The game of poker is arguably the most popular aspect of modern gambling. The intricate skill level and variety of hands and strategies entice even the most seasoned players to get involved in the game of poker.

There are many considerations as to what makes a good poker player, but the core concepts in the gambling realm are similar. The things that make a good poker player are usually the things that will assist you in the world of gambling as a whole.

The first thing that makes a poker player good is probably the most agreed upon consensus with those involved in gambling worldwide: quick and accurate decision making skills. A good poker player will be able to think quickly and apply the decisions they make at the proper time to succeed in the game of poker. Almost comparable to a quarterback on a football team who must possess good decision making skills, a good poker player is put in a similar situation when gambling. They have to think on their feet and quickly. This is the single more important aspect of succeeding at gambling and becoming a good poker players.

Another aspect of a good poker player is the ability to change gears at a moments notice. Poker, like gambling as a whole, is always changing and when playing a poker game, things can change quickly and the ability to adapt with those changes is what makes a poker player good.

Yet, another consideration of gambling, especially in particular poker, is knowing the game really, really knowing the game. A good poker player or gambling enthusiast in general, will know all of the ins and outs of the game. They will know poker history, popular poker players, online poker rooms, different hands, strategies and more. A good poker player will study the game of poker like a craft and cultivate it accordingly. The good poker players are the people who have a genuine love of the game and have an acute desire to continue to learn developing trends in poker and in gambling as a whole.

Finally, a good poker player will posses the most amount of confidence a human being can have. Gambling requires not only brains, but confidence and poker is no exception. Some of the worlds best poker players win because they are confident in their decisions and dont second guess themselves. Confidence will make a good poker player as surely as any of the other traits mentioned above but the combination of all of the skills makes a good poker player and a great student of gambling as well.

Poker is becoming increasingly popular with more and more people not only playing the game but also watching television programs like the world series of poker. In this article, I describe the order in which poker hands are ranked, starting with the highest and also the probability that players have of being dealt that particular hand.

A straight flush

This is the best hand you can obtain and is the dream cards for any poker player. That is not to say that you always win a lot of chips with this hand and most players will tend to slow play this type of hand in an attempt to trap their opponent.

A straight flush is five cards of the same suit in a sequence. The higher the top card, the higher the ranking of that hand. Therefore ten, jack, queen, king, ace, which is often known as a royal flush is the best hand in poker.

The probability of this hand is around one in sixty five thousand.

Four of a kind

This is where you have four cards of the same rank or number which are the same. As with the above the higher the rank of the four cards, the higher the value. Therefore four aces are the highest rank of all of the possible four of a kinds.

The probability of this hand is around one in four thousand, one hundred and sixty five.

Full house

A full house is where you have three cards of one rank or number and two cards of another rank. As with the above, the higher the rank of these two sets, the higher the value. Therefore if you have three aces and two kings you will have the highest rank of flush. To explain it in even more simpler terms, the one with the highest ranking set of three cards, wins.

The probability of this hand is around one in six hundred and ninety four.

Flush

This is where you have five cards of the same suit but not in a sequence. A flush which includes an ace has the highest value. If there are two hands on the table which both have a flush with an ace, it then goes to the second highest card to see who wins etc.

The probability of this hand is around one in five hundred and nine.

Straight

This is where you have five cards in sequence which are in different suites. The highest straight is again the one which has the highest card at the top.

The probability of this hand is around one in two hundred and fifty five.

Three of a kind

This is the same as the four of the kind explanation apart from the fact that this is where you have three cards of the same rank or number.

The probability of this hand is around one in forty seven.

Two pairs

This is where you have two cards of one rank and two cards of another. There is also an odd card which can sometimes come into play.

If there are two players on the table with two pairs the highest ranking pair wins. If both players have the same highest ranking pair, the highest second ranking pair wins. If both players have the same set of two pairs, it is the one with the highest odd card that wins.

The probability of this hand is around one in 21.

One pair

This is where you only have two cards of the same rank. When two players on the table have the same pair, the other three cards come into play, with the highest card winning etc.

The probability of this hand is around one in 2.4.

High card

This is where you basically have nothing but a high card. When two players on the same table have just a high card, the one with the highest card wins etc.

The probability of this hand is around one in two.

I hope this has explained the rankings of the different poker hands to you and made it a bit more easier to understand.

Poker is a great game to play, be careful however only to bet what you can afford to lose.

I personally prefer to play on the internet rather than in the casino. I basically play for fun, and merely hope to make some extra money for myself.

I am quite a patient player who is willing to wait for a good hand to come. I think this is an important skill to have in poker and it has helped me to do quite well over the last twelve months.

One small tip is to avoid playing poker when you are drunk. Maybe it is just me but I always seem to play with a lot more aggression and less patience, when I am quite drunk. This may work for some people but always seems to end up with me losing quite a lot of money.

The Female of the Species is More Deadlier than the Male:The new internet poker player

Never underestimate the power of the pink pound; no not the spending power of our gay community but the women whose ever increasing disposable income is now becoming a seriously lucrative courtship with many online gambling sites.

With greater autonomy in their personal lives and fewer women being tied down with the responsibility of marriage and children, their spending power has escalated at a rate that not only keeps those shop tills ringing but has also given women the freedom to spend as they wish. With online gambling now a mainstream activity, the trend has also seen more women taking the lead in online poker playing. We only need to see the rising number of gambling sites catering exclusively to women to know that this is the market to be in.

Until very recently, the online poker boom was thought to be a male dominated arena with less than 10% of players at a typical casino poker game being women. But online gambling industry experts have recently set out to investigate internet poker trends that have led to the widespread increase of online poker websites. Two studies conducted in the US brought out interesting and unexpected revelations in terms of demographics and the overall popularity and appeal of online poker.

