A Beginner’s Guide to Poker

Poker is a card game with many variations. For example, you can play the game with fewer than five cards. Three-Card Monte, for example, uses only four cards. And Spit-in-the-Ocean, with six cards, is a variation of the classic game. All of these games are described further in this chapter. You can also organize separate games if you have more than ten players. Regardless of which version of Poker you prefer, you’ll have a great time!

The game of poker is played with chips. The chips are usually white or blue and worth varying amounts. A white chip is the lowest-valued. A red chip is worth five or ten or twenty or more whites, while a blue chip is worth two, four, or five reds. When playing poker, players “buy in” by purchasing a certain number of chips, usually the same amount.

The name of the game “poker” comes from an eighteenth-century French game called poque. It is said to have evolved from a variant of a German game called Pochspiel, which involves bluffing. The word poker is also used to refer to a type of slang used by card hustlers. The word poque was probably used by pickpockets to refer to a cheating game. The “r” was added to confuse players who understood the slang term. However, there’s no doubt that the game is based on a combination of psychology, probability, and rules.