Rules applicable to all Poker Games
Poker Equipment
Originally Poker was played with a
standard 36 card Piquet deck of playing cards. 🏵 Most games these days are played with a
standard 52 card deck. The Ace ranks high except that it can 🏵 also be used low in a
"straight" or run of cards i.e. Ace, 2, 3, 4, 5. Some kind of 🏵 tokens to bet with are
required and conventionally these are round chips - sets of Poker chips are easily
obtainable 🏵 these days and vary from very cheap to extremely high quality sets of great
value. A dealer chip called a 🏵 "blind" is also usually used to indicate the current
dealer (or at Casino tables, to indicate who plays first).
Poker Objective
Poker 🏵 is
totally a gambling game and unlike some other gambling games cannot really be played
without stakes. The stakes do 🏵 not need to be money - peanuts, sweets or matchsticks
will work fine, although seasoned gamblers will sneer at anything 🏵 other than serious
stakes. The aim for a hand is to win by having the highest ranked hand of cards 🏵 or else
by continuing to bet that your hand is the highest until all the other players drop
out. The 🏵 player who is left when all the others have dropped out or the player who has
the highest ranked hand 🏵 when the hands are shown wins the "pot" - all the money that
has been bet during that hand. In 🏵 the event of a draw, the pot is divided equally
amongst players.
Poker Scoring Hands
There are nine ranking Poker hands. We 🏵 list them
below in ascending order: One Pair - 2 cards of the same value The hand with the higher
🏵 value pair wins. If they are the same, then the highest value card in the remaining 3
cards determines who 🏵 wins. If they are also the same, the highest value card in the
remaining 2 cards determines who wins and 🏵 so on.
Two Pairs - 2 different value pairs
The hand with the highest value pair wins. If they are the 🏵 same, then the value of the
second pair determines who wins. If they are also the same, then the value 🏵 of the
remaining card determines who wins.
Three of a kind - 3 cards of the same value The
hand with 🏵 the higher matching 3 cards wins.
The Straight - A run of 5 cards, regardless
of suit The Straight that starts 🏵 with the highest value card wins.
The Flush - 5 cards
of the same suit The hand with the highest value 🏵 card wins or if the highest cards are
the same, the value of the second highest cards determines the winner 🏵 and so on.
The
Full House - 3 cards of the same value and 2 cards of the same different value 🏵 The hand
with the higher matching 3 cards wins.
Four of a kind - 4 cards of the same value The
🏵 hand with the higher matching 4 cards wins.
The Straight Flush - A run of 5 cards of
the same suit 🏵 The Straight Flush that starts with the highest value card wins.
The
Royal Flush A run of 5 cards of the 🏵 same suit starting with a ten
If a hand contains
none of the ranking combinations above, then the highest card gives 🏵 the value of the
hand. E.g. "Ace High".
General Poker Rules
The dealer changes to the left each hand.
The person to 🏵 the right of the dealer cuts the cards after they are shuffled. Ideally
Poker is played with 5, 6 or 🏵 7 players. Bets are placed in front of the player. If at
any point during the betting phases, all but 🏵 one player "fold" and drop out, then that
player is the winner of the round and takes the pot/all bets. 🏵 Crucially, in this case,
the winning player's hand is not revealed so that the other players do not know if 🏵 the
player was bluffing or not.
Poker Stakes
The stakes played for in any Poker game are
agreed at the beginning and 🏵 vary widely. The following rules do not give any guidelines
for the stakes but there are some common conventions regarding 🏵 raising the
stake.
General Poker Betting Limitation Strategies
In a completely theoretical game,
the stake might be doubled each time and usually 🏵 the house rules permit this for a
short number of raises. However, after the stake has doubled 3 or 4 🏵 times, it tends to
be so large that doubling it further means many of the players will be forced out 🏵 due
to a lack of funds rather than anything to do with their hand. So a historical way of
avoiding 🏵 this problem has been to say that after the stake has been raised 3 or 4
times, thereafter it is 🏵 only allowed to raise it by the amount it was previously raised
by. So for instance, the ante or first 🏵 blind forced bet might be 1 chip, the straddle
(or second blind or Big Blind) forced second bet is usually 🏵 double - in our example 2
chips. The first raise would then be 4 chips, the second raise 8 chips 🏵 but thereafter
each raise would be 8 chips.
