Poker is a player versus player game and the house does not wager against its players (unlike blackjack or roulette) so this fee is the principal mechanism to generate revenues.

It is primarily levied by an establishment which supplies the necessary services for the game to take place. In online poker it covers the various costs of operation such as support, software and personnel. In traditional brick and mortar casinos it is also used to cover the costs involved with providing a dealer (though in many places tips provide the bulk of a dealer’s income) for the game, support staff (from servers to supervisors), use of gaming equipment, and the physical building in which the game takes place.
To win when playing in poker games where the house takes a cut, a player must not only beat opponents, but also the financial drain of the rake.

Online casinos most often employ a Pot Rake, where a percentage rake is taken directly from the pot. Some software shows the rake amount next to a graphical representation of the dealer and takes it incrementally between the rounds of betting, whereas other software programs wait until the entire hand is over and then takes it from the pot total before giving the rest to the winner of the hand.

Contrast this to a ring game, where the game is ongoing with no formal structure to determine a single winner in a certain length of time.

Buy-ins and prizes

To enter a typical tournament, a player pays a fixed buy-in and at the start of play is given a certain quantity of tournament poker chips. Commercial venues may also charge a separate fee, or withhold a small portion of the buy-in, as the cost of running the event. Tournament chips have only notional value; they have no cash value, and only the tournament chips, not cash, may be used during play. Typically, the amount of each entrant’s starting tournament chips is an integer multiple of the buy-in. Some tournaments offer the option of a re-buy or buy-back; this gives players the option of purchasing more chips. In some cases, re-buys are conditional (for example, offered only to players low on or out of chips) but in others they are available to all players (called add-ons). When a player has no chips remaining (and has exhausted or declined all re-buy options, if any are available) he or she is eliminated from the tournament.

In most tournaments, the number of players at each table is kept even by moving players, either by switching one player or (as the field shrinks) taking an entire table out of play and distributing its players amongst the remaining tables. A few tournaments, called shoot-outs, do not do this; instead, the last player (sometimes the last two or more players) at a table moves on to a second or third round, akin to a single-elimination tournament found in other games.

The prizes for winning are usually derived from the buy-ins, though outside funds may be entered as well. For example, some invitational tournaments do not have buy-ins and fund their prize pools with sponsorship revenue and/or gate receipts from spectators. (These tournaments are referred to as freerolls.) Play continues, in most tournaments, until all but one player is eliminated, though in some tournament situations, especially informal ones, players have the option of ending by consensus.

Players are ranked in reverse chronological order — the last person in the game earns 1st place, the second-to-last earns 2nd, and so on. This ranking of players by elimination is unique amongst games, and also precludes the possibility of a tie for first place, since one player alone must have all the chips to end the tournament. (Ties are possible for all other places, though they are rare since the sole tiebreaker is the number of chips one has at the start of the hand in which one is eliminated, and hence two people would need to start a hand with the exact same number of chips and both be eliminated on that same hand in order to tie each other.)

Sometimes tournaments end by mutual consensus of the remaining players. For example, in a ten-person, $5 game, there may be two players remaining with $29 and $21, respectively, worth of chips. Rather than risk losing their winning, as one of them would if the game were continued, these two players may be allowed to split the prize proportional to their in-game currency (or however they agree).

Prizes are awarded to the winning players in one of two ways:

• Fixed: Each placing corresponds to a certain payoff. For example, a ten-person, $20 buy-in tournament might award $100 to the first-place player, $60 for second-place, $40 for third, and nothing for lower places.
• Proportional: Payouts are determined according to a percentage-based scale. The percentages are determined based upon the number of participants and will increase payout positions as participation increases. As a rule, roughly one player in ten will ‘cash’, or make a high enough place to earn money. These scales are very top-heavy, with the top three players usually winning more than the rest of the paid players combined.

Tournaments can be open or invitational. The World Series of Poker, whose Main Event (a $10,000 buy-in no limit Texas Hold ‘Em tournament) is considered the most prestigious of all poker tournaments, is open.

Multi-table tournaments involve many players playing simultaneously at dozens or even hundreds of tables. Satellite tournaments to high-profile, expensive poker tournaments are the means of entering a major event without posting a significant sum of cash. These have significantly smaller buy-ins, usually on the order of one-tenth to one-fiftieth the main tournament’s buy-in, and can be held at various venues across the country and, more recently, on the Internet. Top players in this event, in lieu of a cash prize, are awarded seats to the main tourney, with the number of places dependent on participation. Chris Moneymaker, who won the 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event, was able to afford his seat by winning an Internet tournament with a $39 buy-in. Greg Raymer, 2004 World Series of Poker champion, acquired his seat via a $165 Internet tournament.

The opposite of a multi-table tournament is a single-table tournament, often abbreviated STT. A number of places (typically, nine or ten) are allocated at a single table, and as soon as the required number of players has appeared, chips are distributed and the game starts. This method of starting single-table tournaments has caused them to be referred to as sit-and-go (SNG) tournaments, because when the required number of players “sit,” the tournament “goes.” Sit-and-go tournaments of more than one table are becoming more common, however, especially in Internet poker. A single-table tournament effectively behaves the same as the final table of a multi-table tournament, except that the players all begin with the same number of chips, and the betting structure starts much lower than would likely be the case at a MTT final table. Almost invariably, fixed payoffs are used.

