Poker

Poker is a type of card game, and is traditionally associated with betting and gambling. In North America, at the time period of Red Dead Redemption, poker was a serious parlor game, that could sometimes result in violent disputes and death. You can play Poker in many different regions these include: MacFarlane's Ranch, Armadillo, Casa Madrugada, Thieves Landing, Chuparosa and Blackwater and 'High-stakes poker' which can be only be playable using the Gentleman's Attire (See right).

In Game
John Marston can participate in games of poker throughout the game world. The player must always wager, and either earn or lose considerable sums, of cash. Saloons feature poker tables very prominently.

Rockstar's media campaign has revealed that the player can choose to kill rival NPCs when playing poker in order to steal their betting pots, this option will cost the player honor.

The poker rules used in-game are those from no-limit Texas hold'em. You should have at least a passing understanding of the rules as the game does not tell all of the information on a winning hand only the primary information. Winning hands (in order from worst to best) are as follows: High card, 1 pair, 2 pairs, 3 of a kind, straight (five cards in sequence such as nine-ten-jack-queen-king), flush (5 of one suit), full house (three of a kind plus a pair), four of a kind, straight flush (5 sequential cards of the same suit), royal flush (as with straight flush but 10, J, Q, K, A).

Players may use any combination of the two cards they hold and the five community cards to form the best five-card hand. The nature of community-card poker games greatly increases the chance of two or more players each having strong hands, thus increasing, the level of action (betting).

John Marston can potentially cheat with use of the Elegant Suit, explained below.

John Marston can also wear the Gentleman's Attire by joining the Rockstar Social Club. This suit will allow John Marston into the high stakes poker game in Blackwater Hotel.

Scrap number 3 of the U.S. Army Outfit can be unlocked by eliminating all other players at the table in Blackwater. For this you can't just make a profit (eg: start with 1000 chips and quit with 1020 chips) but must actually eliminate all other contenders and be the last man standing at the table. The best way to do this, is to get caught cheating by everyone at the table except one person, and kill them and bust out the last person.

Scrap number 3 of the Walton's Gang Outfit can be unlocked by eliminating all other players at the table in Armadillo.

In order to get 100% completion you must win at this mini-game. However to actually win you do not need to make a profit, instead you must Bust Out all other players on the table. The best way to do this is to get caught cheating at the table untill there is only 1 person left. Then use the same method as in High Roller, simply go all in, and by the 2nd time the oposite player should follow and go all in aswell. Then you just have to pray you get lucky. Do not attempt to cheat against the single NPC player though, as for some reason the players awareness of cheating is increased massivley, and if you are caught you will need to do the whole process all over again.

Cheating at Poker
Marston can cheat while playing poker, if he wears the Elegant Suit. When dealing cards, the players must keep the analog in a specific position in order to draw a valuable face card from the bottom of the deck. This is indicated by trying to keep the arrow in the middle of the curve. If it stays too far from the middle it begins to turn red and the other players may begin to notice that something is not right.

Marston then holds this extra card (shown separately on the left side of the screen). At any time when the player is betting he can attempt to exchange this card for one in his hand. This uses the same analog balance curve as the initial cheating draw, though it is slightly easier to stay in the middle than when dealing. The cheat card then goes into the hand and the card that was chosen to be replaced then goes into the reserve.

Only one card can be stored at any given time and the reserve card is randomly reset if the player chooses to cheat while dealing later in the game. This does bring up possible strategies like exchanging your reserve card for a card that you feel is superior from your hand; especially if you are planning to fold or your strategy did not play out in the flop. Failure to pass off the cheat will result in a challenge to a duel.

note: It has been discovered that a 2nd or 3rd card can occasionally be reserved, but the odds of detection for each consecutive card reserved is a lot higher. i.e first card may only be 20% detection chance but 2nd is around 50% and 3rd is near 80%. This is only ever doable at MacFarlane's Ranch due to low default detection probability.

Winning a duel is +50 fame, but disarming the person nets +100, so go for a disarm for more fame. For the maximum fame in a duel, go for a disarm and a hatshot. This will net +150

Note : The higher the buy-in, the higher the probability to be detected by other players (ie: It is easy to cheat at the MacFarlane's Ranch and much harder at Blackwater).

