Rules of Poker
Poker uses a standard pack of playing cards, 52 cards (there are
some poker games that uses more or less depending on the variations
such as adding wild cards like jokers). The card ranking is as follows
Ace (the highest), King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2
(the lowest), Ace (this may also be the lowest card depending on
the variations you are using, but it is usually the highest). Below
are some general rules of poker that we hope you find useful.
BUYING IN
- When you enter a game, you must make a full buy-in for that
game. A full buy-in at limit poker is at least ten times the maximum
bet for the game being played, unless designated otherwise.
- You are allowed to make only one short buy-in for a game. Adding
to your stack is not considered a buy-in, and may be done in any
quantity between hands.
- A player who is forced to transfer from a broken game or must-move
game to a game of the same limit may continue to play the same
amount of money, even if it is less than the minimum buy-in. A
player switching games voluntarily must have the proper buy-in
size for the new game.
A MIS-DEAL
- The following circumstances cause a misdeal, provided attention
is called to the error before two players have acted on their
hands. (If two players have acted in turn, the deal must be played
to conclusion, as explained in rule #2)
- The first or second card of the hand has been dealt faceup
or exposed through dealer error.
- Two or more cards have been exposed by the dealer.
- Two or more boxed cards (improperly faced cards) are found.
- wo or more extra cards have been dealt in the starting hands
of a game.
- An incorrect number of cards has been dealt to a player,
except the top card may be dealt if it goes to the player
in proper sequence.
- Any card has been dealt out of the proper sequence (except
an exposed card may be replaced by the burn card).
- The button was out of position.
- The first card was dealt to the wrong position.
- Cards have been dealt to an empty seat or a player not entitled
to a hand.
- A player has been dealt out who is entitled to a hand. This
player must be present at the table or have posted a blind
or ante.
- Action is considered to occur in stud games when two players
after the forced bet have acted on their hands. In button games,
action is considered to occur when two players after the blinds
have acted on their hands. Once action occurs, a misdeal can no
longer be declared. The hand will be played to conclusion and
no money will be returned to any player whose hand is fouled.
DEAD HANDS
- Your hand is declared dead if:
- You fold or announce that you are folding when facing a
bet or a raise.
- You throw your hand away in a forward motion causing another
player to act behind you (even if not facing a bet).
- In stud, when facing a bet, you pick your up cards off the
table, turn your up cards facedown, or mix your up cards and
down cards together.
- The hand does not contain the proper number of cards for
that particular game (except at stud a hand missing the final
card may be ruled live, and at lowball and draw high a hand
with too few cards before the draw is live). [See Section
16 - "Explanations," discussion #4, for more information
on the stud portion of this rule.]
- You act on a hand with a joker as a hole card in a game
not using a joker. (A player who acts on a hand without looking
at a card assumes the liability of finding an improper card,
as given in Irregularities, rule #8.)
- You have the clock on you when facing a bet or raise and
exceed the specified time limit.
- Cards thrown into the muck may be ruled dead. However, a hand
that is clearly identifiable may be retrieved at management's
discretion if doing so is in the best interest of the game. We
will make an extra effort to rule a hand retrievable if it was
folded as a result of false information given to the player.
- Cards thrown into another player's hand are dead, whether they
are face-up or facedown.
IRREGULARITIES
- In button games, if it is discovered that the button was placed
incorrectly on the previous hand, the button and blinds will be
corrected for the new hand in a manner that gives every player
one chance for each position on the round (if possible).
- You must protect your own hand at all times. Your cards may
be protected with your hands, a chip, or other object placed on
top of them. If you fail to protect your hand, you will have no
redress if it becomes fouled or the dealer accidentally kills
it.
- If a card with a different color back appears during a hand,
all action is void and all chips in the pot are returned to the
respective bettors. If a card with a different color back is discovered
in the stub, all action stands.
- If two cards of the same rank and suit are found, all action
is void, and all chips in the pot are returned to the players
who wagered them (subject to next rule).
- A player who knows the deck is defective has an obligation to
point this out. If such a player instead tries to win a pot by
taking aggressive action (trying for a freeroll), the player may
lose the right to a refund, and the chips may be required to stay
in the pot for the next deal.
