Your first game of Poker

Set up

You sit at a table with up to five computer players. Everyone starts with 1,000 points. A round disc marks the dealer, and the two players to the dealer’s left post the blinds, 5 and 10 points, to start the betting. Each player gets two cards face down, to be seen only by them.

Your first hand

Look at your two cards and decide how strong they are. Betting starts with the player after the big blind and moves around the table. On your turn you can fold to give up the hand, call to match the bet, or raise to make it bigger. If nobody has bet yet, you can check and pass without betting.

Then three cards go face up in the middle, the flop, and betting starts again. A fourth card, the turn, is followed by another round of betting. The fifth and last card, the river, brings the last round.

How a hand ends

If everyone else folds, the last player left wins the pot without showing a card. Otherwise there is a showdown. Everyone still in turns their cards up, and the best five-card hand made from their two cards and the five in the middle wins the pot. Then the dealer disc moves one seat to the left and a new hand starts.

A short example

You hold the ace of spades and the king of diamonds. The flop comes ace of hearts, 7 of clubs, 2 of diamonds, which gives you a pair of aces with a king beside it. You bet and one player calls. The turn is the 9 of spades and the river the 4 of clubs, and you bet again and are called. At the showdown the other player turns up the queen of hearts and the jack of clubs: no pair, only ace high with the ace in the middle. Your pair of aces wins the pot.