Surprisingly, the studies, one conducted by PC Data Spotlight on Games, show that over one third of online poker players are female with women being the fastest growing segment of the online poker playing public. The studies also revealed that an overwhelming majority of female poker players prefer to play at online poker sites. In fact, only 1 of every 6 women preferred online poker to regular poker!

As betting matures online, a large part of it will take place around casual games which just happen to be popular with women players. In fact, despite the assumed male dominance of online gambling, women do make up a significant share. Current figures show that this is approaching around 47% of all internet users being female.

Online gambling providers therefore need to take serious note of women players if they are to maximise the overall package and in turn increase the value and loyalty of these players. It would seem that although men are currently ahead of their female counterparts in online gambling, women gamers are rapidly creeping up the stakes to become one of the most powerful demographics to woo and within a few years, they will become the smartest group to bet on.

Stu Unger is one of the biggest superstars to have immerged from the professional poker world. Besides being a true poker genius and a three time World Series of Poker champion, Stu Unger had a fascinating life story. It was not surprising that after his death Stu was the subject of a biography and a biopic.

Stu Unger lived the life of a rock star including the quick rise to fame, the drugs, the comeback and the unavoidable death at an early age. Here you can read about the life story of the legendary poker player Stu Unger.

The Beginning

Stuart Errol Ungar was born in 1953 to a Jewish family who lived in Manhattan on the Lower East Side. Stus father was a well known bookmaker and his mother was too ill to fight against her sons fascination with gambling. After the death of his father, 13 years old Stu had found a father figure at his neighbor Victor Romano, one of the infamous Genovese family soldiers.

Stu and Romano had at least one thing in common: they both had an incredibly sharp memory, which was mainly used in poker and gin games. By that time, Stu was already an accomplished gin player who had gained vast experience in winning gin tournaments. Stu dropped out of school to become a full time gin rummy player. The Genovese family had benefited from Stus talent. In return, they provided him protection from other gamblers who found themselves offended by his harsh and arrogant playing style.

The Rise

As a professional gin player, Stu had managed to beat all the professional gin poker players around. According to the rumors, Stu caused Harry Yonkie Stein, one of the best players around to stop playing gin completely after beating him in a gin match. Since he was out of proper competition, Stu decided to focus on playing poker professionally. In 1976, he and his girlfriend relocated to Las Vegas where they got married and had a girl, Stephanie.

In 1980, Stu won the World Series of Poker Main Event after beating experienced poker pros such as Doyle Bronson. Stu was the youngest WSOP champion in history and was nicknamed The Kid. Even though Stu won the 1981 WSOP Main Event, he still considered himself more a gin and rummy player than a poker player. After winning his first WSOP championship title, he was quoted saying that the poker world would meet better no limit players than him, but no one will ever be able to play gin rummy better than he does.

At the same time, Stu had tried to use his skill to grab money at the blackjack table. Nevertheless, the casinos were not happy with Stus presence around the blackjack tables and he was constantly barred. In 1982, he was fined by the New Jersey Gaming Commission for cheating, although Stu has not done anything illegal but using his natural skill and phenomenal memory.

The Fall

In 1990, Stu made another appearance to the WSOP. This time, he was heavily into drugs. He was a chip leader for the first three days of the event and then disappeared. He was found lying at his hotel room, unconscious from a drug overdose. However, it did not stop him from finishing ninth and earning enough money for his future cocaine supply.

The Comeback

After seven years of disappearing from the professional poker circle, Stu had returned to the WSOP. In 1997, he was broke, with damaged nostrils from cocaine abuse, addicted to horseracing and sports gambling, but still in shape to beat all the new contestants and gain back his WSOP Championship title. The local media was happy to embrace The Comeback Kid, but his success did not last long.

The Death

Stu Unger did not attend the 1998 World Series of Poker since he could not get the money to pay the entry fee. Seven months after Scotty Nguyen won the 1998 WSOP, Stu Ungar was found dead at his motel room in Las Vegas with 800 pounds in his pocket. Apparently, he died of a heart condition caused by years of drug abuse.

The Biography

Read: One of a Kind: The Rise and Fall of Stuey The Kid Ungar, The Worlds Greatest Poker Player written by Nolan Dalla, Peter Alson, Mike Sexton.

Watch: High Roller: The Stu Ungar Story directed by A. W. Vidmer and starring Michael Imperioli, Christopher Moltisanti of The Sopranos, as Stu Unger

Since the golden age of the Western, poker playing has always been a popular theme in Hollywood. Although many of the Hollywood films that feature poker are not very good and some of them even display poker in a ridiculous manner, watching poker action on the big screen is great fun, especially if you play poker yourself.

Here are the best poker movies that were ever produced in Hollywood. Some of the movies are actually excellent movies regardless to their display of the poker game, while in others the poker games is the feature that makes them worth watching. However, if you are a poker fan, add these movies to your musts list.

The Sting directed by George Roy Hill in 1973

The Sting is less about poker and more about the art of card sharking but it will provide you two hours of sophisticated fun. The 1973 Academy award winner features young Paul Newman as the greatest con artist of them all who mentors young Robert Redford in the art of trickestry. David S. Warn screenplay is based on true con games stories.

The Cincinnati Kid directed by Norman Jewison in 1965

The classic stud poker film known for its climatic final hand and the unforgettable quote: Gets down to what its all about, doesn’t it? Making the wrong move at the right time. In short, The Cincinnati Kid is about the battle between Steve Macqueen who plays a young poker player also known as The Kid and the veteran poker gambler known as The Man who is played by Edward G. Robinson during the Great Depression in New Orleans. It may not appear at any other list of best movies, but it certainly has one of the best poker scenes ever seen on the silver screen.