An outlow that doesn’t gamble is like a cowboy that doesn’t ride a horse and RDR 2 offers you plenty of ways to flutter away the dollars you amass on your travels across the Wild West.
Bust Poker What is it?
Red Dead Redemption 2’s saloons favor Texas Hold ‘Em Poker, where each player starts with two cards. After a round of betting, three ‘community’ cards are dealt into the middle, which everyone can use to make a hand. Two more cards arrive after two more rounds of betting, and then you must make the best five-card hand with the seven cards available (two in your hand plus five in the middle)
The goal is to use the two cards you are dealt to make a winning hand based off the table cards flipped in the middle. After each card is flipped, a round of betting will occur. You may either match, known as “checking” bets, or fold the hand a stay out of the round. The goal is have the highest hand each round and to run your opponents out of money.
During each betting round you can bet, fold your cards or, if nobody has bet yet, ‘check’, which means you stay in the hand for free. When someone bets you can call for the same amount, raise them with more money, or fold. You win by having a better hand than every other player at the end of a round, or if everybody else folds before that.
If you’re a beginner, familiarize yourself with the ranking of Poker Hands, which you’ll find in the game’s ‘help’ section. Basically you want at least a high pair, and preferably more.
Poker is an endlessly complex game full of strategy and trickery -but don’t worry, you don’t have to be an expert to win in Red Dead 2. All it requires is a bit of patience. The gunslingers you’re up against are mostly loose cannons that will happily throw all their chips into the middle with absolutely nothing.
It’s therefore hard to bluff them, because they’ll simply call your bet – but they’ll also call your bets when you have good cards, too. All you need to do is wait for decent starting duo such as high pairs or two high cards (if you’re really interested, you can find a full ranking of the best two starting cards here), and don’t be afraid to bet big late in rounds. These suckers will pay you off.
Poker Rules
There are 10 different hands that you may be dealt. They are listed below, each with a description of what cards you would need to complete them. Have the highest hand per round to win the pot.
- Royal Flush- You would need an Ace, King, Queen, Jack, and Ten in the same suit
- Straight Flush- A sequence of five cards in the same suit
- Four of a Kind- Four cards of the same value
- Full House- Three cards of the same value with a pair of cards.
- Flush- Five cards of the same suit
- Straight- A sequence of five cards
- Three of a Kind- Three cards of the same value
- Two Pair- Two sets of two cards of the same value
- One Pair- One set of two cards of the same value
- High Card- The highest card in your hand
How to Win Poker
Poker is a luck based card game and with digital opponents, reading their emotions is more difficult. Lean into knowing the types of hands above and play big when you have stong hands. You can try bluffing, which is betting confidently when you have bad cards, to try and force an opponent into folding.
Watch the cards and don’t be afraid to fold if you have a bad hand
Study the different hands that are possible to get