Betting format

Betting, in tournaments, can take one of three forms:

• In a structured (fixed limit) betting system, bets and raises are restricted to specific amounts, though these amounts typically increase throughout the tournament. For example, for a seven-card stud tournament with the stakes at 10/20, raises would be $10 in the first three rounds of betting, and $20 in the latter rounds.
• Semi-structured betting provides ranges for allowed raises. Usually, in this format, one may not raise less than a previous player has raised. For example, if one player raises $20, it would be illegal for another player to raise an additional $5. Pot limit is a semi-structured format in which raises cannot exceed the current size of the pot. Spread limit is a semi-structured format in which bets (and subsequent raises) must be between a minimum and maximum amount.
• Unstructured betting, usually called no limit. While blinds, antes, or bring-ins are fixed, players are free to bet as much as they wish, even early in a round of betting. To bet all of one’s chips (risking one’s tournament life, in the event of losing the hand) is to go all-in. In no-limit tournaments, players will sometimes take this risk even early in the betting; for example, in some no-limit Texas Hold ‘Em tournaments, it is not uncommon for players to bet “all-in” before the flop.

The betting structure is one of the most defining elements of the game; even if other aspects are equivalent, a fixed-limit version and its no-limit counterpart are considered to be very different games, because the strategies and play styles are very different. For instance, it is much easier to bluff in a no-limit game, which allows aggressive betting, than in a fixed-limit game. No-limit games also vary widely according to the proclivities of the players; an informal, emergent, betting structure is developed by the players’ personal strategies and personalities.

The stakes of each round, as well as blinds, bring-ins, and antes as appropriate per game, typically escalate according either to the time elapsed or the number of hands played.

To win any part of a pot, a player must show all of his cards faceup on the table, whether they were used in the final hand played or not. Cards speak for themselves: the actual value of a player’s hand prevails in the event a player mis-states the value of his hand.

Because exposing a losing hand gives information to an opponent, players may be reluctant to expose their hands until after their opponents have done so and will muck their losing hands without exposing them. Robert’s Rules of Poker state that the last player to take aggressive action by a bet or raise is the first to show the hand, otherwise the first player to the left of the dealer button is the first to show the hand. If there is a side pot, players involved in the side pot should show their hands before anyone who is all-in for only the main pot. To speed up the game, a player holding a probable winner is encouraged to show the hand without delay. Any player who has been dealt in may request to see any hand that is eligible to participate in the showdown, even if the hand has been mucked. This option is generally only used when a player suspects collusion or some other sort of cheating by other players. When the privilege is abused by a player (i.e. the player does not suspect cheating, but asks to see the cards just to get insight on another player’s style or betting patterns), he may be warned by the dealer, or even removed from the table.

There has been a recent trend in public cardroom rules to limit the ability of players to request to see mucked losing hands at the showdown. Specifically, some cardrooms only grant the right to view a mucked losing hand if the requesting player articulates a concern about possible collusion. Under such rules, players do not have an inherent right to view mucked hands.

Because the act of folding a losing hand rather than showing it down is so common, some players can take advantage of others who do this with a rare play called a call-bluff. For example, if you know that a player always folds rather than showing his hand if he was bluffing, you might call his last bet even with a hand inferior to the one you suspect him of bluffing with, expecting that he will simply fold before he sees that you don’t actually have him beat.

Pure bluff

A pure bluff, or stone-cold bluff, is a bet or raise with an inferior hand that has little or no chance of improving. A player making a pure bluff believes he can win the pot only if all opponents fold. The pot odds for a bluff are the ratio of the size of the bluff to the pot. A pure bluff has a positive expectation (will be profitable in the long run) when the probability of being called by an opponent is lower than the pot odds for the bluff.

For example, suppose that after all the cards are out, a player holding a busted drawing hand decides that the only way to win the pot is to make a pure bluff. If the player bets the size of the pot on a pure bluff, the bluff will have a positive expectation if the probability of being called is less than 50%. Note, however, that the opponent may also consider the pot odds when deciding whether to call. In this example, the opponent will be facing 2-to-1 pot odds for the call. The opponent will have a positive expectation for calling the bluff if the opponent believes the probability the player is bluffing is at least 33%.

Semi-bluff

In games with multiple betting rounds, to bluff on one round with an inferior or drawing hand that might improve in a later round is called a semi-bluff. A player making a semi-bluff can win the pot two different ways: by all opponents folding immediately or by catching a card to improve the player’s hand. In some cases a player may be on a draw but with odds strong enough that he is favored to win the hand. In this case his bet is not classified as a semi-bluff even though his bet may force opponents to fold hands with better current strength.

For example, a player in a stud poker game with four spade-suited cards showing (but none among their downcards) on the penultimate round might raise, hoping that his opponents believe he already has a flush. If his bluff fails and he is called, he still might be dealt a spade on the final card and win the showdown (or he might be dealt another non-spade and try his bluff again, in which case it is a pure bluff on the final round rather than a semi-bluff).

