Poker is a fiercely competitve and totally awesome card game played using the standard 52 card deck of playing cards. Wether you play poker online or offline, there is always a deck of cards involved.

The game is essentially a gambling game, although not neccesarily for real money in some social settings. However, the game is usually played for money or for chips purchased from the game's banker.

In every variation of Poker, there are betting rounds during which each player in the game must either

fold (stop playing his or her hand)
call (equal the last bet made)
or raise (increase on the bet made).

All bets from every player are placed together to form a pot . (like the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow). The object of all poker games is to win the pot either by holding the best hand or by trying to make the others drop ( the art of bluffing! There's actually a good book on this), which is where some level of strategy and excitement (and possibly many tears... umm, for the losers) comes in.

In Poker, there are a possible 2,598,960, count them, 2,598,960 poker hands from the standard 52 playing cards! While this may sound like a lot of possible combinations, most of them are not considered winning or "principal" combinations. And since you want to win at poker, you need these mega principal combinations.

The principal combinations are:

Five of a Kind:

Only ever possible if wild cards are allowed. Of those hands, if Aces are High, 5 Aces is the highest possible hand in the game, beating 5Kings. Else if Aces are Low, 5 Kings wins.

The Straight Flush:

This is considered the highest possible combination, it is a sequence consisting of five cards in only one suit (think of 5 FBI agents at your door, pretty intimidating). For example, a 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, all from the Hearts suit constitutes a straight flush.

The Royal Flush:

This is the highest possible combination, it is a sequence consisting of five cards in only one suit, but of the "royal" or "noble" cards. For example, an ace, king, queen, jack and ten, all from the Hearts suit constitutes a royal flush.

Four of a Kind

Four of a type of card, which may be from any suit. For example, four jacks, 1 each from the Hearts, Clubs, Spades and Diamonds sets, J-J-J-J is a four of a kind.

Full House

A hand of five cards consisting of three of a kind, plus any pair.

A Flush

Five cards of one suit, with no order as opposed to the Straight Flush.

A Straight

Five cards of a sequence, with no uniform suit, for instance, a 6D, 5H, 4C, 3S, 2H,would be a straight. Note that straights cannot do the following, QS, KC, AD, 2H, 3D, this is not a straight.