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Poker
The card game poker is 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.
In order to play, one must learn the basic rules and
procedures of the game (see
Poker game play), the values of the various combinations of cards (see
Poker
hand), and the rules about betting limits (see
Betting (poker)). 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, 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.
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 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 has added additional popularity to the game.
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 unsolvable. 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, 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 SchJaeffer who
developed Poki and PsOpt.
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
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 Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
(Redirected from
Poker (game))
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