poker, where players often bend up the corners of cards lying on the table rather than holding the cards in their hands.
• Chips: Currency is difficult to handle, so most poker games are played with chips, which are coin-shaped tokens of uniform size and weight, often made of clay or other similarly-textured heavy material allowing them to be easily stacked and unstacked. Inexpensive lightweight plastic chips are sold in many places, but these are nearly as difficult to use as currency. Different colours of chips are usually used to represent different amounts of money.
• The standard Color scheme for poker chips is as follows: White, $1; Red, $5; Blue, $10; Green, $25; Black, $100; Purple, $500; Orange, $1000; Gray, $5000; Pink, $10000. However, there is no requirement that casinos use these colours, and there is much variance regarding the colours used for denominations above $100.
• Table: It is convenient if every player (a typical poker game will have 2 to 10) can reach the centre of the table where the pot is built, so tables are generally circular or only slightly oblong. It helps if the table is padded with a soft material that makes it easy to pick up cards, coins, and chips. Many tables sold as "poker tables" for home use have hard surfaces that are less convenient than a simple circular dining table with a soft blanket and tablecloth, and so are often not worth the price.
• Lammers: Miscellaneous plastic tokens with text markings are handy for various uses. In a typical home game only one is used to mark the current dealer as the deal rotates (in which case it is called a button or buck). In a casino they are used to remind players of which game variant is being played, who owes blinds or house commissions, and other uses.
• Cut card: Not generally used in home games, but universal in casinos and recommended. This is a thick plastic card the same size and shape of a playing card upon which the deck is placed before being picked up for the deal. This prevents any accidental exposure of the bottom card of the deck during the deal.
GAME PLAY
Money flows naturally from the poor players to the good player—luck has nothing to do with it. After all, there are only 52 cards in the deck: eventually everyone gets the same cards. Luck is what helps the big losers to lose even more. —Andrew Barton
Poker is a microcosm of all we admire and disdain about capitalism and democracy. It can be rough-hewn or polished, warm or cold, charitable and caring or hard and impersonal. It is fickle and elusive, but ultimately it is fair, and right, and just. -- Lou Krieger
Whether he likes it or not, a man's character is stripped bare at the poker table; if the other players read him better than he does, he has only himself to blame. Unless he is both able and prepared to see himself as others do, flaws and all, he will be a loser in cards, as in life. -- Anthony Holden
The game of poker is played in hundreds of variations, but the following overview of game play applies to most of them.
Depending on the game rules, one or more players may be required to place an initial amount of money into the pot before the cards are dealt. These are called forced bets and come in three forms: antes, blinds, and bring-ins.
Like most card games, the dealer shuffles the deck of cards. The deck is then cut, and the appropriate number of cards are dealt face-down to the players. In a home game, the right to deal
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