Wikipedia Poker

1. Poker is any of a number of card games in which players wager over which hand is best according to that specific game's rules in ways similar to these rankings.Often using a standard deck, poker games vary in deck configuration, the number of cards in play, the number dealt face up or face down, and the number shared by all players, but all have rules which involve one or more rounds of betting.
2. Stud poker is a variation of poker where players are typically dealt a total of five or seven cards, with the best five card poker hand winning (in situations where more than one player has the same poker hand, like a flush or straight, the winning hand is determined by whichever players has the highest one).

The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is a series of poker tournaments held annually in Las Vegas and, since 2004, sponsored by Caesars Entertainment.It dates its origins to 1970, when Benny Binion invited seven of the best-known poker players to the Horseshoe Casino for a single tournament, with a set start and stop time, and a winner determined by a secret ballot of the seven players. PokerStars is an online poker cardroom owned by The Stars Group.It can be accessed through downloadable poker clients for the Windows, macOS, Android and iOS.It is the largest real money online poker site in the world, controlling over two-thirds of the total online poker market. A PokerStars.com online satellite tournament produced the 2003 World Series of Poker (WSOP) champion, Chris. Poker is a game which people play with a normal set (or deck) of 52 cards.Poker is a gambling game which involves some luck, but also some skill. In poker, players make bets against each other depending on the value of their poker hand.Bets are usually made with plastic or ceramic discs called chips.Bets may also be made with real money, but chips are more often used because they are easier to.

Poker is a game which people play with a normal set (or deck) of 52 cards. Poker is a gambling game which involves some luck, but also some skill. In poker, players make bets against each other depending on the value of their poker hand. Bets are usually made with plastic or ceramic discs called chips. Bets may also be made with real money, but chips are more often used because they are easier to handle and count. At the end of the game, players either swap their chips for money, or the chips are counted to determine the order of winners.

There are many different kinds of poker. In draw poker, each player is dealt five cards. A player can decide to throw away a number of these cards and then take (draw) new cards to replace them.

In stud poker (for example, seven-card stud), some of each player's cards are laid (face-up) on the table so that the other players can see them. In community card poker (for example, Texas hold 'em), players share some of their cards in the center of the table.^[1]

History[change change source]

The history of poker is a matter of some debate. The name of the game likely descended from the Frenchpoque, which descended from the Germanpochen ('to knock'), but it is not clear whether the origins of poker itself lie with the games bearing those names. It closely resembles the Persian game of as nas, and may have been taught to French settlers in New Orleans by Persian sailors. It is commonly regarded as sharing ancestry with the Renaissance game of primero and the French brelan. The English game brag (earlier bragg) clearly descended from brelan and incorporated bluffing (though the concept was known in other games by that time). It is quite possible that all of these earlier games influenced the development of poker as it exists now.

English actor Joseph Crowell reported that the game was played in New Orleans in 1829, with a deck of 20 cards, four players betting on which player's hand was the most valuable. ^[2] Jonathan H. Green's book, An Exposure of the Arts and Miseries of Gambling (G. B. Zieber, Philadelphia, 1843), described the spread of the game from there to the rest of the country by Mississippiriverboats, on which gambling was a common pastime.

Soon after this spread, the full 52-card English deck was used, and the flush was introduced. During the American Civil War, many additions were made, including draw poker, stud poker (the five-card variant), and the straight. Further American developments followed, such as the wild card (around 1875), lowball and split-pot poker (around 1900), and community card poker games (around 1925). Spread of the game to other countries, particularly in Asia, is often attributed to the U.S. military.

The game and jargon of poker have become important parts of American culture and English culture. Such phrases as ace in the hole, beats me, blue chip, call the bluff, cash in, pass the buck, poker face, stack up, up the ante, when the chips are down, wild card, and others are used in everyday conversation even by those unaware of their origins at the poker table.

Modern tournament play became popular in American casinos after the World Series of Poker began in 1970. It was also during that decade that the first serious strategy books appeared, notably The Theory of Poker by David Sklansky (ISBN1880685000), Super System by Doyle Brunson (ISBN1580420818), and The Book of Tells by Mike Caro (ISBN0897461002).

Poker’s popularity has experienced an unprecedented spike in recent years, largely due to the introduction of online poker and the invention of the hole-card camera which finally turned the game into a spectator sport. Viewers can now follow the action and drama of the game, and broadcasts of poker tournaments such as the World Series of Poker and the World Poker Tour have brought in huge audiences for cable and satellite TV distributors.

