Poker

 is a type of card game traditionally associated with betting and gambling. It can be played in multiplayer mode alongside Liar's Dice in the Liars and Cheats DLC. You can play poker in many different locations including MacFarlane's Ranch, Armadillo, Casa Madrugada, Thieves Landing, Chuparosa and Blackwater.

Description
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 prominently feature poker tables.

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 you 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 9-10-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, Jack, Queen, King, Ace).

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).

Cheating at Poker
Marston can cheat while playing poker, if he wears the Elegant Suit. When dealing cards, a minigame will start where the players must control an arrow with the analog stick in the middle of a small arc. If it stays too far from the middle it begins to turn red, indicating that other players are beginning to notice the underhanded tactics. Failure to pass off the cheat will result in a challenge to a duel. If the cheating minigame is completed successfully, a random card from the bottom of the deck is retrieved.

Marston then holds this extra card (shown separately on the left side of the screen) in an unknown location on his suit, likely in the sleeve. 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 opens up possible strategies such as 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.

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, but much harder at Blackwater).

Hints

 * If doing Walton's Gang outfit poker game in Armadillo, wait until there are only 2 or 3 other people on the table and buy in. Stay in for early hands, never folding, but 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 to really amp up stakes without causing an instant fold. Once you have 2-3 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 method requires no cheating at all but can always benefit from a little under the table dealing.
 * 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. Or you could bring out your lasso and everyone will 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.
 * 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 you in poker.
 * In Blackwater, if the player is in a poker game by the saloon, they are much more likely to get caught cheating if the player is "heads up" against only one other player, even if they player does manage to keep the arrow centered.
 * When playing against the NPCs you can clean up if you recognize that the engine is poorly devised. Your opponents will play with any garbage in their hand (often only a high card) so if you have a pair you can often take the hand. Also, the NPCs will treat the board as if it were soley their own, so if the board pairs they will treat it as though they are the only ones with the pair and bet accordingly. If you ever make trips or hold a high card with two pairs on the board you will win 90% of the time.



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)10_1_21_161-image77_copy.png

Trivia

 * The in-game cards' faces appear slightly worn and the cards have been said to be sticky and greasy. Along with the fact that cards have squared corners compared to rounded ones, it can be assumed that the cards may be several years old as rounded corners were introduced in around the late 1880s to the early 1890s, as to prevent wear and tear. However, the cards in-game have corner indices (the number or letter of rank in the corners) that were also introduced around the same time as rounded corners, but may be there for gameplay purposes, as trying to count all the pips on a card would prove tiresome and annoying.
 * The design of the pictures on the cards seem to be inspired by Mexican-style skull art, particularly the depictions of the face cards.
 * In games of Multiplayer Poker with the Liars and Cheats DLC pack, characters at the table are always seen without their hats. While this could be the characters showing proper manners and etiquette, the true reason is most likely that they don't want characters with larger hats (i.e. sombreros) to block large parts of the screen for some players.
 * During Multiplayer and Single Player Poker games, sometimes the hole cards of characters vanish at the very end of a round or when the blinds are being paid.
 * The shuffling procedures are never seen during a game nor is the process of gathering all the cards at the end of a round, likely to speed up gameplay.
 * The only color chips a player has for both Poker and Blackjack are red, blue, and green.
 * The values for each color chip (red is worth five, blue is worth 10, and green is worth 25) are inconsistent with the amount that players bet (e.g. a player puts in a single red chip for a 50 chip bet). However, it's possible that the chip values are simply just different in Red Dead Redemption.
 * A player's chip stack size is relative to the amount of chips they have. However, if they have very few chips (e.g. 1 - 20) their stacks make it appear that they have more than that.
 * Chips splashed into the pot will be neatly organized into color coded stacks after the flop, turn, and river is dealt.
 * In the mission Lucky in Love, when Ricketts is raking in his pot, there are several white chips scattered within the pile as well; a color of chip not seen in regular gameplay.
 * The kick feature in Online poker (Liars and Cheats) has been removed.

Bugs

 * When Marston 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 Marston 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. Or the other way around. If you go into the general store, Herbert will be there, then if you run into the saloon and go into the poker room, Herbert will be sitting down playing poker.
 * Sometimes during a game, the other players at the table can get distorted faces and hands.
 * Rockstar has 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.
 * If you manage to knock down/remove at least a single chair away from its default position at the table, the game will not start despite giving you the option and there being up to 4 perfectly empty seats.
 * If you want to double your winnings on the 360, when you quit, immediately hit B again and choose to leave poker again, if you're quick enough, you can even win 5x your winnings.

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

Póquer