In poker, a dominating hand is one with an overwhelming statistical advantage over another specific hand. For example, in Seven-card stud, while a Starting hand of K♠ K♥ Q♦ has the lead over A♦ K♦ 10♥, the latter has many outs (ways to improve) to beat the former (catching an ace, the straight, the flush, etc.), making it a roughly even contest. However, the first hand dominates in a contest with a hand like Q♥ Q♠ J♣, because this hand has no ways to improve that the first one doesn’t also have (two pair, trips, straight), and the first hand has some of the second hand’s outs as well (unseen cards include two kings, but only one queen), giving it a significant advantage.This concept is most important in no limit play, where it is possible to bet all your money early in the hand. One must judge not only whether your opponent’s hand might be better than yours, but whether or not it might dominate yours to such a degree that long-run fluctuations of luck will amplify the consequences of a mistaken play rather than mitigating them.
One of the things that makes no limit Texas hold ‘em strategically rich and interesting is the unusual relationship of advantage and dominance among various Starting hands. For example, the hand A♣ K♦ is a slight favorite over J♠ 10♠; this hand is a slight favorite over ♠ 4♣; and in a non-transitive relationship, the fours are a small favorite over A♣ K♦. None of these hands dominates any other, but A♣ K♦does dominate A♥ Q♦, ♠ 4♣ is dominated by ♠ ♥, and J♠ 10♠ is dominated by Q♣ J♣.
Casino war is a casino card game based on the children’s game of War. The game is arguably one of the most easily understood casino card games, but it also has a relatively large house edge compared to other games.The game is normally played with six standard 52 card decks. The cards are ranked in the same way that cards in poker games are ranked, except that aces are always high.
The deal
After the player has placed a bet, the dealer and the player are each dealt one card.
If the player’s card is ranked higher than the dealer’s, the player wins even money.
If the dealer’s card is ranked higher than the player’s, the player loses the bet to the house.
Ties
A tie occurs when the dealer and the player each have cards of the same rank. In a tie situation, the player has two options:
The player can surrender, in which case the player loses half the bet.
The player can go to war, in which case the player must place an additional wager the same size as the first wager.
Going to war
If the player goes to war, the dealer burns three cards before dealing each of them an additional card. If the player’s card is ranked higher than or the same as the dealer’s, then the player wins an amount equal to the size of the original bet only. If the dealer’s card is ranked higher than the player’s, the player loses both the original bet and the “going to war” bet.
House advantage
The dealer and the player each have a 50% chance of winning, so this seems like an even money game. The house advantage, however, comes from what happens in the case of a tie.
Some casinos offer a bonus payout in the event of a tie after going to war.
The house advantage increases with the number of decks in play and decreases in casinos who offer a bonus payout. The house advantage for this game is over 2%.
Strategy
Surrendering has a slightly higher advantage for the house, so a player should never surrender.
References
Brisman, Andrew. American Mensa Guide to Casino Gambling: Winning Ways (Stirling, 1999) ISBN 080694837X
In poker, the dead man’s hand is a two-pair hand, namely “aces and eights.” The origin of the name is the five-card-draw hand held by Wild Bill Hickok at the time of his murder, which is accepted to have included the aces and eights of both of the black suits (sometimes considered “bullets”).
There are various claims as to the identity of Hickok’s fifth card, and there is also some reason to believe that he had discarded one card, the draw was interrupted by the shooting, and he never got the fifth card due to him.
The Stardust in Las Vegas had a 5 of diamonds on display as the 5th card; in the HBO television series Deadwood, a 9 of diamonds is used; the modern town of Deadwood, South Dakota also uses the 9 of diamonds in displays; and Ripley’s Believe it or Not shows a queen of clubs.
The hand in popular culture
This ominous hand is sometimes used as a portent of death in songs, books and in movies that include
Stagecoach (where a doomed character held the ace of diamonds in place of one black ace, and the queen of hearts as fifth card)
The Plainsman (where Gary Cooper as Hickok held the king of spades as the fifth card)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (in Ken Kesey’s novel McMurphy has a dead man’s hands tattoo)
The collectible card game Doomtown defines a Dead Man’s Hand as having the Jack of Diamonds as the fifth card. In this game, it is considered to outrank any other poker hand, unless an opponent plays the card “That’s Two Pair!” to reduce its rank.
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and
Dick Tracy
Along Came a Spider
A Party Poker ad shows a man playing poker against an opponent holding a dead man’s hand with a Five of Diamonds as the fifth card. The camera then pans out to show that the setting is a morgue and the player holding the dead man’s hand is a corpse
Dead Man’s Hand is the name of a first-person shooter for the XBox set in the Old West, which features train trips and shoot-outs on horseback.
Dead Man’s Hand Popular Rockabilly band which originated in Jacksonville, FL and later relocated to Los Angeles known for their blues-rich sound and driving rhythm. Their 1999 full length album, Days You Loved Me, won much acclaim amongst critics and roots music enthusiasts alike.
Bob Dylan’s 1962 song “Rambling Gambling Willie” shows the tradition in these lines:
It was late one evenin’ during a poker game.
A man lost all his money; he said Willie was to blame.
He shot poor Willie through the head, which was a tragic fate.
When Willie’s cards fell on the floor, they were aces backed with eights.
And, in the next verse:
So all you rovin’ gamblers, wherever you might be,
The moral of this story is very plain to see.
Make your money while you can, before you have to stop,
For when you pull that dead man’s hand, your gamblin’ days are up.