Texas Hold'em Betting Limitation Strategies
There are a
multitude of other betting regimes and 🏵 limitations which can be confusing. To give some
topical examples, following are the 2 main betting rules from the currently 🏵 most
popular variety of Poker - Texas Hold'em: Limit Hold'em
Second forced bet (big blind)
must be double the first forced 🏵 bet (small blind).
Raises in the first two rounds of
betting must equal the big blind
Raises in the last 2 rounds 🏵 of betting must be double
the big blind
It must be the same or greater than the big blind
It must be 🏵 the same or
greater than the previous raise
It must be the same or less than the number of chips
the 🏵 player has already bet.
Basic Draw Poker
Preliminaries
No Limit Hold'em - Second
forced bet (big blind) must be double the first forced 🏵 bet (small blind). A Raise may
be of any amount limited by the following constraints:
The player to the dealer's left
🏵 bets a starting amount by putting down some chips. This is called "the Ante". The next
players puts down a 🏵 further initial bet - traditionally, double the ante. This is
called "the Straddle". The value of the stake traditionally starts 🏵 at 4 X the ante but
this may vary according to the house rules. Each player is dealt 5 cards.
First 🏵 Round
of Betting
The player to the left of the player who bet the Second Blind starts the
first round of 🏵 betting. Each player in succession can do one of 3 things:
"Fold" -
Throw in their cards and take no further 🏵 part in the hand
"Call" - Increase the bet in
front of them to match the level of the player who 🏵 last raised it.
"Raise" - in
addition to calling, a player may also raise the stake by adding more to the 🏵 bet in
front of him.
The Draw
After a player raises, if all the subsequent players either fold
or call but do 🏵 not raise the stake further, then no further raises may be made. At this
point, some of the players may 🏵 have dropped out and the remaining players will all have
the current value of the stake in front of them.
Each 🏵 player in turn, then requests to
discard 1, 2 or 3 cards in exchange for replacement cards from the deck, 🏵 if they wish -
the objective being to improve the rank of the hand.
Second Round of Betting
The
betting process then 🏵 restarts with the first player to the dealer's left who has not
yet folded. In the second round of betting, 🏵 until someone Raises, players may:
"Fold" -
Throw in their cards and take no further part in the hand
"Check" - Stay 🏵 in the game at
the current stake level
"Raise" - a player raises the stake by adding more to the bet
🏵 in front of him
The Showdown
If all players check, then play proceeds straight to the
Showdown. Otherwise, as soon as someone 🏵 raises the stake, subsequent players can only
Fold, Call or Raise. Betting ceases when, after a raise, all subsequent players 🏵 either
Call or Fold.
Once betting for the second round has ceased, if only one player remains
in the game, that 🏵 player wins the pot. The player's hand is not revealed to the other
players. This means that if the player 🏵 had been bluffing - pretending that his hand was
highly ranked when it was not, then no-one will be any 🏵 the wiser. Otherwise, all
players reveal their hands and the highest ranked hand wins the pot.
Basic Five-Card
Stud Poker
Preliminaries
All players 🏵 contribute an agreed starting stake to the pot.
Each player is one card face down (called the "hole" card) and 🏵 one card face up.
First
Round
The player with the lowest value card showing must starts the betting. If there
are two 🏵 or more players with the same value, whichever of these players closest to the
dealer's left starts. Each player in 🏵 succession can do one of 3 things:
"Fold" - Throw
in their cards and take no further part in the hand
"Call" 🏵 - Increase the bet in front
of them to match the level of the player who last raised it.
"Raise" - 🏵 in addition to
calling, a player may also raise the stake by adding more to the bet in front of
🏵 him.
Subsequent Rounds
After a player raises, if all the subsequent players either fold
or call but do not raise the stake 🏵 further, then no further raises may be made until
the next card is dealt.
