History of Online Poker Game
Poker is a very popular game and is played throughout the world. At first, 'Poker' was known by the name of 'Bluff'. Poker is a national vying game of United States of America and is of French-American origin. It carries five cards based on betting on who has the best hand. In this game, players bet on whom will hold a combination of best cards by continuously raising the bets until any of the following occurs first:
- At the time of showdown, the person holding the best cards combination wins all the stakes; or
- One of the players quits the game, and the last person who was supposed to show his cards wins the pot.
Thus, we see that Poker is not an ordinary game. One can deal with as many cards as one desires, but finally the one who catches up with a valid combination of five cards wins the game. Conventionally, the main crux of the game is that the combination of cards should start from the highest to the lowest:
- Five cards in sequence and suit (Straight Flush). For instance, A-K-Q-J-10
- Four cards of the same rank and one card as idler, for instance, A-A-A-A-x
- Three cards of the same rank and two cards of other rank (Full House), for instance, A-A-A-2-2
- Five cards in suit, but not in sequence (Flush). For instance, 1-K-9-8-J - all of the same suit, say all are clubs.
- Five cards in sequence, but not in suit (Straight). For instance, 5-4-3-2-1
- Three cards of the same rank, and 2 cards of two different ranks, for instance, 1-1-1-J-K
- A pair of two with similar ranks and one idler, for instance, J-J-2-2-x
- One pair of the same rank, for instance, K-K-x-y-z
- No combination - In this case, one who holds the highest card wins the pot (High Card)
Straight Flush is also known as Royal Flush. All the above-mentioned five-card combinations are known as 'Poker variants'. These are also known as 'Freak Hands' in a nonprofessional language.
A very important point to be noted here is that in the Poker game, a valid combination of five cards and an element of vying is a must. The word 'vying' refers to a process of betting on who has the best hand. If any game carrying the title of Poker lacks the five-card combination, the element of vying, or both, it will not be considered as a real Poker Game. There are many such games, which carry the title of POKER, but do not consist of valid combinations or vying ness or both. For e.g. Whiskey Poker - a commerce game and Chinese Poker - a partition game.
There is a game in the form of Poker, known as "Dealer's Choice". It cannot be purely called "POKER" as it just contains the components of Poker. Therefore, it can be called as one of the forms of Poker, but not the Poker itself.
In addition to Poker, other vying games played across the world include Brag, Primiera, and Mus. Brag is a British vying game and it is based on three-card combination. Primiera is an Italian vying game based on four-card combination. 'Mus' is a Spanish vying game based on four-card combination.
