The Mr Green Poker Guide
The Basics
Poker is a game that requires a unique combination of luck and skill in order to win. Your goal is to build a winning hand and bluff your way to the prize pot, picking off your opponents and beating out whoever stays at the table. In a nutshell, the dealer will shuffle the 52-card deck and deal out the cards, with each player trying to make the strongest hand with the cards available.
The goal is to up the ante and raise the stakes with each round of betting, mixing, and matching with the community cards in the middle of the table until you can build a winning hand. Although the rules vary in different poker variants, these are the essential poker rules to keep in mind.
Table: The Best Ranked Hole Cards
| Ranking |
Hole cards |
| 1 |
Pocket* Aces |
| 2 |
Pocket Kings |
| 3 |
Pocket Queens |
| 4 |
Ace-King Suited |
| 5 |
Pocket Jacks |
| 6 |
Pocket Tens |
| 7 |
Ace-King Suited |
| 8 |
Ace-Queen Suited |
| 9 |
Ace-Jack Suited |
| 10 |
King-Queen Suited |
*Pocket = two of the same card.
Winning Poker Hands
Let’s take a look at some of the winning poker hands that you can use to claim your jackpot prize:
- Royal Flush: The highest possible hand in all forms of poker, consisting of an ace, king, jack, queen, and 10, all of the same suit.
- Straight Flush: Five cards in a sequence all of the same suit, such as two, three, four, five, and six of diamonds.
- Four of a Kind: Four cards of the exact same value, such as four jacks.
- Full House: a pair of cards (such as two 3s) plus three of a kind (such as three 4s).
- Flush: Any five cards of the same suit, but not necessarily in any order.
- Straight: Five cards in a sequence of any combinations of suits.
- Three of a Kind: Three cards of the same value (such as three 7s).
- Two Pair: two pairs of cards in the same hand.
- Pair: a pair of cards of the same value.
- High Card: if you do not have a winning hand, the highest card in your existing hand is the one that plays.
Dealer Button and Blinds
You will come to find that there are always two aspects that remain constant at the start of each hand, namely the dealer button and the blinds. The dealer button is always located in front of the person whose turn it is.
There are two blinds in a game of poker: the big blind and the small blind. Blinds are essentially forced bets that need to be placed by the two players situated on the left of the dealer button. The small blind is always half the value of the big blind. After a completed hand, both the blinds and the dealer button move to the next available person in a counter-clockwise direction.
After you receive your two hole cards, you will need to decide whether you want to continue playing or not by evaluating your two initial cards. The player located on the left of the dealer button will decide first, followed by the rest of the players in a clockwise direction. If you choose to continue playing, you will need to match the big blind amount. However, if any player raised the bet amount before you make your decision, you will need to match the raised amount instead of the big blind.
The Flop, Turn and River
The flop refers to the three community cards that are dealt in the middle of the table. Once completing the first round of betting, three community cards will be dealt out. You are allowed to use any number of cards from the flop to form a poker hand. After the dealt flop, the second round of betting will commence.
During each betting round, each player can choose between raising, calling, checking and folding. You are only allowed to check when there are no bets involved during your turn.
Upon completing the second betting round, a fourth community card will be dealt in the middle, followed by another betting round. Finally, the fifth community card is dealt in the middle, followed by the final betting round. It is here where a showdown takes place between the remaining players.
The Showdown
Table: The best poker hands
| Rank |
Hand name |
Hand description |
| 1 |
Royal Flush |
10, J, Q, K, A of the same suit |
| 2 |
Straight Flush |
Five consecutive cards of the same suit |
| 3 |
Four of a Kind |
The same card in each of the four suits |
| 4 |
Full House |
Three of a kind and a pair |
| 5 |
Flush |
Five random cards in one suit |
| 6 |
Straight |
Five consecutive cards in mixed suits |
| 7 |
Three of a Kind |
Three of the same cards |
| 8 |
Two Pairs |
Two pairings of the same card |
| 9 |
One Pair |
One pairing of the same card |
| 10 |
High Card |
No matching of either card or suit |
Every remaining player at the table will be required to show their hand during a showdown. The player that has the best poker hand will win the pot. Whenever there are two players with an identical poker hand, they will divide the pot.