- If there is extra money in the pot on a deal as a result of
forfeited money from the previous deal (as per rule #5), or some
similar reason, only a player dealt in on the previous deal is
entitled to a hand.
- A card discovered face up in the deck (boxed card) will be treated
as a meaningless scrap of paper. A card being treated as a scrap
of paper will be replaced by the next card below it in the deck,
except when the next card has already been dealt facedown to another
player and mixed in with other down cards. In that case, the card
that was face up in the deck will be replaced after all other
cards are dealt for that round.
- A joker that appears in a game where it is not used is treated
as a scrap of paper. Discovery of a joker does not cause a misdeal.
If the joker is discovered before a player acts on his or her
hand, it is replaced as in the previous rule. If the player does
not call attention to the joker before acting, then the player
has a dead hand.
- If you play a hand without looking at all of your cards, you
assume the liability of having an irregular card or an improper
joker.
- One or more cards missing from the deck does not invalidate
the results of a hand.
- Before the first round of betting, if a dealer deals one additional
card, it is returned to the deck and used as the burn card.
- Procedure for an exposed card varies with the poker form, and
is given in the section for each game. A card that is flashed
by a dealer is treated as an exposed card. A card that is flashed
by a player will play. To obtain a ruling on whether a card was
exposed and should be replaced, a player should announce that
the card was flashed or exposed before looking at it. A down card
dealt off the table is an exposed card.
- If a card is exposed due to dealer error, a player does not
have an option to take or reject the card. The situation will
be governed by the rules for the particular game being played.
- If you drop a card on the floor out of your hand, you must still
play that card.
- If the dealer prematurely deals any cards before the betting
is complete, those cards will not play, even if a player who has
not acted decides to fold.
BETTING AND RAISING
- Check-raise is permitted in all games, except in certain forms
of lowball.
- In no-limit and pot-limit games, unlimited raising is allowed.
- In limit, for a pot involving three or more players who are
not all-in, these limits on raises apply:
(a) A game with three or more betting rounds allows a maximum
of a bet and three raises.
(b) A game with two betting rounds (such as lowball or draw) allows
a maximum of a bet and four raises. [See "Section 16 - Explanations,"
discussion #6, for more information on this rule.]
- Unlimited raising is allowed in heads-up play. This applies
any time the action becomes head-up before the raising has been
capped. Once the raising is capped on a betting round, it cannot
be uncapped by a subsequent fold that leaves two players heads-up.
- In limit play, an all-in wager of less than half a bet does
not reopen the betting for any player who has already acted and
is in the pot for all previous bets. A player facing less than
half a bet may fold, call, or complete the wager. An all-in wager
of a half a bet or more is treated as a full bet, and a player
may fold, call, or make a full raise. (An example of a full raise
is on a $20 betting round, raising a $15 all-in bet to $35).
- Any wager must be at least the size of the previous bet or raise
in that round, unless a player is going all-in.
- The smallest chip that may be wagered in a game is the smallest
chip used in the antes, blinds, rake, or collection. (Certain
games may use a special rule that does not allow chips used only
in house revenue to play.) Smaller chips than this do not play
even in quantity, so a player wanting action on such chips must
change them up between deals. If betting is in dollar units or
greater, a fraction of a dollar does not play. A player going
all-in must put all chips that play into the pot.
- A verbal statement denotes your action and is binding. If in
turn you verbally declare a fold, check, bet, call, or raise,
you are forced to take that action.
- Rapping the table with your hand is a pass.
- Deliberately acting out of turn will not be tolerated. A player
who checks out of turn may not bet or raise on the next turn to
act. An action or verbal declaration out of turn may be ruled
binding if there is no bet, call, or raise by an intervening player
acting after the infraction.
- To retain the right to act, a player must stop the action by
calling "time" (or an equivalent word). Failure to stop
the action before three or more players have acted behind you
may cause you to lose the right to act. You cannot forfeit your
right to act if any player in front of you has not acted, only
if you fail to act when it legally becomes your turn. Therefore,
if you wait for someone whose turn comes before you, and three
or more players act behind you, this still does not hinder your
right to act.
- A player who bets or calls by releasing chips into the pot is
bound by that action. However, if you are unaware that the pot
has been raised, you may withdraw that money and reconsider your
action, provided that no one else has acted after you.
