Friday, September 11, 2009

Tournament Poker Rules

By Eaves Osaki

One of the first known card game that involved betting money and ranking was started in Germany around the 15th Century called Pochspiel. There is also evidence available that a game called 'Poque' was played in France. It is also possible that the name of the game came from the Irish played 'Poca'. It seems that all of the earlier names collectively influenced the development of the game of Poker as it is played now the world over. In 1970, modern tournament play became popular in American casinos after the World Series of Poker began. The advent of tournament play required forming a set of universal standard rules to govern how the game is conducted.

With that little bit of history, let's talk about tournament play's rules. As with other games that have hand rankings and betting rules, poker, too, has these things. However, it's different from other games because hands are formed differently and cards are dealt differently, too. It also has its own rules as to how many times you can bet and what betting limits are. In the first run of play, bets are rather forced. Action proceeds to the left and then the player must match the last highest bet or fold his or her hand. Whoever can match the bet can also raise it if he or she wishes. Each subsequent player has to match that bet or fold. When there's just one player left in the round, the last player collects what's been tossed into the pot. If there are more players than just one left after final bet placement, each player reveals his or her hand and the one with the winning hand takes the pot proceeds.

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.

Players feel that poker is different from other gambling games because of this betting system. Besides the initial forced bets, those players who believe that that has a positive expected value only place money in the pot in voluntary fashion. What this means is that while any particular hand's outcome is determined by chance, over the long term of the tournament itself, players' expectations are determined mostly by their actions based on both psychology and probability.

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