How To Identify The Winner?
The way to determine the winner of each hand is based on the highest ranked card hand when all cards are shown at the end of the hand (also known as the ‘showndown’). However, the player that makes the last uncalled bet, thus winning without needing to reach a showdown.
You don’t know which hand is the highest ranked hand ? The information below will provide you with the necessary answers. In order from top to bottom, it will be the highest ranked to the lowest ranked hand card.
Royal Flush: The best possible poker hand – a same-suit straight from Ten to Ace.
Straight Flush: A straight of the same suit
Four of a Kind: is a hand that contains four cards of one rank and one card of another rank (the kicker)
Full House: a hand that consists of three cards of the same rank and a pair. Some players also call it a full boat or full hand.
Flush: a hand consisting of five cards of the same suit, for example, five spades or five hearts, no matter the rank.
Straight: A hand that consists of five cards aligned in consecutive rank order, for example, from Two to Six or Ten to Ace.
Three of a Kind: also known as trips or a set, is a hand that contains three cards of one rank and two cards of two other ranks (the kickers)
Two Pair: a hand that contains two cards of one rank, two cards of another rank and one card of a third rank (the kicker)
One Pair: a hand that contains two cards of one rank and three cards of three other ranks (the kickers)
High Card: the weakest hand, does not fall into any other category
Actions In OKVIP Hand
Each player can usually take one of the following actions when it is their turn to act:
- Check – To check is to decline the opportunity to open the betting. Players can only check when there is no bet during the current round, and the act of checking passes the action clockwise to the next person in the hand.
- Bet – Players may bet if no other players have bet during the current round. Once a bet has been made, other players must “call” by matching the amount bet, in order to remain in the hand.
- Fold – Players who fold forfeit their cards and cannot win or act again during the current hand.
- Call – Players can call if other players have bet during the current round; this requires the calling player to match the highest bet made.
- Raise – Players may raise if other players have bet during the current round. This requires the player to bet an amount greater than the highest bet in the current round. All subsequent players are required to call the raise or raise again (‘re-raise’) to stay in the hand.
- Another player’s hole cards
- Your hole cards
- Community Cards
Betting Rounds
Preflop – First round of betting
This round takes place before the community cards are dealt. Before starting a hand in Hold’em or Omaha, players need to make certain required bets such as Small Blind, Big Blind and Ante. However, in some tables, there may or may not be an Ante. This required bet amount will be put into the Pot by the players based on their position in the OKVIP table.
After the blind is placed, the player will receive 2 cards. These 2 cards are called hole cards. Cards will start being dealt from the Small Blind position and clockwise.
Flop – First 3 Community Cards
This is the next round after the Pre-flop round. In this round, the first 3 community cards will be dealt. The players will combine their hole cards with 3 community cards on the table to form a 5-card combination. The player will open a bet on the pot a second time. When the second betting round ends, we will move on to the next round.
Turn – 4th community card
The Flop round will be followed by the Turn round. The 4th community card will be dealt and all players continue to bet on the pot. Players will also combine 2 hole cards with 4 community cards to form the highest rank hand.
After the betting ends, the next round begins, which is the River.
River – 5th community card
On the River the 5th community card will be dealt. This is also the last card dealt. Players will combine 2 cards in hand and 5 cards on the table to form the strongest set. Because you only take a combination of the 5 strongest cards, you can use 2 or 1 or even 0 cards in your hand in that set of 5 strongest cards.
Like previous rounds, players continue to bet. And after the betting round ends, we will come to the final round which is Showdown.
Showdown – Determine the winner
Once the last bet or raise has been called during the final round of betting, a showdown occurs; the remaining active players must show or ‘declare’ their hands, and the player(s) with the best ranking hand(s) win the pot.
If there is more than 1 winner, the players will share a single pot. The pot divided in different ways depending on the game rules and how each player’s hand ranks against their opponents.
Betting Limits
Betting limits refer to the amount players may bet and raise. Typically, poker games are of the following types; no limit, pot limit or fixed limit.
- No Limit – in poker games with a no limit betting structure, each player can bet or raise by any amount up to and including their full stack (the total number of chips they possess at any given time) in any betting round, whenever it is their turn to act.
- Pot Limit – in poker games with a pot limit betting structure, each player can bet or raise by any amount up to and including the size of the total pot at that time.
- Fixed Limit – in poker games with a fixed limit betting structure, each player can choose to call, bet or raise, but only by a fixed amount. The fixed amount for any given betting round is set in advance.
For No Limit and Pot Limit games, the ‘Stakes’ column in the OKVIP lobby indicates the Small Blind and Big Blind in that game, while for Mixed Games, the Stakes listed in the lobby are the betting amounts for Limit games; in Pot Limit and No Limit rounds, the blinds are usually half of the blinds in limit games.
Table Stakes and All-in
All games on our site are played ‘table stakes’, meaning only the chips in play at the beginning of each hand can be used during the hand. The table stakes rule has an application called the ‘All-In’ rule, which states that a player cannot be forced to forfeit a poker hand because the player does not have enough chips to call a bet.
A player who does not have enough chips to call a bet is declared All-In. The player is eligible for the portion of the pot up to the point of his final wager. All further action involving other players takes place in a ‘side pot’, which the All-In player is not eligible to win. If more than one player goes All-In during a hand, there could be more than one side pot.
