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POKER RULES
The descriptions below assume a familiarity with the general game play of poker, and with poker hands. For a general introduction to these topics, see Poker, Poker hand, Poker probability, and Poker jargon.Play of the hand
Play begins with each player being dealt two cards face down. These cards are the player's hole cards. These are the only cards each player will receive individually, and they will only (possibly) be revealed at the showdown, making Texas holdem a closed poker game. The hand begins with a "pre-flop" betting round, beginning with the player to the left of the big blind (or the player to the left of the dealer, if no blinds are used) and continuing clockwise.
After the pre-flop betting round, the dealer deals a burn card, followed by three face-up community cards called the flop. The flop is followed by a second betting round. This and all subsequent betting rounds begin with the player to the dealer's left and continue clockwise. After the flop betting round ends, another card is burned, and a single community card called the turn (or fourth street) is dealt, followed by a third betting round.
A final burn card is followed by a single community card called the river (or fifth street), followed by a fourth betting round and the showdown, if necessary.
Betting structures
In casino play, it is common to use a fixed limit and two blinds. The limit for the first two rounds of betting is called a small bet, while the limit for the third and fourth betting rounds is called a big bet and is generally double the small bet.
The small blind is usually equal to half of a small bet, and the big blind is equal to a full small bet. (In some cases, the small blind is some other fraction of a small bet, e.g. $10 is a common small blind when the small bet is $15; this occurs mainly in brick and mortar rooms where higher-denomination chips are used.
The double-blind structure described above is relatively recent; until the 1980s, a single-blind structure was most common.)
Occasionally, the fourth bet is larger still (a big river bet), and the big blind is sometimes less than the small bet, in which case it is treated the same way a sub-minimum bring-in is treated in stud poker.
Antes may be used instead of, or in addition to, blinds; this is especially true in tournament play. The game also plays very well at the no-limit level, and many tournaments (including the above mentioned World Series championship event) are played with this structure.
In no-limit hold 'em, any player may wager all of the chips that he has on the table at any time. This is known as an all-in wager. If another player still in the hand wants to call the all-in bet, but doesn't have enough chips on the table to match the bet, he may call for the amount of chips he has in front of him.
The original bettor then takes back the part of his bet that exceeds the amount of the call, unless there is another player also in the hand who calls the bet, in which case a side pot is created between those two players for the amount in excess of that matched by the caller with the fewer chips.
The showdown
If a player bets and all other players fold, then the remaining player is awarded the pot and is not required to show his hole cards. If two or more players remain after the final betting round, a showdown occurs.
On the showdown, each player plays the best five-card hand he can make from the seven cards comprising his two hole cards and the board (the five community cards).
A player may use both of his own two hole cards, only one, or none at all, to form his final five-card hand. If the five community cards form the player's best hand, then the player is said to be playing the board.
If the best hand is shared by more than one player (e.g. if no player is able to beat the board), then the pot is split equally amongst all remaining players.
However, it is common for players to have closely-valued, but not identically ranked hands. In particular, kickers are often needed to break ties. Nevertheless, one must be careful in determining the best hand.
The goal is to make the best five-card hand; if the hand involves fewer than five cards, such as two pair or three of a kind, then kickers are used to settle ties. (See the second example below.) Straights often split the pot, and multiple flushes may occur. In the case of flushes, the flush is awarded to the player with the highest flush card which completes a flush and beats the board's flush cards.
If there is a flush on board, (i.e. if all the board cards are the same suit), then under cards in that suit do not play, and if no one has a card in the flush suit beating the board, then the pot is split. The sole exception to this rule is the case of a straight-flush.
The best possible hand given the five community cards is referred to as the nuts. The lowest possible nuts is three queens (this occurs with, for example, 2 3 7 8 Q on the board, with no more than two cards of any one suit).
Examples
Sample showdown
Here's a sample showdown:
Board
4
K
4
8 7
Alice 5
6
Bob A 4
Carol
A 9
Dan
K K
Each player plays the best 5 card hand they can make with the 7 cards available. They have:
Alice 8 7 6 5 4 8-high straight
Bob 4; 4 4 A; K Three 4's, A and K kickers
Carol A K 9 8 7 A-high flush
Dan K K K 4; 4 Full house
In this case, Dan's full house is the best hand.