Bob Seger’s 1980 song “Fire Lake” make reference to the legend in these lines:
Who wants to play those eights and aces
Who wants a raise
Who needs a stake
Who wants to take that long shot gamble
And head out to fire lake
Motörhead mentions the hand in their 1980 song Ace of Spades in the final verse:
Pushing up the ante, I know you’ve got to see me,
Read ‘em and weep, the Dead Man’s Hand again,
I see it in your eyes, take one look and die,
The only thing you see, you know it’s gonna be,
The Ace Of Spades
Uncle Kracker has based an entire song on the hand, entitled Aces and Eights, where in the refrain, he repeats the lines:
Aces and eights, aces and eights, aces and eights
That’s a dead man’s hand
In Nelson DeMille’s novel The Charm School, the school in question is a Soviet prison camp for American military personnel missing in action forced to serve as role models for future spies, who live with them in a complete simulation of American everyday culture. The prisoners have secretly agreed among themselves on false customs they will teach in order to sabotage their students’ future missions, and DeMille reveals this fact to the reader by describing a poker game where a two-pair hand has just been declared, and a prisoner misleads a student by inappropriately describing it as the dead man’s hand.
Adapting to 7-card games
In five-card games, this category of hands can be succinctly defined as two aces, two eights, and one card of any remaining rank, regardless of suit. In seven-card games, a strict specification of aces and eights is more complicated: in permitting the existence of two pairs, a five-card hand as described also rules out any higher value. Among seven-card hands, as a contrasting example, any with two aces, two eights, and three cards with one other rank in common always provides both two pair and a full house, so a competent player would always set aside the eights and declare the full house; most players would probably thus not consider it a dead man’s hand, any more than they would so consider a full house with aces and eights.
The World Poker Tour Walk of Fame is designed to honor those poker players who have played the game well at the highest levels as well as those who have promoted the spread of it through film, television, and literature. It was started in 2004.In February 2004, The World Poker Tour Walk of Fame inducted its first members at the Commerce Casino in a ceremony before top pros and celebrities in town for the World Poker Tour Invitational Poker Tournament. The induction ceremony was staged on the doorstep of Commerce Casino, the Los Angeles region’s most prestigious gaming establishment and full service entertainment/hotel complex. Poker room to the stars of Hollywood, Commerce Casino has a rich history of poker in Southern California dating back to 1983.
No new players have been inducted since 2004.
The inductees, along with the year they were inducted are as follows:
In poker, players may often use slang terms for particular types of hands. Though most are recent neologisms, others date to poker’s antiquity. All such slang terms typically connect a common concept (from life experience or storytelling) to the hand, in order to more easily characterize its general status relative to other hands. The terms range from whimsical to bawdy, with some being of a racist, sexist, homophobic, or otherwise controversial nature.
The following lists should not be confused with “official” poker terminology.
Individual card slang
The following table lists slang terms commonly associated with individual cards:
Card
Slang name
A
Bullet, Rocket
K
Cowboy
K♥
Alexander
K♦
Ceasar
K♠
David
K♣
Charles (Charlemagne)
Q
Lady, Bitch, Girl, Cowgirl, Mop Squeezer
Q♥
Judith (may come from Bible)
Q♦
Rachel (may come from Bible)
Q♠
Black Bitch
J
Johnny, Jackal, Knave, Hook (play on shape), Valet (from French)
T
Dime
Snowman (play on shape), Ocho (from Spanish)
Hockey Stick,Walking Stick, Candy Cane (play on shape)
Nickel
Sailboat (play on shape)
Trey (standard usage, not slang), Crab (play on shape)
Deuce (standard usage, not slang), Duck (play on deuce), Quacker (play on duck)
Five-card hand slang
Hand
Slang name
Straight flush, ace to five
Steel wheel
Four of a kind
Book, Quads (e.g., “Quad Kings”)
Four of a kind, aces
Four Pips (Each ace has one pip)
Full house
Full boat, Boat, Full
A full house is commonly referred to as Xs full of Ys where X is the three of a kind and Y is the pair. For example, 555KK would be “fives full of kings”
Flush of hearts or diamonds
Pink, All Pink
Flush of clubs or spades
Blue, All Blue
Flush of clubs
Golf Bag, Puppy Feet, Puppy Toes, Pups
Straight, ten to ace
Broadway
Straight, ace to five
Wheel, Bicycle, Bike
Three of a kind
Trips (or Trip as in Ted has trip kings.), Set
In Hold ‘em the term “set” refers to when a player has a pair in the hole and one matching card on the board, with “trips” referring to a pair on the board and one in the hand or three of a kind on the board.
Three of a kind, kings
Klan Rally, Alabama Night Riders, Three Wise Men
Three of a kind, sixes
Devil’s hand, Mark of the Beast (referring to the Number of the Beast in the Book of Revelation)
Two pair, aces and eights
Dead Man’s Hand (hand held by Wild Bill Hickok when he was shot and killed)
Two pair
Two pair is commonly shorthanded as Xs up or Xs over Ys, with the top pair as X and the bottom pair as Y. For example, KK998 would be “kings up” or “kings over nines”.)
One pair, aces
Aces and spaces (a hand with one pair of aces, and nothing else. Used derogatorily, especially in games such as seven-card stud, where two pair is a typical winning hand)
Outside straight draw
Bobtail, Open-ended
An outside straight draw: cards of two different ranks could complete the high or low end of the straight (e.g., _3456_)
Outside straight flush draw
Big Bobtail
Inside straight draw
Gutshot, Belly buster
An inside straight draw: only cards of a single rank could complete the straight (e.g., 34_67)
Double inside straight draw
Double gutshot, Double belly buster
Double inside straight draw: cards of two different ranks could fill gaps in the straight (e.g., 2_456_8)
Texas hold’em slang
The following refer to hole (pocket) cards in Texas hold ‘em:
Starting hand
Slang name
AA
Pocket Rockets, American Airlines, Bullets, Two Pips
AK
Big Slick (originally referred to A♠K♠, but the name has become common for any Ace-King, especially suited), Anna Kournikova (looks good but rarely wins), Machine Gun (AK-47), Walking Back to Houston (“I can see you learned to play in Houston. Those Houston players would come to Dallas and play that ace-king, but they’d always end up against a pair of aces. That’s why we call that hand ‘Walking back to Houston.’” – T.J. Cloutier, quoted by Barry Greenstein)
AQ
Little Slick, Big Chick, Mrs. Slick
AJ
Blackjack, Ajax
A8
Dead Man’s Hand (by analogy with Wild Bill’s aces and eights)
A3
Baskin-Robbins (plays off the number 31: 31 Flavors), Friday The 13th (An ace played low would be considered equivalent to 1)
For example, a starting hand of 8-8 might be called “wired eights” or “eights wired”
In addition, two types of hands are called “blackjack hands”:
Hands which are naturals in blackjack: any ace with any face or ten.
