POKER: POKING YOUR BRAINS AND WALLETS

Poker is a five-card game which uses normal cards and money represented by tokens. It is different from other card games where, instead of playing all the cards out, the players bet as to who holds the best card combinations until:
1. A showdown where the person with the best cards wins.
2. All but one player have dropped out of the game.
Each player gets two cards and three cards are laid down and are counted as the last three cards for each player. The best combinations of cards from highest to lowest include:
1. Straight flush- AKQJ10 or 5432A.
2. Four of a kind- K-K-K-K.
3. Full house- Q-Q-Q-4-4.
4. Flush- J- 9- 8- 7- 3.
5. Straight- 10- 9- 8- 7- 6.
6. Three of a kind, threes, triplets and trips- 7-7-7-x-y.
7. Two pair- Q-Q-9-9-x.
8. One pair- 3-3-x-y-z.
9. High card- no combination; the highest card wins.
The history of Poker is thought to have evolved over more than ten centuries from various games, all involving the basic principals of ranked card or domino combinations and the use of ‘bluffing’ to deceive opponents. One popular belief is that a game similar to poker was first invented by the Chinese sometime before 969 A.D, when The Emperor Mu-tsung is reported to have played "domino cards" with his wife on New Years Eve.