How to behave in a Casino – Card games

The First Time

 

Many people are intimidated on their first visit to a public card-room. Knowing what to expect and some simple rules of etiquette will help the first-time visitor relax and have a good time.

Any card-room with more than a few tables will have a sign-up desk or board for the various games being played.

Usually someone will be standing here to take yourเว็บคาสิโนออนไลน์name if a seat is not immediately available. This person can explain what games are offered, the betting limits, special house rules and so on. This is the moment of your first decision: which game and for what stakes?

Choosing a Game

Choosing a game is fairly easy; you already know which game is most familiar to you. You may be surprised to find that your favorite home games are not spread in public card-rooms. Most will offer one or more of Texas Hold’em, Seven-Card Stud, and Omaha Hold’em (usually hi/lo split, 8-or-better for low). Sometimes you will find California Lowball (5-card draw for low), Seven-Card Stud hi/lo, or Hold’em variations like Pineapple. You will rarely find High Draw (5-card draw for hi), and will never find home game pot-builders like Anaconda, Follow-the-Queen, 7-27 or Guts. Except for the joker in draw poker, card-rooms never use wild cards.

Betting Limit

Choosing a betting limit is a bit harder. It is best to start playing at a limit so small that the money is not important to you. After all, with all the excitement of your first time playing poker there is no need to be worried about losing the nest egg to a table full of sharks.

Betting limits are typically expressed as $1-$5 or $3-$6, and may be “spread-limit” or “structured-limit”.

A spread-limit means one can bet or raise any amount between the two numbers (although a raise must be at least as much as a previous bet or raise).

For example, in $1-$5 spread-limit, if one person bets $2 the next person is free to call the $2 or raise $2, $3, $4, or $5, but cannot raise just $1.

On the next round, everything is reset and the first bettor may bet anything from $1 to $5. In structured-limit like $3-$6 (usually recognizable by a factor of two between betting limits), all betting and raising on early rounds is in units of $3, and on later rounds is in units of $6.

One only has a choice of *whether* to bet or raise; the amount is fixed by the limit. One usually doesn’t have a choice between spread and structured betting at a given limit.

Keep in mind that it is quite easy to win or lose 20 “big bets” (the large number in the limit) in an hour of play. Also, since your mind will be occupied with the mechanics of the game while the regular players consider strategy, you are more likely to lose than win. In other words: choose a low limit.

Buy In

Now is the time for you to take out your money and for the other players to look you over. A good choice for this “buy-in” is ten to twenty big bets, but you must buy-in for at least the posted table minimum, usually about five big bets.

Most public poker games are played “table-stakes”, which means that you can’t reach into your pocket for more money during the play of a hand. It also means that you can’t be forced out of a pot because of insufficient funds.

If you run out of money during a hand you are still in the pot (the dealer will say you are “all-in”), but further betting is “on the side” for an additional pot you cannot win.

Between hands, you are free to buy as many chips as you want, but are not allowed to take any chips off the table unless you are leaving. This final rule gives opponents a chance to win back what they have lost to you.

If you bust out, you may buy back in for at least the table minimum or leave.

Once you have told the dealer how much money you are playing, the dealer may sell you chips right away or call over a chip runner to do so.

You may want to tell the dealer that you are a first-time player. This is a signal to the dealer to give a little explanation when it is your turn to act, and to the other players to extend you a bit of courtesy when you slow down the game. Everyone will figure it out in a few minutes anyway, so don’t be bashful. You may even ask to sit out a few hands just to see how it all works.