Bluffing circumstances

Bluffing may be more effective in some circumstances than others. Bluffs have a higher expectation when the probability of being called decreases. Several game circumstances may decrease the probability of being called (and increase the profitability of the bluff):

• Fewer opponents who must fold to the bluff.
• The bluff provides less favorable pot odds to opponents for a call.
• A scare card comes that increases the number of superior hands that the player may be perceived to have.
• The player’s betting pattern in the hand has been consistent with the superior hand they are representing with the bluff.
• The opponent’s betting pattern suggests the opponent may have a marginal hand that is vulnerable to a greater number of potential superior hands.
• The opponent’s betting pattern suggests the opponent may have a drawing hand and the bluff provides unfavorable pot odds to the opponent for chasing the draw.
• Opponents are not irrationally committed to the pot (see sunk cost fallacy).
• Opponents are sufficiently skilled and paying sufficient attention.

Optimal bluffing frequency

If a player bluffs too infrequently, observant opponents will recognize that the player is betting for value and will call with very strong hands or with drawing hands only when they are receiving favorable pot odds. If a player bluffs too frequently, observant opponents snap off his bluffs by calling or re-raising. Occasional bluffing disguises not just the hands a player is bluffing with, but also his legitimate hands that opponents may think he may be bluffing with. David Sklansky, in his book The Theory of Poker, states “Mathematically, the optimal bluffing strategy is to bluff in such a way that the chances against your bluffing are identical to the pot odds your opponent is getting.”

Optimal bluffing also requires that the bluffs must be performed in such a manner that opponents cannot tell when a player is bluffing or not. To prevent bluffs from occurring in a predictable pattern, game theory suggests the use of a randomizing agent to determine whether to bluff. For example, a player might use the colors of his hidden cards, the second hand on his watch, or some other unpredictable mechanism to determine whether to bluff.

All such games have a minimum bet as well as the stated maximums, and also commonly a betting unit, which is the smallest denomination in which bets can be made. For example, it is common for games with $20 and $40 betting limits to have a minimum betting unit of $5, so that all bets must be in multiples of $5, to simplify game play. It is also common for some games to have a bring-in that is less than the minimum for other bets. In this case, players may either call the bring-in, or raise to the full amount of a normal bet, called completing the bet.

Fixed limit

In a game played with a fixed-limit betting structure, a player chooses only whether to bet or not – the amount is fixed by rule. To enable the possibility of bluffing, the fixed amount generally doubles at some point in the game. This double wager amount is referred to as a big bet.

For example, a four-round game called “20 and 40 limit” (usually written as $20/$40) may specify that each bet in the first two rounds is $20, and that each big bet used in the third and fourth rounds is $40. This amount applies to each raise, not the total amount bet in a round, so a player may bet $20, be raised $20, and then re-raise another $20, for a total bet of $60, in such a game.

Maximum number of raises

Most fixed-limit games will not allow more than a predefined number of raises in a betting round. The maximum number of raises depends on the casino house rules, and is usually posted conspicuously in the card room. Typically, an initial bet plus either three or four raises are allowed.

Consider this example in a $20/$40 game, with a posted limit of a bet and three raises. During a $20 round with three players, play could proceed as follows:

• Player A bets $20.
• Player B puts in another bet, raises another $20, making it $40 to play.
• Player C puts in a third bet, raising another $20 on that, thus making it $60 to play.
• Player A puts in the fourth bet (she is usually said to cap the betting).

Once Player A has made her final bet, Players B and C may only call another two and one bets (respectively); they may not raise again because the betting is capped.

A common exception in this rule practiced in some card rooms is to allow unlimited raising when a pot is played heads up (when only two players are in the hand at the start of the betting round). Usually, this has occurred because all other players have folded, and only two remain. Many card rooms will permit these two players to continue re-raising each other until one player is all in.

Kill game

Sometimes a fixed-limit game is played as a kill game. In such a game, a kill hand is triggered when a player wins a pot over a certain predetermined amount, or when the player wins a certain number of consecutive hands. The player triggering the kill must post a kill blind, generally either 1.5 times (a half kill) or double (a full kill) the amount of the big blind. In addition, the betting limits for the kill hand are multiplied by 1.5 or doubled, respectively.

The term kill, when used in this context, should not be confused with killing a hand, which is a term used for a hand that was made a dead hand by action of a game official.

Spread limit

A game played with a spread-limit betting structure allows a player to raise any amount within a specified range.

For example, a game called “one to five limit” allows each bet to be anywhere from $1 to $5 (subject to other betting rules). These limits are typically larger in later rounds of multi-round games. For example, a game might be “one to five, ten on the end”, meaning that early betting rounds allow bets of $1 to $5, and the last betting round allows bets of $1 to $10.

Playing spread-limit requires some care to avoid giving easy tells with one’s choice of bets. Beginners frequently give themselves away by betting high with strong hands and low with weak ones, for instance. It is also harder to force other players out with big bets.

There is a variation of this known as “California Spread,” where the range is much higher, such as 3-100 or 10-1000. The maximum buy-in is the size of the limit, so a 3-100 game would have a $100 maximum buy-in. This effectively makes the first hand no limit. California Spread, as the name implies, is played in California where local laws forbid no limit.

Pot limit

A game played with a pot-limit betting structure allows any player to raise up to an amount equal to the size of the whole pot before the raise.