Sample hand
Here's a sample deal involving our four players. The players' individual hands will not be revealed until the showdown, to give a better sense of what happens during play:
Compulsory bets: Alice is the dealer. Bob, to Alice's left, posts a small blind of $1, and Carol posts a big blind of $2.
Pre-flop: Alice deals two hole cards face down to each player, beginning with Bob and ending with herself. Ted must act first because he is the first player after the big blind. He cannot check, since the $2 big blind plays as a bet, so he folds. Alice calls the $2. Bob adds an additional $1 to his $1 small blind to call the $2 total. Carol's blind is "live" (see blind), so she has the option to raise here, but she checks instead, ending the first betting round.
Flop: Alice now burns a card and deals the flop of three face-up community cards, 9; K; 3. On this round, as on all subsequent rounds, the player on the dealer's left begins the betting. In this case it is Bob, who checks. Carol opens for $2, Ted has already folded and Alice raises another $2, making the total bet now facing Bob $4. He calls (puts in $4, $2 to match Carol's initial bet and $2 to match Alice's raise). Carol calls as well, putting in her $2.
Turn: Alice now burns and deals the turn card face up. It is the 5. Bob checks, Carol checks, and Alice checks; the turn has been checked around.
River: After burning, Alice deals the final river card, the 9, making the final board 9; K; 3 5 9. Bob bets $4, Carol calls, and Alice folds (Alice's holding was A; 7;; she was hoping the river card would be a club to make her a flush).
Showdown: Bob shows his hand of Q 9, so the best five-card hand he can make is 9; 9 9 K; Q, for three 9's, with K and Q kickers. Carol shows her cards of K J, making her final hand K; K 9; 9 J for two pair, K's and 9's, with J kicker. Bob wins the showdown and the pot.
Kickers and ranks
Here's another situation that illustrates the importance of breaking ties with kickers and card ranks, as well as the use of the five-card rule. After the turn, the board and players' hole cards are as follows (though none of the players know each other's hole cards):
Board (after the turn)
8 Q; 8 4;
Alice
10; 9; Bob
K Q Carol
Q 10 Ted
J; 2;
At the moment, Bob is in the lead with a hand of Q Q; 8 8 K, making two pair, Q's and 8's, with K kicker. This just beats Carol's hand of Q Q; 8 8 10 by virtue of his kicker. Both Alice and Ted are hoping the final card is a club, which will make them both a flush, but in that case, Ted would have the higher flush and win the showdown. For example, if the final card was the 7;, Ted's flush would be Q-J-7-4-2, while Alice's would be Q-10-9-7-4. Alice could still win, though, if the final card were the J, as that would give her a Q-high straight. On this deal, however, the final card was the A, which didn't help either of them. Bob and Carol still each have two pair, but notice what happened: both of them are now entitled to play the final A as their fifth card, making their hands both two pair, Q's and 8's, with A kicker. Bob's K no longer plays, because the A on the board plays as the fifth card in both hands, and a hand is only composed of five cards. They therefore split the pot.
Starting hand terminology and notation
There are (52 × 51)/2 = 1,326 distinct possible combinations of two hole cards from a standard 52-card deck. However, since suits are only relevant for flushes, many of these hands are indistinguishable from the point of view of pre-flop strategy. In fact, considering suits to be equivalent unless both cards are the same suit, there are precisely 169 distinct possible starting hands in holdem. [1]
As an example, although J J; and J J are distinct combinations of hole cards, they are indistinguishable as starting hands. Any starting hand comprising two jacks is called pocket jacks and is denoted JJ. Similarly, any starting hand comprised of two aces is called pocket aces and is denoted AA, and any starting hand comprised of two sevens is called pocket sevens and is denoted 77. Each of these starting hands is called a pocket pair.