Hands whose numeric total is 11: 9-2, 8-3, 7-4, 6-5. (In blackjack, such hands are very good for players.)
Omaha slang
Omaha slang is not as well developed as Texas Hold’em. The game is not as widely played, and there is a much greater variety of hands, since the pocket is four cards. In the hole in Omaha hold’em:
Hand
Slang name
A-K-4-7
Assault Rifle
Flop slang
The following terms refer to the flop in Omaha hold’em and Texas hold’em:
Flop
Slang name
Three different suits
Rainbow
Three face cards
Paint (can also be used to refer to any picture card. I need to hit paint indicates somebody who is looking for a J,Q,K.)
Three low cards
Rags, Ragged flop (cards unlikely to have helped anyone)
The Poker Hall of Fame is a group of poker players who have played poker well against top competition for high stakes over a long period of time. Originally established by the Horseshoe Casino, membership is now awarded by Harrah’s World Series of Poker.Members of the Poker Hall of Fame include (with year of induction):
Johnny Moss, 1979
“Nick the Greek” Dandolos, 1979
Felton “Corky” McCorquodale, 1979
Red Winn, 1979
Sid Wyman, 1979
“Wild Bill” Hickok, 1979
Edmond Hoyle, 1979
T. “Blondie” Forbes, 1980
Bill Boyd, 1981
Tom Abdo, 1982
Joe Bernstein, 1983
Murph Harrold, 1984
Red Hodges, 1985
Henry Green, 1986
Walter Clyde “Puggy” Pearson, 1987
Doyle Brunson, 1988
Jack “Treetop” Straus, 1988
Fred “Sarge” Ferris, 1989
Benny Binion, 1990
“Chip” Reese, 1991
“Amarillo Slim” Preston, 1992
Jack Keller, 1993
Little Man Popwell, 1996
Roger Moore, 1997
Stu Ungar, 2001
Lyle Berman, 2002
Johnny Chan, 2002
Bobby Baldwin, 2003
Berry Johnston, 2004
Jack Binion, 2005
Crandell Addington, 2005
T. J. Cloutier, 2006
Billy Baxter, 2006
Barbara Enright, 2007
Phil Hellmuth, 2007
Ace Invaders is a three line video poker game produced by International Gaming Technology. The game plays like other multi line video poker games except the bottom line is a Bonus Poker game, while the top two lines are both stud poker based games. The pay schedule for the Bonus Poker game on the bottom line offers a greater than 200% payout percentage (if one plays all three lines), but this is compensated for by the lower payout percentage on the stud poker games on the top two lines.Another feature unique to the Ace Invaders game is the gameplay. The bottom line is dealt and played as a draw poker hand, just like in a standard Jacks or Better game, and the player chooses which cards to keep and discard. Then the game deals the replacement cards, but unlike other video poker games, Ace Invaders doesn’t pay immediately. First the game checks the top line for a paying combination, then pays out for that. Then, if any of the cards in the top line are aces or would help create a royal flush in the second line, they drop down and become part of the hand on the second line. This process repeats itself on the second line, paying out, then checking to see if the cards would help complete a royal flush on the first line, and then drops those cards down again before finally paying out on the first line.
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Kentucky Seizes Gambling Domains MHB The seizure was taken after the Commonwealth found that the “domains were being used in connection with illegal gambling activity”. The domains seized include:. fulltiltpoker.com. indiancasino.com. bet21.com. allslots.com. bodoglife.com … Kentucks Seizes 141 Gambling Domain Names Chad Kettner There were a number of popular gambling sites listed for seizure including PokerStars.com, FullTiltPoker.com, BodogLife.com, GoldenPalace.com, Bet21.com, DoylesRoom.com and also Rick Schwartz’ IndianCasino.com. …
KY governor after online gambling domains maconlinepoker To be very frank and honest, this is not a good news at all for online gambling industry. US Kentucky state governor, Steve Beshear is trying all his efforts to crack down online gambling industry and in oder to boost offline local … NBA Ref Starts Prison Term for Gambling The NBA referee who admitted gambling on basketball begins his 15-month federal prison sentence today, reports USA Today . The conviction of referee Tim Donaghy, 41, has rocked the NBA, even though officials determined he didn’t bet on …
Bingo Betting gamblingguide online gambling has typically been a mans world (sorry for the huge generalisation but this is a blog after all). Perhaps the influx of Bingo sites will even that up slightly. Certainly Bingo seems to be a more social than playing a … Judge Tosses Gambling Attorney’s $20 Million Lawsuit Against Casinos Law.com – Newswire A federal judge has dismissed a $20 million racketeering lawsuit against seven casinos by a former New York City attorney who said they had a duty to stop her from gambling. The judge wrote that Arelia Margarita Taveras failed to …
Responsible Gaming – Psychology of a Gambler To be honest, gambling gets a bad rap, especially when you consider that it’s one of the prime driving forces of humanity. Nobody has ever gotten rich by playing it safe, and if you have a stock portfolio, you’ve bet your money that … Seniors Doubt Study’s Finding of Gambling Problems Wholesale Bingo Supplies Blog – Bingo Bob But a new gambling study published in the journal Psychology and Aging suggests not all senior citizens have Fava’s self-control. It concludes the elderly are more likely to develop gambling problems than younger people. …
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The blinds is a term used to describe the two forced bets posted by players to the left of the dealer in flop-style poker games.
