Poker Play

I have been thinking of writing about poker for quite sometime now. Until 3 months back I did not even know what type of game it was and now I play almost all weekends with my friends (thanks to one of my friends who persevered in convincing us all to play). It is still at a stage where there is no real money involved (it could be a completely different game when the real money is involved, also it varies with stakes). To make it a little more serious and interesting for everyone to play, we have started to have a prize for the winner for each game and also to keep track of the scores for each game and finally decide on the most consistent player with max points at the end of our small little “tournament”.
A very big reason for me to get interested in poker is that I saw a link to poker strategies in a Game Theory (one of my favorite subjects) web page. The basic rules of the game are quite simple. Everyone gets 2 cards dealt face down and then the first round of betting starts. When everyone has matched the highest bet, the dealer turns 3 cards face up (called the flop) and the second round of betting starts. When the betting is over the dealer opens the 4th card face up (called the turn or fourth street). 3rd round of betting starts and so on and the dealer opens the 5th card face up (called the river) and then the final round of betting starts. At the end of this round who ever stays in the game has to show (called showdown) their cards and the best hand wins. If there is only one person left (rest all others folded) in the last round that person takes the whole pot (money that has been bet by everyone) and does not need to show his/her cards. All these 5 face up cards are called the community cards. At any stage of the game a player can do one of the 3 things, Fold (throwing the hand away), Bet or Raise. Objective for a player is to make the best hand possible (as per the hierarchy of hands) by using any 5 cards (2 cards from the hand also called hole cards and 5 community cards). Books talk about top 10 hole cards and some mediocre playable cards.
Poker is quite interesting in the sense that one does not know what the other person is having. This is a perfect game of incomplete information. One has to make an intelligent guess as to what the other person might have by the other person’s gestures and betting behavior. This is where the intricacy comes in, the way someone checks, bets or raises. Bluffing is a major strategy in this game where a player acts as if s/he has a good hand. Dealer button keeps moving on the table. Position of a player matters a lot. Person having the dealer button plays last and has the advantage of observing others in the game before playing himself/herself. If you are the first one to decide whether to bet or not, another strategy that is very handy is to check and see how other people are reacting. If anyone bets after you have checked, then you would have to at least match the bet to stay in that round. This game replicates many real life situations where we are pitted against others and have to make a reasonable guess about others and make the best out of the given situation.

An article from Financial Times
http://www.timharford.com/favourites/pokermachine.htm