Game play[change change source]

The game of poker is played in hundreds of variations, but the following overview of game play applies to most of them.

Online Poker Wikipedia

Depending on the game rules, one or more players may be required to place an initial amount of money into the pot before the cards are dealt. These are called forced bets and come in three forms: antes, blinds, and bring-ins.

Like most card games, the dealer shuffles the deck of cards. The deck is then cut, and the appropriate number of cards are dealt face-down to the players. In a casino a 'house' dealer handles the cards for each hand, but a button (any small item used as a marker, also called a buck) is rotated among the players to determine the order of dealing and betting in certain games. In a home game, the right to deal the cards typically rotates among the players clockwise, but a button may still be used.

After the initial deal, the first of what may be several betting rounds begins. Between rounds, the players' hands develop in some way, often by being dealt additional cards or replacing cards previously dealt. During a round of betting, there will always be a current bet amount, which is the total amount of money bet in this round by the player who bet last in this round. To keep better track of this, it is conventional for players to not place their bets directly into the pot (called splashing the pot), but rather place them in front of themselves toward the pot, until the betting round is over. When the round is over, the bets are then gathered into the pot.

After the first betting round is completed (every participating player having called an equal amount), there may be more rounds in which more cards are dealt in various ways, followed by further rounds of betting (into the same central pot). At any time during the first or subsequent betting rounds, if one player makes a bet and all other players fold, the deal ends immediately, the single remaining player is awarded the pot, no cards are shown, no more rounds are dealt, and the next deal begins. This is what makes it possible to bluff.

At the end of the last betting round, if more than one player remains, there is a showdown in which the players reveal their previously hidden cards and evaluate their hands. The player with the best hand according to the poker variant being played wins the pot.

Hands[change change source]

The following are poker hands, from best to worst:

Texas Holdem Poker Free

• Straight flush: Five cards of the same suit in sequence (if those five are A, K, Q, J, 10; it is a Royal Flush)
• Four of a kind: Four cards of the same rank and any one other card
• Full house: Three cards of one rank and two of another
• Flush: Five cards of the same suit
• Straight: Five cards in sequence (for example, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
• Three of a kind: Three cards of the same rank
• Two pair: Two cards of one rank and two cards of another
• One pair: Two cards of the same rank
• High card: If no one has a pair, the highest card wins

Poker Chips[change change source]

Poker chips are small disks. They made by various materials including molded plastic, colored metal molded clays. They are used in table games as play money. Modern poker traces its roots towards the 1800s, and in those days, players used what you could to help keep a tally. Coins, gold dust and nuggets were used until they considered replacing with something which would indicate them. Thus, the casino chips happen to be introduced within the gambling business.

Poker rooms started using casino chips to simply manage the cash and then collect charges. In those days, casino chips were created of ivory, bone, paper wood. However, the most generally used chips were created of composite clay. One problem made an appearance due to the developing casino chips which was cheating. Some players considered sneaking some chips in their hands. To avoid this, manufacturers created differentiated disks. Consequently, a range of styles was created. With time, other manufacturers could use many other materials for making casino chips, for example, plastic and metal.^[3]

Poker variations[change change source]

References[change change source]

1. ↑Reuben, Stewart 2001. Starting out in Poker. London: Everyman/Mind Sports. ISBN 1-85744-272-5 Basic teaching text, explains terms, gives advice.
2. ↑'poker betting> Poker Betting'. sbo360. Retrieved 2017-06-11.
3. ↑'poker-teacher.net > Poker Chips'. poker-teacher.net. Retrieved 2018-08-10.

Alice Ivers (1851-February 27, 1930), better known as Poker Alice, was a famous poker player. Her family moved from Devon, England, where she was born, to Virginia, United States, where she went to school and was raised. As an adult, Ivers moved to Leadville, Colorado where she met her husband Frank Duffield. Duffield was responsible for getting Ivers interested in poker, but he was killed a few years after they got married. Ivers made a name for herself by winning money from poker games in places like Silver City, New Mexico, and even working at a saloon that was owned by Bob Ford, the man who killed Jesse James^[1]

Early Life[change change source]

“Poker” Alice Ivers was born on February 17, 1851 in Devon, England to Irish Immigrants. Her family moved to Virginia when Alice was 12. As a young woman, she went to boarding school in Virginia to become a refined lady. While in her late teens, her family moved to Leadville, a city in the Colorado Territory.

Personal Life[change change source]

Three Card Poker Wikipedia

It was in Leadville that Alice met Frank Duffield, whom she married at a young age. Frank Duffield was a mining engineer who played poker in his spare time. After just a few years of marriage, Duffield was killed in an accident while resetting a dynamite charge in a Leadville mine.

