How to Play the Game
This is going to be a rough guide on how to play a hand using poker
🍏 rules, with an example listed below. A hand of No-Limit Texas Hold’em begins with each
player receiving two cards facedown, 🍏 called “hole cards.”
Players will always have
these options when it’s their turn to act: bet, call, raise or fold.
Players can 🍏 win a
hand by using any combination of their two-hole cards and five community cards on the
board to form 🍏 the best five card hand.
Remember, after players receive their cards, a
round of “preflop” betting occurs. Each “street,” or round 🍏 after that, has a different
name.
Flop – The first three community cards dealt are referred to as “the flop”. All
🍏 remaining players can use these community cards to try and make the best poker hand.
Play continues with a round 🍏 of betting. The action starts with the first player still
in the hand who is to the left of the 🍏 dealer button.
Turn – After completing the round
of betting on the flop, another community card is dealt, called the turn 🍏 (AKA Fourth
Street). A total of two hole cards and four community cards are available for active
players to try 🍏 and make the best five-card hand.
Another round of betting takes place.
Again, the action starts with the first remaining player 🍏 seated to the left of the
button. Play always continues in a clockwise direction. When all remaining players have
acted, 🍏 the betting round ends.
River – The river (AKA Fifth Street) is the fifth and
last community card. A final round 🍏 of betting takes place. If there’s a showdown – the
point where all action is complete – players turn up 🍏 their hands. The last player to
bet, known as the last aggressor, must show first. Whoever holds the best five-card
🍏 hand wins the pot, This action completes the hand, moving on to a new one.
Example: In
aR$1/$2 No-Limit Hold’em game, 🍏 you are first to act after the big blind (more on the
blinds below). You are facing aR$2 “blind” bet, 🍏 So, you can either call that amount,
raise it, or fold.
Let’s assume you raise toR$6 holding the A♦K♣. Everyone else 🍏 folds
around to the player in the big blind, who puts in the extraR$4 to call.
The flop comes
down A♣5♠6♥ 🍏 . The player in the big blind is first to act and can either check or bet.
There’s no need 🍏 for the to fold as there is no bet. They wind up checking, and you
betR$10 with your top pair.
The 🍏 player in the big blind calls and the K♦ turns. Again,
your opponent checks. You betR$25 with two pair. The 🍏 big blind calls once more and the
2♣ completes the board on the river.
Your opponent checks, for a third time, 🍏 and calls
when you betR$100.
The action is over, so it’s time to show your cards.
You turn over
your two pair 🍏 (your A♦K♣ plus the A♣K♦6♥ on the board make your best possible five-card
hand).
Your opponent shows he was beat as 🍏 he only had the A♥Q♠ for a losing pair of
aces. (Their A♥Q♠ plus A♣K♦6♥ from the board gives them 🍏 their best possible five-card
hand.)
Congratulations, you won a nice pot!
So that’s how a hand works, and you know
the poker 🍏 rules for it, where it gets complicated is how you play your own hand and
compete with others. There are 🍏 a few more things for you to pay attention to, like
where the dealer is sitting.
Dealer Button and Blinds
In most 🍏 games, a dedicated dealer
facilitates the dealing. In home poker games, it’s not uncommon for players to rotate
the deal 🍏 among themselves.
If there is a dedicated dealer, a button indicates who has
the deal. That button then moves one spot 🍏 clockwise after each hand. The purpose of the
button is to identify where the action should begin each time.
The action 🍏 always starts
with the first person left of the button.
Before any cards are dealt, the player to the
direct left 🍏 of the button must post (pay) the small blind. The player to the left of
him must post the big 🍏 blind.
These “blinds” are forced bets that help give players
something chase. Think about it: If there were no blinds in 🍏 poker, players would never
“blind off”. They would never lose chips from always folding preflop.
Players would
wait until they had 🍏 Aces dealt to them, and then go all-in.
For example, if the game
wasR$1-$2 No-Limit Hold’em, the player to the direct 🍏 left of the button must post aR$1
small blind. The player after that has to pay theR$2 big blind. These 🍏 are mandatory
“blind bets” and must be posted. If a player refuses according to poker rules, they
must sit out 🍏 of the game.
Tournaments vs Cash Games
When you play poker against other
players, you do so in one of two formats 🍏 – tournament or cash game (AKA ring game) and
these each have their own unique poker rules.
The basics outline above 🍏 are the same,
but there are four significant differences.
Blinds: In cash games, the blinds are
always fixed (i.e.R$1-$2,R$2-$5, etc.) and 🍏 never increase. While in tournaments, the
blinds increase every X-number of minutes, based on the blind structure. They do so 🍏 to
force action and ensure the tournament ends on time. Duration: Cash games are
convenient as you can come and 🍏 go as you please. Tournaments are different. Play
continues (according to the blind structure) until a winner is crowned. Chips: 🍏 In cash
games, each chip has a denomination that corresponds to its real-money In tournaments,
chip denominations typically do not 🍏 have real-money value. For example, in aR$100
buy-in tournament, you may receive 10,000 units worth of chips. Antes: Antes are 🍏 like
blinds in the sense that they are forced bets taken from players before the start of a
hand. They 🍏 are common in tournaments but do occasionally pop up in cash games. They do
not contribute to money used in 🍏 the first (preflop) round of betting, unlike the
blinds.
Antes are merely used to boost the size of the pot preflop. 🍏 They give players
more incentive to fight for the dead money in the middle.
Do note that either “button”
or “big 🍏 blind” antes (one larger-sized ante taken from one player) are replacing
traditional antes to save on time. This format is 🍏 happening especially in tournaments
to move the pace of the game along.
As the blinds rotate at the end of each 🍏 hand, all
players will be subject to a button ante, every orbit.
Variants of Poker
While Texas
Hold’em is the most popular 🍏 form of poker, it is far from the only game. There are
dozens of variations, with many catching up on 🍏 Hold’em’s popularity.
Here’s a look at
some of poker’s other variants:
