When all active players have contributed an equal amount to the pot, that is the end of the betting round.

Players who have not folded are known as active players.

All other players must then either put in chips to bring their contribution to the pot to at least an equal amount or fold, discarding their cards and abandoning any chips they have so far contributed to the pot.

Players look at their own cards, and have the opportunity to increase their bet, placing extra chips into the pot.

Players place an initial bet, if required by the game being played, by placing some of their chips into a central common area known as the pot or pool.

In outline, a game of poker is played as follows. Players buy chips from the host before the game and redeem them for money at the end. These generally come in various denominations, sometimes labelled with numbers 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 500, and sometimes in colours such as white, red, blue whose values must be agreed. Poker is normally played for money, but it is convenient to use chips to represent money during the actual games. For the purposes of comparing hands all suits are equal. In certain circumstances the ace can be used as a low card, below the 2. The rank of the cards, from high to low, is A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2. The deal and play are clockwise.Ī standard international 52-card pack is used, and in most forms of poker there are no jokers. However, some variants can be played by more than seven, and some versions work well for a small number of players - even with just two ('heads up').

Traditionally, poker has been thought of as a game for 2 to 7 players, the more the better with 6 or 7 being the ideal number.

For those who need greater detail on particular aspects of the rules there are more detailed pages on hand ranking, the betting process, and on the specifics of particular types of poker such as Seven Card Stud, Texas Hold'em, Omaha and Draw Poker, which are listed on the Poker Variants page.

This aim of this page is to give a general idea of how poker is played. Other Web Sites Poker Rules and Glossaries.

Tandard poker rules