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Poker Information Basic Terms and Glossary (DE, MI, PA, WV)

 

Dealer Button

The dealer button, also known as "the button," is a small disc used to indicate the position of the dealer for each hand. The dealer button plays an essential role in determining the order of action and ensuring there's money in the pot to play for each hand. The position of the dealer button rotates clockwise around the table after each hand.

 

 

Blinds

The Blinds are forced bets that are posted by the 2 players to the left of the dealer button before the cards are dealt. It is the blinds that determine the stakes of the game.

 

Small Blind 

A forced bet made by the player to the immediate left of the dealer button. After the cards are dealt, if action arrives on the player in the Small Blind and no raise has been made by any other player in the hand, the player will need to call or raise in order to continue in the hand.

 

Big Blind

A forced bet made by the player to the immediate left of the Small Blind and two to the left of the dealer button. After the cards are dealt, if action arrives on the player in the Big Blind and no raise has been made by any other player in the hand, the player will have the option to either raise by at least an additional big blind, or check to continue in the hand.  

 

 

Showdown

The first person to show their hand at showdown is the last person who bet or raise on the river – called the last aggressor. However, if no one made a river bet, then the first person to the left of the button will show their hand first.

 

 

Missed Blinds

In a cash game, if you're sat out and miss your blinds, you will need to re-post the Big Blind to rejoin play before you arrive back in the big blind position again.

 

In tournaments, if you're sat out, blinds will continue to be posted for you, and you will continue to take the most passive action (check or fold), until you sit back in.

 

Blinds During Heads Up Play

When play goes down to 2 players at the table (“Heads-Up”), the player on the dealer button pays the small blind, with the other player paying the big blind. Play would then proceed with the player on the button acting first before the flop, and last after the flop.

 

 

Raising

Whenever a player wishes to increase the size of a bet they are facing, they do so by Raising the bet.

 

For more information on raising and the general poker rules, check out our "How to Play" page.

 

Minimum Raise Size 

The minimum bet in Hold’em and Omaha is one big blind (calling the big blind), and the minimum raise is an additional big blind, for 2 big blinds total. 

 

That is only if there are no other raises in front of you. If a raise (or postflop bet) has been made, then the minimum amount a player may raise by is the difference between the present bet and the previous bet or big blind. 

 

For example if, in a hand of €1/€2, if a player makes a preflop raise to €6, the minimum another player may raise facing that bet is €4, to a total bet of €10.  

 

Calculating a Pot Sized Raise

To calculate the size of a pot-sized raise:

  • Match the previous bet.
  • Calculate the total pot including your matching bet before your raise.
  • Add that much on top of your matching bet.

Another easy way to calculate a pot-sized raise on the fly is with the following formula: 3x the previous player’s bet + what is remaining in the pot.

 

Under-Raise

In situations where a player has made a bet, that has been called, and a third player has made an all-in raise, the first player will only be allowed to re-raise if the all-in player has met the minimum raise size.

For example: Phil G has €10. Clay A has €10. Jason K has €6 chips

 

  1. Phil bets €5
  2. Clay calls the €5.
  3. Jason then goes all-in for €6. 

In this scenario: Phil may only call facing the all in, as the minimum raise for Jason was for €5. As Jason’s raise was not large enough, no other players in this hand can re-raise.

 

 

The Pot

The Pot is the amount of money that a player stands to win at the conclusion of the hand. 

 

At the end of a hand the pot is awarded to the player or players who won the hand, either by all other players folding, or by having the highest ranking hand at showdown. 

 

Pot Size  

At any of our tables, the full amount of the pot including all current bets is always displayed numerically at the top of the table throughout the entire hand.  

At the end of every street of betting, all bets from that hand are collected in the middle of the table, and converted into higher denomination chips so you can easily see the pot’s total value. This pot is also labelled.  

 

Split Pots

If multiple winning players in a pot have equal ranking winning hands at showdown, the pot is divided equally between them, down to the nearest cent.

 

Extra Cents or Chips in Split Pots

The extra cents or chips (in tournaments) are distributed to the players in turn clockwise, beginning with the player closest to the left of the dealer button.

 

Side Pots

A side pot occurs when there are at least 3 players remaining in a hand, where one player is all-in and has less chips than the remaining 2 players. A side pot is created so that the remaining 2 players may continue to bet between themselves, if they desire, on the remaining streets.

 

 

Kicker

As Texas Holdem’ is a 5-card game, there will be frequent times when your best 5-card hand is not a “complete” 5-card hand like a straight or flush. There will be many cases where your hand requires more cards to fill out the five-card requirement. Hands like high card, one pair, two pair, three-of-a-kind, and four-of-a-kind will all necessitate this logic.

 

These cards that fill out your 5-card hand are called “kickers” and play a vital role in pots where the players have high cards, the same pair, two pair, three-of-a-kind or four-of-a-kind. The person with the highest kicker will win in these situations, but should the highest kicker be the same it will go down to the next highest kicker and so forth — should the players have the same kickers, the pot will be split evenly.  

 

 

Maximum number of tables

The maximum number of cash game tables you can sit at is eight tables on desktop and four tables on mobile or tablet.

 

 

Mucking the winning hand

At the end of a hand, players can choose to show or muck their hand.

If the hand does not get to the showdown, the winning player can show or not show their cards. If you never want to show your cards in this situation:

 

  1. Simply log into your account
  2. Go to ‘Settings’ – ‘Gameplay’ – ‘Show / Muck Hands’ – ‘Don’t Show Winning Hand’.
     

Otherwise, you will be offered to show your cards after every winning hand. If the hand goes to showdown, the winning hand is always shown automatically.

 

At the showdown, players who have hands which cannot beat the best hand shown can choose to show or not show their cards. If you never want to show your hand in this situation, follow the instructions above and select ‘Muck Losing Hand’.

 

The ‘Auto Muck Cards’ under ‘Table Settings’ in your table window is for uncalled winning hands and losing hands.

 

 

Playing with friends

You can play at the same table as your friend if you happen to be seated together. Remember, much like at a live cardroom, we assign seats based on the availability and what balances the pool of tables that are open.

 

However, since the tables are anonymous in nature, you will not know if your friend is sitting across from you or not. Remember the old saying, there are no friends at the poker table!

 

 

Real money  

BetRivers Poker offers real money games only.  

You will need to make a deposit to fund your account:  

 

  1. Log in to your account
  2. Click on Deposit.
  3. Click on the method you want to use, enter the amount and click on ‘Deposit $xxx Using…’. 
  4. Follow the instructions and fill in the required information.
  5. Your deposit will be sent and you will receive a confirmation.

 

Please note:  

All deposits will be credited in USD, as this is the only currency in which you can view your account balance.  

 

 

 

 

If you need any further assistance, please contact our 24/7 poker support team at:

 

 

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