For example, let us assume that there is $10 in the pot at the start of a betting round. The first player may open the betting for up to $10. If he does in fact open for $10, the next player may raise to $40 (after calling the $10 bet, the total amount of the pot is $30, so he may raise $30). The third player would be entitled to raise to $140 (after calling $40, the pot would contain $100, thus he may raise $100). Any player may also raise less than the maximum so long as the amount of the raise is equal to or greater than any previous bet or raise in the same betting round.

Some pot-limit games make exceptions to the method described above when calculating the maximum raise in the betting round before the flop:

• Some structures treat the small blind as if it were the same size of the big blind in computing pot size. In such a structure, a player can open for a maximum of four times the size of the big blind. For example, if the blinds are $5 and $10, a player may open with a raise to $40. (The range of options is to either open with a call of $10, or raise in increments of five dollars to any amount from $20 to $40.) Subsequent players also treat the $5 as if it were $10 in computing the pot size, until the big blind is through acting on the first betting round.

• If the action folds all the way around to the small blind, the maximum amount the small blind can raise is also not universally agreed upon. Some games treat the big blind as a “raise” of the small blind for the purpose of calculating the maximum raise—the small blind is allowed to call the big blind, and then make a pot sized raise of twice the big blind, for a total bet of three times the big blind. Other games treat the blinds as dead money for the purpose of calculating the raise, and allow the small blind to make the same size raise as any other player, i.e. a total bet of three times the big blind plus the small blind.

Because of the disparity in methods of calculation, and the fact that the issue is certain to come up often, most major tournaments will announce the amount of the maximum opening raise to all players any time the betting limits are increased.

No limit

A game played with a no-limit betting structure allows each player to raise the bet by any amount up to and including his entire remaining stake at any time (subject to the table stakes rules and any other rules about raising). There is generally a minimum opening bet, and raises usually must be at least the amount of the previous raise.

Ante

An ante is a forced bet in which each player places an equal amount of money or chips into the pot before the deal begins. Often this is either a single unit (a one-value or the smallest value in play) or some other small amount; a proportion such as half or one-quarter of the minimum bet is also common. An ante paid by each player ensures that a player who folds every round will lose money (though slowly), thus providing each player with an incentive, however small, to play the hand rather than toss it in when the opening bet reaches them.

Antes are the most common forced bet in draw poker and stud poker, and are uncommon in games featuring blind bets (see next section). However, some tournament formats of games featuring blinds will impose an ante to discourage extremely tight play. Without the ante in such games, a player who has not paid a blind can toss in his hand at no cost to him; the ante ensures that doing so too often is a losing proposition. With antes, more players stay in the hand, which increases pot size and makes for more interesting play (important in a televised tournament final).

In games where the acting dealer changes each turn, it is not uncommon for the players to agree that the dealer (or some other position relative to the button) provides the ante for each player. This simplifies betting, but causes minor inequities if other players come and go or miss their turn to deal. During such times, the player can be given a special button indicating the need to pay an ante to the pot (known as “posting”; see below) upon their return.

Blinds

A blind or blind bet is a forced bet placed into the pot by one or more players before the deal begins, in a way that simulates bets made during play. The most common use of blinds as a betting structure calls for two blinds: the player after the dealer blinds about half of what would be a normal bet, and the next player blinds what would be a whole bet. This two-blind structure, sometimes with antes, is the dominating structure of play for community card poker games such as Texas hold-em. Sometimes only one blind is used (often informally as a “price of winning” the previous hand), and sometimes three are used (this is sometimes seen in Omaha). In the case of three blinds (usually one quarter, one quarter, and half a normal bet amount), the first blind goes “on the button”, that is, is paid by the dealer.

For example, in a $2–4 limit game, the first player to the dealer’s left (who, if not for the blinds, would be the first to act) posts a small blind of $1, and the next player in turn posts a big blind of $2. After the cards are dealt, play begins with the next player in turn (third from the dealer), who must either call $2, raise, or fold. When the betting returns to the player who blinded $1, he must equal the bet facing him (toward which he may count his $1), raise, or fold. If there have been no raises when action first gets to the big blind (that is, the bet amount facing him is just the amount of the big blind he posted), the big blind has the ability to raise or check. This right to raise (called the option) occurs only once: if his raise is now called by every player, the first betting round closes as usual.

Similarly to a missed ante, a missed blind due to the player’s temporary absence (i.e. for drinks or a restroom break) can be denoted by use of a special button. Upon the player’s return, they must pay the applicable blind to the pot for the next hand they will participate in. Note that this is for temporary absences only; if a player leaves the table permanently, special rules govern the assigning of blinds and button (see next subsection).

In some fixed-limit and spread-limit games, especially if three blinds are used, the big blind amount may be less than the normal betting minimum. Players acting after a sub-minimum blind have the right to call the blind as it is, even though it is less than the amount they would be required to bet, or they may raise the amount needed to bring the current bet up to the normal minimum, called completing the bet. For example, a limit game with a $5 minimum bet on the first round might have blinds of $1 and $2. Players acting after the blind may either call the $2, or raise to $5. After the bet is raised to $5, the next raise must be to $10 in accordance with the normal limits.

