Poker Basics – How to Play the Game

The ultimate game of poker is Chase the Ace. The two example in the game are given below.

Chase the Ace

Once you have the two two cards given you by the dealer they MUST be your final cards. if the dealer deals any other hand except the two ones above it then all remaining players are asked to discard their hands and play texas holdem instead

The two top cards given must be placed face down in front of you and the three bottom cards placed in the centre.

The Count

Chase the Ace is played with a simple 3/6 system. Three is the strongest card, so the highest card can be used as the top card in arithmetic, addition, subtraction and multiplication.

This means that the Ace, 2 and 3 can be used as the first cards in the sequence as the less significant the higher cards in the sequence are.

This is relatively easy. Knowing three cards is the same as knowing the whole deck of 52. 52 minus 3 minus 6 leaves us with 46 cards, whereas with only one deck we have 46 cards. So knowing 3 cards is the same as knowing 46 cards.

The odds

Since the cards are grouped into two piles, the odds of you getting one of the cards in your hand is about 36% or 2:1. On the other hand, if you are given a wild card it increases your odds of getting that card to 48% or 3:1.

So what happens when we remove the twos that we know about. Now our odds become slightly better, 48% for the veteran players and 54% for the beginners. Still a slight edge to the players overall, but the players with some experience will definitely have the edge.

So what about the inside? Well you should play your middle cards fairly straight when dealing, unless you get an ace or something interesting. Or if you are dealt a strange hand like four, five, six, eight, nine, or ten, cards of that kind are not played often as they are quite unlikely to be played again.

It is interesting to note that of the solitary clubs in the deck, on average they will be played about once every 667ra. So if you have three of them, wait until the next one arrives, and play three at a time.

If you are dealt two cards in the first position, it is probably best to pass, unless there are three other players already in the game, in which case go ahead and try for the high. The odds are on your side, since you are in first position you will more than likely win.

In all cases, the best hand to stick with is jacks or better, and AK/AJ. veto: 2/2; re-raise: 3/4

Change position of aces

It is generally not a good idea to change your position of aces, unless when you get an ace in the first hand, although an exception to this rule may be if you have a pair of kings, and are really hoping for aces. For example, you have kings of hearts and there are two hearts on the flop, which would mean you would have an ace as well, but then someone would have an ace, or a nine, and you would risk splitting the hand for two pairs, or even trips, on the flop. Hence, it would be better in this case to stick with the kings.

It’s the same for queens and kings, except with the exception that if you have ace king suited, and there are two other clubs on the table the odds are you will be an underdog by at least two to one, so it might be better to stick with your hand.

However, if you have an ace, a clear favourite to win the hand, and nothing can possibly beat it, then you should definitely play the hand, even if it means throwing away a potential victory. In this situation you are simply putting money in the pot.

If you have a choice always go to the showdown, as you will probably end up splitting the pot, but take this as a form of entertainment. Do not try and win every time to be a winner. This is gambling and as such it can always be a risk.

So be warned, you can lose a lot of money fast if you are not careful and have fun at the same time!