Ivers was known for splurging her winnings, as when she won a lot of money in Silver City and spent it all in New York. After all of her big wins, she would travel to New York and spend her money on clothes. She was very keen on keeping up with the latest fashions and would buy dresses to wear to play poker.

Alice met her next husband around 1890 when she was a dealer in Bedrock Tom’s saloon in Deadwood, South Dakota. When a drunken miner tried to attack her fellow dealer Warren G. Tubbs with a knife, Alice threatened him with her .38. After this incident, Tubbs and Ivers started a romance and were married soon after.

Alice Ivers and Warren Tubbs had 4 sons and 3 daughters together. Tubbs and Ivers did not want their children to be influenced by the world of poker, so they moved to a house just northeast of Sturgis on the Moreau River in South Dakota. Tubbs was not only a dealer, but a housepainter as well. It was most likely this house painting that caused him to fall sick with tuberculosis. Warren Tubbs died in 1910 in of pneumonia during a blizzard. To pay for his funeral, Alice had to pawn her wedding ring, which led her back to the poker world.

Alice’s third husband was George Huckert, who worked on her homestead taking care of the sheep. Huckert was constantly proposing to Ivers, yet for a while she did not agree. Eventually, however, Ivers owed Huckert $1,008, so she married him figuring that it would be cheaper than paying his back wages. Huckert died in 1913.

Poker Career[change change source]

First husband Frank Duffield introduced Alice to poker when she accompanied him to his poker games in Leadville. For a while she just attended, watching and observing, but eventually she started to play and gamble along with the men. However, it wasn’t until after her first husband died that she started to play poker seriously.

Alice was in a tough financial position, and after failing in a few different jobs including teaching; she turned to poker to support herself financially. Alice would make money by gambling and working as a dealer. Ivers made a name for herself by winning money from poker games in places like Silver City, New Mexico, even working at a saloon that was owned by Bob Ford, the man who killed Jesse James.

By the time Ivers was given the name “Poker Alice,” she was drawing in large crowd to watch her play and men were constantly challenging her to play. Saloon owners liked that Ivers was a respectable woman who kept to her values. These values included her refusal to play poker on Sundays.

As her reputation grew, so did the amount of money she was making. Some nights she would even make $6,000, an incredibly large sum of money at the time. Alice claimed that she won $250,000, which would now be worth over three million dollars.

Ivers used her good looks to distract men at the poker table. She always had the newest dresses, and even in her 50s was considered a very attractive woman. She was also very good at counting cards and figuring odds, which helped her at the table.

Alice was known to always be carrying a gun with her, preferably her .38. She was also known to smoke a lot.

Poker's Palace and Jailtime[change change source]

In 1910, Ivers opened “Poker’s Palace,” a saloon in Fort Meade, South Dakota, which offered gambling and liquor downstairs, and prostitution upstairs. The saloon was always closed on Sundays, due to Iver’s religious beliefs. However, in 1913, some drunken soldiers disobeyed Iver’s “no work on Sunday” rule and started to get unruly, chaotic, and destructive of the house. It was then that Ivers shot her gun, supposedly to quiet the soldiers down. The shot ended up killing one of the soldiers and injuring another, resulting in Iver’s arrest, along with the arrest of six of her ‘girls’.

Wikipedia Poker Odds

Iver’s time spent in jail was short, but she got through it with the help of reading the bible and smoking cigars. At the trial, she claimed self-defense and was acquitted. After the trial, her saloon was shut down.

While in her 60s, Alice Ivers was arrested several times after the “Poker Palace” incident for being a madam, a gambler, and a bootlegger, as well as her drunkenness. She would comply with the law and pay her fines, but keep her business still. In 1928, she was arrested again for bootlegging and her repeated offenses of holding a brothel. Despite this sentence to prison, Ivers did not end up having to stay, because she was pardoned by then Governor Bulow of South Dakota who did so because of her old age.

Legacy[change change source]

After being forced to retire by the anger of the military and other people who were upset with her blend of religious elements at her house in Sturgis, Alice’s health began to fail her. Alice Ivers died on February 27, 1930 in Rapid City after a gallbladder operation at the age of 79. Ivers was buried at the St. Aloysius Cemetery in Sturgis, South Dakota.

References[change change source]

Wikipedia Poker

1. ↑'OLD WEST LEGENDS;Poker Alice - Famous Frontier Gambler'.