Learn poker with Joncler

What poker is

Poker is a card game about making the best five-card hand, or making everyone else give up.

In every hand, players bet chips into the pot. The pot goes to the best hand at the showdown, or to the last player left when everyone else has folded.

You don’t need the best cards to win. Betting well, at the right moments, wins as many pots as good cards do.

Hand rankings

From best to worst. Your hand is always the best five cards you can make.

• Suits are equal. No suit beats another. If two hands are the same, they split the pot.
• Higher cards break ties. Two players with a pair of kings? The best other card, the kicker, decides. A pair of kings with an ace beats a pair of kings with a queen.
• The ace plays high or low. It makes A-K-Q-J-10, the best straight, and 5-4-3-2-A, the lowest.
• Jokers: if the host adds them, a joker becomes whatever card makes your hand best, and five of a kind becomes possible.

A hand, step by step

This is how a hand of Texas Hold’em, the most popular game, goes.

1. The button and the blinds. The dealer button moves one seat to the left every hand. The two players after it post the small blind and the big blind, forced bets so there’s always something to win. In Poncler tournaments everyone also puts in a small ante of 10% of the big blind.
2. Your two cards. Everyone gets two cards that only they can see.
3. Before the flop. The first betting round starts with the player after the big blind.
4. The flop. Three cards are turned face up in the middle. Everyone can use them. Another betting round follows.
5. The turn. A fourth card, and another betting round.
6. The river. The fifth and last card, and the last betting round.
7. The showdown. The players still in show their cards. The best five-card hand from their two cards and the five on the board wins.

With only two players, the button posts the small blind and acts first before the flop.

Betting

When it’s your turn, you have these choices:

• Fold: give up the hand and the chips you’ve put in.
• Check: pass without betting, when nobody has bet yet.
• Call: match the bet in front of you.
• Bet: put chips in when nobody else has.
• Raise: bet more than the player before you. A raise must be at least as big as the last bet or raise.
• All-in: bet every chip you have.

• No-limit: in Hold’em and Short Deck you can bet any amount, up to all your chips.
• Pot-limit: in the Omaha games the most you can bet is the size of the pot.
• Side pots: if you go all-in for less than others bet, you can only win as much from each player as you put in. Their extra chips go into a side pot between them.

Position

Where you sit compared to the button is your position. Acting last is a big advantage: you see what everyone else did before you decide.

• The button: the best seat. You act last on the flop, turn and river.
• Late position: the seats just before the button. Good spots to play more hands.
• Early position: the first seats after the blinds, called under the gun. Play only strong hands here.
• The blinds: you have chips in already, but you act first after the flop. Don’t defend them with weak hands.

Starting hands

Most of the time, the best move before the flop is to fold. Start with good cards and you avoid the hardest decisions later.

“Suited” means both cards are the same suit. “Offsuit” means they aren’t.

Outs and odds

Outs are the cards still in the deck that would give you the best hand.

• The rule of 4 and 2: on the flop, multiply your outs by 4 for your chance of hitting by the river. On the turn, multiply by 2 for the river alone.
• Pot odds: compare what you have to call with what you can win. To call 20 for a pot of 80, you pay 20 to win 100, so you need to win one time in five, 20%.
• Call or fold: if your chance of winning is higher than the share you have to pay, calling makes money in the long run.

Tips for beginners

• Play fewer hands. Folding most hands before the flop is the fastest way to stop losing chips.
• When you play, bet and raise. Betting wins in two ways: the others fold, or you have the best hand. Calling only wins one way.
• Bet your good hands. Players call with worse hands more often than you think. Don’t wait for a monster.
• Bluff with a reason. Bluff when the board looks scary for your opponent, or when you have a draw that can still win, a semi-bluff.
• Don’t call just to see. Paying to find out what someone has gets expensive.
• Read the board. A pair on the board, three of a suit or four in a row can turn a strong hand into a weak one.
• Think in ranges. Your opponent doesn’t hold one hand but many possible ones. Ask what they would play like this.
• Watch the stacks. How many chips you and your opponent have changes how much you can win and how hard you can push.
• Take a break after a bad beat. Playing angry, called tilt, costs more chips than any bad card.

Other games

Poncler has five games. Texas Hold’em is the place to start; the others are fun once you know it.