Hints

 * 1) If doing Walton's Gang outfit poker game in Armadillo wait until l there is only 2 or 3 other people on the table and buy in. for the early hands never fold. for every hand put in the minimum + the next highest option. this will keep money on the table and normally in rounds of high betting cause the enemy NPC to fold. once you get a good hand put in roughly 1/2 of the pot as to really amp up stakes without causing a instant fold. once you have 1-2 times more cash than you started with you officially control the game. fold on bad hands and keep bidding minimum +1 on all hands. this will cause you to win and walk out with just over 1k in poker chips (a very good profit for a $25 buy in). this has worked 5/5 times tested on multiple PS3. this method requires no cheating at all but can always benefit from a little under the table dealing.
 * 2) If you are trying to obtain the U.S. Army Uniform by eliminating all competitors in a game of poker in Blackwater, a quick way to achieve this is to push away all but one player, and then run away. Come back in a few seconds and play against the one player. Just keep going all in on the first bet of the first hand and you'll win within one or two games. You'll also get the High Roller achievement if you don't have it already.


 * 1) Another tactic for the U.S. Army Uniform is to play two games of poker. In the first game use the Elegant suit and purposely get caught cheating right away. Complete the duel challenge and immediately go back to the table and play the second game. If you do this quickly enough there should only be one other player at the table besides you. From here just play poker without rushing and you will win. You can cheat but it's not recommended here because if you are caught you will not be able to play against one opponent and will have to restart the entire process again which takes a fair amount of time. If you did not succeed in getting one opponent then just reload the game and try again. It is also possible to slowly "cheat" your way through the game by just getting caught cheating and "eliminating" your opponents in a duel until only one remains to play in poker.

Real World Gameplay
Poker games can be played with great variety. Games differ in how cards are dealt, how hands are formed, limitation and required bets, whether the high or low hand wins the pot in a showdown. In some games, the pot is split between the high and low hands, limits on bets and how many rounds of betting are allowed. In most modern poker games, the first round of betting begins with some form of forced bet. The action then proceeds to the left. Each player in turn must either match the maximum previous bet or fold, losing the amount wagered thus far. A player who antes may also raise, increasing the pot. The betting round ends when all players have either anted or folded. If all but one player folds on any round, the remaining player collects the pot without showing their hand. If more than one player remains in contention after the final betting round, the hands are shown and the winning hand takes the pot.

The game of Texas hold'em was not invented in the real world until the 1920s, and did not see wide popularity until the 1950s. Poker games in American saloons in 1911 would have been primarily draw poker or five-card stud.

Buy-Ins
Poker games all require a 'buy-in' payment to buy your initial chips before you can play. Different locations have different buy-ins. The higher the buy-in, the tougher your opponents are.
 * MacFarlane's Ranch : $10 (100 chips)
 * Armadillo : $25 (250 chips)
 * Thieves Landing : $25 (250 chips)
 * Chuparosa : $50 (500 chips)
 * Casa Madrugada : $50 (500 chips)
 * Blackwater Saloon : $100 (1000 chips)
 * Blackwater Hotel : $250 (2500 chips) (only accessible while wearing the Gentleman's Attire outfit)

Achievements
The player can participate in a game of Poker to obtain the following achievements:

The easiest way to attain the High Roller Achievement is in the mission "Lucky in Love." For both hands go all in & the NPCs will fold. You should win over 1,000 chips per hand coming out with the needed 2,000+.

Bugs
Poker sometimes doesn't work:
 * When John sits at the table he will just sit there for 5-6 seconds, and then get back up and be returned his money. (PS3)
 * When John sits at the table, he will sit there for about 5-6 seconds, then get back up, losing his ante. (Xbox 360).
 * Upon losing or quitting a poker game, killing the winner does not yield the winnings of the poker game. Whether at the table, or following them to a dark corner for the murder. This could possibly be because they have not cashed in their chips.
 * At the poker table in Armadillo, when the player sits down there will sometimes be a loud clunking noise which will never stop. (PS3 Confirmed only)
 * At the poker table other player's textures and sometimes the table will disappear to reappear on the next hand or not at all. For the Xbox 360 version, this typically happens while it is raining.
 * Easy Money: Go to Mexico and start a game of poker where you have 1000 chips, keep bidding about 50 each round until you have 500 left, then go all in. The Mexicans will all fold and you'll win all the winnings. If 500 doesn't work then go until 750 or higher.
 * When caught cheating and being challenged to a duel by another character, sometimes that character will be duplicated if they exist in town in another capacity; for example, in Armadillo the general store owner Herbert Moon might challenge the player to a duel, and once defeated, either by disarm or death, the player can run into the general store and see him working behind the counter at the same time as he lies dead in the road or is fleeing the area.
 * Sometimes during a game, the other players at the table can get distorted faces and hands.
 * Rockstar have received several reports of users being unable to have flushes and some straights to count and the game defaults to using the highest card to score. This is a known bug being investigated but no further information as to a fix has been made public yet.
 * Even when wearing a gloved outfit, you will be able to see the bare hands of your character.
 * If you join a poker game whilst wearing a bandana, it will miraculously dissapear about a second after you accept. It will reappear just as you leave.