The blinds exist because Omaha and Texas hold ‘em are generally played without antes, allowing a player to fold his hand without placing a bet. The blind bets introduce a regular cost to partake in the game, thus inducing a player enter pots in an attempt to compensate for the expense.
Generally, the “big blind” is equal to the minimum bet, and is twice as much as the “small blind”. The small blind is posted by the player to the left of the dealer button while the big blind is posted by the player two to the left of the dealer button. After the cards are dealt, the player to the left of the big blind is the first to act during the first betting round.
The game of poker (or at least most of the variants) is considered to be computationally intractable. However, methods are being developed to at least approximate perfect strategy from the combinatorial game theory perspective in the heads-up (two player) game, and increasingly good systems are being created for the multi-player or ring game. Perfect strategy has multiple meanings in this context. From a game-theoretic optimal point of view, a perfect strategy is a minimax one that cannot expect to lose to any other player’s strategy; however, optimal strategy can vary in the presence of sub-optimal players who have weaknesses that can be exploited. In this case, a perfect strategy would be one that correctly or closely models those weaknesses and takes advantage of them to make a profit. Some of these systems are based on Bayes theorem, Nash equilibrium, Monte Carlo simulation and Neural networks. A large amount of the research is being done at the University of Alberta by the GAMES group led by Jonathan Schaeffer who developed Poki and PsOpt. The Poki engine has been licensed for the entertainment game STACKED featuring Canadian poker player Daniel Negreanu.One major aspect of poker is being a game of imperfect information. Some cards in play are concealed, so the players cannot deduce the exact state the game is in. This fundamentally differs from games like chess where all information about the game’s current state is public. A major part of the skill of live poker games, however, is guessing at the strength of a player’s hand by identifying tells made by other players, while concealing one’s own. As a computer would not make any physical tells, playing against a computer would necessitate reading tells only from the bets placed. Once the ‘mind’ of the computer is known it can exploited.
Although you cannot read a computer opponent, playing against computer opponents can still help you sharpen your skills by learning how to count outs and play the percentages. With the advancing technology of artificial intelligence, computer players can be created to incorporate bluffs and other human-like decisions.
Pokerbots are bots or computer programs that play online poker disguised as a human opponent. Online poker rooms prohibit the use of bots like WinHoldEm.
In a fixed-limit poker game, a big bet (BB) is the larger of two fixed bet amounts. A big bet is used in the final rounds of a game to increase the pot amount and thereby enable the possibility of a bluff. Big bets are generally double the wager of the initial or small bet. Any multi-round poker game can use big bets to standardize wagers while maintaining a sufficient risk-ratio to encourage bluffing. Casino poker tables use big bets to set a limit to the amount of money a patron can lose in each wager.
Statistical Analysis
Big bets are used in place of variable limit raises to add considerable risk to staying in a game until a hand is shown. This added risk enables other players to bluff or to win a considerable pot when proving that they weren’t bluffing. Other methods of adding structure to poker games include buy-in limits and maximum raise limits. Some sort of table or bet limits are required in poker to keep a person with the “deepest pockets” from “buying the game.”
Examples
While any multi-round poker game can use big bets, the unlimited buy-in nature of casino style play is best suited for BB limits. Casinos can advertise the relatively low maximum wager of the BB as a way of attracting players, and players can join the table at any time.
Casino style draw poker
Big bets are used in draw poker during the final round of betting to weed out tentative players. In theory, only those committed to their hand after seeing their final cards will be motivated to wager twice as much as their previous bet. In practice, however, additional motivation for players to fold is usually needed in a single draw game such as: a half-pot limit, a pot limit, or a spread limit. No limit poker is only employed when table limits are imposed, thereby disallowing casino guests to join the table after play has started.
Texas hold ‘em
In a $2/$4 Texas hold ‘em game, the big bet would be $4, wagered in each bet of the last two cards. The $2 would be the small bet, wagered during all other bets of the game. Given that a small bet is generally half of a big bet and that a small blind is generally half of the small bet, the minimum BB in casino style holdem is four cents. On the other side of the scale, the largest required BB in regular play is that of $8000 at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. At this table, professionals like Doyle Brunson, Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, Chau Giang, and Gus Hansen, along with wealthy tourists, are required to wager $8000 in each bet of each of the final two rounds of the game.
Omaha hold ‘em
Big Bets are used in Omaha poker to allow buy-ins of players at any time. The American casino variant of Omaha, called Omaha Eight-or-Better has a greater odds of winning and therefore less motivation to fold with a tentative hand. For that reason Omaha Eight-or-Better is sometimes played in a pot limit betting structure instead of big bets.
Casino style seven-card stud
Big bets are used in seven-card stud, generally after the last upcard, to motivate tentative players who already have a lot of money in the pot to fold anyway. By the last upcard, seven-card stud players have wagered an ante and three rounds of betting. With that much money already in the pot, there is little motivation to drop out during the final two rounds of betting, especially when there is a possibility that another player may be bluffing. The effect of adding the requirement of a big bet to the final two rounds of seven-card stud betting is that the game becomes one more of skill than of luck.
Betting limits apply to the amount a player may open or raise, and come in four common forms: no limit, pot limit (the two collectively called big bet poker), fixed limit, and spread limit.
All such games have a minimum bet as well as the stated maximums, and also commonly a betting unit, which is the smallest denomination in which bets can be made. For example, it is common for games with $20 and $40 betting limits to have a minimum betting unit of $5, so that all bets must be in multiples of $5, to simplify game play. It is also common for some games to have a bring-in that is less than the minimum for other bets. In this case, players may either call the bring-in, or raise to the full amount of a normal bet, called completing the bet.
