General Rules of Poker

For everything there are rules. Rules that are meant to be followed. Rules that keep everything in line. Rules that create a certain formality to anything. And poker is no different from everything else.

It helps that poker has general rules. Had there none to follow, every poker game would just be made up as the players went along. It would just be one invented game after another. The rules of poker are more of standards that should be followed to have a healthy game of poker every time.

As most poker players know, the object of every round in the game is to win the pot. It takes two ways to win the pot. One is to have the best hand among all the active players. And the second is to bet a certain amount that no other player could challenge.

With poker being a social game, there is only a certain amount of players. Two to ten players are advised for every game. Each player is considered as an individual at the game. In other words, it's every man for himself.

A standard pack of playing cards is used. Each pack should have 52 cards of four suits. These suits being hearts, diamonds, spades and clubs. For each suit, there should be thirteen cards namely ace, king, queen, jack, ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, and two. A joker may be included in the pack as a wild card. It is also an option to use to packs of playing cards in a poker session. However, the two packs cannot be used together. There are only two packs as convenience for the dealer.

Before a game begins, the pack of cards should be shuffled three times by one or more players. The dealer should shuffle the cards at least once. The dealer then hands the shuffled cards to the player at his right. The player has the option to cut the pack, that is divide the cards into two or three portions which is more than five cards per portion. After the cut has been made, the player places the bottom most portion on top of the other portions. If the player at the dealer's right does not cut the cards, any other player can do so.

In ranking, the ace starts as the highest followed by the king, queen jack, ten and the rest of the numbered cards in descending order. In some cases, the ace can be lowest such as in the hand, five, four, three, two and ace. The value of the ace in this hand is one. With this ranking, it can be determined which hand is the highest.

Seating is also taken into consideration in a game of poker. The most common is random seating. Any player may select a seat at the table unless asked otherwise. After the game begins, no player may switch seats until an hour of the game has passed or no one at the table objects to the transfer.

To select the first dealer, any player shuffles the pack and distributes the cards face up to the other players. He or she should start with the player at his left and move on to each player. If a jack turns up, the player with that card is the first dealer. Afterwhich, the person to the left of the first dealer is slated to be the next dealer and so forth.

The dealer is responsible for distributing the cards for each round of poker. He starts from the top of the pack and with the player at his left. Cards are dealt one by one to each player in clockwise rotation ending with the dealer. If by chance during the deal a card is misplaced or was inadvertently turned over, the dealer automatically discards the misplaced card.

When it comes to betting, all chips should go to the center of the table to create the pot. All players should announce their moves before putting the chips into the pot. A player says if he is going to bet, call, raise or fold. If he is going to bet or raise, he should say how much. A player cannot raise less than what is needed to call.

Lastly, the most awaited part in a poker game is the showdown. In a showdown, every active player after a round of betting shows his hand. A showdown happens when all bets have been called, or every raise has been called. The active players reveal all their cards on the table and the best hand wins the pot. If it turns out to be a tie, the pot is divided evenly among the involved players.

That's just the general rules of a poker game. It is simple to follow and to understand. These rules maintain a healthy and enjoyable game for everyone involved.