The First round:
The first person sitting at a table becomes the dealer, and receives the
dealer ‘button’. A new game on an active table starts with the button moving clockwise to the next player. The
player next to the button / dealer is required to place the small blind. The small blind is equal to half the
lower stake. This is a guideline for determining the blinds and not a strict rule. at Baha Poker.com the small
blind is rounded down to the nearest dollar. For example – at $5/$10 Hold’em per the formula the small blind
should be $2.5. Instead, it is rounded of to the lower dollar, so the small blind would post $2. However, as it
is just a guideline, the amount of small blind could be set differently at the time of setting up the
table.
The player to the left of the small blind is required to post the big blind,
equal to the lower stake limit. In a certain scenario it is possible for more than one player to post a big
blind in a hand. This is if a new player joins a table at which a game is already going on. The player would
get an option of placing a Big Blind at the start of the next hand or wait for his/her turn (as decided by the
movement of the button) when it is normally his/her time to place the Big Blind. All the blinds in Hold’em
poker are considered live bets and the players who posted them will have the option of checking, calling,
raising or folding when the betting returns to their position.
After the blinds have been placed, the down cards / hole cards are dealt to
each active player. In Hold’em, 2 cards are dealt to each of the players, after which the first betting round
begins. The player to the left of the player who placed the big blind starts the betting for this
round.
Each player will now have a chance to place his or her bets in the first round,
by putting forth an amount of chips equal to the lower limit of the stakes structure. For example in a $10/$20
Hold’em game, the value of each bet in the first round is $10. Bets being limited to $10 refers to: a singe bet
of $10 value; i.e. when a user places a “BET” it is $10, a “RAISE” would be $20 (this includes one additional
bet and a call on the previous bet placed by a player).
Bets can be placed by playing any of the following options – Bet, Call and
Raise. Each player will also have the option to Fold. These options are available to each player depending on
the action taken by the previous player. The first player (left of the Big Blind) to act (in the first round)
would get the Bet, Call and Raise options. Subsequent players would also get the options of Call and Raise. To
Call is to bet the same as what the previous player has bet. A Raise action calls for raising the bet/call
amount laid by the previous player, and can be calculated based on the value of the previous bet
amount.
In order to participate in the hand every player must at least match the
amount of money put in the pot by previous players (includes bets, calls and raises). There might be a limit on
the amount and the number of bets a player can place during a betting round, which also would be considered
during the hand. The numbers of bets for a particular round of betting has been mentioned below, please refer
to the section on “Standard Rules” (below) for the limits on the number of bets.
After the first round of betting is over, the Flop (the first three cards of
the community) is dealt. The community cards are common to all of the players participating in the
hand.