When a player in the blinds leaves the game

When one or more players pays the small or big blinds for a hand, then after that hand permanently leaves the game (by “busting out” in a tournament or simply calling it a night at a public cardroom), an adjustment is required in the positioning of the blinds and the button. There are three common rule sets to determine this:

• Simplified – The dealer button moves to the next active player on the left, and the small and big blinds are paid by the first and second players remaining to the left. This is the easiest to track and always rotates the button, but results in “missed blinds”. For instance, a player “under the gun” when the player in the big blind busts out ends up paying the small blind; he has “missed” the big blind he would have paid had the leaving player remained in the game. Similarly, a player in the small blind who busts out means the player in the big blind gets the button, missing the small blind.
  • In the special case of three players in a tournament being reduced to the two-player showdown, any leftover blinds from other rules are “written off” and the Simplified method is used, with the player “on the button” paying the small blind.
• Moving button – As in Simplified, the button moves to the left to the next active player, and the blinds move to the next two active players. However, any “missed blinds” are paid by the player whom they skipped as if they were due for the upcoming hand, with one blind paid per player, per hand, biggest blind first. Any blind a player misses on a given hand because a bigger blind was due will be paid by the player in the following hand. This is the most complex ruleset to implement, especially if multiple players leave, but it is the fairest method overall in terms of paying all due blinds and rotating last action.
• Dead button – Spots vacated by leaving players who would pay a blind or get the button during the next hand remain open for the purposes of shifting blinds and button. Thus, one or both of the blinds may not be paid in subsequent hands and are considered “dead”. When the dealer button moves to an empty seat, it also is considered “dead”, and the last active player before the empty seat retains the “privilege of last action” by default. While simple in tournament formats and the most equitable in terms of paying blinds as due and when normally expected, it can result in inequitable strategic situations regarding last action, and becomes harder to track if the table is “open” (players can come and go) as in a casino.

In tournaments, the dead button and moving button rules are common (replacement players are generally not a part of tournaments). Online cash games generally use the simplified moving button as other methods are more difficult to codify and can be abused by players constantly entering and leaving.

Casino card rooms where players can come and go can use any of the three rulesets, though moving button is most common. When a player immediately takes the place of a player who leaves, the player may have the option to either pay the blinds in the leaving player’s stead, in which case play continues as if the player never left, or to “sit out” until the button has moved past him, and thus the chair is effectively empty for purposes of the blinds. Many card rooms do not allow new players to sit out as it is highly advantageous for the new player, both to watch one or more hands without obligation to play, and to enter the game in a very “late” position (on their first hand they see all other player’s actions except the dealer’s). For these reasons, new players must often post a “live” big blind to enter regardless of their position at the table. Other variations on these rules exist.

When there are only two players

The normal rules for positioning the blinds do not apply when there are only two players at the table. The player on the button is always due the small blind, and the other player must pay the big blind. The player on the button is therefore the first to act before the flop, but last to act for all remaining betting rounds.

A special rule is also applied for placement of the button whenever the size of the table shrinks to two players. If three or more players are involved in a hand, and at the conclusion of the hand one or more players have busted out such that only two players remain for the next hand, the position of the button may need to be adjusted to begin heads-up play. The big blind always continues moving to the left, and then the button is positioned accordingly.

For example, in a three-handed game, Alice is the button, Bob is the small blind, and Carol is the big blind. If Alice busts out, the next hand Bob will be the big blind, and the button will skip past Bob and move to Carol. On the other hand, if Carol busts out, Alice will be the big blind, Bob will get the button and will have to pay the small blind for the second hand in a row.

Kill Blind

A kill blind is a special blind bet made by a player who triggers the kill in a kill game (see below). It is often twice the amount of the big blind or minimum bet (known as a full kill), but can be 1.5 times the big blind (a half-kill) or any other amount according to house rules. This blind is “live”; the player posting it normally acts last in the opening round (after the other blinds, regardless of relative position at the table), and other players must call the amount of the kill blind to play. As any player can trigger a kill, there is the possibility that the player must post a kill blind when he is already due to pay one of the other blinds. Rules vary on how this is handled. See kill game for more information.

Bring-in

A bring-in is a type of forced bet that occurs after the cards are initially dealt, but before any other action. One player, usually chosen by the value of cards dealt face up on the initial deal, is forced to open the betting by some small amount, after which players act after him in normal rotation. Because of this random first action, bring-ins are usually used in games with an ante instead of structured blind bets.

The bring-in is normally assigned on the first betting round of a stud poker game to the player whose upcards indicate the poorest hand. For example, in traditional high hand stud games and high-low split games, the player showing the lowest card pays the bring-in. In low hand games, the player with the highest card showing pays the bring-in. The high card by suit order can be used to break ties, but more often the person closest to the dealer in order of rotation pays the bring-in.

In most fixed-limit and some spread-limit games, the bring-in amount is less than the normal betting minimum (often half of this minimum). The player forced to pay the bring-in may choose either to pay only what is required (in which case it functions similarly to a small blind) or to make a normal bet. Players acting after a sub-minimum bring-in have the right to call the bring-in as it is, even though it is less than the amount they would be required to bet, or they may raise the amount needed to bring the current bet up to the normal minimum, called completing the bet. For example, a game with a $5 fixed bet on the first round might have a bring-in of $2. Players acting after the bring-in can either call the $2, or raise to $5. After the bet is raised to $5, the next raise must be to $10 in accordance with the normal limits.

