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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
Order of Poker Bets
Rank of Winning Poker Hands
Poker Glossary

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 Sportbet Poker. If you'd like an animated tutorial, you can download Sportbet 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 Sportbet Poker are:

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.

1. Texas Hold'em Poker: Rules and Description

Sit down
Up to 10 players plus a dealer are seated around a table.

Dealer Button
In front of one of the players is a round disk or button. This dealer button determines the order of betting (explained later) and moves to the left one player at a time, after each hand.

Post Blinds
Before the cards are dealt at the beginning of each hand, the two players directly to the left of the dealer button must post "blinds". To post a blind is to place a bet before getting cards. The player to the immediate left of the dealer button posts the "small blind," equal to half of the minimum bet (e.g. $5 for a 10-20 game). The player to the left of the small blind posts the "big blind," equal to the amount of the minimum bet (e.g. $10 for a 10-20 game).

Pocket Cards
Once the blinds have been posted, the first round of cards are dealt. These consist of two cards face down to each player and are called the "pocket" cards. Each player can see their own pocket cards. Then the first round of betting takes place, beginning with the player immediately to the left of the big blind and continuing in a clockwise direction around the table.

Betting
Bet amounts are fixed by the table stakes. For example, in a 3/6 table, bets are $3 in the first two rounds and $6 in the last two. The bet amount can climb a maximum of 3 times in each round of betting. In other words, there can be one bet and three raises in each round.

The Flop Cards
Next, three cards are dealt face up in the middle of the table. These cards are called the "Flop". All three cards are "community" cards and can be used by all the players at the table to make up their hand.

After the flop is dealt, a second round of betting takes place -- again, beginning with the player immediately to the left of the dealer button. (All subsequent rounds of betting begin with the player to left of the dealer button).

The Turn Card
Following this, a fourth "community" card is dealt face up in the middle of the table. This card is called the "Turn card" and can also be used by all players. It is followed by a third round of betting.

The River Card
Finally, a fifth and final "community" card is dealt face up in the middle of the table. It is called the "River card" and is followed by a fourth and final round of betting.

Showdown
Once all betting is complete, players determine the best five-card hand that they can make using any combination of their "pocket" cards and the "community" cards. The player with the best five-card poker hand wins the pot.

Start again!
After a hand is completed and the pot taken by the winner, the dealer button is moved one player to the left, and the next hand begins.

2. Omaha Poker: Rules and Description

Omaha poker follows the same play sequence as Texas Hold'em poker, but with two differences: a) players are dealt four "pocket" cards instead of two; and b) players must use two "pocket" cards and three "community" cards to make your best high hand. (If anyone tells you that Omaha is just like Hold'em, they are not discussing strategy.)

3. Omaha Hi/Low Games: Rules and Description

Hi/Low Omaha plays the same as regular Omaha, except that there is an additional way to win a share of the pot.

As in a regular game of Omaha, the Hi winner has the best poker hand. There is always a Hi winner. But, in addition to a Hi winner, there can be a Low winner. The Low winner has 5 different cards below a 9. For example, if between your two pocket and three community cards, you had a hand consisting of a 2, 3, 5, 7 and 8 of mixed suits, you would have a Low hand. If your qualifying Low hand is the best (i.e. lowest) you would be entitled to the Low share of the pot. Your share depends on how many other players won and there may not be a Low winner every hand. You may play 2 different or the same pocket cards for Hi and for Low, along with any three community cards.

4. Pot Limit

We offer Pot Limit Hold'em and Pot Limit Omaha table games and tournaments. The progressively higher bets make pot limit very exciting and different from a limit game.

General betting rules for Pot Limit Poker
The mechanical difference between regular limit games and Pot limit games are the betting amounts; in Pot-Limit, a player is permitted (assuming he has enough chips in front of him at the start of the hand to do so) to raise any amount within a certain range, up to the pot size at the time it is that player's turn to act.

Minimum eligible raise: The minimum allowable raise amount must be at least as much as the previous bet or raise in the same round. As an example, if the first player to act bets $10 then the second player must raise a minimum of $10 (total bet of $20).

Maximum eligible raise: The maximum allowable raise is the size of the pot. The size of the pot is defined as the total of the pot in the middle plus all bets on the table plus the amount the active player must first call before raising. Let's consider an example where the blinds are $1-$2. The next player to act can fold, call the $2, or raise by placing any amount between $4 and $7 in the pot. If the player bets $4, he has raised the minimum, because the previous bet was $2, and he is doubling that. If the player bets $7, he is betting the maximum, because he is first calling the $2 blind bet, creating a total pot size of $5, and then raising the size of the pot. The $2 call plus the $5 raise yields the $7 bet. Computing maximum raises can get tricky and we suggest you practice computing maximums before playing (our poker software will calculate the proper raise range allowed and will not allow a player to make a raise too small or too large).

As you can see, if several players in a row decide to make pot-sized raises, the size of a pot can escalate rather dramatically and we do not recommend Pot limit games for beginners or players not comfortable with large betting amounts.

Our pot limit and no limit tables have a betting "slider" which allows you to bet many amounts between the minimum and maximum bet size. You can customize the location of the "slider" bet feature in the game.

5. No Limit

The rules of No-Limit Holdem are very similar to the rules for Limit Holdem, but again the main difference are the betting amounts permitted.

In No-Limit, any player is allowed to raise any amount he or she has in front of him at any time. If the blinds are $1-$2, and the first player to act has $200 in front of him, and wants to put all $200 in (a raise of $198), he is entitled to do so.

Minimum eligible raise: The minimum size of raises that are allowed must always be at least the size of the previous bet or raise. As an example, in a game with $5-$10 blinds, the first player into the pot could not bet a total of $15, because that would only be a raise of $5. The minimum bet in this situation would be a bet of $20, which is a raise of $10.

In the more likely case that the first raiser makes a somewhat larger bet, for example, a bet of $40 (which would be a raise of $30), the next player could fold, call the $40, or raise. If he raises, he would have to place at least $70 in the pot, because his raise would have to be at least as much as the previous raise. The only upper limit on the size of his raise is the numb