Poker and Hand
This is the fourth draft of the chapter on Appendix: Rules in Hold’em Brain by King Yao. Please email feedback, suggestions, comments, opinions, questions to KingYao@HoldemBrain.com or you could use the Feedback Form to email me at the bottom of the page. Hold’em Brain: Appendix: Rules Copyright 2004 by King Yao The Rules and Mechanics of Limit Hold’em It is expected that the reader of this book has some experience playing Limit Hold’em and is not a complete novice. For completeness, the rules of the game along with some poker terminology is included. Limit Texas Hold’em is a form of poker with community cards. The rankings of the hands are in order: Rank Royal Flush Straight Flush Four-of-a-kind Full House Flush Straight Three-of-a-kind Two pair One Pair High Card Example A♠-K♠-Q♠-J♠-T♠ K♣-Q♣-J♣-T♣-9♣ J♣-J♦-J♥-J♠-2♣ J♣-J♦-J♥-3♣-3♠ K♦-J♦-T♦-3♦-2♦ 9♥-8♣-7♠-6♥-5♠ T♣-T♦-T♥-x-x T♣-T♦-9♣-9♦-x 8♥-8♠-x-x-x A♣-K♣-Q♦-J♣-9♦
How a hand is made Every player gets two cards face down. These are the two cards that are distinct to their hand only. At the end of the hand, five cards will be shown face up in the middle of the table. These five cards compose the board and are community cards. Each player mentally takes his two cards and combines it with the five cards on the board, and makes the best five card poker hand he can make. They could use both cards from their hand and three from the board. Or they could use one card from their hand and four from the board. In extreme cases, they could use none from their hand and all five on the board. The purpose is to make the best poker hand from the combination of the starting hand and the board, without regard to how many cards are used from the starting hand. Here are some examples of a few hands. The bold cards in the Final Poker Hand column are the cards form the Starting Hand column that are used to compose the poker hand.
Starting Hand J ♠-T ♠ J ♠-T ♠ J ♠-T ♠ J ♠-T ♠
Board A ♣-Q ♠-J ♣-4 ♣-3 ♠ A ♣-Q ♠-9 ♣-8 ♣-8 ♣ A ♣-A
How a hand is made Every player gets two cards face down. These are the two cards that are distinct to their hand only. At the end of the hand, five cards will be shown face up in the middle of the table. These five cards compose the board and are community cards. Each player mentally takes his two cards and combines it with the five cards on the board, and makes the best five card poker hand he can make. They could use both cards from their hand and three from the board. Or they could use one card from their hand and four from the board. In extreme cases, they could use none from their hand and all five on the board. The purpose is to make the best poker hand from the combination of the starting hand and the board, without regard to how many cards are used from the starting hand. Here are some examples of a few hands. The bold cards in the Final Poker Hand column are the cards form the Starting Hand column that are used to compose the poker hand.
Starting Hand J ♠-T ♠ J ♠-T ♠ J ♠-T ♠ J ♠-T ♠
Board A ♣-Q ♠-J ♣-4 ♣-3 ♠ A ♣-Q ♠-9 ♣-8 ♣-8 ♣ A ♣-A