In a game where the bring-in is equal to the fixed bet (this is rare and not recommended), the game must either allow the bring-in player to optionally come in for a raise, or else the bring-in must be treated as live in the same way as a blind, so that the player is guaranteed his right to raise on the first betting round (the “option”) if all other players call.

Post

Some cash games, especially with blinds, require a new player to post when joining a game already in progress. Posting in this context means putting an amount equal to the big blind or the minimum bet into the pot before the deal. The post is a “live” bet, meaning that the amount can be applied towards a call or raise when it is the player’s turn to act.

A player who is away from his seat and misses one or more blinds is also required to post to reenter the game. In this case, the amount to be posted is the amount of the big or small blind, or both, at the time the player missed them. If both must be posted immediately upon return, the big blind amount is “live”, but the small blind amount is “dead”, meaning that it cannot be considered in determining a call or raise amount by that player. Some house rules allow posting one blind per hand, largest first, meaning all posts of missed blinds are live.

Posting is usually not required if the player who would otherwise post happens to be in the big blind. This is because the advantage that would otherwise be gained by missing the blind, that of playing several hands before having to pay blinds, is not the case in this situation. It is therefore common for a new player to lock up a seat and then wait several hands before joining a table, or for a returning player to sit out several hands until the big blind comes back around, so that he may enter in the big blind and avoid paying the post. For this same reason, only one set of missed blinds can be accumulated by the player; old missed blinds are removed when the big blind returns to that player’s seat because the player was never in any position to gain from missing the blinds.

When participating in the hand, a player is expected to keep track of the betting action. Losing track of the amount needed to call, called the bet to the player, happens occasionally, but multiple occurrences of this slow the game down and so it is discouraged. The dealer may be given the responsibility of tracking the current bet amount, from which each player has only to subtract his contribution, if any, thus far.

To aid players in tracking bets, and to ensure all players have bet the correct amount, players stack the amount they have bet in the current round in front of them. When the betting round is over (a common phrase is “the pot’s good”), the players will push their stacks into the pot or the dealer will gather them into the pot. Tossing chips directly into the pot (known as splashing the pot), though popular in film and television depictions of the game, causes confusion over the amount of a raise and can be used to hide the true amount of a bet. Likewise, string raises, or the act of raising by first placing chips to call and then adding chips to raise, causes confusion over the amount bet. Both actions are generally prohibited at casinos and discouraged at least in other cash games.

Acting out of turn

Most actions (calls, raises or folds) occurring out-of-turn – when players to the right of the player acting have not yet made decisions as to their own action – are considered improper, for several reasons. First, since actions by a player give information to other players, acting out of turn gives the person in turn information that he normally would not have, to the detriment of players who have already acted. In some games, even folding in turn when a player has the option to check (because there is no bet facing the player) is considered folding out of turn since it gives away information which, if the player checked, other players would not have.

For instance, say that with three players in a hand, Player A has a weak hand but decides to try a bluff with a large opening bet. Player C then folds out of turn while Player B is making up his mind. Player B now knows that if he folds, A will take the pot, and also knows that he cannot be re-raised if he calls. This may encourage Player B, if he has a good “drawing hand” (a hand currently worth nothing but with a good chance to improve substantially in subsequent rounds), to call the bet, to the disadvantage of Player A.

Second, calling or raising out of turn, in addition to the information it provides, assumes all players who would act before the out of turn player would not exceed the amount of the out-of-turn bet. This may not be the case, and would result in the player having to bet twice in order to cover preceding raises, causing confusion.

Cards

A player is never required to expose his concealed cards when folding or if all others have folded; this is only required at the showdown. A player may of course choose to show his hole cards in either circumstance, however, this tells other players whether or not the player was bluffing, and if other players are still in the game, it tells others that those cards are unavailable, which may confer an advantage to one or more players.

Many casinos and public cardrooms using a house dealer require players to protect their hands. This is done either by holding the cards or, if they are on the table, by placing a chip or other object on top. Unprotected hands in such situations are generally considered folded and are mucked by the dealer when action reaches the player. This can spark heated controversy, and is rarely done in private games.

The style of game generally determines whether players should hold face-down cards in their hands or leave them on the table. Holding “hole” cards allows players to view them more quickly and thus speeds up gameplay, but spectators watching over a player’s shoulder can communicate the strength of that hand to other players, even unintentionally. Unwary players can hold their hand such that a “rubbernecker” in an adjacent seat can sneak a peek at the cards. Lastly, given the correct light and angles, players wearing glasses can inadvertently show their opponents their hole cards through the reflection in their glasses. Thus for most poker variants involving a combination of faceup and facedown cards (most variants of stud and community are dealt in this manner), the standard method is to keep hole cards face-down on the table except when it is that player’s turn to act. 5 card draw is generally played with hands held by the players at all times.

Cash and Chips

Making change out of the pot is allowed in most games; to avoid confusion, the player should announce his intentions first. Then, if opening or cold calling, the player may exchange a large chip for its full equivalent value out of the pot before placing his bet, or if overcalling may place the chip (announcing that he is calling or raising a lesser amount) and remove the change from his own bet for the round.

