What Every Player Needs To Know
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While Poker is played in innumerable forms, it is really necessary to understand only two basic things:
1. The values of the poker hands.
2. The principles of betting in poker.
A player who understands the values and principles can play without difficulty in any type of poker game.
The rules of how games are dealt and what hands beat what hands, according to Hoyle, Scarne, and any other source, do not change. You will not find Five Card Draw in New York to be different from Five Card Draw in Chico or Redding.

Rank of Hands
A complete hand is always composed of five cards. Here is the sequence of winning hands, in ascending order:
• High card, or Ace-high
• Pair
• Two pair
• Three of a kind
• Straight
• Flush
• Full house
• Four of a kind
• Straight flush
• Royal straight flush

The determination of the winning hand is the most important element in poker to the player. To begin, Ace-high means the hand does not have a pair or higher, and the best card in the hand is an Ace. If no one else has a pair or
higher, Ace-high is the best hand and will win the pot. If no one has an Ace, then King-high will win, and so on through Queen-high, Jack-high, etc.

If two or more players both have Aces in their hands, then the next highest cards are compared. If a tie persists, then compare the third highest cards, and so on. If there is a tie after the fifth card, call Guinness.

About the Pot
Winning the pot is the goal. The pot is composed of all bets made by all players in one deal. Each bet means that the player thinks or hopes he or she possesses the best hand. When all players have bet as much as they want to bet, or as much as is allowed, the players show their hands and the best hand wins the pot.

How the Betting Works
In the course of each poker deal, there will be one or more betting intervals in which the players have an opportunity to bet on their hands.

Each betting interval begins when any player in turn makes a bet of one or more chips. Each player in turn after the first bettor must either call that bet by putting into the pot the same number of chips or raise the bet, which means putting in more than enough chips to call. A player may also drop or fold, which means that no bet is placed and the hand is discarded by the player who is out of the betting entirely until a new deal.

When a player drops, all chips previously bet in that pot by the player are lost. Unless a player is willing to put into the pot at least as many chips as any previous player has put into the pot, the player must drop. Sometimes players can check during a betting interval.

Check is a poker term that means the player wishes to remain in the pot without betting. In effect, it is “a bet of nothing.” A player may check provided no previous player in the betting interval has made any bet. If any other player has bet, the player must at least call the bet or drop. If all the players check, the betting interval is over.

In each betting interval, one player is designated as the first bettor, according to the rules of the game. The turn to bet moves from player to player to the left, and no one may check, bet or even drop until his or her turn arrives.

A betting interval ends when the bets have been equalized, which means that each player has put into the pot exactly as many chips as every other player or has dropped. There are usually two or more betting intervals for
each poker deal.

After the final betting interval, each player who has met all the bets shows his or her hand face up on the table, and the best poker hand takes the pot. This is called the showdown. If at any time a player makes a bet or raise that no other player calls, then that player wins the pot without showing his or her hand.

The betting limits of a game refer to the range a bet can be in dollar amounts. (2-4 = $2-$4 etc.)

For example, a game with a limit of 2-4, 2-8 allows bets to be between and including 2 and 4.
The second part of the limit specifies the betting range for the last card and second to last card in the deal.
At that point, the bet can be as high as 8. In another example, a pot limit game means that a bet cannot exceed the amount of money in the pot.