Betting
Basics
So, how do you bet? Poker is, after all, a gambling game. In most games, you must 'ante' (amount varies by game, deal will call the amount before dealing), just to get dealt cards. After that players bet into the pot in the middle of the table. At the end of the hand,The winner of the game wins the pot. Winners vary by games played.
Basically. Betting is typically done in clockwise order. When its your turn to bet you have one of three choices:
- Call
- When you call, you bet enough to match what has been bet since the last time you bet (for instance, if you bet a dime last time, and someone else bet a quarter, you would owe fifteen cents).
- Raise
- When you raise, you first bet enough to match what has been bet since the last time you bet (as in calling), then you 'raise' the bet another amount (up to you, but there is typically a limit.) Continuing the above example, if you had bet a dime, the other person raised you fifteen cents (up to a quarter), you might raise a quarter (up to fifty cents). It is recommended to have a limit on the number of rasies allowed. I recommend 3 raises.
- Fold
- When you fold, you drop out of the current hand (losing any possibility of winning the pot), but you don't have to put any money into the pot.
Some Standard Betting Rules
In my games we play nickel, dime, quarter poker. Ante is between 5 and 25 cents. We have a max raise of 25 cents and only 3 raises allowed. This makes for a friendly game where no one gets hurts.