Chapter 0: What Is Poker?
Rules, terms, hand rankings and the flow of the game, from zero
Even if you have never touched playing cards, once you finish this material you will be able to sit at a table and play one hand through to the end.
Five parts in all
About This Material
You need no prior knowledge
Who it is for
You can read it starting from not knowing the rules of cards at all. “What is a flush?” is fine.
Where you will get to
Being able to sit at a table and play one hand to the end on your own. You can also judge the hands yourself.
What it does not cover
It covers almost no strategy. How to win is the job of the material from Chapter 1 on.
| Part 1 Tools and the Table | Cards, the table, chips, blinds |
| Part 2 Hand Rankings | The 10 hands, and how to compare their strength |
| Part 3 Flow of the Game | From the start of 1 hand to its end |
| Part 4 Glossary | Words that come up in real play and in the rest of the material |
| Part 5 First Steps | What to learn first, and common mistakes |
What Is Poker?
It is a card game, but its essence is not the cards
- Poker is “a game where, without seeing your opponents’ cards, you keep making the most profitable choice from limited information.”
- Think of it not as a game of whose cards are stronger, but as a game of information and judgment.
There is hidden information
You never see your opponents’ cards until the end. That is why you need to “guess.”
You have the right to fold
If you think you are losing, you can fold at any time. This right is what makes the game work.
The strong hand does not always win
If everyone else folds, even the weakest hand wins. This is where it differs decisively from other card games.
You are not competing “with the cards you were dealt” but on “how you handle the cards you were dealt.”
What Is Texas Hold’em?
There are many kinds of poker. This is one of them
What makes this format different
- 2 cards that are yours alone (hole cards)
- 5 cards shared by everyone (the board)
- From these 7 cards, you choose the strongest 5 to make your hand
Why it is the most popular
- With many shared cards, the range of strategy is wide
- It is the event of the world championships, with the most information and learning material
It is also called “Hold’em” for short.
Other main kinds of poker
- Omaha: 4 cards in your hand. You must use exactly 2 of them
- Stud: no shared cards; each player has cards face up and face down
- Draw: you exchange cards to make your hand
This material covers only Texas Hold’em. From here on, “poker” means this.
Luck and Skill
Misunderstand this, and you will not be able to keep going
Short term (one day, one week)
- Luck decides almost everything
- Strong hands losing and weak hands winning happens all the time
- It is not rare for good players to lose
Long term (tens of thousands of hands)
- The difference in the quality of decisions starts to show in the results
- Luck moves toward the average, and the difference in skill remains
Precisely because luck is so large, you need to use your decisions as the standard.
So, think like this
Judge yourself not by winning or losing, but by whether your decision was right.
Playing correctly and losing happens.
Playing wrongly and winning also happens.
If you look only at results, a wrong way of playing gets remembered as “right, because it won.”
This is the trap that beginners fall into most easily.