Making change should, in general, be done between hands whenever possible, when a player sees he is running low on an oft-used value. The house dealer at casinos often maintains a bank and can make change for a large amount of chips, or in informal games players can make change with each other or with unused chips in the set. This prevents stoppages of play while a player figures change for a bet. Similarly, buying in for an additional amount should be done between hands once the player sees that he will be out of chips within a couple of hands (if buy-ins cannot be handled by the dealer it can take two or three hands for an attendant to bring another tray to the table).

Touching another player’s chips without permission is a serious breach of protocol and can result in the player being barred from the casino or even arrested.

Some informal games allow a bet to be made by placing the amount of cash on the table without converting it to chips, as this speeds up play. However, the cash can easily be “ratholed” (removed from play by simply pocketing it) which is normally disallowed, and in casinos leaving cash on a table is a security risk, so many games and virtually all casinos require a formal “buy-in” when a player wishes to increase his or her stake.

Players in home games typically have both cash and chips available; thus, if money for expenses other than bets is needed, such as food, drinks and fresh decks of cards, players typically pay out of pocket. In casinos and public cardrooms, however, the use of cash is restricted, so players often establish a small cache of chips called the “kitty”, used to pay for such things. Players contribute a chip of lowest value towards the kitty when they win a pot, and it pays for expenses other than bets such as “rent” (formally known as time fees), tipping the dealer when he leaves, buying fresh decks of cards (some public cardrooms include this cost in the “rake” or other fees, while others charge for decks), and similar costs.

Other rules

Public cardrooms have additional rules designed to speed up play, earn revenue for the casino (such as the “rake”), improve security and discourage cheating.

Players in a poker game act in turn, in clockwise rotation (acting out of turn can negatively affect other players). When it is a player’s turn to act, the first verbal declaration or action he takes binds him to his choice of action; this rule prevents a player from changing his action after seeing how other players react to his initial action.

Until the first bet is made each player in turn may “check,” which is to not place a bet, or “open,” which is to make the first bet. After the first bet each player may “fold,” which is to drop out of the hand losing any bets they have already made; “call,” which is to match the highest bet so far made; or “raise,” which is to increase the previous high bet.

A player may fold by surrendering his cards (some games may have specific rules regarding how to fold–for example, in stud poker one must turn one’s upcards face down). A player may check by tapping the table or making any similar motion. All other bets are made by placing chips in front of the player, but not directly into the pot (“splashing the pot” prevents other players from verifying the bet amount).

Open

The act of making the first voluntary bet in a betting round is called opening the round. On the first betting round, it is also called opening the pot, though in variants where blind bets are common, the blind bets “open” and other players call and/or raise the “big blind” bet. Some poker variations have special rules about opening a round that may not apply to other bets. For example, a game may have a betting structure that specifies different allowable amounts for opening than for other bets, or may require a player to hold certain cards (such as “Jacks or better”) to open.

Call

To call is to match a bet or a raise. A betting round ends when all active players have bet an equal amount or no opponents call a player’s bet or raise. If no opponents call a player’s bet or raise, the player wins the pot.

The second and subsequent calls of a particular bet amount are sometimes called overcalls. This term is also sometimes used to describe a call made by a player who has put money in the pot for this round already. A player calling a raise before he or she has invested money in the pot in that round is cold calling. For example, if in a betting round, Alice bets, Bob raises, and Carol calls, Carol “calls two bets cold”. A player calling instead of raising with a strong hand is smooth calling, a form of slow play.

Calling when a player thinks he does not have the best hand is called a crying call.

In public cardrooms and casinos where verbal declarations are binding, the word “call” is such a declaration. In public card rooms, the practice of saying “I call, and raise $100″ is considered a string raise and is not allowed. Saying “I call” commits the player to the action of calling, and only calling.

Note that the verb “see” can often be used instead of “call”: “Bob saw Carol’s bet”, although the latter can also be used with the bettor as the object: “I’ll see you” means ‘I will call your bet’. However, terms such as “overseeing” and “cold seeing” are not valid.

Check

If no one has yet opened the betting round, a player may pass or check, which is equivalent to calling the current bet of zero. When checking, a player declines to make a bet; this indicates that he does not wish to open, but does wish to keep his cards and retain the right to call or raise later in the same round if an opponent opens. In games played with blinds, players may not check on the opening round because the blinds are live bets and must be called or raised to remain in the hand. A player who has posted the big blind has the right to raise on the first round, called the option, if no other player has raised; if he declines to raise he is said to check his option. If all players check, the betting round is over with no additional money placed in the pot (often called a free round or free card). A common way to signify checking is to tap the table with a fist, knuckles or an open hand.

Raise

To raise is to increase the size of the bet required to stay in the pot, forcing all subsequent players to call the new amount. If the current bet amount is nothing, this action is considered the opening bet. A player making the second (not counting the open) or subsequent raise of a betting round is said to re-raise.

