Table Of Contents
Basic Poker Terms With Definitions PLAYER ACTIONS. Bet: Making the first wager. Call: Paying the amount of a previous bet to stay in the hand. Check: If no one has bet or raised before, passing the action onto the next player without making a wager with the option to call or raise later. Poker celebrity Daniel Negreanu is made up of signed upon toward be an ambassador for the manufacturer, as stated through a short article upon Twitter yesterday. Even though Negreanu's posting captivated a good deal of congratulations towards his friends, there was moreover a great deal of grievance.
Other Poker Game's Rules:
Learning how to play poker should not be difficult. If you want to understand why so many people love this game, this beginner's guide to the rules and the basics of poker is all you need.
Visual Basic.NET; Algorithms; 5 Comments. Last Modified: 2013-12-17. I'm writing a game of Texas Hold'Em in VB.NET and C#, and need to build some logic on calculating the resulting poker hand from a player's two cards and the cards on the table (totalling 7. The standard 52-card pack, sometimes with the addition of one or two jokers, is used. Poker is a one-pack game, but today, in virtually all games played in clubs and among the best players, two packs of contrasting colors are utilized in order to speed up the game. Visual Basic: Determine Poker Hand. Project Specifications / Requirement. Assignment: Write a program that requests the five cards as input from the user, creates the related array, totals the special 0 rows and columns, uses those total to determine the type of hand using MessageBox.
Poker is a simple game to learn, but the poker rules can be challenging for a complete beginner.
But don't let that put you off. It is not hard to learn how to play poker, and you can move from the basics of the game to the tables of the top online poker sites in no time.
Here's everything you'll learn in this guide on how to play poker:
- And lots more
Before you move to the 'practical' side of this guide on how to play the most popular variants of this game, you need to learn the basics of poker.
When most people say they want to know 'how to play regular poker,' they imply that they want to learn the basics of Texas Hold'em.
Texas Hold'em is (by far) the most popular poker game out there and it's the one you find at every online poker site.
But that's just the tip of the iceberg. With so many poker variants to play online and offline, the only proper guide on how to play poker for dummies is the one that gets you access to all the best games out there.
Not just to the most famous one.
Many poker rules are consistent from game to game, although among the dozens of variants such as Texas hold'em, Omaha, and seven-card stud you will find some ket differences you need to kno.
Let's have a quick look at the poker rules of the most played poker games online:
How to Play Texas Hold'Em
| Game | Texas Hold'em |
| How Many Players | 2-10 |
| Poker Rules | How to play Texas hold'em |
Also called the 'Cadillac of Poker,' Texas hold'em is the one you are going to play over and over again.
This is the most popular poker game online and it is also the one you are most likely to play with our friends in your next home game.
Whether you play it in the form of a tournament or as a ring-game, the basic poker rules and the hand rankings don't change.
> Discover how to play Texas Hold'em
How to Play Omaha Poker
| Game | Omaha Poker |
| How Many Players | 2-10 |
| Poker Rules | How to play Omaha |
| Where to Play | Top poker sites |
The second-most popular poker variant. Omaha poker finds its roots in the game of Texas Hold'em, although the rules of the two games are slightly different from each other.
Many players find learning how to play poker Omaha to be the natural step to take after they have successfully mastered the basics of Texas Hold'em.
In the poker rules page dedicated to the game, you find the perfect beginner's guide to moving your first steps in the world of Omaha.
> Learn how to play Omaha poker
How to Play Seven-Card Stud
| Game | Seven-Card Stud |
| How Many Players | 2-8 |
| Poker Rules | How to play 7-card Stud |
| Where to Play | Top poker sites |
Before Texas hold'em became king, anyone who wanted to learn the basic poker rules and how to play poker had to go through the game of seven-card stud.
As the name suggests, this is a variant of stud poker. 7-card stud is also the 'S' game in the H.O.R.S.E. poker — but if you are still learning how to play poker, it's probably too early for you to jump on that.
> Discover how to play seven-card stud poker
Other Poker Rules to Learn
If you want to go deeper and you want to learn how to play even more poker games, PokerNews is the right site for you.
Pick one poker variant to learn from the list that follows and find out how to play some of the most exciting and lesser-known poker games out there!
