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Poker questions, answered in one line each
The things a home game actually stops for. Each answer stands on its own, and each links to the page that works it through in full.
Who owes who after a poker night?
Add up what each player bought in for and what they cashed out with. The difference is their result. Then settle so that each loser pays one or two winners directly, rather than everyone paying everyone — a six-player game settles in three or four payments, not eleven.
What if someone can't pay after a poker game?
Settle the rest of the table first so nobody else is waiting on it, then treat the shortfall as a debt between two named people rather than a problem the whole table shares. Write down who owes whom and how much before anyone leaves the room.
How many chips does each player start with?
Enough to cover 50 to 100 big blinds. For a $20 buy-in at 0.10/0.25 blinds that is 80 big blinds, which works out to roughly 20 of the smallest chip, 12 of the next, and 4 of the third. Start from the buy-in and the blinds, never from the chip set.
What is each poker chip colour worth?
There is no universal standard, but the common home-game convention is white 1, red 5, green 25, black 100, and blue 10 where a fifth colour is needed. Casinos differ from this and from each other, so the values are whatever your table agrees before the first hand.
Can you play poker without chips?
Yes. You need a way to represent amounts, not physical discs. Coins, matchsticks and written scores all work, and a phone works better than any of them because it does the arithmetic and keeps a record of who bought in for what.
Who gets the odd chip when a pot is split?
The odd chip goes to the player closest to the left of the dealer button. It is a convention rather than a rule of the game, but it is the one almost every cardroom uses, and the value of agreeing it in advance is that nobody has to decide it while looking at the pot.
Who should be the banker at a home poker game?
Whoever is hosting, and ideally not someone playing a big stack. The banker's job is to record buy-ins as they happen — that is the whole role, and it is a record-keeping job rather than a position of trust, provided the record is visible to everyone.
How long should poker blind levels be?
Fifteen to twenty minutes for a home tournament you want to finish in three to four hours. Shorter levels end the game faster but turn it into a coin flip; longer levels reward play but risk a game still running at two in the morning.
Do you have to use both hole cards in Texas Hold'em?
No. You make the best five-card hand from any combination of your two hole cards and the five community cards, including using none of your own. If the board is the best hand available, every remaining player has it and the pot is split.
What happens when two players have the same hand?
You compare inside the hand. Flushes go card by card from the top, straights on the highest card only, and full houses on the three of a kind before the pair. Suits never break ties in Hold'em, so genuinely identical hands split the pot.
How much money do you need for a home poker game?
Bring two to three buy-ins. For a typical $20 home game that is $40 to $60, which covers a rebuy without anyone having to decide mid-evening whether they are allowed one. Agree the buy-in and any cap before the first hand, not during it.
When does the dealer button move?
One seat clockwise after every completed hand. The button decides who posts the blinds and who acts last, so it moves whether or not the player in that seat was involved in the hand that just finished.
What is a side pot?
A second pot created when one player is all in for less than the others want to bet. The all-in player can only win the amount everybody matched; the rest keeps betting into a separate pot that only they are eligible for.
What is the difference between a rebuy and an add-on?
A rebuy replaces chips you have lost and is usually only allowed when your stack is at or below the starting amount. An add-on is an extra purchase everyone can take at a fixed point, normally once, regardless of how they are doing.
How do you keep score in poker without chips?
Track two numbers per player: total bought in, and the amount they finish with. Everything in between is bookkeeping you do not need. The difference between those two numbers is their result, and the results must add up to zero.
Still settling up on paper?
Every player opens one link. Buy-ins, side pots and the final settlement are recorded as they happen, so the only thing left to agree on is the cards.