FREE POKER SOFTWARE DOWNLOAD! At fixed-limit poker, if the initial forced bet is less than half a full bet, it is not considered large enough to be counted as a bet. A wager increasing the amount of that bet to a full bet is called "completing the bet:' and is considered the first bet on that round (not a raise, even though the betting is reopened). On subsequent rounds, bringing a wager of less than half a bet up to the size of a full bet is completing that wager. The smaller wager and the one that completes it are counted as a single bet or raise toward the bet-and-four-raises limitation At flexible-limit poker, a wager that increases the amount of a forced bet by half that amount or more is considered a raise, because the forced bet is of sufficient size to qualify as a bet at that structure. In our cardroom, at flexible-limit poker, a combination of the forced bet and first raise may not exceed the limit of that game. For example, in one-to-four-dollar limit, a forced bet of one dollar may only be raised three more dollars, to a total of four dollars. As explained in "B," this is still a bet and a raise, but the amount of the first raise is slightly restricted for the purpose of better building a pot. This restriction applies only to the initial forced bet. On subsequent betting rounds, a wager of one dollar could be raised four more dollars, to a total of five dollars. At limit poker, an all-in bet of less than half the minimum bet (as defined in A10 - MINIMUM BET) does not reopen the betting to a player who checked on that round, or count as a bet for the purposes of the bet-and-four-raises limitation. At big-bet poker, a wager of less than the minimum bet does not reopen the betting to player who checked on that round. The minimum bring-in is never considered a raise. At limit play a bring-in of one-and-a-half times the minimum or greater is considered the first raise. At Stud, a bring-in of greater than the minimum requirement is not considered a raise. When the maximum number of raises has been reached in a multi handed pot at limit poker, or a specific ceiling figure has been reached, the betting is said to be "capped." Once the betting on around has been capped, no wager of any kind that increases the total bet will be allowed. Therefore, a player cannot increase the total bet by going all-in after the betting has been capped. The betting cannot become uncapped by a player dropping out of a multi-handed pot and creating a heads-up situation. (This protects a player from thinking his raise has capped the betting and finding himself unexpectedly exposed to a reraise.) A player is not considered to be all in until he has actually gone all- in in turn, even though he may be easily seen not to have enough chips to cover more than a small portion of a raise behind him. This removes any obligation for a player or dealer to count an opponent's stack to determine whether there is a "technical heads-up" situation. At big-bet poker, because raises are unlimited, it is theoretically possible that a player could be placed in whipsaw situation. In this situation, two players could each be raising a small amount, with a third player caught in the middle. To prevent this, when a bet and four raises have taken place, further raises in that round must be at least half the pot size unless a player is going all-in. When the last legal raise is made, if two or more players other than the raiser have as much as one playable chip left, then the betting is capped. ACTION OUT OF TURN A player has the right to act on his hand, and an obligation to notify the other players that he has not yet acted when the betting action bypasses him. Therefore, the following rules apply when the betting action bypasses a player who has not yet acted: If substantial action takes place behind a player whose turn has come to act and has not yet acted, the actions stand. The player must check if there has not been a bet to him, and may only call or fold if there was a bet to him. "Substantial action" means either three players acting, or two players acting by putting money in the pot. The dealer counts as a person if he has condoned the action, and is considered having acted if he has dealt the burncard off the deck or pushed the action past the proper player. If substantial action has taken place after a player who has not yet acted, and the dealer deals any cards for the next round, the player who has not called all bets has a dead hand. This rule may not be used to rule a hand dead where the player obviously intended to call all bets, but unintentionally put in less than the required amount of money. In such a case, the floorperson should rule that the player must make up the amount short and have a live hand. EXAMPLE: There has been a $20 bet and three raises, making the total $80, but after a card was dealt, it was noticed that a player had put in only $60. An action out of turn may seriously disrupt the normal course of betting. Therefore, the following rules will be used to reduce the harm done to non-offending players if substantial action has not taken place: The floorperson has the authority to require that a player take the same action in turn that he took out of turn. This means that if a player acts out of turn by betting, calling or raising, he may have to leave the chips in the pot. The player will not be compelled to take the same action in turn when he has been misled by the dealer, or a player in front of him who has not yet acted. Misleading may come from actions such as a player concealing his hand. starting to act and then not following through, improper placement or a player's bet, or the dealer looking at a player as if it were his turn. At big-bet poker, a player normally shall not be required to take the same action. It still is considered unethical at any form of poker to deliberately act out of turn, so the floorperson retains the right to penalize what he feels was a deliberate offense. At Stud, an action taken by a player who thinks he is first to act becomes established if the next player acts behind him, and