Playing Poker: The Mechanics and the Deal
In Poker, the game is not all about sitting with your friends on a good Saturday night shuffling and distributing cards.
Any card game could be like this. There are rules on every game.
Now, let us assume that:
Say, we are playing in a club, where a full table consists of seven players.
They are seated at a circular, or perhaps a heptagonal table, and each player has in front of him a recess (called a 'bin') in which he places his chips.
These chips are obtained from one of the club officials before the game begins. They are, in effect, a token currency.
They will be of different colors, and perhaps of different shapes and sizes, and each chip will be marked with its 'notional value', e.g., a half, one, two, four, etc., represent the number of units that the chip is worth, and a unit may--- in terms of cash--- be anything from, say, sixpence upwards.
Normally, each player will start with chips representing 100 units in all--- less whatever is deducted by the management by way of a 'cagnotte'.
If a player is debited with with the cost of 100 chips, and receives 98, he starts his game 2 chips to the bad.
If a chip marked one represents one dollar, he is therefore playing $2 for the privilege of playing every time he sits down.
Which means that only a good player, who never throws away more money than he can help, is likely to be in pocket at the end of, say, a year's play.
For if he plays, say ten times a week--- and there are plenty of players who do--- the fun of playing Poker will have cost him $1000 a year.
If a player has lost his 100 chips he can, of course, buy more. When he quits the table, his account will be credited with the value of the chips that he returns.
A game will normally start as soon as five players have expressed their intention of playing. They will draw for seats, and must occupy the seats they have drawn.
The game, as standard, is played with a full pack of 52 cards, and each deal is a separate event. Each player deals in turn: A follows G as dealer; B follows A; and so on.
The cards must be shuffled by the dealer, and they need to be well-shuffled.
A perfunctory shuffle may not only produce distorted situations, but may allow a player of sufficient acumen to draw deductions about the cards that other players hold.
After shuffling, the pack is presented for cutting to the dealer's right-hand neighbor. The dealer then proceeds to deal five cards, face downwards and one at a time, to each player.
When the deal is completed, the players pick up their hands and examine them.
They should take acre to hold their cards so that other players have no opportunity of seeing them.
What happens next will, of course, depend on what type of deal is in progress--- in Ante and Straddle Game.