Outside of the United States, pot-limit and no-limit games are the most common. Many American home games are played with a spread limit, while casino games are often played with spread or fixed limits, though many casinos may have pot-limit or no-limit games as well. Fixed-limit and spread-limit games emphasise the skill of estimating odds, whereas pot-limit and no-limit games emphasize the skills of game theory and psychology. Almost all poker players believe that pot-limit and no-limit poker involve more skill than fixed-limit play. A few prominent players, most notably Mason Malmuth, believe that the richer tactics make fixed limit more skilled. Although the main event at the World Series of Poker is played no limit, most high stakes cash games are fixed limit, so it is unclear which format is the experts’ choice.
Fixed limit
In a game played with a fixed-limit betting structure, a player chooses only whether to bet or not – the amount is fixed by rule. To enable the possibility of bluffing, the fixed amount generally doubles at some point in the game. This double wager amount is referred to as a big bet.
For example, a four-round game called “20 and 40 limit” (usually written as $20/$40) may specify that each bet in the first two rounds is $20, and that each big bet used in the third and fourth rounds is $40. This amount applies to each raise, not the total amount bet in a round, so a player may bet $20, be raised $20, and then re-raise another $20, for a total bet of $60, in such a game.
Maximum number of raises
Most fixed-limit games will not allow more than a predefined number of raises in a betting round. The maximum number of raises depends on the casino house rules, and is usually posted conspicuously in the card room. Typically, an initial bet plus three raises, or a bet and four raises, are allowed.
Consider this example in a $20/$40 game, with a posted limit of a bet and three raises. During a $20 round with three players, play could proceed as follows:
Player A bets $20.
Player B puts in another bet, raises another $20, making it $40 to play.
Player C puts in a third bet, raising another $20 on that, thus making it $60 to play.
Player A puts in the fourth bet (she is usually said to cap the betting).
Once Player A has made her final bet, Players B and C may only call another two and one bets (respectively); they may not raise again because the betting is capped.
A common exception in this rule practiced in some card rooms is to allow unlimited raising when a pot is played heads up (when only two players are in the hand at the start of the betting round). Usually, this has occurred because all other players have folded, and only two remain. Many card rooms will permit these two players to continue re-raising each other until one player is all in.
Kill game
Sometimes a fixed-limit game is played as a kill game. Such a game is played with an additional blind, called the kill blind. The kill blind can be posted from any position at the table. The amount posted is typically twice the typical blind for that game. For example, in a $20/$40 game, the large blind is typically $20. If this game were played with a full kill, the kill blind would be $40. It is also common to find a game with a half kill. For example, when the kill is active in $4/$8 game with a half kill, the game is played at a $6/$12 limit. When the kill blind is posted, it changes the stakes of the game. For that hand, the game is played as if the game were a higher limit. In a $20/$40 game with a full kill blind posted, the hand is played as if the limit were $40/$80. The kill is said to be active when the kill blind is posted and the game is played at the higher limit.
Rules on how the kill is activated vary. On the east coast of the USA, the kill is typically activated by the previous pot being over a particular value. The most typical value is ten times the value of the large bet (in a $20/$40 game, the kill would be active if the previous pot won was greater than $400). The winner of that pot is required to post the kill blind for the next hand. In the Pacific Northwest of the USA, a kill is typically activated when a particular player wins two pots in a row. After that player wins her second pot, she is required to post a kill blind and the kill is active for the next hand.
The term kill, when used in this context, should not be confused with killing a hand, which is a term used for a hand that was made a dead hand by action of a game official.
Spread limit
A game played with a spread-limit betting structure allows a player to raise any amount within a specified range.
For example, a game called “one to five limit” allows each bet to be anywhere from $1 to $5 (subject to other betting rules). These limits are typically larger in later rounds of multi-round games. For example, a game might be “one to five, ten on the end”, meaning that early betting rounds allow bets of $1 to $5, and the last betting round allows bets of $1 to $10.
Pot limit
A game played with a pot-limit betting structure allows any player to raise up to an amount equal to the size of the whole pot before the raise.
For example, let us assume that there is $10 in the pot at the start of a betting round. The first player may open the betting for up to $10. If he does in fact open for $10, the next player may raise to $40 (after calling the $10 bet, the total amount of the pot is $30, so he may raise $30). The third player would be entitled to raise to $140 (after calling $40, the pot would contain $100, thus he may raise $100). Any player may also raise less than the maximum so long as the amount of the raise is equal to or greater than any previous bet or raise in the same betting round.
Some pot-limit games make exceptions to the method described above when calculating the maximum raise in the betting round before the flop:
Some structures treat the little blind as if it were the same size of the big blind in computing pot size. In such a structure, a player can open for a maximum of four times the size of the big blind. For example, if the blinds are $5 and $10, a player may open with a raise to $40. (The range of options is to either open with a call of $10, or raise in increments of five dollars to any amount from $20 to $40.) Subsequent players also treat the $5 as if it were $10 in computing the pot size, until the big blind is through acting on the first betting round.
If the action folds all the way around to the small blind, the maximum amount the small blind can raise is also not universally agreed upon. Some games treat the big blind as a “raise” of the small blind for the purpose of calculating the maximum raise—the small blind is allowed to call the big blind, and then make a pot sized raise of twice the big blind, for a total bet of three times the big blind. Other games treat the blinds as dead money for the purpose of caclulating the raise, and allow the small blind to make the same size raise as any other player, i.e. a total bet of three times the big blind plus the small blind.
Because of the disparity in methods of calculation, and the fact that the issue is certain to come up often, most major tournaments will announce the amount of the maximum opening raise to all players any time the betting limits are increased.
