General Rules of Poker
The Buy-In
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
the 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 minimum bring-in (usually, the size of the big blind), unless
designated otherwise.
Only one short buy-in is allowed per session.
Adding to your stack is not considered a buy-in, and may be done in
any quantity between hands.
The Shuffle and Cut
In a player-dealt game, the pack must be shuffled and cut before
the cards are dealt. The recommended method to protect the integrity
of the game is to have three people involved instead of only two.
The dealer on the previous hand takes in the discards and squares 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 dealer, who
gets them cut by the player on his right.
The deck must be riffled a minimum of four times. The cut must leave
a minimum of four cards in each portion.
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 used
as a cut-card.
Any complaint about the shuffle, cut, or other preparation connected
with dealing must be made before the player has looked at his hand
or betting action has started.
Misdeals
The following circumstances cause a misdeal, provided attention is
called to the error before two players have acted on their hands.
(If two players have acted in turn, the deal must be played to
conclusion, as explained in rule #2)
The first or second card of the hand has been dealt faceup or
exposed through dealer error.
Two or more cards have been exposed by the dealer.
Two or more boxed cards (improperly faced cards) are found.
Two or more extra cards have been dealt in the starting hands of a
game.
An incorrect number of cards has been dealt to a player, except the
top card may be dealt if it goes to the player in proper sequence.
Any card has been dealt out of the proper sequence (except an
exposed card may be replaced by the burncard without such action
causing a misdeal).
The button was out of position.
The first card was dealt to the wrong position.
Cards have been dealt to an empty seat or a player not entitled to a
hand.
A player has been dealt out who is entitled to a hand. This player
must be present at the table or have posted a blind or ante.
Action is considered to occur in stud games when two players after
the forced bet have acted on their hands. In button games, action 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.
Dead Hands
Your hand is declared dead if:
You fold or announce that you are folding when facing a bet or a
raise.
You throw your hand away in a forward motion causing another player
to act behind you (even if not facing a bet).
In stud, when facing a bet, you pick your upcards off the table,
turn your upcards facedown, or mix your upcards and downcards
together.
The hand does not contain the proper number of cards for that poker
form (except at stud a hand missing the final card may be ruled
live, and at lowball and draw high a hand with too few cards before
the draw is live). [See Section 16 - Explanations, discussion #4,
for more information on the stud portion of this rule.]
You act on a hand with a joker as a hole card in a game not using a
joker. (A player who acts on a hand without looking at a card
assumes the liability of finding an improper card, as given in
Irregularities, rule #8.)
You have the clock on you when facing a bet or raise and exceed the
specified time limit.
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 information given
to the player.
Cards thrown into another player's hand are dead, whether they are
faceup or facedown.
Irregularities
In button games, if it is discovered that the button was placed
incorrectly on the previous hand, the button and blinds are
corrected for the new hand in a manner that gives every player one
chance for each position on the round (if possible).
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.
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
respective bettors. If a card with a different color back is
discovered in the stub, all action stands.
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).
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 taking
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.
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
similar reason, only a player dealt in on the previous deal is
entitled to a hand.
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 cards
are dealt for that round.
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 misdeal. 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 does not call
attention to the joker before acting, then the player has a dead
hand.
If you play a hand without looking at all of your cards, you assume
the liability of having an irregular card or an improper joker.
One or more cards missing from the deck does not invalidate the
results of a hand.
Before the first round of betting, if a dealer deals one additional
card, it is returned to the deck and used as the burncard.
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 the
table is considered an exposed card.
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 governed by the
rules for the particular game being played.
If you drop any cards out of your hand onto the floor, you must
still play them.
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.
Betting and Raising
Check-raise is permitted in all games, except in certain forms of
lowball.
In no-limit and pot-limit games, unlimited raising is allowed.
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.
Unlimited raising for money games is allowed in heads-up play. This
applies any time the action becomes heads-up before the raising has
been capped. Once the raising is capped on a betting round, it
cannot be uncapped by a subsequent fold that leaves two players
heads-up. For tournament play, the three raise maximum for limit
poker applies when heads-up as well.
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).
Any wager must be at least the size of the previous bet or raise in
that round, unless a player is going all-in.
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 not 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.
A verbal statement in turn denotes your action and is binding. If in
turn you verbally declare a fold, check, bet, call, or raise, you
are forced to take that action.
Rapping the table in turn with your hand is a pass.
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 acting
after the infraction has been committed.
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
someone whose turn comes before you, and three or more players act
behind you, this still does not hinder your right to act.
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.
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 forced to
complete your action.
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 announcing a
raise, and the raise must be completed. (This does not apply in the
use of a single chip of greater value.)
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 called.
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.
All wagers and calls of an improperly low amount must be brought up
to proper size if the error is discovered before the betting 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, and 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.
The Showdown
A player must show all cards in the hand face-up on the table to
win any part of the pot.
Cards speak (cards read for themselves). The dealer assists in
reading hands, but players are responsible for holding onto their
cards until the winner is declared. Although verbal declarations as
to the contents of a hand are not binding, deliberately miscalling a
hand with the intent of causing another player to discard a winning
hand is unethical and may result in forfeiture of the pot. (For more
information on miscalling a hand see Section 11 - Lowball, Rule 15
and Rule 16.)
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.
All losing hands must be killed by the dealer before a pot is
awarded.
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 the best
hand wins.
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.
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.
Ties
The ranking of suits from highest to lowest is spades, hearts,
diamonds, clubs. Suits never break a tie for winning a pot. Suits
are used only in stud and then only to break a tie between cards of
the same rank (no redeal or redraw).
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.
An odd chip is broken down to the smallest unit used in the game.
No player can receive more than one odd chip.
If two or more hands tie, an odd chip is awarded as follows:
In a button game, the first hand clockwise from the button gets the
odd chip.
In a stud game, the odd chip is given to the highest card by suit in
all high games, and to the lowest card b y suit in all low games.
(When making this determination, all cards are used, not just the
five cards that constitute the player's h and.)
In high-low split games, the high hand receives the odd chip in a
split between the high and the low hands. The odd chip between tied
high hands is awarded as in a high game of that poker form, and the
odd chip between tied low hands is awarded as in a low game of that
poker form.
All side pots and the main pot are split as separate pots, not mixed
together