Except for the times when a bet is mandatory—as is usually the case in the initial round of play—the first player to act in a betting round has three options:
1. He can place a bet, which means he'll wager money and place it into the pot.
2. He can check or pass, which means he'll make no bet at all and will just pass play on to the next player, while still remaining an active player.
3. He can fold or go out, which means he'll throw away his cards and forfeit future play during the current deal.

Once a bet is placed, however, a player no longer has the option of checking his turn. To remain an active player, he must either call the bet or see the bet (place an amount of money into the pot equal to the bet) or raise or call and raise (call the bet and make an additional bet on top of the bet called). If a player doesn't want to bet, then he must fold and go out of play. Each succeeding player, in turn, is faced with the same options: calling, folding, or raising.

To continue playing for the pot, a player must call the original bet and any raises that were made. Aplayer may choose to fold his cards if he doesn't want to call the bets and raises that preceded him.

When play swings around again to the original bettor, he must call any previous raises to continue as an active player, as must any subsequent players who have raises due. A player who doesn't wish to call the raises must fold. (If the raise limit hasn't been reached, a player may also raise again.)

The number of raises permitted varies from game to game. Generally, though, casino games are limited to either three or five total raises in one round, except when just two players remain. This situation is called head to head play, when unlimited raising is allowed. Most private games allow unlimited raising at all times. A player may not, however, raise his own bet. He may raise only another player's bet or raise.

Play continues until the last bet or raise is called by all active players, and no more bets or raises are due from any player. The betting round is now completed and over. One important rule of poker etiquette is that players may check, bet, raise, or fold during their proper turns only. This rule must always be respected by all players.

Some games use a blind—a mandatory bet that is made by the first player to act in the opening round of play. This player, called the blind bettor, must make the blind bet regardless of the hand he or she holds. The blind is a forced bet, and it forces immediate action in a poker game. When there are two blinds, as is the case in many games, then the next player in turn will be forced to make a blind bet as well. These two bettors are known as the small blind and the big blind. The small blind, the first player to make the forced bet, is usually required to bet half the minimum bet, while the big blind is required to bet the full minimum. In a $5-$10 game, for example, the small blind would bet $5, and the big blind would bet $10.

Players cannot check after a blind bet is made. They must either call the blind, raise, or fold. Otherwise, play proceeds the same as it does in games which don't use a blind. The amount of a blind bet varies, but it is usually less than or equal to the minimum bet.

Check and raise, a player's raising of a bet afterpreviously checking in a round, is usually not allowed in private games, but many casino games permit it. If you're interested in this play, ask if check and raise is allowed before you sit down to play in a game.

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An ante, also known as a sweetener, is a uniform bet placed into the pot by players before the cards are dealt. The size of the ante is prearranged by the players, or in a casino is set by the house. All players are required to pay the ante.

The ante is used in a majority of private poker games and virtually all casino games. It's a way to "sweeten the pie" and create more action in the game. The ante creates an immediate pot, which sharp players, under the right circumstances, may go after right from the start. A player will bet forcefully in first round play hoping to force opposing players out of the pot. If he succeeds, he'll win the pot and the antes in it immediately, by process of elimination. This move is called stealing the ante.

THE PLAY OF THE GAME
After the dealer shuffles the cards and offers the cut, the deal is ready to begin. If the game requires an ante, the dealer may announce "ante-up," a call or all players to place their antes into the pot. The center of the table is used as the area for the pot, and that is where all antes and bets should be placed.

The dealer begins dealing to the player on his immediate left. He deals cards one at a time in a clockwise rotation, until each player has received the requisite number of cards for the poker variation being played. In casino games, where a rotating button is used to mark the dealer's position, the deal begins with the player to the left of the button. It continues around in the same fashion as in private games.

Like the dealing of the cards, play always proceeds in clockwise fashion. The first round begins with either the player sitting to the immediate left of the dealer, or, in some of the stud games, with either the high or low card opening play. Play continues around the table, until each player in turn has acted.

In later rounds, the first player to act will vary depending on the poker variation being played. In the stud games, the strongest ranking open cards will open betting. In the draw games, either the first active player to the left of the dealer will open betting, or the last player to have raised or opened in the previous round will initiate play.

We'll cover the particulars of play under the sections on the games themselves. You'll then see how the betting works for the different variations.

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The dealer is responsible for shuffling the cards after each round of play so that they are mixed well and in random order. The deck is then offered to a player, usually on the dealer's right, for the cut. This player initiates the cut by removing the top part of the deck and placing it to one side, face down. The dealer completes the cut by placing the former lower portion of the deck on top of the former upper section, thereby effecting the cut, and making the deck of cards whole again.

To be valid, a cut must go deeper than the top five cards of the deck and may not go further in than the last five. This rule helps prevent players who had inadvertently (or otherwise) seen the top or bottom cards from using the cut to undue advantage. A cut of any number of cards between these two extremes is valid and perfectly acceptable.
The game is ready to begin.

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Five-of-a-Kind
Royal Flush Straight
Flush
Four-of-a-Kind
Full House
Flush
Straight
Three-of-a-Kind
Two Pairs
One Pair
High Card

RANK OF HANDS: LOW POKER
In low poker, the ranking of hands is the opposite to that of high poker, with the lowest hand being the most powerful. The ace is considered the lowest and therefore most powerful card. The hand 5 4 3 2 A is the best low total possible. (See the section on Lowball for further discussion of low poker rankings.)

