Having a language all their own, poker players often confuse those who are listening. When a novice to the game steps into a room full of people playing poker, what they hear may confuse them. This feeling is caused by the seasoned players having a language that almost makes no sense at all.

The players? speech needs to be analyzed from the beginning to the end. All players of all variations of poker ante at the beginning of the game. The ante is the first amount the players bet before the cards are dealt; usually it is a very small amount.

A small blind and a big blind are used in some versions of poker. These blinds are forced bets for the person sitting the left of the dealer and the next person going clockwise. If the player decides his hand is good enough to win, he will ante which is the same amount as the big blind.

In community types of poker, some of the playing cards are used by all the players and are set in the middle of the table. The players use these cards and their two hole cards, the two faced down cards that they were dealt first, to make a winning hand. A hand is five cards that make a predetermined winning set, such as two pair or a flush.

The window cards are the cards that are shared between all the players in community poker. The flop is the first three of the community cards. The next card is called the turn and the last is called the river.

After the blind bets are made and the two hole cards are dealt, the player then must either bet or fold. To fold, the player hands their cards to the dealer and awaits another round. The player folds if they feel their initial two cards are not good enough to create a winning hand.

The first bet, or the small blind is made by the player to the left of the dealer. After the first round, a dealer button is given to each player in turn going clockwise from the left of the dealer. The dealer button shows whose turn it is to bet first.

After the players have anted, the dealer then turns the flop out face up. Depending upon what is in the hole and the flop, the players then bet again. The person who has that round's dealer button bets first if they feel like those five cards will give them the win.

Calling, raising or folding is what the other players must do. The player simply bets the same amount of the bet when they call a bet. The player bets the same amount as the initial bet but adds more when they are raising the bet.

Once all the window cards are down, the flop, the turn and the river, the last of the betting occurs. If there is more than one player still playing a showdown happens. This is when the remaining players show their hole cards to reveal what hand they have.

There are nine ranks in poker hands. These rankings are a high card, a pair, two pair, three of a kind, a flush, a straight, a full house, four of a kind, and a straight flush. The pot goes to the player with the highest-ranking hand and the game starts again.

by Harry Rivers