Use these guides to learn how to play poker and master not only the most 'obvious' games like Texas hold'em bu also all the other different variants out there.
In our guides for beginners, you find the official poker rules, the basic strategy tips, and the hand rankings — because knowing how to calculate points is key if you want to win at poker.
Common Traits of Most Poker Rules
The Value of Poker Hands
One element used in most poker variants is the system of hand rankings.
The highest ranked hand is a Royal Flush (five cards of the same suit, ranked ace through ten), followed by a Straight Flush (five cards of the same suit of consecutive ranks).
The third-best combination is the Four-of-a-kind, which is then followed by the Full House (three of a kind plus one pair), the Flush, the Straight, the Three-of-a-kind, Two Pair, One Pair, and High Card or no pair.
When a hand reaches the showdown, the player with the highest-ranked hand wins the pot.
That's true of Texas hold'em, pot-limit Omaha, seven-card stud, and five-card draw.
Of course, in 'lowball' games like razz or deuce-to-seven triple draw, the hand rankings are turned upside down and the 'worst' hand according to traditional hand rankings is the winning one.
Poker Hands Ranking
- Royal Flush10JQKA
- Straight
Flush56789 - Four Of
A Kind3333K - Full HouseJJJKK
- Flush2459K
- StraightA2345
- Three Of
A Kind45777 - Two Pair499KK
- One Pair3QK1010
- High Card248QK
Suggested Readings
- Poker Hands Chart: The official classification of all poker hands with a free pdf to download and print.
- What Beats What in Poker: the perfect starting guide to learn how to count points in poker and discover the real value of each hand.
Blinds and Ante Bets
Games like hold'em and Omaha feature small and big blinds, so called because they are 'blind' bets players have to make before they are dealt any cards.
Meanwhile stud games usually use 'antes', which also involve players putting chips in the middle before the hand begins.
From there players bet more as the hand progresses, thereby creating larger pots.
Limit vs. No Limit Poker Games
Some games are played with no-limit betting, which means players can bet as much as they like at any point in the hand, including going 'all in.'
Pot-limit betting means that the current size of the pot creates an upper limit on how much a player can bet.
Games that are played with fixed-limit betting have predetermined amounts from which players cannot vary when they make their bets and raises.
The Action
There are other terms that tend to be used in all different poker games, including many having to do with the actions you perform when playing.
When the action is on you, you can:
- Check: Decline to bet
- Fold: Withdraw from the hand, if someone else has bet already
- Bet: Place a wager on the table
- Raise: Add more chips by matching your opponent's bet and putting in a greater amount.
- Call: Match the bet of your opponents to stay in the hand and continue to play.
All of those terms are an important step in your journey to learn how to play poker since they tend to come up in all poker variants.
The Betting Rounds
In games with community cards like hold'em and Omaha (also sometimes called 'flop games'), the betting rounds are referred to as:
- Preflop: The bets made before any community cards are dealt
- Flop: The bets made after the first three community cards are dealt)
- Turn: The bets made after the fourth community card
- River The bets made after the fifth and last community card.
Suggested Readings
- How to bet in poker: a beginner's guide to betting in Texas hold'em.
- Texas hold'em betting tips: This short article gives you some actionable tips to learn how to play poker with your stack of chips.
Poker Virtual Background
The Table Stakes
One other poker rule common to just about every variant of the you'll play – whether you are playing live poker or online poker – is one called 'table stakes.'
Table stakes means that once a hand begins, you can only bet whatever amount you had on the table to begin the hand and are not allowed to add anything more during the hand as it plays out.
If you only have $100 on the table to begin a hand, you can't pull out your wallet and add more halfway through the hand – you can only play out the hand with whatever you had to start.
Practice Poker Online for Free
Now that you know the basic poker rules and you have links to go back to your poker guides when you need to, it's time to look for the best websites to practice poker online.
Don't start to play poker for real money right away. Try out the games for free first. That's the only way to discover if you have really learned how to play poker.
Looking for a site to practice online poker for free?
Don't miss the updated list of the best free poker sites in 2020!
There are countless options to give the game a test run, but the best way is to try out the real deal.
