except one.
Computer players
The game of poker (or at least most
of the variants) is considered to be computationally
intractable. However, methods are being developed to
at least approximate perfect strategy from the game
theory perspective in the heads-up (two player) game,
and increasingly good systems are being created for
the multi-player or ring game. Perfect strategy has
multiple meanings in this context. From a game-theoretic
optimal point of view, a perfect strategy is a minimax
one that cannot expect to lose to any other player's
strategy; however, optimal strategy can vary in the
presence of sub-optimal players who have weaknesses
that can be exploited. In this case, a perfect strategy
would be one that correctly or closely models those
weaknesses and takes advantage of them to make a profit.
Some of these systems are based on Bayes theorem, Nash
equilibrium, Monte Carlo simulation, and Neural networks.
A large amount of the research is being done at the
University of Alberta by the GAMES group led by Jonathan
Schaeffer who developed Poki and PsOpt.
A major part of the skill of live poker
games, however, is guessing at the strength of a player's
hand by identifying tells made by other players, while
concealing one's own, unlike, for example, chess, where
all information about the game's current state is public.
As a computer would not make any tells, playing against
a computer would fundamentally change the nature of
the game far more than in games like chess.
Quotes
Poker is a microcosm of all we admire
and disdain about capitalism and democracy. It can be
rough-hewn or polished, warm or cold, charitable and
caring or hard and impersonal. It is fickle and elusive,
but ultimately it is fair, and right, and just. -- Lou
Krieger
If you can't spot the sucker within
the first half hour at the table, then you are the sucker.
-- common poker saying, as spoken by Matt Damon in Rounders;
originally attributed to Amarillo Slim
Whether he likes it or not, a man's
character is stripped bare at the poker table; if the
other players read him better than he does, he has only
himself to blame. Unless he is both able and prepared
to see himself as others do, flaws and all, he will
be a loser in cards, as in life. -- Anthony Holden (from
Big Deal)
There are few things that are so unpardonably
neglected in our country as poker... Why, I have known
clergymen, good men, kindhearted, liberal, sincere,
and all that, who did not know the meaning of a 'flush'.
It is enough to make one ashamed of one's species. --
Mark Twain
Nobody is always a winner, and anybody
who says he is, is either a liar or doesn't play poker.
-- Amarillo Slim
They anticipate losing when they sit
down and I try my darndest not to disappoint one of
them. -- Amarillo Slim
Poker is a game of people... It's not
the hand I hold, it's the people that I play with. --
Amarillo Slim
Hold em is to stud what chess is to
checkers. -- Johnny Moss
The guy who invented poker was bright,
but the guy who invented the chip was a genius. -- Big
Julie
Last night I stayed up late playing
poker with Tarot cards. I got a full house and four
people died. -- Steven Wright
Cards are war, in disguise of a sport.
-- Charles Lamb, Essays of Elia (1832)
You call...gonna be all over, baby.
-- Scotty Nguyen, during the 1998 World Series of Poker.
Down to the final 2 players, he said this to his opponent
while he held the best possible hand.
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