How to organise your own late night poker game

1. Plyarras at a fun casino will already have their own chips to gamble but if you're playing at home issue each player an equal amount of poker chips and allocate values to each colour if numbers aren't printed on the poker chips. Sit around a table let each player split the deck to determine the first dealer and away we go.
2. Players make their ante bet which is an equal predetermined amount to participate in the next round of the game. We suggest you roughly double minimum 4 times every half hour to hour to try and get the game to finish within 3 hours, otherwise you could be there all night betting small! ie. Start with 10, then 25, then 50 and then 100 for the big guns left in at this stage it makes things very interesting.
3. The dealer shuffles the cards before each new hand is played.
4. The dealer should offer the next clockwise player to cut the deck of cards.
5. The dealer then deals each player 5 cards face down.
6. Starting clockwise from the player on the dealers left each player then has to:-
   • Pass - do nothing which is only allowed if no one before has raised
   • Raise - match any previous players raise(s), and make an additional increase. To avoid small annoying increases we suggest you add a rule that any raise must be at least as high as the previous raise. When someone raises by 50 the next raise must be 50 or more not something silly like 5 otherwise you'd be there all night.
   • Call or See - match any previous player raises
   • Fold - withdraw from this round of the game and instantly lose your total bet on this hand. If no one has raised you can't fold it's a Pass.
   If all players pass then all cards are returned to the dealer and the game returns to step 2 with the same dealer.
   You could go round and round forever making sure everyone has bet what they want but this will become annoying. We suggest that you move onto the next stage of the game ('The Draw') as soon as it's the turn of the player who made a raise that has not been increased by all the other players. So no player can raise twice in succession it's time for the next stage - the draw. This might sound unfair but it's the art of your betting stake strategy.
7. The Draw occurs once and only once all the players have finishing the first round explained above. All players should have the same amount bet in front of them at this stage, if not that person has not put in enough chips and should make up the difference to proceed.
8. The dealer working clockwise from the last player who raised asks each player how many cards they wish to change and when the player returns those cards face card is given the same number of replacements from the remaining deck. The maximum anyone is allowed to change is THREE believe us stick to this strange sounding rule.
9. Starting clockwise from the last player who raised each player can:-
   • Pass (do nothing which is only allowed if no one since the draw was made before has raised)
   • Fold (withdraw from this round of the game and lose any amount bet - they can not decide to rejoin later once folded that's it they're out and they are not obliged to reveal their cards)
   • Call or See (match any previous player raises)
   • Raise (match previous players raises and make an additional increase)
   If a player raises and all other players have folded then that one remaining player wins the pot of all the other player bets and the winner is NOT obliged to reveal their cards to the remaining players.
   As with the rule to end the first round of betting don;t let any player raise twice in succession. As soon as this occurs it's time for a 'The Showdown'
10. The showdown requires all players remaining in the game to reveal their cards to all the other players. Each of these players should have bet an equal amount and the first to show can start clockwise from the dealer. When all cards are shown you can determine the highest ranking hand who wins the pot of all the players bets. Ties are very unusual since you can go to the next highest ranked card but if a tie does occur the pot is split equally.
11. All cards are returned to the player clockwise from the dealer and they become the new dealer for the next hand.

Helpful Hints

This is our guideline that we found to be the most enjoyable for our own fun poker evenings. You can make your own variations to make the game more suitable to your taste and experience:-

Organising the chips bet

• Each players bet should be kept separate from other players by placing their own accumulated bet in front of them. i.e. refrain from making one large pot in the middle because if any player doesn't know their basic bet requirement then this amount can be easily determined by taking the difference between their current bet and the previous players bet. i.e. the previous players bet total is 210 and my current bet is 130 I need to bet 80 to stay in the game. This can get confusing when raise follows raise. When you're more used to things you can have a pile but this is poker make sure they throw the right amount in!

• This contravenes many films that players have probably seen and believe to be common practice but is not correct. When players table stakes are exhausted according to the rules players are NOT usually permitted to borrow extra amounts from friends, introduce a higher stake or create an IOU unless such rule variations are clearly identified to players.

• You can let a player exchange 4 or all 5 cards but we found sometimes the dealers shuffling left a lot to be desired and from an obvious bluffing position we found it very annoying that this person could end up with a decent hand especially when the first round betting got fairly interesting. If you allow this many card changes make sure you shuffle well and know who does or doesn't shuffle well and add to this factor to your own tactics when betting you might still get some awesome hands with a pair and if you don't like it at least reorganise your own cards when throwing them down to help reduce this effect.