Sign up for a poker account with one of the big online poker rooms and give the freerolls a try.
That way, you can practice poker online without any risk; you're not wagering any money.
Best starting hold'em poker hands. And if you want to try out cash games instead of tournaments, all major poker sites online have so-called play money tables.
That way you can practice the game, learn the rules, and figure out how the software works, readying yourself for the big stage.
Register a free gaming account and test your poker knowledge in the next freeroll!
Home > Articles > Programming > Visual Basic
␡- Blackjack, Anyone?
Blackjack, Anyone?
The sample program shows how to call many of the clsDeck methods, but it doesn't show them in action in a real game. In the next chapter you'll design a complete card game called Poker Squares, but for now, something a little simpler is in order. It's time to create a bare-bones version of blackjack.
Creating Blackjack's User Interface
The first step is to create the game's user interface. Perform the following steps:
Start a new Standard EXE Visual Basic project.
Set the form's properties to the values listed here:
Name = CardForm
AutoRedraw = True
BackColor = Black
Caption = 'Blackjack'
Height = 6015
ScaleMode = Pixel
Width = 8250
Add three CommandButton controls to the form, giving them the property values listed here:
CommandButton #1
Name = cmdStartGame
Caption = '&Start Game'
Height = 33
Left = 19
Top = 320
Width = 89
CommandButton #2
Name = cmdHit
Caption = '&Hit'
Height = 33
Left = 341
Top = 320
Width = 89
CommandButton #3
Name = cmdStay
Caption = 'S&tay'
Height = 33
Left = 443
Top = 320
Width = 89
Add a Timer control to the form.
You've now completed blackjack's user interface. Figure 8.6 shows what your main form will look like at this point. In the next section, you'll add handlers for the program's various controls.
Figure 8.6
The completed user interface.
Adding the Object Handlers
Next, you need to associate code with the various objects—the form, buttons, and timer—that make up the user interface. To accomplish this task, perform the following steps:
Double-click the form to bring up the code window, and add the following form handlers to it. You can either type the code or copy it from the BlackJack1.txt file, which you can find in the Chap08Code directory of this book's CD-ROM.
Listing 8.8 The Form Handlers
Poker Visual Basics
Analysis - The Form_Load subroutine, which Visual Basic calls when the user starts the program, disables the Hit and Stay buttons (Lines 2 and 4) and the starts a new game by simulating a click on the Start Game button (Line 4). Line 8 in the Form_Unload subroutine removes the frmCards form from memory at the same time the main form closes.
Add to the code window the CommandButton handlers in Listing 8.9. You can either type the code or copy it from the BlackJack2.txt file, which you can find in the Chap08Code directory of this book's CD-ROM.
Listing 8.9 The CommandButton Handlers
Analysis - The cmdHit_Click subroutine responds to the Hit button. Line 2 increases the player's card count, and Line 3 deals another card into the player's hand. A call to GetCardTotal (Line 5) gets the player's current score, and if the total is over 21 (Line 6), the game is over (Lines 7 to 9).
Analysis - The cmdStartGame_Click subroutine responds to the Start Game button. Line 14 clears the screen, and Lines 16 and 17 enable the Hit and Stay buttons. Then, Lines 18 and 19 create a new Deck object and shuffle it. Lines 20 and 21 initialize the card counts, and Lines 22 to 24 print the 'DEALER'S HAND' label. Lines 25 and 26 deal two cards to the dealer, one of them face down, while Line 30 does the same thing for the player's hand, except this time both cards are dealt face-up.
Analysis - The cmdStay_Click subroutine responds to the Stay button. Lines 34 and 35 disable the Hit and Stay buttons in preparation for the dealer's turn. Line 36 turns on the timer, which gets the dealer's turn going.
Add to the code window the Timer handler shown in Listing 8.10. You can either type the code or copy it from the BlackJack3.txt file, which you can find in the Chap08Code directory of this book's CD-ROM.
Listing 8.10 The Timer Handler
Analysis - The Timer1_Timer subroutine implements the computer player and gets called for each timer event. Line 2 gets the dealer's current card total. If the total is greater than 21, Line 4 notifies the player that the dealer has busted and Line 5 turns off the timer. If the dealer's total is greater than 16, the dealer stays (Lines 8 and 9) and the current game ends (Line 10). Finally, if the dealer's total is less than or equal to 16, Lines 12 to 14 add a card to the dealer's hand.
