In Poker's Ante and Straddle Games, it is to produce eventually, the best hand at the table.
The Ante goes like this--- the player to the dealer's left (A) will have put one chip on the table in front of him. The player next to the Ante (B) will have put two chips--- the Straddle--- in front of him.
These are the only two players who need lose anything at all on the deal. In Ante and Straddle games, Jackpots, and Acepots, hand rank as follows:
Royal Straight Flushes, straight Flushes, four-of-a-kind ('fours'), full Houses, flushes, straights, three-of-a-kind ('threes'), two pairs, one pair, and hands ranking lower than a pair.
A Royal Straight Flush (or Royal Flush) consists of the A K Q J 10 of any of one of the four suits.
The Ace can be regarded as either the highest or the lowest card of its suit; here, of course, it is the highest card.
It follows that only four different Royal Straight Flushes are possible.
All suits rank equally; hence if two Royal Straight Flushes emerge in the course of one deal, the odds against this are astronomical--- the players holding them would divide the pot.
A Straight Flush consists of five cards, all of the same suit and in sequence. Should two Straight Flushes encounter one another in the 'showdown', the one that is headed by the higher card wins.
In Four-of-a-kind (or fours), we have four cards of the same denomination.
If Fours encounter one another, the higher denomination wins. In club play, any hand of these first three ranks normally carries a bonus (or penalty). The bonus is paid by each of the other players at the table, whether he has played in the pot or not.
To qualify for a bonus, a hand does not have to win the pot.
Thus, if, in the showdown, one player produced a Straight Flush and the other fours, and if there were seven players at the table, the former would collect 96 chips and the latter 24 chips.
The player holding Fours collects his bonus even if he does not see his opponent's last bet.
In some clubs, a 'bonus' hand is followed by a 'pot' in which the cards held, that qualified for the bonus, become wild cards, i.e., jokers. Whoever gets one of these cards dealt to him can give it any designation he likes.
A Full House (or full hand) consists of three cards of one denomination and two of another. For example: a) 9 9 9 2 2, or b) 6 6 6 A A. If these two hands came into conflict, (a) would beat (b), because three 9's are superior to the three 6's.
A Flush comprised of five cards--- not consecutive in the same suit whereas Straight consists of five consecutive cards but not in the same suit. An A may be used at the bottom of a five high straight: 5 4 3 2 A.
'Threes', as the name implies, consist of three cards of the same denomination and nay two other cards which do not constitute a pair.
In Two Pairs, there are two cards of one denomination; two of a second denomination, and an odd one.
However, in One Pair, the holding of a Pair is very frequent; about 40 percent of the hands dealt at Poker contain one pair and three cards of other denominations. The higher pair wins when two such hands are in conflict.
Hands below the pair--- if hands are in competition even one pair, the principles already presented apply: A K 5 3 2 wins against a Q 10 9 8; A J 10 8 3 wins against A J 10 7 6, and so on.
