Monday, September 14, 2009

Tournament Poker Rules

By Michelle Mitamura

Among the first known card games to use batting and ranking began in Germany around the 15th century and was called Pochspiel. Evidence also exists that there was a game called "Poque," played in France. It may be that these earlier games influenced poker's development. Today, it's played worldwide. In 1970, it became popular to play the modern poker tournament, especially in American casinos, after the advent of the World Series of Poker. With tournament play came a new set of standard rules that were universal and would determine how the game was played.

Having explained the game's history, let us talk about the rules of tournament play. Poker is a game that like many other family of games that have a set of betting rules and hand rankings. It differs from other card games on how the cards are dealt and hands are formed. Also, it has its own rules for how many rounds of betting are allowed and what the limits may be. In the first round, the bets are kind of forced. The action proceeds to the left. Each player then either matches the last highest bet or folds their hand. The person who matched the bet has the option to raise the bet. Each player then has to either match the bet or fold. When all but one player is left in a round, the remaining last player collects the pot. If more than one player is left after the final bets have been placed, the hands are revealed by each player and the winning hand takes the pot.

Poker tournaments begin when they are promptly scheduled. Seats are assigned randomly and players cannot change them. Seat one's player is also the dealer and play begins. The tournament is at its end when one player collects the pot. Some tournaments can be satellite tournaments, which means that the tournament is played at more than one site. In that case, that particular tournament ends when the required number of players has qualified for the event (in other words, if the tournament gives four seats, the tournament ends with four players left).

Most tournaments will have the dealer designation moving clockwise, over to the next player, at every round. No player is dealer for more than one hand before the dealer button is passed on. When two players are remaining, the button will post a small blind, and act first in the opening round. Players cannot bow out in favor of another person. There can be some small talk, light conversation, jovial remarks, etc., but civility must remain at all times and players cannot talk about what they have in their hands or reveal their cards.

Those who play poker feel that it's different from other gambling games because of the betting system it uses. There are initial forced bets, but other than that, players who think that there will be a positive expected value from this placement only place money in the pot in voluntary fashion. What that means is that it's certainly true that the outcomes of single hands are determined by chance; however, the tournament itself has players' expectations determined mostly by how they act, based upon probability and psychology.

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