While there are many different types and styles of poker, when you know the rules of poker, you are referring to a standard set of guidelines and commonalities between variations.

First of all Poker uses a standard deck of 52 playing cards (for most variations). Cards are ranked in a systematic fashion. 2 is the lowest card, Ace is the highest. The deck is split into four suits, no suit is of more value than another. A poker hand contains five cards. The highest hand at the table wins. Some variations utilize wild cards, but to gain a proper sense of the game, you should learn the hand ranks as they exist without the possibility of wild cards first.

The number of cards you are dealt depends on the variation of poker you're playing. Again, to stick with the basics five cards is most common.

Betting-In most poker games you start the betting with an ante just to get the cards dealt. The ante is dependent upon who you are playing with, a friendly game would usually have an ante of a penny, nickle, or dime, I personally like a nickle ante when playing with friends. The money is put in the center of the table and is called the pot. At the end of a hand the highest hand, of the players that remain (some may have folded), wins the pot.

You have three choices when the betting gets to you (betting is handled in a clockwise order) and here they are:

Call-betting enough to match what has been bet since the lasttime you bet. An example would be if you bet 25 cents and somebody than bid 35 cents when to you you would owe 10 cents . If you Call than you would put the amount that you owed into the pot and you would stay in the hand.

Raise-when you raise you first put enough in the pot to match what has already been bet and then you would raise the pot by putting an additional amount in (a friendly game would usually have a limit to how much money you could raise). So lets say the initial bet was 25 cents, you would have to put in 25 cents and than say I'll raise you another 25 cents. Now the other players will either Call, Raise, or fold.

Fold-dropping out of the current hand and losing the possibility of winning the pot. You don't have to put money in and you would only lose the ante, if its on the first turn, or whatever you put in the pot later. As the Kenny Rodgers song says, "you gotta know when to fold them." Sometimes it is just better to get out then waste good money on bad cards.

Betting is always dependent on the people you are playing with and the rules that they prescribe. Games beween friends should always have low limits set on the ante, the amount you could raise, and the top amount the pot could grow to. These rules are best because winning a big pot is never worth losing a friend over. So set the ante at a nickle, the raises at a quater, and don't let the pot go over a few dollars. This is the best way to handle a friendly game.