Learn

The whole game, in about nine minutes.

Everything you need to sit down at a live No Limit Hold'em table and not be lost. Written for the night before your first session.

What you are actually trying to do.

Make the best five-card hand from your two private cards and five shared ones, or make everyone else fold before you have to show. Those are the only two ways to win a pot, and the second one wins more of them than beginners expect.

The hand rankings, strongest first.

01 Royal Flush A K Q J 10, all one suit. ♠
02 Straight Flush Five in sequence, all one suit. ♥
03 Four of a Kind Four cards of the same rank.
04 Full House Three of one rank, two of another.
05 Flush Five of one suit, in any order. ♦
06 Straight Five in sequence, any suits.
07 Three of a Kind Three of the same rank.
08 Two Pair Two of one rank, two of another.
09 One Pair Two of the same rank.
10 High Card None of the above. The highest card plays. ♣

Memorise the top four and the bottom three. The middle looks after itself.

Asset to commission: ten hand-ranking illustrations rendered in the brand's card language rather than stock photographs. A single beautiful set is reusable across Instagram, the site and print (§14.2).

Four streets, in order.

  • Preflop.Two cards each. Everyone acts once, starting left of the big blind.
  • The flop.Three shared cards. Everyone acts again.
  • The turn.A fourth shared card. Act again.
  • The river.A fifth and final shared card. Last round of betting, then cards are shown.

On each street you may check (pass, if nobody has bet), bet, call (match), raise (increase) or fold (give up the hand). No Limit means you can bet any amount you have in front of you, at any point.

Nine habits that mark a good table guest.

  • Act in turn.The only one that matters.
  • Do not splash the pot.Place your chips in front of you, not into the middle.
  • Keep your cards on the table.And protect them.
  • Announce your action.“Raise to twelve hundred” removes all ambiguity.
  • One player to a hand.No commentary from people who have folded.
  • Do not show your cards to a neighbour.Not mid-hand.
  • Do not slow-roll.Turn a winner over promptly.
  • Phones off the felt.policy
  • Tip or do not.But never make it a performance.

Twenty words you will hear tonight.

Blinds
Forced bets that start the action.
Button
The dealer position, best seat on every hand.
Under the gun
First to act preflop.
Nuts
The best possible hand.
Bad beat
Losing with a strong hand to a stronger one that got lucky.
Tilt
Playing badly because you are upset.
Value bet
Betting to be called.
Bluff
Betting to make a better hand fold.
Pot odds
The price you are being offered.
Outs
Cards that improve you.
Draw
An incomplete hand.
Set
Three of a kind using a pocket pair.
Rag
A card that helps nobody.
Muck
The discard pile, and the act of folding.
Colour up
Exchanging small chips for large.
Straddle
A voluntary blind raise.
Rake
The house's cut.
Orbit
One full circuit of the table.
Runner-runner
Needing both the turn and river.
Check-raise
Checking, then raising after someone bets.

And when you are ready, PLO.

Four cards instead of two. You must use exactly two of your four and exactly three of the five on the board. No exceptions, and it is the rule everybody gets wrong first. Bets are capped at the size of the pot.

Everything is bigger. Two pair, which wins pots in Hold'em, is often a bluff-catcher here.

The games we run

A player holding two cards up, the rest of the table dark behind.
The board runout laid across the felt beside a stack of chips.

Reading is the easy part.

Reserve a Table What your first night looks like