Goal of game
Poker is one of most popular card games, with many different variations, but the basics are always the same. Players, depending on value of received cards, are placing bets to the pot or quit the deal (fold). Goal of poker game is to win game chips from the pot. It can be done in two ways:

• by creating best combination of cards (called - a hand),
• by resignation of all opponents, usually creating impression of having the best hand. Known as bluffing.

Dealer
When players are sitting by the table, first thing is to choose a Dealer. Players are dealt one card and highest card determines who will be the first Dealer. This person is marked with special "D" emblem. Once the hand is over, the Dealer emblem and responsibility is moved clockwise around the table to next person. In online poker all of the dealing is made automatically by the software.

Blind / Ante
Before cards are dealt to one or more players, forced bets are taken. The Buy-in could be called the ante. The buy-in/Ante is the sum of game chips taken from all players sitting at the table or blinds - small and big blind (double blind) taken from two next players sitting after the dealer. If table is for 2 players, there is no Small/Big blind, the amount of entry is just equal to two times ante.

Position


The player after located clockwise from the player who posted the Big blind starts the betting. He is in early position, sometimes called "under the gun", because he must be the first person to act. Dealer and players in late position have a big advantage against other players. When their turn to bet comes, they will have a lot more information about the current hand (like the number of opponents still playing this hand or and how the ones still playing are betting.

Betting
Depending on game variation, there could be up to 4 rounds of betting. During the betting phases players are building a pot (the collection of chips that have been bet by all players) to win. There are three major actions possible:

• fold - player discards their hand and gives up any chance of winning the pot;
• call - to match the previous bet;
• raise - to increase the size of the bet, forcing all subsequent players to call the new amount if they wish to stay in the hand

Fold
Folding is to discard the current hand. Any game chips put into the pot up to this point are lost. Player is quitting and waiting for next hand.

Check
If there are no bets in the current betting round, a player can check for free. This means not putting in any new game chips into the pot. Game continues, and the player is still in the hand.

Call
Means putting game chips equal to the amount bet so far to stay in the current hand. Player continues, unless someone else raises.

Bet / Raise
Raise is to increasing the amount being bet. The maximum raise depends on the limits that each table has been designed to have. Raising forces all players staying in current hand to call new amount or fold. When a player is the first to raise in the current betting round, it's called a Bet.

Betting Limits
Amount players are allowed to Bet / Raise is specified by the tables Betting Limit. There are three options:

• Fixed Limit - blind is the stake base for a raise. Thus, for example if we set the blind to $10, during the first and the second rounds of betting the stake and the raise limit will equal $20, and during the third and the fourth rounds - $40.
• Pot Limit - minimum raise is the value of the previous person's raise/bet, and the maximum raise is the amount equal to the current size of the pot. For the first person betting in a betting round the minimum raise is the amount of the blind. For example player A opens the game with 10$. The next player may raise to $30, because he's calling previous player $10 bet and then adding the amount that is in existing pot.
• No Limit - minimum Bet/Raise stake is the amount of blind and there is not a limit set on the maximum bet. That means any player can go All-In (bet all their game chips) at any time. There is no limit to the number of raising turns in one betting.

Generally in the first two betting rounds the minimum Bet/Raise stake is the double blind, in the third and fourth turn it is four times the blind. The number of betting turns in a betting round is limited to four.