The starting hands which are not pocket pairs fall into two classes – the suited hands and the unsuited hands. An example of a suited hand is 8 7. Any starting hand comprised of an 8 and a 7 of the same suit is called 8-7 suited and is denoted 87s, where "s" is an abbreviation for "suited". An example of an unsuited hands is Q 9. Any starting hand comprised of a Q and a 9 of different suits is called queen-nine offsuit and is denoted Q9 (or sometimes Q9o, where "o" is an abbreviation for "offsuit"). Remember, an "s" always denoted a suited starting hand, while the absence of an "s" always denotes an offsuit starting hand.
In almost all poker writing, the rank of "10" is abbreviated with the letter "T", so that all the ranks can be written with a single character, unless cards are featured pictorially when "10" is often used.
Consecutive cards of the same suit are called suited connectors. Many starting hands have colloquial names. A full list would be quite long, but some examples are "American Airlines" or "Pocket Rockets" for AA, "Big Slick" for AK, "Fish Hooks" for JJ, "Dolly Parton" for 95 (a reference to the film "9 to 5") and "Doyle Brunson" for T2 (Brunson won two WSOP Main Event championships with this hand, which would ordinarily be considered a weak starting hand).
Texas hold'em in popular culture
In 1998, the movie Rounders starring Matt Damon and Edward Norton gave moviegoers a romantic view of poker as a way of life. Texas Hold'em was the main game played during the movie and the no-limit variety was described as the "Cadillac of Poker". There was also a clip of the classic showdown between Johnny Chan and Erik Seidel from the 1988 World Series of Poker incorporated into the film.
CommanderBond.net reports that the centerpiece card game in the next James Bond film, Casino Royale, will be no-limit Texas Hold 'em instead of Baccarat as in the original Ian Fleming novel. [2]
Hold 'em as a spectator sport
Hold 'em first caught the public eye as a spectator sport in the United Kingdom with the Late Night Poker TV show in 1999. The popularity of the show led to Phil Hellmuth competing in season 3 of the program and helping to spread the idea of lipstick cameras to an American audience.
In 2003, hold 'em exploded in popularity as a spectator sport in the United States. This was due to several factors, including the introduction of lipstick cameras that allowed the television audience to see the players' hidden cards. ESPN's coverage of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) featured the unexpected victory of Internet player Chris Moneymaker (his real name), an amateur player who gained admission to the tournament by winning a series of online tournaments. Moneymaker's victory initiated a sudden surge of interest in the WSOP, based on the egalitarian idea that anyone -- even a rank novice -- can become a world champion. In 2003, there were 839 entrants in the WSOP Main Event. In 2004, that number tripled. The crowning of the 2004 champion, Greg "Fossilman" Raymer, a patent attorney from Connecticut whose trademark holographic sunglasses have become legendary, further fueled the popularity of the event among amateur (and particularly internet) players. In the 2005 Main Event, an incredible 5,600+ entrants vied for a first prize of $7,500,000. The winner, Joseph Hachem of Australia, was a semi-professional player. The runner-up, Steve Dannenmann, an amateur from Maryland, opined that he was only "the fourth or fifth best player" in his regular home game.
Two additional hold 'em series debuted in 2003, the "World Poker Tour" (abbreviated WPT) and "Celebrity Poker Showdown". All three of these shows are still currently (as of early 2006) in production and garner a large and loyal viewership.
With the ability to edit a tournament that may last days into just a few hours, ESPN's World Series of Poker focuses on showing how various star players fared in each event. Key hands from throughout the many days of each event are shown, and similar, highly edited coverage of final tables is also provided.
The World Poker Tour does not offer general coverage of the multi-day poker tournaments. Instead, WPT covers only the action at the final table of each event. With aggressive play and increasing blinds and antes, the important action from a single table can easily be edited into a two hour episode. Although the tournament fate of fewer stars are chronicled this way, it allows the drama to build more naturally toward the final heads up showdown.
Celebrity Poker Showdown coverage is a single table like World Poker Tour, however, the players are invited to participate instead of winning their way on. Because the players are much less skilled and aggressive, significant editing is often done to trim the action to fit the broadcast time.
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