A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific. Countless card games exist, including families of related games. A small number of card games played with traditional decks have formally standardized rules, but most are folk games whose rules vary by region, culture, and person. Games using playing cards exploit the fact that cards are individually identifiable from one side only, so that each player knows only the cards he holds and not those held by anyone else. For this reason card games are often characterized as games of chance or “imperfect information”—as distinct from games of strategy or “perfect information,” where the current position is fully visible to all players throughout the game.
In poker, a starting hand is the initial set of cards dealt to a player before any voluntary betting takes place. For example, in seven-card stud this is two downcards and one upcard, in Texas hold 'em it is two downcards, and in five-card draw it is five cards.
Pai gow poker is a version of pai gow that is played with playing cards, instead of traditional pai gow's Chinese dominoes. The game of pai gow poker was created in 1985 in the United States by Sam Torosian, owner of the Bell Card Club.
In the game of poker, the play largely centers on the act of betting, and as such, a protocol has been developed to speed up play, lessen confusion, and increase security while playing. Different games are played using different types of bets, and small variations in etiquette exist between cardrooms, but for the most part the following rules and protocol are observed by the majority of poker players.
Texas hold 'em is a variation of the card game of poker. Two cards, known as hole cards, are dealt face down to each player, and then five community cards are dealt face up in three stages. The stages consist of a series of three cards, later an additional single card, and a final card. Each player seeks the best five card poker hand from any combination of the seven cards of the five community cards and their two hole cards. Players have betting options to check, call, raise, or fold. Rounds of betting take place before the flop is dealt and after each subsequent deal. The player who has the best hand and has not folded by the end of all betting rounds wins all of the money bet for the hand, known as the pot.
Cheating in poker is any behavior outside the rules that is intended to give an unfair advantage to one or more players.
Video poker is a casino game based on five-card draw poker. It is played on a computerized console similar in size to a slot machine.
Caribbean stud poker, also called casino stud poker, is a casino table game with rules derived from five-card stud poker. However, unlike standard poker games, Caribbean stud is played against the house rather than against other players. There is no bluffing or other deception.
The fundamental theorem of poker is a principle first articulated by David Sklansky that he believes expresses the essential nature of poker as a game of decision-making in the face of incomplete information.
In trick-taking card games, a revoke is a violation of the rules regarding the play of tricks serious enough to render the round invalid. A revoke is a violation ranked in seriousness somewhat below overt cheating, and is considered a minor offense when unintentional.
Online poker is the game of poker played over the Internet. It has been partly responsible for a huge increase in the number of poker players worldwide. Christiansen Capital Advisors stated online poker revenues grew from $82.7 million in 2001 to $2.4 billion in 2005, while a survey carried out by DrKW and Global Betting and Gaming Consultants asserted online poker revenues in 2004 were at $1.4 billion. In a testimony before the United States Senate regarding Internet Gaming, Grant Eve, a Certified Public Accountant representing the US Accounting Firm Joseph Eve, Certified Public Accountants, estimated that one in every four dollars gambled is gambled online.
Dragon Poker is a fictional card game from the "MythAdventures" series by Robert Asprin, featured primarily in the book Little Myth Marker. The game is an absurdly complex Poker variant, with the same basic rules as stud poker but with different names for the suits and face cards and the added concept of conditional modifiers. A conditional modifier is a modification to the rules based on variables such as the day of the week, the number of players, chair position, which hand of the game it is, etc. As a result, the game quickly gets ridiculously complicated.
Chinese poker is a card game based on poker hand rankings. It is intended a beginner-friendly game, as only a basic knowledge of poker hand rankings is needed to get started. Additionally, the format allows for frequent unexpected outcomes, so there is a large element of luck involved, therefore a beginner has a good chance of winning in the short term, even against experienced opponents.
The following is a glossary of poker terms used in the card game of poker. It supplements the glossary of card game terms. Besides the terms listed here, there are thousands of common and uncommon poker slang terms. This is not intended to be a formal dictionary; precise usage details and multiple closely related senses are omitted here in favor of concise treatment of the basics.
Stud poker is any of a number of poker variants in which each player receives a mix of face-down and face-up cards dealt in multiple betting rounds. Stud games are also typically non-positional games, meaning that the player who bets first on each round may change from round to round. The cards dealt face down to each individual player are called hole cards, which gave rise to the common English expression ace in the hole for any hidden advantage.
Cole South is an American professional poker player, author, and entrepreneur from Washington, DC. South is best known for his play online, though he has also made television appearances on Poker After Dark in season 5 of the show. South graduated from Georgetown University with a degree in economics in December 2011.
Brian Hastings of Hanover Township, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania is an American professional poker player known for his four World Series of Poker bracelets and for his profitable online cash game sessions against the Swedish poker player Viktor Blom, better known by his Online-Poker name Isildur1.
Open-face Chinese poker, OFCP, commonly known as Open Face Chinese or OFC, is a variant of Chinese poker where players receive five cards to start and then one card at a time until each player has a 13 card hand legal or not. The game originated in Finland during the mid-2000s and spread to Russia a few years later. Professional poker player Alex Kravchenko, who is credited with introducing the game to the Russian high-stakes community, describes the game as "spreading like a virus". The game was introduced to the United States in 2012.
