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Online Poker Guide of Gamblers

Rules

While there are many different types and styles of poker, when you know the rules of poker, you are referring to a standard set of guidelines and commonalities between variations.

First of all Poker uses a standard deck of 52 playing cards (for most variations). Cards are ranked in a systematic fashion. 2 is the lowest card, Ace is the highest. The deck is split into four suits, no suit is of more value than another. A poker hand contains five cards. The highest hand at the table wins. Some variations utilize wild cards, but to gain a proper sense of the game, you should learn the hand ranks as they exist without the possibility of wild cards first.

The number of cards you are dealt depends on the variation of poker you're playing. Again, to stick with the basics five cards is most common.

Betting-In most poker games you start the betting with an ante just to get the cards dealt. The ante is dependent upon who you are playing with, a friendly game would usually have an ante of a penny, nickle, or dime, I personally like a nickle ante when playing with friends. The money is put in the center of the table and is called the pot. At the end of a hand the highest hand, of the players that remain (some may have folded), wins the pot.

You have three choices when the betting gets to you (betting is handled in a clockwise order) and here they are:

Call-betting enough to match what has been bet since the lasttime you bet. An example would be if you bet 25 cents and somebody than bid 35 cents when to you you would owe 10 cents . If you Call than you would put the amount that you owed into the pot and you would stay in the hand.

Raise-when you raise you first put enough in the pot to match what has already been bet and then you would raise the pot by putting an additional amount in (a friendly game would usually have a limit to how much money you could raise). So lets say the initial bet was 25 cents, you would have to put in 25 cents and than say I'll raise you another 25 cents. Now the other players will either Call, Raise, or fold.

Fold-dropping out of the current hand and losing the possibility of winning the pot. You don't have to put money in and you would only lose the ante, if its on the first turn, or whatever you put in the pot later. As the Kenny Rodgers song says, "you gotta know when to fold them." Sometimes it is just better to get out then waste good money on bad cards.

Betting is always dependent on the people you are playing with and the rules that they prescribe. Games beween friends should always have low limits set on the ante, the amount you could raise, and the top amount the pot could grow to. These rules are best because winning a big pot is never worth losing a friend over. So set the ante at a nickle, the raises at a quater, and don't let the pot go over a few dollars. This is the best way to handle a friendly game.

Some common rules:

• All games shall be played according to table stakes rules

• The conditions of contest assumed to be in effect at the beginning of a deal may not be changed during that deal if any player can be injured by that change.

• Play must always proceed clockwise, with each player's turn to act following the person on his immediate right.

• A player is responsible for taking reasonable means to protect his hand.

• Each card dealt must be the top card of the deck. After the initial card of a round has been dealt to a player, each player must receive his card directly after the person on his immediate right.

• The bottom card of the deck is never to be dealt.

• A misdeal shall cause all the cards to be returned to the dealer for a redeal.

• A player may bet a smaller amount on a betting round than was bet on a previous round.

• A player is never obliged to drop out of contention because he has insufficient funds in play to call the full amount of a bet.

• Any player may raise the pot at his turn unless:

  • The previous wager is below the minimum size necessary to qualify for reopening the betting to him.

  • The betting has been "capped" because the maximum number of raises on a betting round has been reached.

  • A "ceiling figure" has been reached. A ceiling figure is a restriction on the size of the total bet on a particular betting round.

• A player has the right to act on his hand, and an obligation to notify the other players that he has not yet acted when the betting action bypasses him.

• The dealer shall burn a card (place it facedown on the table) before dealing any round of cards after the players have received their starting hands.

• A player is not allowed to put chips into the pot knowing any of the cards that are to be dealt for the next round, except for the final downcard at Stud, where the card must be kept. A player is never allowed to control whether an upcard is to remain as dealt or the deck reshuffled.

• A player facing a bet who announces a fold has a dead hand.

• A player who makes a bet that nobody calls wins the pot. A player who makes a bet, and then incorrectly assumes there are no live hands against him, and throws his hand away into the discards, loses the pot, unless the hand is declared retrievable by the floorperson.

• An illegally small bet stands once there has been substantial action behind it. The dealer counts as a player, and the act of burning before dealing a card for the next round is treated as accepting the bet.

• A player who puts chips in the pot with the apparent intention of calling a bet, and is found to have put in an insufficient amount, may not withdraw the chips. He must put in sufficient additional chips to call, even if the opponent has shown down his hand.

• A player has the right to assemble chips in front of him before acting. A player has made a bet if he pushes assembled chips forward and releases them, or releases chips into the pot at a sufficient distance from him to make it obvious that he intends it as a bet.

• A player is not allowed to make a bet, gauge an opponent's reaction, and then increase the amount of the bet. In order to add additional chips to the original wager, he must indicate at the time it is made that the bet is not yet complete.

• A player who bets a single chip larger than required is assumed to have only called unless he announces a raise. He may clarify his apparent call as a raise only if nobody behind him has acted and he has not gained useful information about a hand behind him.

• A rule may be set for a game where a player is required to either bet or fold; he is not allowed to check.

• Check-and-raise is permitted in all games, unless a specific notice to the contrary is posted for a particular game.

• The minimum betting unit is the smallest denomination of chip that will be permitted in play for a game, except for use in antes and blinds.

• A foul hand is a dead hand and cannot win any part of the pot.

• A boxed card (improperly faced card) is treated as a scrap of paper.

• A joker improperly in the game shall constitute a misdeal if substantial action has not occurred.

• A defective deck is one that has two identical cards (including two jokers when one is in use) or any cards of a different-colored back.

• A deck that is dropped by the dealer before the deal is over, such as the dealer thinking no more cards are to be dealt, shall have the top of the deck used if it can properly be determined.

• If betting is over, the players show their cards to determine who has the best hand and wins the pot.

• Side-pot winners should be determined before the center pot, to hell prevent a player from discarding his hand because some player onl: in for the center pot has him beaten.

• Suits do not count in the ranking of hands at the showdown.

• In tournament play, deals and insurance are not permitted.

• At tournament play, one-winner games shall have the pot divided as evenly as chips in play permit.

• A player has the right to have the house reposition a spectator in the playing area so that person cannot see his holecards.

• The house has the right to place a maximum time limit for taking action on one's hand.

• Once a player has been awarded a pot and taken it in, no additional rake-off may be taken from it.

• A decision of the floorperson is final.

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