Poker rules

The rules in poker are not all that advanced. There are some special rules that only are actual in some circumstances; otherwise, you will learn the main rules of the game pretty fast.

Besides, there are different poker games and the rules differ from a variation to another. But by learning the general rules, the transitions from one variation to another will not be that hard.

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Texas hold'em - poker rules

Texas hold'em is the most popular poker game today and the World Championship in poker is played upon this game. 

Shuffle up and deal
The rules of Texas Hold'em are not too hard to learn. The dealer shuffles a standard card deck including all 52 cards and when dealing two cards, the hole cards, to each player beginning with the player on his left. The amount of players at one table normally shifts between from 3 to 10.

The player that deal should have a “dealer button” in front of him. The dealer button will later move clockwise around the table as a new hand begin. 

Blinds
The next player after the dealer button place the small blind on the table and the player next to the small blind place the big blind on the table. The size of the blinds is optional, but the big blind should be twice as big as the small blind. If you're playing at a poker room online this will happen automatically.

In tournament play the blinds increase in time intervals that are decided before the game starts. 

1st betting round (pre flop)
After the cards has been dealt and the blinds has been placed the betting begins. In the first betting round, it's the player after the big blind that begin. He has three options: 1) fold, throwing away the cards and not showing them to the other players; 2) call, betting the size of the big blind; 3) raise, betting at least double as the big blind.

Besides this, there are some more options. The player with the big blind has already paid enough which give him the option to check on his turn, which means he's satisfied and don't want to bet. Notice that fold is a very bad option when you have the right to check.

The second extra possibility is the re-raise. As the word implies, this can only be done after a player has made a raise. The re-raise bet must be at least the size of the previous bet.

2nd betting round (the flop)
When all players are done with their actions in the 1st betting round, the dealer discards the top card from the deck and places the three next cards faced up on the table.

After this, the 2nd betting round begins, but this time the order has changed. It is now the player with the small blind that starts acting and then the rest of the players follows clockwise. This order will be used in the rest of the betting rounds. And now the players has the same options again: fold, check/call or raise/re-raise.

3rd and 4th betting rounds (the turn and the river)
In the next two rounds, the dealer again discards the top card and there after place one card faced up on the table. And the following betting round will proceed in the same way as the second.

Showdown
After all five cards is laying on the table and the bets has been made the players that are still in the hand reveal their cards. Now each player’s hole cards (one or two cards can be used) are combined with any three or four of the cards on the table and the player that makes the best poker hand including five cards wins the pot.

Poker Rules - Top15Poker features over 70 illustrated poker rules with links to the best sites to play each game online