betting shall continue as if he were supposed to be acting first. This rule fulfills the requirement of "substantial action:' because the dealer in this case counts as a player. Any action out of turn may be required to stand, except a player is allowed to take back a call out of turn if an intervening player who had not acted decides to raise the pot. A bet out of turn may be changed to a raise if an intervening player who had not acted decides to bet, and a raise out of turn may be changed to a re-raise if an intervening player who had not acted decides to raise. A player who bets out of turn before the next card is dealt (be in the dark) may not remove the money from the pot. If someone else bets, he may raise the pot at his turn. If there is ; misunderstanding as to whether his opponent was betting or calling, the right to raise may be revoked by the floorperson. A player who technically bets out of turn at Stud in a heads-up situation, but is really intending to call what seems to be an automatic bet by a powerful board, shall not be exposed to check-raise. This applies only when the first player has actually picked up chips and started a betting motion, but not actually released the chips into the pot. BURNCARDS The dealer shall burn a card (place it facedown on the table) before dealing any round of cards after the players have received their starting hands. Burncards shall be kept separate from the discards throughout the hand until the last card has been dealt. If nothing abnormal has happened the dealer should drop stub and put the burncards into the discards. If there is any question of whether the dealer burned a card properly, they should remain until the situation has been resolved to everyone's satisfaction. At Holdem, if the deck has to be reshuffled (because the dealer dealt prematurely, dropped the deck, or some such procedural irregularity), the burncards should not be used in the new deck. The dealer still burns a card before dealing from the new deck. At Stud, the burncards are used with the undealt cards to form a new deck when the dealer does not have enough legal cards (cards that may come into play, which excludes the bottom card of the deck) to finish the last round. Any time the dealer burns a card and is unable to deal immediately, he should replace the burncard back on top of the deck, and announce that he is doing it. Nobody may be shown a burncard while the pot is still being played. If the dealer fails to burn a card when required, burns two cards by having them stick together, or burns twice on a round, and substantial action has not taken place, each card must be moved to its proper spot. One card must be burned, so the correct layout has been reestablished. Substantial action in this case means two players have acted, because the dealer fulfills the requirement of the third person for the substantial action rule to be invoked. If substantial action has taken place before attention is called to error, all cards will be played as dealt. If the error takes place at Draw poker or a round of downcards at Stud poker, the cards will have to be played as dealt if any player has had an opportunity to see his card or has intermingled it with his other cards. PREMATURE DEALING A player is not allowed to put chips into the pot knowing any of the cards that are to be dealt for the next round, except for the final downcard at Stud, where the card must be kept. A player is never allowed to control whether an upcard is to remain as dealt or the deck reshuffled. The following rules apply when a card has been dealt face up before all the players have acted on their hands: Any card dealt before everyone has acted may not be used. If there has been a bet, and the dealer deals as the last player is in the process of folding, the card stays in play. The discovery that a wager, represented to be a certain action (a call, for example) and accepted as such by the dealer, is actually slightly short shall not invalidate the dealing of a new card. The player is required to make the bet correct. A player who has not called a bet and allows the dealer to deal a new round of cards without comment has a dead hand once action has been taken on the new betting round, and the new round of cards must stay. The player does not have a dead hand if he has indicated the intention of being in for all bets, but has mistakenly failed to put the correct amount in the pot. He simply makes the bet correct. This is similar to the discussion in A13 - ACTION OUT OF TURN Rule b). At Stud games, if the dealt cards may not be used, they are retrieved and buried in the discards. A card for each additional player is also buried under chips near the burncards, so the players receive the cards that were coming on the next round. If the mistake is made on the last downcard, when the card is taken in or might have been seen by the player, the card is kept On sixth street, any player who already has a seventh card may not net or raise a player with only six cards. At Holdem, if the dealt cards may not be used, a new deck is made from the unused stub and the improperly dealt cards (but no burncards). The dealer shuffles, cuts, and burns-and-turns. If the fourth street card cannot be used, the card due to come on fifth street is used in its place. The dealer burns-and-turns again, and the deck is remade for the final card (fifth street). WORDS AND GESTURES A player facing a bet who announces a fold has a dead hand. At Stud, the picking up of all one's upcards off the table when facing a bet may be construed as a fold. However, the floorperson may elect to let the player have a live hand if he feels the player was unfamiliar with the rule and no damage was done by the act. A player facing a bet who discards his hand may not reclaim it. The hand is dead. A player who discards his hand when not facing a bet may reclaim the hand if it has not touched the muck, provided nobody has acted on the assumption that the hand had been folded. At Stud, any time before the showdown, a player who turns his upcards facedown has folded. The dealer shall