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Poker Game’s Structure

admin — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 14:49:00 +0000

Poker is a bit of a flexible game and can be played in tournaments with single or multi-table or in cash (ring) games. Tournaments often set their buy-in (entrance fee) and each player kicks off the game by having the same amount of chips. The buy-in amount makes up to the entire prize pool and an administrative fee that gets stored to the casino or pub. The game keeps continuing and the involved players battle until there is only one player remaining, thus the prize money dispersed amongst players. In a ten person single table event, you can hope to see the prize pool distribution in the ratio of respectively 50, 30 and 20% for first, second and third.

The prize pool allocation can differ deeply according to the tournament being played.
Cash games are organised on a single table and go on as long as the players hold their seat. There are the Blinds which are the force bets prior to the play and are maintained constant. The good aspect of this mode ensures that players can come and depart at their wish, turning the game into a supreme one for those not wishing to lock horns for hours in a multi-table tournament. Players are free to join the games with as little or as much money to cash games.

Sit-n-go tournaments are also there which are single table tournaments. Such tournaments start while all seats at a table get filled and later remain struck with only one player. Those who do not like to play cash games and comprise no time to play in lengthy multi-table tournaments always get lured to these types of game. The blinds will see a surge at usual intervals in both the games of sit-n-go tournaments and multi-table tournaments, called as levels. This is done to give pace to the game which is chiefly crucial in large multi-table tournaments.

Poker cards

admin — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 14:48:44 +0000

Players in a poker game vary from 2 to a maximum of 14 players, and the most well-liked is having 5 to 8 players playing for themselves. The game is typically played with the standard 52 card deck and jokers might also be added to the deck for diverse variations of poker. The most admired though remains to be the standard 52 cards, though you might also get to see second deck of cards being put in to get going the game. To stop the prospect of unethical act like cheating, usually the second deck of cards are kept of entirely different color!

After the serving of the first deck of cards, the second deck gets shuffled and mixed properly to jump in for the next game. Time is saved between games by applying this practice of different cards. A player possibly will, for all time ask for a new deck of cards to play if a tampering comes to mind. Winning the pot is the apparent reason for playing a poker game, so no one will accept unfair practice. The pot exhibits the entire players’ bids in the form of money or chips.

Betting comes in the picture as soon as the game kicks off, and is finely executed clockwise around the table, paving way to each to make the first bet. Every player gets chance to call the bet or raise the bet. Calling the bet means betting an amount like to the earlier player’s bet, while raising the bet means adding the own amount in the previous player’s bet. Staying is what kept in sight, as players may fold their cards by not seeing the good enough chances of winning. The betting gets carried off to see all the player’s bet of that particular game to stay or forfeit

Poker bug

admin — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 14:48:23 +0000

In a game of poker, often there are some cards which are dealt that have the power to change the course of a game dramatically whenever a player happens to receive them in his hand on account of the random value assigned to these cards. So, bugs, which are the joker cards, are a form of wildcards and whenever one or both the jokers are introduced in a game, it adds up the interest and excitement quotient. It has been found that when a player has a bug, his chance to improve a drawing hand becomes better.

The value and suit assigned to a bug card can vary from game to game variant and also depends on the hand of cards. So mostly a bug is used as an ace card when draw poker and pai gow poker games are being played. In other cases, the bug card is assigned the value of the highest card in order to complete a straight or a flush hand by taking place of the missing card. So, a hand holding already two ace cards and a joker can be used to make a hand of three ace cards. If some one has a hand of heart cards having an ace, a joker, 8 and 3 he can assign the value of a king of hearts to his bug, even though someone else has the actual king of hearts card. Interestingly if a hand is holding 7, 6, 5, 4 and a joker, then the bug is a 8 card and not a 3 even though in both conditions a straight hand is completed but a 8-straight is higher.

In a poker game of California lowball, the bug card is assigned the lowest unpaired card value in any hand. So, if a player is holding 8, 6, 4, 3 and a joker card, then its values is an ace card whereas if he has an ace card, 2, 3, 5 and the bug card then its value becomes the 4 card.

Poker big blind special

admin — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 14:48:01 +0000

In poker games, playing big blinds sometimes lead to interesting situation such as when a big blind player wins a hand with not very strong cards, his win attributed to the cause that before the flop none of his opponents raised or if they raised, the amount was not high enough. This condition is the big blind special. The logical outcome when a big blind player finds his hand weak is he folds. However, considering blind wager is a forced poker bet, if his opponents don’t raise before the flop, he can go to the flop round unchallenged where if he finds any chance to improve his hand, he remains in the game. Similarly if the raise preceding the flop round was insignificant, even then the pot odds of the player paying the big blind is favorable enough for him to go through the flop without folding straight away.

An illustration of the big blind special situation can explain how this happens. In a Texas hold ‘em poker game, the big blind player has a weak hand containing a 7 of diamonds and a 2 of spades. In the situation where most of his opponents fold and only one stays active and calls with a hand of an ace of hearts and a 4 of diamonds, the big blind player can check and take the game to the flop round. If the flop cards he receives are, say an ace of spades, a 7 of spades and a 2 of clubs, he now has a decent hand with top pair and is more likely to end up winning the hand than not. The big blind special is evidently more prominent and advantageous when it is one-to-one contest. Since big blind position changes with hands in play, the prospect of a player exploiting a big blind special situation is always high.

Poker betting XIV

admin — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 14:47:35 +0000

Betting pattern in a poker game played with blind wagers take a setback when it is a one-to-one game and the customary rules are not applicable to determine the position of blinds. It is normally followed that the player who has the button pays the small bind and his opponent pays the big blind. This results in the button player in being the first to act before the flop round as he has to pay the small bind, but has the privilege of being the second to act in all subsequent rounds of betting.

In case the game is not played between two players, but the size of the game table has minimized to just two, there is a special rule to settle who gets the button. For example, if several players or at least three players were playing and all get eliminated leaving only two at the table, then first the big blind shifts one position to the left and once who pays the big blind is decided, the other player is assigned the button. So, if there are three players with the first player having the button, the second player paying the small blind and the third player paying the big blind and now the first player is eliminated. In this situation, in the next hand the big blind will get shifted to the second player whom the positioning of the button will skip and it will be received by the third player, who would also be liable to pay the small blind. Now, if the third player gets eliminated, the big blind gets shifted one position and has to be paid by the player seated left to him, that is the first player. Therefore this will result in the second player getting the button and similar to the previous hand, he will again have to pay small blind.