- In limit poker, if you make a forward motion with chips and
thus cause another player to act, you may be forced to complete
your action.
- String raises are not allowed. To protect your right to raise,
you should either declare your intention verbally or place the
proper amount of chips into the pot. Putting a full bet plus a
half-bet or more into the pot is considered to be the same as
announcing a raise, and the raise must be completed. (This does
not apply in the use of a single chip of greater value.)
- If you put a single chip in the pot that is larger than the
bet, but do not announce a raise, you are assumed to have only
called. Example: In a $3-$6 game, when a player bets $6 and the
next player puts a $25 chip in the pot without saying anything,
that player has merely called the $6 bet.
- All wagers and calls of an improperly low amount must be brought
up to proper size if the error is discovered before the betting
round has been completed. This includes actions such as betting
a lower amount than the minimum bring-in (other than going all-in)
and betting the lower limit on an upper limit betting round. If
a wager is supposed to be made in a rounded off amount, is not,
and must be corrected, it shall be changed to the proper amount
nearest in size. No one who has acted may change a call to a raise
because the wager size has been changed.
THE SHOWDOWN
- A player must show all cards in the hand face-up on the table
to win any part of the pot.
- Cards speak (cards read for themselves). The dealer assists
in reading hands, but players are responsible for holding onto
their cards until the winner is declared. Although verbal declarations
as to the contents of a hand are not binding, deliberately miscalling
a hand with the intent of causing another player to discard a
winning hand is unethical and may result in forfeiture of the
pot. (For more information on miscalling a hand see "Section
11 - Lowball," Rule 15 and Rule 16.)
- Any player, dealer, or floorperson who sees an incorrect amount
of chips put into the pot, or an error about to be made in awarding
a pot, has an ethical obligation to point out the error. Please
help us keep mistakes of this nature to a minimum.
- All losing hands will be killed by the dealer before a pot is
awarded.
- Any player who has been dealt in may request to see any hand
that has been called, even if the opponent's hand or the winning
hand has been mucked.
However, this is a privilege that may be revoked if abused. If
a player other than the pot winner asks to see a hand that has
been folded, that hand is dead. If the winning player asks to
see a losing player's hand, both hands are live, and the best
hand wins.
- If you show cards to another player during or after a deal,
any player at the table has the right to see those exposed cards.
Cards shown during a deal to a player not in the pot should only
be shown to all players when the deal is finished.
- If everyone checks (or is all-in) on the final betting round,
the player who acted first is the first to show the hand. If there
is wagering on the final betting round, the last player to take
aggressive action by a bet or raise is the first to show the hand.
In order to speed up the game, a player holding a probable winner
is encouraged to show the hand without delay. If there is a side
pot, players involved in the side pot should show their hands
before anyone all-in for only the main pot.
TIES
- The ranking of suits from highest to lowest is spades, hearts,
diamonds, clubs. Suits never break a tie for winning a pot. Suits
are used to break a tie between cards of the same rank (no re-deal
or redraw).
- Dealing a card to each player is used to determine things like
who moves to another table. If the cards are dealt, the order
is clockwise starting with the first player on the dealer's left
(the button position is irrelevant). Drawing a card is used to
determine things like who gets the button in a new game, or seating
order coming from a broken game.
- An odd chip will be broken down to the smallest unit used in
the game.
- No player may receive more than one odd chip.
- If two or more hands tie, an odd chip will be awarded as follows:
(a) In a button game, the first hand clockwise from the button
gets the odd chip.
(b) In a stud game, the odd chip will be given to the highest
card by suit in all high games, and to the lowest card by suit
in all low games. (When making this determination, all cards are
used, not just the five cards that constitute the player's hand.)
(c) In high-low split games, the high hand receives the odd chip
in a split between the high and the low hands. The odd chip between
tied high hands is awarded as in a high game of that poker form,
and the odd chip between tied low hands is awarded as in a low
game of that poker form.
(d) All side pots and the main pot will be split as separate pots,
not mixed together.
These are some of the basic rules of poker that you need; use them
wisely, and try to have fun! PS - some info courtesy of the PlayWinningPoker
web site.
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