kill his hand, even if he is in for all bets up to that time. This does not apply to a player who has bet and mistakenly believes everyone has folded. Asking the dealer to deal any new cards to see what was coming when facing a bet is equivalent to announcing a fold. The dealer is not required to have the player surrender his hand before complying with the request; the hand is already dead. A statement of "fold," "check," "call," "raise," or a specific size bet is binding o an active player. At big-bet or flexible limit poker, a player who announces a bet or raise of a certain size but put a different number of chips in the pot should have his bet corrected to the stated size if the next player has not acted. The substitution of an irregular statement or gesture for "fold:' "check:' "call:'or "raise" is as binding as the regular statement would be in that situation, provided the intent is obvious or it could easily and justifiably be construed as having that meaning. Rapping on the table or waving the cards up and down is considered a check. A player who in full hand face up on the table without comment on the final betting round is considered to have checked. If a player is obligated to put money into the pot (either as a bet, call, or raise), the fact that he has thrown away his hand does not relieve him of that obligation. The dealer may and should try to prevent the hand from being fouled by contact with the muck. UNCALLED BET A player who makes a bet that nobody calls wins the pot. A player who makes a bet, and then incorrectly assumes there are no live hands against him, and throws his hand away into the discards, loses the pot, unless the hand is declared retrievable by the floorperson. Every effort should be made to rule in the direction of playing out the pot. If a player has been induced to discard his hand by the dealer indicating he has made an uncalled bet and won the pot, but someone still has a live hand, the following rules prevail: If at all possible, the hand should be retrieved and the pot played out. If the hand is irretrievable, the floorperson must make a decision based on the strength of the remaining hand, whether it was out in the open or concealed, and whether the player had the opportunity to speak up to prevent the better from thinking he won the pot. The floorperson can and should rule a worthless hand dead. A powerful hand strong enough to have raised should get the whole pot. In between those extremes, it is up to the floorperson to decide what is fair. INSUFFICIENT BET An illegally small bet stands once there has been substantial action behind it. The dealer counts as a player, and the act of burning before dealing a card for the next round is treated as accepting the bet. At fixed limit, a person wishing to raise such a bet increases the wager by one full, correct bet. If there has not been substantial action establishing the insufficient bet, the action shall back up to the original better, and a call is nullified. The original better must make the insufficient bet the correct size. If the betting action needs to be backed up because an insufficient amount has been wagered, a player may not change his call to a raise if somebody has acted after him, or the improper bet has enabled him to obtain useful information about the nature of any hand behind him. A bet represented as being a particular amount and treated as such by subsequent action must be made good to that amount, even if the bettor later opts to fold. If a player who is obligated for a blind or forced bet does not have sufficient funds to wager the full amount, all other players will still be obligated to put the full amount of the blind or forced bet in the pot if they wish to call. INSUFFICIENT CALL A player who puts chips in the pot with the apparent intention of calling a bet, and is found to have put in an insufficient amount, may not withdraw the chips. He must put in sufficient additional chips to call, even if the opponent has shown down his hand. This rule is not to apply when someone has obviously misunderstood the amount of the wager to a significant degree. A player who shows that he is unaware of a raise by calling only the amount of the bet before that raise may withdraw his chips and fold, provided nobody has acted behind him. If there has been proper action behind him, the bet must stay in the pot if the raise was announced by the dealer or player. In games where the betting limit is flexible, an insufficient call may be withdrawn if the player is obviously unaware that someone in front of him has bet. An insufficient call may not be changed to a raise. (To raise would be a form of string bet as covered in A21 - STRING BET.) UNCLEAR BET A player has the right to assemble chips in front of him before acting. A player has made a bet if he pushes assembled chips forward and releases them, or releases chips into the pot at a sufficient distance from him to make it obvious that he intends it as a bet. In unclear situations, a player who lets the dealer pull the chips into the pot without making an immediate objection has made a wager. A wager without comment that is larger than necessary to call a bet, but less than necessary to raise, may be clarified by that player as either a call or a raise if the next player has not acted. If the next player has acted, the wager is treated as it most closely resembles. Therefore, it is a call if the excess amount is less than half of the amount needed to raise, and considered a raise if it is more than half of the amount needed to raise. If the amount is exactly half the amount needed to raise, it is considered a call if the excess amount is only one chip, but a raise if it is two or more chips. If the wager is ruled a raise, the player must add the amount needed to bring the wager to the size of a full raise. (The floorperson may depart from this formula in making a ruling if it appears obvious that the player unintentionally used the wrong denomination of chips.) Play fun poker online - Download and play for free! 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