No limit
A game played with a no-limit betting structure allows each player to raise any amount of his stake at any time (subject to the table stakes rules and any other rules about raising).
All poker games require some forced bets in order to create an initial stake for the players to contest. The requirements for forced bets, and the betting limits of the game (see below) are collectively called the game’s betting structure.
Ante
An ante is a forced bet in which each player places an equal amount of money or chips into the pot before the deal begins. In games where the acting dealer changes each turn, it is not uncommon for the players to agree that the dealer provides the ante for each player. This simplifies betting, but causes minor inequities if other players come and go or miss their turn to deal.
Blinds
A blind or blind bet is a forced bet placed into the pot by one or more players before the deal begins, in a way that simulates bets made during play. The most common use of blinds as a betting structure calls for two blinds: the player after the dealer blinds about half of what would be a normal bet, and the next player blinds what would be a whole bet. Sometimes only one blind is used, and sometimes three. In the case of three blinds (usually one quarter, one quarter, and half a normal bet amount), the first blind goes “on the button”, that is, is paid by the dealer.
For example, in a $2-$4 limit game, the first player to the dealer’s left (who, if not for the blinds, would be the first to act) makes a blind bet of $1, and the next player in turn posts a big blind of $2. After the cards are dealt, play begins with the next player in turn (third from the dealer), who must either call $2, raise, or fold. When the betting returns to the player who blinded $1, he must equal the bet facing him (toward which he may count his $1), raise, or fold. If there have been no raises when action first gets to the big blind (that is, the bet amount facing him is just the amount of the big blind he posted), the big blind has the option to raise or check. This right to raise (called the option) occurs only once: if his raise is now called by every player, the first betting round closes as usual.
In some fixed-limit and spread-limit games, the big blind amount may be less than the normal betting minimum. Players acting after a sub-minimum blind have the right to call the blind as it is, even though it is less than the amount they would be required to bet, or they may raise the amount needed to bring the current bet up to the normal minimum, called completing the bet. For example, a game with a $5 fixed bet on the first round might have blinds of $1 and $2. Players acting after the blind may either call the $2, or raise to $5. After the bet is raised to $5, the next raise must be to $10 in accordance with the normal limits.
When a player in the blinds leaves the game
When one or more players in the small or big blinds leaves the game, an adjustment is required in the positioning of the blinds and the button. The two most common tournament rules for handling this situation are the dead button and the moving button rules. In online card rooms, a simplified moving button rule is usually employed. Note that other variations on these rules exist.
Dead button rule
Under the dead button rule, the big blind is posted by the player due for it, and the small blind and button are positioned accordingly, even if this means the small blind or the button is placed in front of an empty seat, giving the same player the privilege of last action on consecutive hands.
If the small blind busts out (leaves the game), the button moves to the seat vacated by the eliminated small blind. The player who was the big blind now posts the small blind and the player to his left posts the big blind. Since the button is now located at an empty seat, the player who was the button will, in effect, be the button once again.
If the big blind busts out, the button moves to the player who was the small blind and the player to the left of the eliminated big blind posts the big blind. There is no small blind for that hand. On the following deal, the button moves to the empty seat vacated by the eliminated player and the two players to the left post the normal blinds. Since the button is now located at an empty seat, the player who was the original small blind will, in effect, be the button once again.
If both blinds bust out, the same player will effectively be the button three hands in a row. The button moves to the now empty seat vacated by the eliminated small blind and the player to the left of the eliminated big blind posts the big blind. There is no small blind for that hand. On the following deal, the button moves to the next empty seat (the seat vacated by the eliminated big blind player) and the two players to the left post the normal blinds.
Moving button rule
Under the moving button rule, the button always moves forward so that a player never has the right to act last for two consecutive hands. The blinds adjust accordingly, which may result in more than one small blind, and/or more than one big blind being posted in a given hand.
These rules are always followed when assigning the blinds:
The button always moves forward to the next seat occupied by a player.
The player two seats to the left of the button always posts a big blind, as well as any players that the big blind has skipped past.
Any player that posted a big blind in the previous hand, must post a small blind.
For the following examples, consider a hand just finished with Alice, Bob, Carol, David, and Ellen seated in order after the previous hand’s dealer. Alice was the small blind in the previous hand, and Bob was the big blind.
Under normal conditions, Alice will have the button the next hand, Bob will post the small blind, and Carol will post the big blind.
If Alice busts out, or steps away from the table, the button will skip past the vacated seat to Bob. Bob will post his small blind on top of the button. Carol and David will both post big blinds.
The subsequent hand, Carol will have the button. Carol and David will both post small blinds, and Ellen will post the big blind.
If Bob busts out or leaves the table, the button will move to Alice. Carol and David will both post big blinds.
The subsequent hand, Carol will post a small blind on the button. David will post a small blind and Ellen will post the big blind.
If Alice and Bob both bust out, or step away from the game, the button will skip ahead to Carol. Carol, David, and Ellen will all post big blinds.
The subsequent hand, David will have the button. Carol will post a small blind behind the button, as well as David and Ellen posting small blinds, and the player after Ellen posting the big blind.
The moving button system can cause irregular blinds for several hands after a player leaves the game, and further complications can arise if players bust out on consecutive hands. However, the blinds will always eventually resolve to their normal positions.
Simplified moving button rule
Under the simplified moving button rule, normally used in on-line card rooms, the button always moves forward to the next player and the small and big blinds post in the two seats to the left of the button. Players may miss blinds.
When there are only two players
The normal rules for positioning the blinds do not apply when there are only two players at the table. The player on the button is always due the small blind, and the other player must pay the big blind. The player on the button is therefore the first to act before the flop, but last to act for all remaining betting rounds.
