Friday, February 18, 2011

First Time At a Table: Very Basic Overview

     This is merely a break down of the flow of events to expect the first time at a table.  This is again very simple basic stuff that a current player could ignore.  Lets assume 9 players just sat down at a table for a "cash game", all 9 players will be dealt a card, high card will choose the dealer.  The person to the dealers left will post small blind, and to his left would be big blind.  The dealer will start by dealing 1 card to the small blind, one to the big blind, one to the person to his left, and so on clockwise; this will be done twice so each player has 2 cards.  There is a round of betting.  The dealer will then Burn* (remove from the current hand) the top card and deal three cards to the table face up (The Flop), these are the community cards.  There is a second round of betting after which another card is burned and then one is placed face up with the community cards (Fourth Street).  There is another round of betting followed by burning one more card and laying a fifth community card (The River).  From here there is a final round of betting  at the end of which the last person to raise shows his cards followed by subsequent players still playing revealing their hands (Showdown), if any player is beat by an already revealed hand  he may Muck, or not show, his hand.  The best 5 card hand of the 5 community cards and 2 personal cards wins the pot.  If at any point there is only one player left in the pot the hand ends and that player wins that hand.

    *The reason for burning a card is so that if there were any visible markings to tip off a player they would be unable to cheat.

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