Ring Games

Ring games or cash games as they are commonly known are played using real money as opposed to tournaments that use chips at the tables. Below you will find the standard rules for poker cash games.

SIT DOWN
Up to 10 players plus a dealer are seated around a table.

DEALER BUTTON
In front of one of the players is a round disc or button. This disc determines the order of betting (posting the blinds) and moves to the left one player at a time, after each hand.

POST BLINDS
Before the cards are dealt at the beginning of each hand, the two players directly to the left of the dealer button must post "blinds". To post a blind is to place a bet before getting cards.
The player to the immediate left of the dealer button posts the "small blind," equal to half of the minimum bet (Example: $5 for a $10 / $20 game). The player to the left of the small blind posts the "big blind," equal to the amount of the minimum bet (Example: $10 for a $10 / $20 game).

POCKET CARDS
Once the blinds have been posted, the first round of cards is dealt. These consist of two or more cards face down to each player and are called the "pocket cards". Each player can see his or her own pocket cards.

Then the first round of betting takes place, beginning with the player immediately to the left of the big blind and continuing in a clockwise direction around the table.

BETTING
Bet amounts are fixed by the table stakes. For example, in a $3 / $6 table, bets are $3 in the first two rounds and $6 in the last two. The bet amount can climb a maximum of 3 times in each round of betting. In other words, there can be one bet and three raises in each round. When playing in no limit (NL) games you have the ability to raise the maximum number of chips you have brought to the table. Conversely pot limit games (PL) enable you to make a bet equivalent to the size of the pot.