A special rule is also applied for placement of the button whenever the size of the table shrinks to two players. If three or more players are involved in a hand, and at the conclusion of the hand one or more players have busted out such that only two players remain for the next hand, the position of the button may need to be adjusted to begin heads-up play. The big blind always continues moving to the left, and then the button is positioned accordingly.
For example, in a three-handed game, Alice is the button, Bob is the small blind, and Carol is the big blind. If Alice busts out, the next hand Bob will be the big blind, and the button will skip past Bob and move to Carol. On the other hand, if Carol busts out, Alice will be the big blind, Bob will get the button and will have to pay the small blind for the second hand in a row.
Bring-ins
A bring-in is a type of forced bet that occurs after the cards are initially dealt, but before any other action. One player, usually chosen by the value of cards dealt face up on the initial deal, is forced to open the betting by some small amount, after which players act after him in normal rotation.
The bring-in is normally assigned on the first betting round of a stud poker game to the player whose upcards indicate the poorest hand. For example, in traditional high hand stud games and high-low split games, the player showing the lowest card pays the bring-in. In low hand games, the player with the highest card showing pays the bring-in. The high card by suit order can be used to break ties if necessary.
In most fixed-limit and some spread-limit games, the bring-in amount is less than the normal betting minimum. The player forced to pay the bring-in may choose either to pay only what is required or to make a normal bet. Players acting after a sub-minimum bring-in have the right to call the bring-in as it is, even though it is less than the amount they would be required to bet, or they may raise the amount needed to bring the current bet up to the normal minimum, called completing the bet. For example, a game with a $5 fixed bet on the first round might have a bring-in of $2. Players acting after the bring-in can either call the $2, or raise to $5. After the bet is raised to $5, the next raise must be to $10 in accordance with the normal limits.
In a game where the bring-in is equal to the fixed bet (this is rare and not recommended), the game must either allow the bring-in player to optionally come in for a raise, or else the bring-in must be treated as live in the same way as a blind, so that the player is guaranteed his right to raise on the first betting round if he chooses.
Straddle bets
A straddle bet is an optional (voluntary) blind bet made by a player before receiving his cards. Straddles are only used in games played with blind structures. Straddles are normally not permitted in tournament formats.
Live straddle
The player immediately to the left of the big blind may place a live straddle blind bet. The straddle must be a raise over the big blind. A straddle is a live bet; the player placing the straddle effectively becomes the “bigger blind”. Action begins with the player to the left of the straddle. If action returns to the straddle without a raise, the straddle has the option to raise. The player to the left of a live straddle may re-straddle by placing a blind bet raising the original straddle.
Mississippi straddle
A Mississippi straddle buys last action before the flop. House rules permitting Mississippi straddles are common in the southern United States. Usually, a Mississippi straddle can be made from any position, although some house rules only permit the button or the player to the right of the button to place a Mississippi straddle. Like a live straddle, a Mississippi straddle must be at least the minimum raise. Action begins with the player to the left of the straddle. If, for example (in a game with $10-$25 blinds), the button puts a live $50 on it, the first player to act would be the small blind, followed by the big blind, and so on. If action gets back to the straddle with no raise, the straddle has the option of raising. The player to the right of a Mississippi straddle may re-straddle by placing a blind bet raising the original straddle.
Sleepers
A sleeper is a blind raise placed from any position at the table other than under the gun.
Anaconda is a variety of the card game Poker, also called “Pass The Trash Poker.”
Simple Play
This version of the game is also called “3-2-1 Anaconda” or “3-2-1 Left.”
Each player is dealt 6 cards. They then each select 3 cards to be passed to the player on their left. These cards are simply set on the table near their left-most opponent. No players get to see their new 3 cards until everyone has made a pass. Afterward, the players repeat the process, only with 2 cards, then again with 1 card. Players then discard 1 card to make their best 5-card Poker hand.
In this version of the game, up to 8 people can play, passing out a total of 48 cards and having 4 left over. A 9th person can be added with the use of both Jokers as Wild cards.
Betting
Betting can be included in the simple version of the game. Set up general Poker staples such as the dealer button, blinds, and/or antes. Have a round of betting occur before the first pass of 3 cards, then again after every card pass is made, and ending with a showdown if necessary. If a player folds at anytime, then they are no longer involved in card passing.
Variations
Anaconda can be changed in many possible ways, such as:
Altering the amount of starting cards (7 cards is common).
Altering the amount of cards passed.
Altering who the cards are passed to, possibly per round.
Incorporating Joker cards.
Including only one betting round & showdown after all passing rounds.
Removing all betting rounds and playing without money/chips.
In poker, a bad beat occurs when a hand, which was at one time a big favourite to win, loses. Typically the term is only applied in this way when the player holding the eventual winning hand misplayed it spectacularly.Alternatively, the term is also applied when a particularly strong hand loses to an even stronger one. In some casinos there is a “bad beat jackpot” awarded whenever a player suffers a particular beat.
A typical example of the first type of bad beat, in No Limit Texas hold ‘em:
Alice (the hero) holds A♦ A♣ – pocket aces, the strongest possible starting hand.
Bob (the villain) holds Q♣ 8♥ – a weak hand.
The players have the same amount of chips. Before the flop, Alice raises to 15 times the big blind, placing a fifth of her stack in the pot, and only Bob calls. The flop comes A♥ 8♠ 7♠. Although Alice has the nuts at this point, making 3 aces, she is concerned about possible draws to a straight or flush, and goes all-in with a bet that is twice the size of the pot. Bizarrely, Bob, who has only middle-pair, calls.
At this point, Bob’s chances of winning are precisely 1 in 990. [1] He can only win if both the turn card and the river card are eights. Since this is a bad beat story, the turn and river naturally bring precisely that, and Bob scoops the pot, leaving Alice cursing Bob’s appalling play – he should not have called such a big bet before the flop, nor on the flop.