Standard poker rules require that raises must be at least equal to the amount of the previous bet or raise. For example, if an opponent bets $5, a player may raise by another $5 (or more), but he may not raise by only $2. The primary purpose of the minimum raise rule is to avoid game delays caused by “nuisance” raises (small raises of large bets, such as an extra $1 over a current bet of $50, that have little effect on the action but take time as all others must call). This rule is overridden by table stakes rules, so that a player may in fact raise a $5 bet by $2 if that $2 is his entire remaining stake.

In most casinos, fixed-limit and spread-limit games cap the total number of raises allowed in a single betting round (typically three or four, not including the opening bet of a round). For example in a casino with a three-raise rule, if one player opens the betting for $5, the next raises by $5 making it $10, a third player raises another $5, and a fourth player raises $5 again making the current bet $20, the betting is said to be capped at that point, and no further raises beyond the $20 level will be allowed on that round. It is common to suspend this rule when there are only two players betting in the round (called being heads-up), since either player can call the last raise if they wish. Pot-limit and no-limit games do not have a limit on the number of raises.

If, because of opening or raising, there is an amount bet that the player in-turn has not paid, the player must at least match that amount, or must fold; the player cannot pass or call a lesser amount.

Fold

To fold is to discard one’s hand and forfeit interest in the current pot. No further bets are required by the folding player, but the player cannot win. Folding may be indicated verbally or by discarding one’s hand face down into the pile of other discards called the muck, or into the pot (uncommon). For this reason it is also called mucking. In stud poker played in the United States, it is customary to signal folding by turning all of one’s cards face down. In casinos in the United Kingdom, a player folds by giving his hand as is to the “house” dealer, who will spread the hand’s upcards for the other players to see before mucking them.

While it is true that aggressive play is generally superior to passive play, using any play exclusively can lead to predictability, and being too predictable is far worse than being too passive. A player who is constantly aggressive and plays many inferior hands is called a “maniac”, and skilled players will take advantage of him by calling him more often, using isolation plays, and by other means.

If a player is not aggressive with his weaker hands, the opponents can safely fold whenever the player does bet or raise. The appropriate amount of aggression can be computed using game theory, and depends on the game being played and the tendencies of the opponents.

Most theorists, like David Sklansky and Doyle Brunson suggest aggression as an important tool. It is also worth noting that aggressive play should not be confused with loose play. Aggression is called for in particular circumstances. Very strong starting hands should be played very aggressively most of the time. A very strong propositional hand – one that is more likely to win with a straight or a flush – is one of the hands that can be played for effect with an aggressive style. Such aggression is deceptive, as the low and unpaired ranks of the starting hand require much improvement to win. This is beneficial for two reasons:

1. When the hand improves the preceding aggression has increased the size of the pot, meaning a larger win.
2. On future raises with more traditionally powerful hands, other players must consider the fact that the aggressor’s open or raise is indicative of a strong drawing hand as opposed to a high pair.

The second reasoning is what is known as “advertising” in poker. It can be very profitable for a player to convince the other players at the table that he is willing to gamble with less than premium cards. The result is larger pots when the aggressive player has tremendously strong hands.

One’s number of outs is often used to describe a drawing hand: “I had a two-outer” meaning you had a hand that only two cards in the deck could improve to a winner, for example. In Draw poker, one also hears the terms “12-way” or “16-way” straight draw for hands such as 6? 7? 8? (Joker), in which any of sixteen cards (4 fours, 4 fives, 4 nines, 4 tens) can fill a straight.

The number of outs can be converted to the probability of making the hand on the next card by dividing the number of outs by the number of unseen cards. For example, say a Texas Holdem player holds two spades, and two more appear in the flop. He has seen five cards (regardless of the number of players, as there are no upcards in Holdem except the board), of which four are spades. He thus has 9 outs for a flush out of 47 cards yet to be drawn, giving him a 9/47 chance to fill his flush on the turn. If he fails on the turn, he then has a 9/46 chance to fill on the river. Calculating the combined odds of filling on either the turn or river is more complicated: it is (1 – ((38/47) * (37/46))), or about 35%. A common approximation used is to double the number of outs and add one for the percentage to hit on the next card, or to multiply outs by four for the either-of-two case. This approximation is reasonably close only for small numbers of outs.

Note that the hidden cards of a player’s opponents may affect the calculation of outs. For example, assume that a Texas hold ‘em board looks like this after the third round: 5? K? 7? J?, and that a player is holding A? 10?. The player’s current hand is just a high ace, which is not likely to win unimproved, so the player has a drawing hand. He has a minimum of seven outs for certain, called nut outs, because they will make his hand the best possible: those are the 2?, 3?, 4?, 6?, 8?, 9?, and Q? (which will give him an ace-flush with no possible better hand on the board) and the Q? and Q?, which will give him an ace-high straight with no higher hand possible. The 5? and J? will also make him an ace-high flush, so those are possible outs since they give him a hand that is likely to win, but they also make it possible for an opponent to have a full house (if the opponent has something like K? K?, for example). Likewise, the Q? will fill his ace-high straight, but will also make it possible for an opponent to have a spade flush. It is possible that an opponent could have as little as something like 7? 9? (making a pair of sevens); in this case even catching any of the three remaining aces or tens will give the player a pair to beat the opponent’s, so those are even more potential outs. In sum, the player has seven guaranteed outs, and possibly as many as 18, depending on what cards he expects his opponents to have.