Poker should be fun... The rules were written with the intention of keeping

the game fair and fun, please read them with that in mind.

"The House reserves the right to make decisions in the spirit of fairness,

even if a strict interpretation of the rules may indicate a different ruling"

General Rules

    1. One player, usually me, shall be the banker, and be the person responsible for maintaining the bank.  If there is a issue when the bank is short the banker is responsible for making sure everyone gets paid.

    2.  Each player shall buy chips from the bank. Minimum $10.00 to Maximum $50.00. Short buys are not permitted. The only exception to this rule is a player who has already bought into the game for the minimum, and wants to add chips but does not have enough money to buy the minimum. That player will be allowed to add as many chips as he/she has money left as long as he/she has chips left. This only applies to ring games. Tournaments will be handled differently.

    In Tournaments buy-ins will vary depending on if the tournament is a single buy-in tournament or re-buy tournament.  Normally, each player will start with 10,000 in chips and the blinds will start at 25/50.

    3. Players must pay cash for their chips.

    4. Cash game chips are worth:

              * Pink = $0.25 (Quarter)

              * White = $1.00 (One Dollar)

              * Red = $5.00 (Five Dollars)

              * Green = $20 (Twenty Dollars)

      Tournamnet chips are worth:

               * Green = 25

               * Black = 100

               * Purple = 500

               * White = 1000

               * Brown = 5000  

    5. For very pot of ten dollars or more in cash games there will be one quarter taken out of it and contributed to the Bad Beat Jackpot.

    6. Ties are never broken by looking at anything outside of the cards used to create the hand, or by anything as artificial as suit ordering, number of wild cards, etc.

    7. The first deal will be decided by players picking for high card. The Ace of spades is the highest followed by the Ace of hearts, the Ace of Diamonds, and last the Ace of clubs.

    8. At then end of the session, all chips that players have must be turned in for cash. If a player's chips do not add up to an even dollar amount, then the left over chips are worth one card each. Each player that has chips not equaling a dollar will be dealt one card per chip they have. The highest card wins all the remaining chips. Pairs, flushes, or anything similar do not count.

        This rule also applies to tournaments when we color up the lower denom chips.

    9. "Cards Talk" - Player's cards determine their hands. This means players show their hands, and the best hand that can be made is the one that is used -- this may be better or worse than what the player thought.

   10. Five card hands are evaluated in the following order (from highest to lowest):

       1. Five of a kind (only possible if there are wild cards)

       2. Straight flush

       3. Four of a kind

       4. Full House

       5. Flush

       6. Straight

       7. Three of a kind

       8. Two pair

       9. Pair

      10. High card

Holdem

In Holdem, players receive two downcards as their personal hand (holecards), after which there is a round of betting. Three boardcards are turned simultaneously (called the "flop") and another round of betting occurs. The next two boardcards are turned one at a time, with a round of betting after each card. The boardcards are community cards, and a player may use any five-card combination from among the board and personal cards. A player may even use all of the boardcards and no personal cards to form a hand (play the board). The usual structure is to use two blinds, but it is possible to play the game with one blind, multiple blinds, an ante, or combination of blinds plus an ante.

Rules

These rules deal only with irregularities, game explanation can be found above.

   1. If the first or second holecard dealt is exposed, a misdeal results. The dealer will retrieve the card, reshuffle, and recut the cards. If any other holecard is exposed due to a dealer error, the deal continues. The exposed card may not be kept. After completing the hand, the dealer replaces the card with the top card on the deck, and the exposed card is then used for the burncard. If more than one holecard is exposed, this is a misdeal and there must be a redeal.

   2. If the dealer mistakenly deals the first player an extra card (after all players have received their starting hands), the card will be returned to the deck and used for the burncard. If the dealer mistakenly deals more than one extra card, it is a misdeal.

   3. If the flop contains too many cards, it must be redealt. (This applies even if it were possible to know which card was the extra one.)

   4. If before dealing the flop, the dealer failed to burn a card, or burned two cards, the error should be rectified if no cards were exposed. The deck must be reshuffled if any cards were exposed.

