POKER RULES AND POKER BETTING BASICS

Here's where you can learn how to play poker, how to bet poker, and what wins in poker. You can even learn the lingo!

The Poker Games

Poker is a card game where two to ten people sit around a table, deal cards from a deck of 52, and place poker bets that accumulate into a pot as the game progresses. The best poker hand wins the pot.

Below are detailed poker betting rules and descriptions of how to play the three games of poker offered at Island Casino Poker. If you'd like an animated tutorial, you can download Island Casino Poker -- it's free! Just log on and watch live games. The built-in hints feature will tell you what's happening at each event.

The three games currently offered by Island Casino Poker are:

1. Texas Hold'em Poker
2. Omaha Poker
3. Pot Limit
4. No Limit

These are the games most commonly found in card rooms around the world. All three are quite similar in concept and easy to grasp, but each demands a very different strategy. That part's up to you.

Texas Hold'em is the base from which the other three are derived. Below is a detailed description of Texas Hold'em, followed by explanations of the other games.


Order of Bets

First to Act
Each round of betting begins with the player to the left of the dealer button (the small blind) and proceeds around the table in a clockwise fashion, ending with the player at the dealer button. (One exception to this is the opening round of betting, which begins with the player to the left of the big blind.) At each turn, a player chooses between the following options: check, call, bet, raise (if a bet has already been made), or fold.

Check
If no one has bet previously in the round, a player may simply "check," which means he does not wish to bet or fold. Instead of betting, he wishes to let his turn pass without adding any bets to the pot.

Call
If a bet has already been made in the round, a player can no longer check. He now must either call the amount previously bet, raise, or fold. If he calls, he is matching the previous bet. If he does not wish to match the bet, he must fold.

Fold
If a bet has been made previously in the round, and the player does not wish to at least match the bet to stay in the hand, he must fold. To fold means to withdraw from the remainder of the hand and forfeit all amounts invested in the pot up to that time.

Bet or Raise
If a player wishes to increase the amount of the pot, he bets or raises. The first time the pot is raised in a given round, it is called a bet. The second time, it is called a raise, and all subsequent times are called re-raises. The amount that a player can bet, raise or re-raise is determined by the game limits. For example, in a 10-20 limit poker game, players can bet or raise $10 in the first two rounds of betting and can bet or raise $20 in the last two rounds of betting. The maximum number of times a pot can be raised in a given round of betting is three. This means that up to, but not more than, four bets (including the initial bet) can be made in a given round.

Sit out
Sitting out is the act of choosing not to participate in a hand of poker while remaining seated at the table. Players who sit out and miss the blinds, must post both blinds to rejoin the game. Players missing two rounds of the blind (two circuits of the Dealer button) are removed from the table to free their seat for other players.

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Rank of Hands

From strongest to weakest hand.

Royal Flush
Straight flush to the ace.

Straight Flush
Straight with all five cards the same suit.

Four of a Kind
Four cards of the same value.

Full House
Three cards of one value together with two cards of another value. When more than one full house is competing, the one with the highest ranking group of three wins.

Flush
Five cards of the same suit. When more than one flush is competing, the one with the highest card wins.

Straight
Five cards in sequence (e.g. 9,10, J, Q, K). When more than one straight is competing, the one with the highest card wins. An ace can be taken as either high or low (but not both high and low in the same hand).

Three of a Kind
Three cards of the same value.

Two Pair
Any two cards of one value together with two cards of another value. When more than one hand has two pairs of the same rank, the hand with the highest card outside the paired cards wins. This also applies to hands of one pair.

One Pair
Two cards of the same value.

Highest Card
When players have none of the above, the hand with the highest card wins.

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