Decided to have a game of Poker but don't know the rules? We have prepared an easy to follow step by step guide to help you become an expert player. The objective of Poker is simple, basically aim to assemble the best five card hand from the cards that are dealt to you - which hopefully will be good enough to beat all of your opponents!

All cards are valued in the normal order in Poker. Ace's are normally the highest ranking card except in the situation where you have a 5,4,3,2 and Ace hand. The suits are not ranked and in some cases the lower value cards are removed from the pack before dealing. Take a look at out Poker Hand Rankings page if your not sure which hand beats which - definitely a web page worth keeping open when playing in Poker Rooms for the first time.

How to Play Poker
1. First, each player places their bet.
2. The dealer then deals the cards starting at the player to his left and continuing clockwise and deals themselves last if playing. All cards will be placed face down and one at a time until all 5 are dealt.
3. The remaining cards are placed in the middle of the table face down.
4. Each player looks at his or her cards, and then the first player places a bet. Initially the person who has been dealt first will bet first and in the next game the person who was dealt second will bet first and so on for each new hand.
5. Players have several options as far as the first round of betting goes. If no one has made a bet yet, you have two choices:
• Open: If no one has placed a bet when your turn comes you may make the first bet this is known as opening the pot.
• Check: You can only check if no one has opened the betting. This simple means you don't wish to open the betting but you don't want to quit either.
6. Once the betting has opened you have the following three choices.
• See: This means you are going to match the bet of the player you are seeing. If a player bets £10 then you must 'see' them £10.
• Raise: To raise requires you to first see the previous bet, and then increase with a bet of your own. If you bet £10 and see £10 then you will need to raise by £10.
• Fold: To fold requires you to give up on this hand and place your cards face down on the table. This is the best option if you have a really bad hand. You can of course 'bluff' and hope that nobody can tell - this is the secret of a great poker player.
7. All the players who haven't folded are allowed to reject the cards they don't want ( up to a maximum of 3) and take some new cards from the deck. Nobody sees what you have discarded as they are all placed face down.
8. After every player receives the new cards, the betting begins again. You have the option of opening or checking, and once someone opens, you can see, raise, or fold.
9. The game ends when there are no more raises, or everybody but the winner folds.
10. All cards are turned over to see how they have gone on. The player with the highest hand wins the pot that has accumulated during the previous rounds of betting.

Basic Poker Terms
Hand: This is the particular combination of cards held by the player.
Play: A single game, from one shuffle to the next is called a play.
Pot: The accumulation or pool of money bet by players during the game is referred to as pot. The game is a contest for a pot of money, which builds in the course of play.
Hand Tie: If two players have the same hand then they divide the pot between them. When the pool is not exactly divisible then the left over amount goes to the player who called the highest bet.
Ante: Money the players put into the pot before they see their cards. Antes are also called blind bets.
Rake: It is a commission charged by the poker rooms as a small amount of the total pot won at the end of most hands. This is their only source of revenue.
Showdown: The final act of determining the winner of the pot after all the betting has been completed.