Reacting to bad beats
Bad beats can be infuriating, but mathematically “Alice” actually wants “Bob” to play in this manner. Bob took a gamble that should not have worked; his odds were 989-to-1 against. It worked this time, but if he continues to play in such a careless manner, he will almost certainly lose more than he wins. He is essentially giving away his money—and if Alice is careful, it will all go to her. Thus, the more stoic poker players accept bad beats as an unpleasant but necessary drawback to a tactic that works the vast majority of the time (989 of 990 instances, in this case). Nevertheless, a bad beat is often a profound psychological blow, and can easily lead to a player going on tilt. Professional player Phil Hellmuth, among others, is notorious for his pronounced reactions to bad beats.
In online poker rooms, bad beats often lead to accusations that the random number generator is “rigged”, even though such beats occur in offline games.
Bad beat jackpot
A bad beat jackpot is a prize that is paid when a sufficiently strong hand is shown down and loses to an even stronger hand held by another player. Not all poker games offer bad beat jackpots, and those that do have specific requirements for how strong a losing hand must be to qualify for the jackpot. For example, the losing hand may be required to be four-of-a-kind or better. There may be additional requirements as well. For example, in Texas hold ‘em there is usually a requirement that both hole cards play in both the losing and winning hands. These rules vary from one cardroom to the next.
Bad beat jackpots are usually progressive, often with a small rake being taken out of each pot to fund the jackpot (in addition to the regular rake). When the jackpot is won, it is usually split among all players sitting at the table at the time of the bad beat, including players that folded their hands (usually a 25% share), with the largest shares of the jackpot going to the players holding the winning (usually 25%) and losing hand (usually 50%). Because such bad beats are rare, jackpots can grow to be quite large, sometimes reaching hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Sittman and Pitt of Brooklyn, New York developed a gambling machine in 1891 that could be considered a precursor to the modern slot machine. It contained 5 drums holding a total of 50 card faces and was based on poker. This machine proved extremely popular and soon there was hardly a bar in the city that didn’t have one or more of the machines bar-side. Players would insert a nickel and press a lever, which would spin the drums and the cards they held, the player hoping for a good poker hand. There was no direct payout mechanism, so a pair of Kings might get you a free beer, whereas a Royal Flush could payout cigars or drinks, the prizes wholly dependent on what was on offer at the local establishment. In order to make the odds better for the house, two cards were typically removed from the “deck”: the Ten of Spades and the Jack of Hearts, which cut the odds of winning a Royal Flush by half. The drums could also be re-arranged to further reduce a player’s chance of winning.
The first “one-armed bandit” was invented in 1887 by Charles Fey of San Francisco, California, who devised a much simpler automatic mechanism [1]. Due to the vast number of possible wins with the original poker card-based game, it proved practically impossible to come up with a way to make a machine capable of making an automatic pay-out for all possible winning combinations. Charles Fey devised a machine with three spinning reels containing a total of five symbols – horseshoes, diamonds, spades, hearts and a Liberty Bell, which also gave the machine its name. By replacing ten cards with five symbols and using three reels instead of five drums, the complexity of reading a win was considerably reduced, allowing Fey to devise an effective automatic payout mechanism. Three bells in a row produced the biggest payoff, ten nickels. Liberty Bell was a huge success and spawned a thriving mechanical gaming device industry. Even when the use of these gambling devices was banned in his home State after a few years, Fey still couldn’t keep up with demand for the game elsewhere.
Another early machine gave out winning in the form of fruit flavoured chewing gums with pictures of the flavours as symbols on the reels. The popular cherry and melon symbols derive from this machine. The “BAR” symbol now common in slot machines was derived from an early logo of the Bell-Fruit Gum Company. In 1964, Bally developed the first fully electromechanical slot machine called Money Honey.
Blind man’s bluff is a version of poker which is unconventional in that each person sees the cards of all players except his own.The standard version (also called Indian poker) is simply high card. Each player is dealt one card which he places on his forehead facing outwards, and a round of betting occurs, as players attempt to guess if they have the highest card based on what they see around them.
Other versions (forehead stud) are variations on stud poker, in which one or more of the hole cards is hidden from its owner, but shown to all other players, as above.
During its coverage of the 2004 World Series of Poker, ESPN showed a Blind Man’s Bluff version of Texas hold’em.
Indian Poker is also an adapted drinking game, where the loser has to “chug” a beer for X seconds, where X equals the difference between the high card and the loser. If both players tie, they both drink for the amount of seconds on the card.
One’s mathematical expected value from the current deal, calculated by multiplying the amount of money in the pot by one’s probability of winning. For example, if the pot currently contains $100, and you estimate that you have a one in four chance of winning it, then your equity in the pot in $25.
expectation, expected value, EV
See expected value. Often used in poker to mean “profitability in the long run”.
exposed card
A card whose face has been deliberately or accidentally revealed to players normally not entitled to that information during the play of the game. Various games have different rules about how to handle this irregularity.
A Casino Night (also called Vegas Nights, Las Vegas Nights, Monte Carlo Nights, Casino Parties) is an entertainment event with a casino theme.
Casino Night Parties are usually tied to a fundraiser, and are often held on riverboats, in churches, hotels etc. The main objective of most casino night parties is to raise money for a specific cause (such as cancer research, community services, etc) by having each participant purchase a ticket for the event. Each participant receives a specific amount of play money that can be used to purchase gaming chips at the gambling tables. The participants engage in various casino games (such as blackjack, roulette, baccarat, craps, poker, wheel of fortune, etc.) in the attempt to accumulate the largest amount of gaming chips. At the end of the evening the participant who managed to win the most chips receives some kind of prize.
Casino Nights function strictly as entertainment events with no real monetary gambling involved.
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A Casino Night (also called Vegas Nights, Las Vegas Nights, Monte Carlo Nights, Casino Parties) is an entertainment event with a casino theme.
