How a hand runs

Every hand starts with the button, a disc that marks the dealer’s seat. In a card room or online a house dealer does the dealing, but the button still sets the order of play, and it moves one seat to the left after each hand.

The two players to the left of the button post forced bets before any cards are dealt. The first posts the small blind, usually half the big blind; the next posts the big blind. The blinds give everyone something to play for. Without them, you could sit and wait all night for aces.

Because the big blind is the basic bet, players use it as a unit. A £200 stack in a £1/£2 game is 100 big blinds, written 100 bb, and a raise to £5 is 2.5 bb. Thinking in big blinds means a spot is the same spot at any stake.

Tip: When someone says they are “100 deep”, they mean 100 big blinds.

Each player is dealt two cards face down, the hole cards. Then come up to four rounds of betting, called streets.

• Preflop: just your two cards. The betting starts with the player to the left of the big blind, the seat called under the gun.
• The flop: three cards dealt face up in the middle. These shared cards are the board.
• The turn: a fourth board card.
• The river: the fifth and last board card.

From the flop on, the first player still in the hand to the left of the button acts first, and the button, if it is still in, acts last. Before the flop the blinds act last, because they have already put chips in.

If two or more players are still in after the river betting, it’s the showdown. The hands are shown, and the best five-card hand, made from any of your two cards and the five on the board, wins the pot.

On your turn you have up to five choices, depending on whether anyone has bet.

• Check: pass without betting. You can only check when nobody has bet on this street.
• Bet: put chips in when nobody has yet.
• Call: match the bet in front of you.
• Raise: make the bet bigger, so the others must put in more to stay.
• Fold: give up the hand, and anything you have put in.

Going all-in is a bet, call or raise of every chip you have. A raise is usually said as a total: “raise to 9” means 9 bb for the street in all, not 9 more. Each raise must be at least as big as the last bet or raise on that street, and the smallest one allowed is a min-raise.

Before the flop the words shift a little, because the big blind already counts as a bet. The first player to raise opens the pot. A player who only calls the big blind limps. A re-raise of the open is a 3-bet, and a re-raise of that is a 4-bet.

At the showdown, each player makes the best five-card hand they can from their two cards and the five on the board, using both of their own cards, one or neither. There are nine kinds of hand, and each beats every kind below it.

When two players hold the same kind of hand, the higher cards win: a pair of kings beats a pair of queens. If those match too, the best other card, the kicker, decides. On A♦J♣8♠5♥3♦ace of diamonds, jack of clubs, 8 of spades, 5 of hearts, 3 of diamonds, A♠K♦ace of spades, king of diamonds beats A♣Q♥ace of clubs, queen of hearts: both make a pair of aces, and the king outranks the queen.

Tip: An ace counts high or low in a straight, so 5♠4♥3♦2♣A♠5 of spades, 4 of hearts, 3 of diamonds, 2 of clubs, ace of spades is the lowest straight. A royal flush, ace down to 10 in one suit, is simply the best straight flush.

Notice who acted when. Before the flop the big blind acted last; after it, first. And the cutoff, who raised before the flop, bet the flop as well: that is a continuation bet.

If everyone else folds, the last player left wins the pot without showing. Most pots are won that way: not at a showdown, but by a bet nobody calls.

A player who is all-in can only win as much from each opponent as they put in themselves. If the others keep betting, the extra goes into a side pot between them. A tie splits the pot. Suits never break a tie: only the best five cards count, so a kicker matters only when it is one of them.

The Analyser follows the same order. In the Table panel you enter your two cards, then the board, flop, turn and river, as the hand goes on. In Spot you enter the pot before the bet, the bet to you (0 means you can check), your stack behind and how many opponents you have, all in big blinds.

Set the game, the table size and your seat, and PokerIQ names the seats as this course does. The Hand and outs panel names your best hand as each card goes in, and Odds and value shows what calling or checking is worth.

Tip: If a word in a later lesson trips you up, every term has its own entry in the glossary.

ButtonSmall blindBig blindStreetsUnder the gunCheckBetCallRaiseFoldAll-inMin-raiseOpenLimp3-bet4-betShowdownHand rankingsKickerContinuation betBehind