The overall key to poker is to have the highest value hand, generally made up of five cards, compared to all other players in the game. Cards are ranked from 2 to King on their own, with Ace being either the highest or lowest as needed. More important are the different winning hands that can be made, which range from extremely common to almost impossibly rare.
Beyond this, the exact mechanics of the various versions of poker are different, such as the number of cards initially dealt or how many can be seen to start with.
There are two distinct varieties of online poker that are available; video poker and table poker. They have many variants inside these categories but virtually all forms of poker fall under one of these two.
Video Poker
Online video poker is a version of poker played only by the player and the game itself, without any dealer.
- With each round, 5 cards are dealt to the player's hand and 5 to the dealer's hand.
- The game is a straight competition between the two to see which hand has a higher value, meaning that this is the simplest version.
Table Poker
The version of poker played around a table with other players, whether real or virtual, is the main form of poker in all kinds of casinos. It is not played directly against the casino but instead against other players, so there are no fixed payouts. There are multiple betting rounds, and players have the option to leave the round if they don’t have confidence in their hand.