   5. If the dealer fails to burn a card or burns more than one card, the error should be corrected if discovered before betting action has started for that round. Once action has been taken on a boardcard, the card must stand. Whether the error is able to be corrected or not, subsequent cards dealt should be those that would have come if no error had occurred. For example, if two cards were burned, one of the cards should be put back on the deck and used for the burncard on the next round. If there was no betting on a round because a player was all-in, the error should be corrected if discovered before the pot has been awarded.

   6. You must declare that you are playing the board before you throw your cards away; otherwise you relinquish all claim to the pot.

Omaha

Omaha is similar to Holdem in using a three-card flop on the board, a fourth boardcard, and then a fifth boardcard. Each player is dealt four holecards (instead of two) at the start. In order to make a hand, a player must use precisely two holecards with three boardcards. The betting is the same as in Holdem, using a preflop, flop, turn, and river betting rounds. At the showdown, the entire four-card hand should be shown to receive the pot.

Rules

All the rules of Holdem apply to Omaha except the rule on playing the board, which is not possible in Omaha (because you must use two cards from your hand and three cards from the board).

High-Low Split

   1. Cards Talk:

              * Some high-low games allow players to simply show their hands in the end.

              * The pot is then split between the players with the highest and the lowest hands.

              * In the event of a tie the half of the pot that is in question will be divided once more to accommodate however many people are still in the hand.

   2. Declaring:

           * Some high-low games ask players to declare which way they are going. This is done after what would normally be the final betting round in straight high or straight low.

              * Each player, still in, takes up to three chips below the table (any denomination will do). Then each player will bring one fist above the center of the table. The dealer will say "Ready, declare," and on the word "declare" all players will open their hands, palm up, to reveal the number of chips they are holding.

              * In this type of game each player is only allowed to use two cards out of the four that they were dealt. Before declaring they must discard the other two cards they will not be using.

              * The number of chips held denotes which half of the pot the player is trying to win, as follows:

* One chip is to win the low half of the pot.

* Two chips to win the high half of the pot.

* Three chips to win the entire pot. This is known as Going-Both-Ways

* Going-Both-Ways (No Steve, not like the way that you go both ways):

*  Players can decide that their hand is good enough to win both high and low. Essentially, a player can win the entire pot if he/she has the highest and lowest hand of those that remain. If the player ties for the low but wins the high then he/she is entitled the high half of the pot and he/she splits the low half with whoever tied them or visa versa.

            * If there is an uneven amount of money in the full pot making it impossible to equally split it in half, the extra amount goes to the bad beat jackpot.

             * If there is an uneven amount of money in one half of the pot that must be split between two or more players, the extra amount goes to the bad beat jackpot.

Betting and Raising

   1. Check-raise is permitted in all games.

   2. In no-limit and pot-limit games, unlimited raising is allowed.

   3. In limit poker, for a pot involving three or more players who are not all-in, these limits on raises apply:

              *A game with three or more betting rounds allows a maximum of a bet and three raises.

              *A game with two betting rounds (such as lowball or draw) allows a maximum of a bet and four raises.

   4. Unlimited raising is allowed in heads-up play. This applies any time the action becomes heads-up before the raising has been capped. Once the raising is capped on a betting round, it cannot be uncapped by a subsequent fold that leaves two players heads-up.

   5. Any wager not all-in must be at least the size of the previous bet or raise in that round.

   6. In limit play, an all-in wager of less than half a bet does not reopen the betting for any player who has already acted and is in the pot for all previous bets. A player who has not yet acted (or had the betting reopened to him by another player’s action), facing an all-in wager of less than half a bet, may fold, call, or complete the wager. An all-in wager of a half a bet or more is treated as a full bet, and a player may fold, call, or make a full raise. (An example of a full raise on a $20 betting round is raising a $15 all-in bet to $35.) Multiple all-in wagers, each of an amount too small to individually qualify as a raise, still act as a raise and reopen the betting if the resulting wager size to a player qualifies as a raise

   7. A verbal statement denotes your action and is binding. If in turn you verbally declare a fold, check, bet, call, or raise, you are forced to take that action.

   8. Deliberately acting out of turn will not be tolerated. A player who checks out of turn may not bet or raise on the next turn to act. An action or verbal declaration out of turn may be ruled binding if there is no bet, call, or raise by an intervening player acting after the infraction has been committed. A player who has called out of turn may not change his wager to a raise under any circumstances.