MONEY AND CHIPS
Chips are the standard and accepted currency for casino and private poker games, though cash is sometimes used as well. Players prefer the use of chips for betting purposes as the handling of money at the tables is cumbersome and can slow a game down. There's something impersonal and distant about chips, and using them removes players from the reality of losing actual money when they lose.

In casino poker, the standard denominations of chips are $1, $5, $25, and $100. In big money games, you can sometimes find $1,000 and $5000 chips. In games with 250 and 500 antes, regular quarters and half dollars are also used. Though some casinos use their own color code, the typical color scheme of poker chips is : $1 - blue, $5 - red, $25 - green, and $100 - black.

To receive chips in a casino game, give the dealer cash, and he'll give you back the equivalent value in chips. This exchange of cash for chips is called a buy-in. Dealers will accept only cash or chips, so if you have traveler's checks, credit cards, or other forms of money, you need to exchange these for cash at the area marked Casino Cashier. Then, with cash in hand, you can buy chips at the poker table.

In private games, players generally use chips, though sometimes the game will be cash only. When chips are used, one player acts as the bank or banker. He converts players' cash buy-ins to equivalent values in chips. The most common denominations of chips used in private games are one unit, five units, ten units, and twenty-five units. A unit can equal a penny, a dollar, or whatever value is agreed upon and set by the players.
One unit chips are generally white, five units are red, ten units are blue, and twenty-five units are yellow, though any equivalencies or colors may be used.

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A hand of A K Q J 10, all of the same suit, is called a royal flush. For example, A* K* Q* J* 10* is a
royal flush. The odds of being dealt a royal flush in a five-card poker game are 1 in 649,740.
The royal flush is the most powerful hand in poker, and a player may never see it in a lifetime of play. In the extremely unlikely event that two players hold royal flushes, the hand is a tie and the pot is split.

Royal Flush
A K Q J 10
A A A A A
A K Q J 10
STRAIGHT FLUSH

Five other cards of the same suit in numerical sequence, such as Q* J* 10 ♦ 9* 8*, is called a straight flush. That particular example is called a queen-high straight flush, since the queen is the highest ranking card. The straight flush is the second most powerful hand in poker.

Straight Flush
Q J 10 9 8
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Q J 10 9 8

When two straight flushes are in competition for the pot, the straight flush with the highest ranking card wins. Thus, for example, a queen-high straight flush beats out a 10-high straight flush. If two players hold equivalently ranked straight flushes, such as 9* 8+ 7* 6* 5+ and 9v 8v 7v 6v 5v, then the hand is a tie and the pot is split. Suits have no dominance over one another in poker.

The ace can be used as either the highest card in the straight flush (an ace-high hand being a royal flush) or the lowest card, as in A* 2 ♦ 3* 4* 5♦, to be valid. The hand of Q* K* A* 2* 3* is not a straight flush. It's simply a flush.

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oker is played with a standard 52-card deck containing four suits of thirteen cards each: clubs, diamonds, spades and hearts. The cards are valued in descending order, with the ace being the most powerful It's followed by the king, queen, jack, 10, 9, 8, and, finally, the deuce or 2, which is the lowest ranked card. The king, queen and the jack are known as picture cards or face cards.

The four suits in poker have no basic value in the determination of winning hands. As you shall see, it is not the value of the individual cards that reign supreme in poker, but the combination of cards which determine the value of a player's hand.

CARD ABBREVIATIONS
I will refer to the cards by the following commonly used symbols: ace (A), king (K), queen (Q), jack (J), and all others directly by their numerical value. Thus, the three will be indicated by (3), nine by (9), and the ten by (10).

RANK OF HANDS: HIGH POKER
Poker is generally played as high poker. Listed here are the relative rankings of hands in descending order, from best to worst. (Note that all poker hands eventually consist of five cards, regardless of the variation played.)

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The player's object in poker is to win the money in the pot—the accumulation of bets and antes gathered in the center of the table. You can win in two ways. The first way is to have the highest ranking hand at the showdown—the final act in poker, where all active players' hands are revealed to see who has the best one. The second way is to be the last one in when all other players have dropped out of play. In these instances, there is no showdown and the remaining player automatically wins the pot.

PARTICIPANTS
Poker can be played with as few as two players to as many as the 52-card deck can support, usually around eight or nine players. One version of poker, hold 'em, can theoretically support as many as twenty players, though games with more than eleven players are rarely seen in any poker variation.
In a private game, one of the players is designated as the dealer—the person who shuffles and deals the cards to the players. The dealer position changes with each hand, rotating around the table in a clock-wise direction, with each player having a chance to deal. The dealer is still an active player in a private game and enjoys no advantage other than any positional edge he may have for the particular game played.

In casino poker, the dealer is a house employee and non-player. In addition to shuffling and dealing the cards, the house dealer is responsible for supervising and generally running the game. He ensures that all betting is in order and that the proper procedures of play are followed.

In online casino variations where the dealer enjoys a positional advantage, such as hold 'em, lowball, Omaha, and draw poker, a button is utilized to designate the imaginary dealer's position. The button rotates around the table, one spot at a time, in clockwise fashion, so that, as in the private game, each player in turn has a chance to enjoy the advantages of acting last.
Each player in poker plays by himself and for himself alone against all other players. Collusion or partnership play are both illegal and are considered cheating.

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