1. When you enter a game, you must make a full buy-in for that particular game. A full buy-in at limit poker is at least 10 times th e maximum bet for the game being played, unless designated otherwise. A full buy-in at pot-limit or no-limit poker is 40 times the m inimum bring-in (usually, the size of the big blind), unless designated otherwise.
2. Only one short buy-in is allowed per session.
3. Adding to your stack is not considered a buy-in, and may be done in any quantity between hands.
1. In a player-dealt game, the pack must be shuffled and cut before the cards are dealt. The recommended method to protect the integ rity of the game is to have three people involved instead of only two. The dealer on the previous hand takes in the discards and squ ares up the deck prior to the shuffle. The player on the new dealer's left shuffles the cards and then slides the pack to the new de aler, who gets them cut by the player on his right.
2. The deck must be riffled a minimum of four times. The cut must leave a minimum of four cards in each portion.
3. The bottom of the deck should be protected so nobody can see the bottom card. This is done by using a cut-card. A joker can be us ed as a cut-card.
4. Any complaint about the shuffle, cut, or other preparation connected with dealing must be made before the player has looked at hi s hand or betting action has started.
1. The following circumstances cause a misdeal, provided attention is called to the error before two players have acted on their han ds. (If two players have acted in turn, the deal must be played to conclusion, as explained in rule #2)
2. Action is considered to occur in stud games when two players after the forced bet have acted on their hands. In button games, act ion 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 is played to conclusion and no money is returned to any player whose hand is fouled.
1. Your hand is declared dead if:
2. Cards thrown into the muck may be ruled dead. However, a hand that is clearly identifiable may be retrieved if doing so is in the best interest of the game. An extra effort should be made to rule a hand retrievable if it was folded as a result of false infor mation given to the player.
3. Cards thrown into another player's hand are dead, whether they are faceup or facedown.
1. In button games, if it is discovered that the button was placed incorrectly on the previous hand, the button and blinds are co rrected for the new hand in a manner that gives every player one chance for each position on the round (if possible).
2. You must protect your own hand at all times. Your cards can be protected with your hands, a chip, or other object placed on to p of them. If you fail to protect your hand, you have no redress if it becomes fouled or the dealer accidentally kills it.
3. 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 r espective bettors. If a card with a different color back is discovered in the stub, all action stands.
4. 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).
5. 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 t aking 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.
6. 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 s imilar reason, only a player dealt in on the previous deal is entitled to a hand.
7. A card discovered faceup in the deck (boxed card) is treated if it were 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 t o another player and mixed in with other downcards. In that case, the card that was faceup in the deck is replaced after all other c ards are dealt for that round.
8. A joker that appears in a game in which it is not used is treated as a scrap of paper. Discovery of a joker does not cause a m isdeal. 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 do es not call attention to the joker before acting, then the player has a dead hand.
9. If you play a hand without looking at all of your cards, you assume the liability of having an irregular card or an improper j oker.
10. One or more cards missing from the deck does not invalidate the results of a hand.
11. Before the first round of betting, if a dealer deals one additional card, it is returned to the deck and used as the burncard .
12. Procedure for an exposed card varies with the poker form, and is given in the section for each game. A card that is flashed b y a dealer is treated as an exposed card. A card that is flashed by a player plays. 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 downcard dealt off th e table is considered an exposed card.
13. If a card is exposed due to dealer error, a player does not have an option to take or reject the card. The situation is gover ned by the rules for the particular game being played.
14. If you drop any cards out of your hand onto the floor, you must still play them.
15. 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.
1. Check-raise is permitted in all games, except in certain forms of lowball.
2. In no-limit and pot-limit games, unlimited raising is allowed.
3. In limit poker, for a pot involving three or more players who are not all-in, there is a maximum of a bet and three raises all owed.
4. Unlimited raising for money games is allowed in heads-up play. This applies any time the action becomes heads-up before the ra ising has been capped. Once the raising is capped on a betting round, it cannot be uncapped by a subsequent fold that leaves two pla yers heads-up. For tournament play, the three raise maximum for limit poker applies when heads-up as well.
5. 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 can 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).
6. Any wager must be at least the size of the previous bet or raise in that round, unless a player is going all-in.
7. The smallest chip that can be wagered in a game is the smallest chip used in the antes or blinds. Smaller chips than this do n ot 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.
8. A verbal statement in turn denotes your action and is binding. If in turn you verbally declare a fold, check, bet, call, or ra ise, you are forced to take that action.
9. Rapping the table in turn with your hand is a pass.
10. Deliberately acting out of turn is not tolerated. A player who checks out of turn may not bet or raise on the next turn to ac t. An action or verbal declaration out of turn may be ruled binding if there is no bet, call, or raise by an intervening player acti ng after the infraction has been committed.
11. To retain the right to act, a player must stop the action by announcing ?time? (or an equivalent word). Failure to stop the act ion 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 s omeone whose turn comes before you, and three or more players act behind you, this still does not hinder your right to act.
12. 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.
13. In limit poker, if you make a forward motion into the pot area with chips and thus cause another player to act, you may be fo rced to complete your action.
14. 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 announ cing a raise, and the raise must be completed. (This does not apply in the use of a single chip of greater value.)
15. 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 ca lled. 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 p layer has merely called the $6 bet.
16. All wagers and calls of an improperly low amount must be brought up to proper size if the error is discovered before the bett ing round has been completed. This includes actions such as betting a lower amount than the minimum bring-in (other than going all-i n) 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, a nd must be corrected, it shall be changed to the proper amount nearest in size. No one who has acted can change a call to a raise be cause the wager size has been changed.
1. A player must show all cards in the hand face-up on the table to win any part of the pot.
2. Cards speak (cards read for themselves). The dealer assists in reading hands, but players are responsible for holding onto the ir cards until the winner is declared. Although verbal declarations as to the contents of a hand are not binding, deliberately misca lling a hand with the intent of causing another player to discard a winning hand is unethical and may result in forfeiture of the po t. (For more information on miscalling a hand see ?Section 11 - Lowball,? Rule 15 and Rule 16.)
3. Anyone 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.
4. All losing hands must be killed by the dealer before a pot is awarded.
5. Any player who has been dealt in can 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 can 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 t he best hand wins.
6. 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.
7. 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 the re 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 who is all-in for only the main pot.
1. The ranking of suits from highest to lowest is spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs. Suits never break a tie for winning a pot. Sui ts are used only in stud and then only to break a tie between cards of the same rank (no redeal or redraw).
2. Dealing a card to each player is used to determine things like who moves to another table. If the cards are dealt, the order i s clockwise starting with the first player on the dealer's left (the button position is irrelevant). Drawing a card is used to deter mine things like who gets the button in a new game.
3. An odd chip is broken down to the smallest unit used in the game.
4. No player can receive more than one odd chip.
5. If two or more hands tie, an odd chip is awarded as follows:
-J. The under-the-gun player puts up a $60 straddle bet. The next player raises to $90. A player folds and the action is on you. What do you do?
