Hand rankings, fastest way to learn them
From strongest to weakest: Royal Flush, Straight Flush, Four of a Kind, Full House, Flush, Straight, Three of a Kind, Two Pair, One Pair, and High Card. Every variant of poker builds on this same ranking order.
Texas Hold'em is the most common online format: each player gets two private cards, five community cards are dealt across the flop, turn and river, and the best five-card hand from any combination of your cards and the board wins.
Cash games vs. tournaments
In cash games, chips represent real value and you can leave the table any time with whatever you have. Blinds stay fixed, so you can play a short session without committing to hours at the table.
Tournaments have a fixed buy-in, blinds that rise on a schedule, and you're eliminated once you're out of chips — but the payout structure means finishing well up the leaderboard can multiply your buy-in many times over.
Bankroll management basics
A simple rule that keeps most recreational players out of trouble: don't sit down at a cash table with more than 5% of your total poker bankroll, and don't enter a tournament that costs more than 2% of it.
Table image and position matter as much as your cards — acting later in a hand gives you more information about what everyone else has done before you have to decide.
Quick tip:
Position is a skill on its own — playing tighter from early position and looser from late position will improve your results before you change anything else.
