A poker game

A poker game is composed of several rounds. A round consists of a number of cards being randomly dealt followed by betting. Every active player is given the chance to act at least once in a round. Every time it is a player's turn to act, there are three alternative actions:

• fold - become inactive for the game, losing all investment done in the current game,
• call - match the current per player contribution, or
• raise - increase the amount to call.

If there has not been any previous bet in the round, a call is referred to as a check, and a raise is said to be a bet. A round ends when each player has either folded or contributed the same amount of money as all the other active players. A poker game has two termination conditions:

1.

all the players have folded except one, who wins all the money wagered (the pot), or

2.

all the betting rounds have been completed.

In the latter case, the game proceeds to a showdown where all the active players reveal their cards and the winner is determined. The winner is the player holding the highest poker hand (see Table 2.1 for hand ranking). In the case of a tie, the pot is split evenly.

 

Table 2.1: 5-card hands ranked from strongest to weakest

Sample hand	Name and description
T$\clubsuit$-9$\clubsuit$-8$\clubsuit$-7$\clubsuit$-6$\clubsuit$	Straight Flush (includes Royal Flush)
	5 cards of the same suit in sequence
Q $\spadesuit$-Q$\clubsuit$-Q $\heartsuit$-Q $\diamondsuit$-2 $\spadesuit$	Four of a Kind
	4 cards of the same rank
J $\spadesuit$-J$\clubsuit$-J $\heartsuit$-5 $\diamondsuit$-5 $\spadesuit$	Full House
	3 cards of identical rank and 2 cards of another rank
A $\spadesuit$-9 $\spadesuit$-7 $\spadesuit$-6 $\spadesuit$-2 $\spadesuit$	Flush
	5 cards of the same suit
A $\diamondsuit$-K$\clubsuit$-Q $\heartsuit$-J $\diamondsuit$-T $\spadesuit$	Straight
	5 cards of different suit in sequence
A $\spadesuit$-A$\clubsuit$-A $\heartsuit$-8 $\diamondsuit$-4 $\spadesuit$	Three of a Kind
	3 cards of the same rank
K $\spadesuit$-K$\clubsuit$-T $\heartsuit$-T $\diamondsuit$-9 $\heartsuit$	Two Pair
	2 cards of one rank and 2 cards of another rank
Q $\heartsuit$-Q$\clubsuit$-T $\spadesuit$-8 $\diamondsuit$-3$\clubsuit$	Pair
	2 cards of the same rank
T $\spadesuit$-8$\clubsuit$-5 $\heartsuit$-3 $\diamondsuit$-2 $\diamondsuit$	High Card
	5 cards of different suit and rank

 

The word poker refers to a collection of card games that share common features such as betting rounds and ranking of hands. The card games classified as poker are divided into flop games (some cards of each player are shared), stud games, and draw games (no cards are exposed, some are discarded and replaced with cards from the deck). Loki plays the limit version of Texas Hold'em. Texas Hold'em is a flop game which is played as the main event of the annual World Series of Poker to determine the world champion. In the limit version of this game there is a fixed bet size for each round. Texas Hold'em was chosen as the variant of poker played by Loki, because it is the most strategically complex poker form that is widely played, and has the smallest ratio of luck to skill [2].