Another card is then dealt face-up to 🏵 each player. The betting
process then restarts with the first player to the dealer's left who has not yet
folded. 🏵 In the second, third, fourth and fifth rounds of betting, until someone Raises,
players may:
"Fold" - Throw in their cards 🏵 and take no further part in the hand
"Check"
- Stay in the game at the current stake level
"Raise" - a 🏵 player raises the stake by
adding more to the bet in front of him
The Showdown
If all players check, then play
🏵 proceeds straight to next round. Otherwise, as soon as someone raises the stake,
subsequent players can only Fold, Call or 🏵 Raise. Betting ceases when, after a raise,
all subsequent players either Call or Fold. After the fifth card has been 🏵 dealt and the
final round of betting is completed, the Showdown occurs.
If only one player remains in
the game, that 🏵 player wins the pot. The player's hole card is not revealed to the other
players. This means that if the 🏵 player had been bluffing - pretending that his hand was
highly ranked when it was not, then no-one will be 🏵 any the wiser. Otherwise, all
players reveal their hands and the highest ranked hand wins the pot and all bets.
Texas
🏵 Hold'em Poker Rules
Texas Hold'em is a version of Draw Poker that has become the most
fashionable version of Poker played 🏵 towards the latter half of the first decade of the
21st century. It is the Poker game most commonly played 🏵 in Casinos and is also the game
regularly featured in the World Poker series tournament and other televised Poker games
🏵 - which accounts for its popularity.
Preliminaries
The player to the dealer's left bets
a starting amount by putting down some chips. 🏵 This is called "First Blind". The next
players puts down some chips too - this is called the "Second blind" 🏵 and is normally
equal to double the first blind. The second blind also usually is the value of the
minimum 🏵 bet.
First Round
Each player is dealt 2 cards, face down. These are called "The
Hole Cards" The player to the left 🏵 of the player who bet the Second Blind starts the
first round of betting. Each player in succession can do 🏵 one of 3 things:
"Fold" -
Throw in their cards and take no further part in the hand
"Call" - Increase the 🏵 bet in
front of them to match the level of the player who last raised it.
"Raise" - in
addition to 🏵 calling, a player may also raise the stake by adding more to the bet in
front of him.
Second (The Flop), 🏵 Third (The Turn) & Fourth (The River) Rounds
After a
player raises, if all the subsequent players either fold or call 🏵 but do not raise the
stake further, then no further raises may be made and play proceeds to the second
🏵 round.
The second, third and fourth rounds are played in a similar way. First, the top
card of the deck is 🏵 discarded - an anti-cheating ritual called "Burning the card".
Then:
In the second round, three "community cards" are dealt face-up in 🏵 the middle of
the table. These cards are called "The Flop" and the round is usually called "The Flop"
round.
In 🏵 the third round called "The Turn", a fourth community card is dealt to join
those already on the table. This 🏵 card is called "Fourth Street".
In the fifth round,
"The River", the final community card dealt. This card is called "Fifth 🏵 Street".
"Fold"
- Throw in their cards and take no further part in the hand
"Check" - Stay in the game
at 🏵 the current stake level
"Raise" - a player raises the stake by adding more to the
bet in front of him
The 🏵 Showdown
The community cards are used by all the players in
conjunction with their two hidden "hole" cards to form their 🏵 hand and from these cards,
the players choose the five that give them the highest ranked Poker hand. The betting
🏵 process then restarts with the first player to the dealer's left who has not yet
folded. In the second, third 🏵 and fourth rounds of betting, until someone Raises,
players may:If all players Check, then play proceeds straight to next round. 🏵 Otherwise,
as soon as someone raises the stake, subsequent players can only Fold, Call or Raise.
Betting ceases when, after 🏵 a raise, all the other remaining players either Call or
Fold. After the fifth card has been dealt and the 🏵 final round of betting is completed,
the Showdown occurs.
If at any point during any of the betting rounds, only one 🏵 player
remains in the game, that player wins the pot. The player's hole cards are not revealed
to the other 🏵 players. This means that if the player had been bluffing - pretending that
his hand was highly ranked when it 🏵 was not, then no-one will be any the wiser.
Otherwise, all players reveal their hands and the highest ranked hand 🏵 wins the pot and
all bets.