   9. To retain the right to act, a player must stop the action by calling "time" (or an equivalent word). Failure to stop the action before three or more players have acted behind you may cause you to lose the right to act. You cannot forfeit your right to act if any player in front of you has not acted, only if you fail to act when it legally becomes your turn. Therefore, if you wait for someone whose turn comes before you, and three or more players act behind you, this still does not hinder your right to act.

  10. If you make a forward motion with chips and leave them far enough in front of you that it causes another player to act, you may be forced to complete your action.  The house will make the final ruling.

  11. String raises are not allowed. To protect your right to raise, you should either declare your intention verbally or place the proper amount of chips into the pot. Putting a full bet plus a half-bet or more into the pot is considered to be the same as announcing a raise, and the raise must be completed.

  12. If you put a single chip in the pot that is larger than the bet, but do not announce a raise, you are assumed to have only called. Example: In a $3-$6 game, when a player bets $6 and the next player puts a $25 chip in the pot without saying anything, that player has merely called the $6 bet.

Dead hands

Your hand is declared dead if:

    * You fold or announce that you are folding when facing a bet or a raise.

    * You throw your hand away in a forward motion causing another player to act behind you (even if not facing a bet).

    * You expose your cards before ALL betting or calling has been finalized.  In ring games exposing your cards is allowed if you are in a pot with only one other opponent.  At any other time the hand is declared dead.

    * Your hand does not contain the proper number of cards for that particular game (except at stud a hand missing the final card may be ruled live, and at lowball and draw high a hand with too few cards before the draw is live).

    * You act on a hand with a joker as a holecard in a game not using a joker. (A player who acts on a hand without looking at a card assumes the liability of finding an improper card.)

    * You have the clock on you when facing a bet or raise and exceed the specified time limit.

    * Your cards are thrown into the muck.

    *  In stud or similar games, when facing a bet, you pick your upcards off the table, turn your upcards facedown, or mix your upcards and downcards together.

It is each players own responsibility to make sure they have the correct number of cards and that your cards are protected.

Bad Beat Jackpot

If the jackpot is at or under $100, 80% will be awarded to the losing hand. The remaining 20% will role over into the new jackpot. If the jackpot is over $100 then it will be divided between the losing hand, winning hand, and a portion retained for the next jackpot.

Losing Hand = 70%

Winning Hand = 20%

Next Jackpot = 10%

If the jackpot is over $200 then it will be divided between the losing hand, winning hand, rest of the table, and a portion will be retained for the next jackpot.

Losing Hand = 50%

Winning Hand = 20%

Other players dealt in = 20%

Next Jackpot = 10%

In the event that there are two hands that qualify for the jackpot only the best of the losing hands will be eligible for the jackpot.

JACKPOT QUALIFIERS AND CONDITIONS

1. To be eligible for a jackpot hand there must be at least five players dealt into the hand. Payout to players dealt in the bad beat jackpot hand shall be conditioned upon their participation in the game or games as previously noted. Only Omaha and Texas Holdem games shall be eligible for the bad beat jackpots.

2. To qualify for the jackpot a player must lose with Ace’s full or better in Holdem and Quads or better in Omaha.  The only time Ace’s full doesnt qualify in Holdem is if the board has 3 Aces.

3. To be eligible for a bad beat in Holdem or Omaha both the winning and losing hands must meet the following conditions:

    * Both players must use both hole cards

    * They must make their best hand possible. Example, if the board reads A A 9 10 10 and one player holds A 9 their second card would not play because A A A 10 10 would be better then A A A 9 9. No jackpot would be awarded.

    * The pot must be over $10.

4. No player, whether or not involved in the play of the hand, may verbally communicate to another player that a bad beat jackpot situation is possible. Such verbal communication shall void the jackpot. A hand that has been mucked when facing action does not qualify for the bad beat jackpot.

Other Game Rules

1. The rules for all games that are defined in this document are the rules of the game.

2. The rules for games not in this document must be stated by the dealer when the game is called.

3.  For any rules not mentioned here we will use Robert’s Poker Rule Book.