Classic poker rules
Poker is the most famous card game in the world. It has many variations of the rules, among which the most common is Texas Hold’em. A simple mechanic helped him take over the world: you get 2 cards in your hand and try to make a winning combination from them.
There are other variants of poker rules: with and without laying out community cards, with bets of a fixed size, in order to collect not the strongest, but the weakest combination.
Main rules of poker
The word “poker” refers to dozens of different card games: Texas Holdem, Omaha, Stud, Draw, Chinese poker, Crazy Pineapple and many others. They are united by a common hierarchy of winning combinations. With rare exceptions, poker uses a French 52-card deck.
The game consists of repeating cycles – distributions. During the distribution, participants form a money bank with the help of bets, which goes to the winner.
According to the rules of any kind of poker, the goal of the player is to get the pot or, as it is called in professional slang, the pot.
This can be done in one of two ways:
- Collect the best combination, that is, stronger than that of opponents.
- Convince the other participants that you have made a strong combination so that they give up. If, after the player’s bet, everyone folded their cards, he receives a made pot. At the same time, it is not necessary to show what he actually had.
- In the most common variants – Hold’em or Omaha – 5 community cards are placed in the middle of the table.
In other poker variants, they are not laid out, because each participant has his own set in his hands. Moreover, in seven-card variations, some of them are visible to opponents. And in Draw games, they are closed, players make assumptions about strength, only based on the bets and actions of opponents on the exchanges.
Streets of rates
Each draw consists of several stages of trading or, in other words, the streets on which bets are made. Their sequence depends on the type of game:
- with community cards: preflop, flop, turn and river. The entire group is called a board;
- with an exchange: pre-draw (pre-exchange), first, second and third draw (exchange);
- in Stud and its variations, each stage is called a street with a number corresponding to the number of cards in hand. The distribution starts on 3rd street and ends on 7th.
If the player made a bet and she returned to him without raises and reraises, the round ends. The next one starts. After the end of the last round (River or 7th Street) comes the showdown. Participants who have not been eliminated from the distribution show each other combinations and figure out who takes the pot.
There are no betting rounds in Chinese poker, which is why it is the most unlike the rest of the variety. In it, players pay each other at the end of the hand with points.
Player actions
Participating in the round of bidding, the player has the right, when his turn comes, to take the following action:
- Fold. Surrender, discard your cards and withdraw from the fight for the pot. Usually, after folding, you need to wait for the end of the distribution and start a new one along with everyone.
- Bet. Make the first bet in the circle.
- Raise. Raise the current rate after the bet. Raising someone’s raise is called a reraise.
- Check. Do not invest in the pot and pass the turn to the next player. The check is available only if no one has bet on the current street before.
- Col. To call or call, that is, to put into the pot an amount equal to the extreme bet or raise.
- All-in. A special case of betting, raising or calling when a player sends all the chips he has into the pot.
- Mandatory Bets
The rules of all formats oblige participating players to make certain bets in advance, before receiving cards:
- Small and big blind (SB and BB). Placed in flop and draw games. They form the initial bank for which the participants are fighting.
- Ante. Applies to all poker games. A small amount put down before the cards are received by each participant in the draw. Most often it is 15-20% of the BB.
- Bring-in. It is used in the Stade and its variations. The bet that opens the auction on 3rd street. In Razz it is made by the player with the largest upcard, in Stud and Stud Hi-Lo by the smallest.
Blind betting is not done in Chinese poker as there are no betting rounds.