Cash games and tournaments

• In tournaments, survival matters. Chips you lose can’t be bought back, so avoid big gambles early.
• Short on chips? With fewer than about ten big blinds, going all-in or folding is often better than a small raise.
• Rising blinds push you to play. Waiting too long for perfect cards lets the blinds eat your stack.

Table manners

• Act in good time. Everyone is waiting. If the host set a clock and it runs out, you check or fold.
• Be kind in chat. Congratulate a good hand, and say “gg” at the end. Never insult anyone.
• Don’t slow-roll. If you have the winning hand at the showdown, show it straight away.
• Play your own hand. Sharing your cards with someone else at the table, or playing softly against a friend, is cheating.

Poker words

Ante

A small bet everyone puts in before the cards are dealt.

Board

The shared cards in the middle of the table.

Button

The dealer’s seat. It acts last after the flop.

C-bet

A bet on the flop by the player who raised before the flop.

Check-raise

Checking, then raising when someone bets.

Draw

A hand that needs more cards to become strong, like four cards to a flush.

Kicker

The highest side card, which breaks ties between equal hands.

Muck

To throw your cards away without showing them.

Nuts

The best possible hand on this board.

Range

All the hands a player could have in a given spot.

Set

Three of a kind made with a pair in your hand.

Slow play

Playing a strong hand weakly to keep others in the pot.

Straddle

An extra blind, double the big blind, posted before the cards.

Tilt

Playing badly because you’re upset.

Under the gun

The first player to act before the flop.

All poker words GTO explained

Your first game

1. Practice first. Play against bots with their own styles, in any of the five games. It doesn’t count toward anything, and you need no account.
2. Find a game. On Play poker, find a friendly game, join an open one or create your own.
3. Take your seat. When it’s your turn, the buttons at the bottom show Fold, Check or Call, and Bet or Raise, with the bet size below.
4. Use the keyboard. A folds, S checks or calls, D bets or raises. Q, W, E and R set half the pot, three quarters, the pot and all-in, and M the minimum.
5. After the hand. The result shows at the pot. You can share the hand as a link and picture, or bookmark it to find it later on History.

Practice against bots Sign up free

Playing with friends

1. Create a game. Pick the game, cash game or tournament, the blinds, the chips and the number of seats.
2. Invite your friends. Invite them from the lobby, or send the link or QR code. They see the game and its rules before they accept.
3. Start. The host starts the game once everyone is in. A game also starts by itself when every seat is taken.
4. House rules. In friendly games the host can pick other antes, a straddle, running it twice and showing one card.
5. Votes. Seated players can propose higher blinds, another clock or wild cards. More than half have to agree.

At the same table

• A home game: on Play poker, choose Create a game and pick In person. Everyone joins with the link or QR code, and each phone holds its owner’s cards.
• Looking at your cards: on a phone your cards peek in at the bottom; hold them to look.
• A screen in the middle: a laptop or tablet on the table can show the board, the pot and everyone’s chips.
• Real cards: playing with a real deck, Poncler keeps the chips and the betting, and the table says who won.

Competitive play and Elo

• Competitive games are Texas Hold’em for up to nine players, with the standard rules. Search for one on Play poker and it starts as soon as the seats are filled.
• Season Elo rises when you win chips from other players and falls when you lose them, more against stronger opponents.
• Ranks: after 10 competitive hands you get a rank, Bronze, Silver, Gold or Diamond, from where your Elo stands among everyone ranked.
• Stay to the end. Leaving a competitive game early while you still have chips costs 25 Elo.
• The leaderboard shows the best players by Elo and the best of the week, and how you compare with your friends.

More about Elo and ranks Sign up free

Getting better

• My stats: your results in big blinds and how you play. Your member card is on your profile.
• History: every game you played, with your most memorable hands as highlights.
• Poncler Pro adds live odds while you play, a review of your decisions after each hand, a HUD with every player’s style in the game, replays of your hands, the GTO lab and Training.
• Free to try: one GTO chart in the lab, one Training drill a day and one replay a week.

GTO explained Sign up free

Friends, groups and tournaments

• Friends: send requests, chat with friends, and see when they’re playing to watch or join.
• Groups: your regular crew gets a chat, a board for posts, its own leaderboard and weekly tournaments.
• Scheduled tournaments: any member can set one for a time; players register and are seated when it starts.

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