Completing the Game
Almost there! After you add the general game subroutines and the required modules, you'll be ready to play blackjack. Here are the final steps:
Add to the code window the general game subroutines shown in Listing 8.11. You can either type the code or copy it from the BlackJack4.txt file, which you can find in the Chap08Code directory of this book's CD-ROM.
Listing 8.11 The General Subroutines
Analysis - The GetCardTotal function calculates the card total for the player or dealer, depending upon the value of the plyer parameter. You'll study this function in detail later in this chapter. The EndGame subroutine shows the dealer's hand (Line 30), gets the player's and dealer's card totals (Lines 31 and 32), deletes the deck (Line 33), sets the game's buttons (Lines 34 to 36), and displays a message telling the player who won (Lines 37 to 45).
Add to the top of the code window the variable declarations and enumerations in Listing 8.12. You can either type the code or copy it from the BlackJack5.txt file, which you can find in the Chap08Code directory of this book's CD-ROM.
Listing 8.12 The Declarations
Add the Cards.frm form and the clsCard.cls, clsDeck.cls, and Cards.bas modules to the project, just as you did with the previous demo program.
Save the game's main form as CardForm.frm and the project file as BlackJack.vbp.
You've now completed the blackjack program.
Playing Blackjack
When you run the program, you see the screen shown in Figure 8.7. The dealer's hand is at the top of the screen, and the player's hand is at the bottom. The objective of the game is to get as close to 21 as you can without going over. (The cards 2 through 10 are worth 2–10 points. All face cards count as 10 points, and an ace can count as either 1 or 11 points.)
Figure 8.7
The main blackjack screen.
To draw a card, press Enter or click the Hit button. Continue to draw until you're ready to stop, and then click the Stay button. If you haven't gone over 21, the dealer then begins to draw cards. The dealer must continue to draw until it reaches 17 or better. The winning hand is the one that's closest to 21 without going over (see Figure 8.8).
Figure 8.8
Winning at blackjack.
Programming Blackjack
Obviously, this program isn't a complete blackjack game. Many of the game's details are ignored (like doubling-down and insurance), there's no betting, and each game is only a single hand. However, the program does demonstrate how you can use the clsDeck and clsCard classes when programming an actual game. Much of the code in the program needs no explanation. However, one function, GetCardTotal, is the heart of the game and worthy of close examination.
GetCardTotal analyzes a blackjack hand and comes up with a total. This might seem like a trivial task until you recall that an ace can count as either 1 or 11 points. Moreover, a hand might have as many as four aces, further complicating the point-counting process.
To keep this task simple, GetCardTotal assumes that it will count all aces in a hand as the same value. The point value that the program chooses depends on the hand's point total. (Obviously, the program will never use 11 as an ace point value if the hand has more than one ace, because two 11-point aces will bring the hand to over 21.)
First, the program determines how many cards are in the hand by calling NumCardsInHand:
This clsDeck method takes as its single parameter the number of the hand to check. The program uses the value returned from NumCardsInHand to set up a For loop that looks at each card in the hand. In the loop, the program first calculates the value of the current card:
This calculation results in a value from 0 to 12 (ace to king). If the card's value is greater than 10, indicating a face card (jack, queen, or king), the program sets the card's value to Ten:
(The constants range from Ace, which equals 0, to King, which equals 12. Therefore, Ten is actually the integer value 9, not 10 as you might think.)
If the card turns out to be an ace, the program increments the number of aces in the hand and sets value to 10:
The program first assumes that it will treat the ace as a high card that is worth one point more than the face cards.
Next, the program adds the value of the current card to the total so far:
Because the card values range from 0 to 12, the added point value is actually value+1.
After totaling the values of all cards in the hand, the program checks whether the hand is over 21. If it is, and it contains aces, the program subtracts 10 for each ace in the hand so that the values of the aces all change to 1:
The function then returns the total to the calling method:
That's all there is to analyzing a blackjack hand (although this is a simplified version of the game). Now you're ready to move on to more challenging card games.
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