Rules

For a tournament a dealer is selected by dealing one card to each player, the player with the biggest card or the 1st ace is deemed to be the dealer.

The next two players around from the dealer are the blinds the player on the dealers left will be the small blind and the player 2 to the dealers left is the big blind.

Blinds start low at the beginning of a tournament usually 25 and 50 then increase at regular intervals usually around 10 or 15 minutes but can be any amount of time as agreed by the players or the organizer.

The blinds and the dealer then rotate around the table in a clockwise manner one player at a time after each hand. So that all player get a turn in each position.

Once a dealer and blinds have been selected the dealer will deal 2 cards to each player face down one at a time.

A round of betting then takes place with players betting depending on the strength of their hand or they may bet intending to bluff, hoping that other players will fold.

One card is then tuned face down on the table this is the burn card. 3 cards are then dealt face up this is called the flop.

There is then another round of betting then another card is dealt face down. Then the next card is turned up this is the turn card. After another round of betting another burn card is dealt face down then the final card is dealt face up this is called the river card.

Then the final round of betting takes place. The player with the strongest hand is then declared the winner and collects the chips from the middle of the table this is called the pot.

In determining their strongest hand players may use any cards from the table and the cards in their hand to make up their strongest 5 card hand.

For example they could use one card from their hand and four cards from the table. They could use both their cards and three from the table or use all the cards on the table and none from their hand.

If any number of players has a hand of equal strength then the pot is shared equally. If there is a spare chip left over it goes to the player sitting closest to the dealer.

If any players discard their hand by throwing them in the middle of the table (the muck) even by mistake then those cards cannot be retrieved and the player is out of that hand.

When a hand is finished and players show their hands to determine the winner players must show both their cards. Failure to show both cards at the same time will result in the player losing the hand at most casinos.

Related topics: Poker Hands