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Most variants of poker satisfy the following common rules and behavior.


THE DECK
Poker is played with a standard deck of 52 cards. Sometimes the game may demands for extra cards - the most common addition comes as wild cards. A deck is composed of 4 suits -- clubs, diamonds, hearts, and spades. Each suit contains 13 cards, ranked from highest to lowest as: Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2. In some games, the ace may be the lowest ranked card instead of the highest. In others, it may be both the lowest and highest ranked card. Wild cards may take on whatever suits and ranks you want them to.


FORCED BETS
Often the game is started by some sort of forced bet. This is to insure that there is action with every hand. The two most common types of forced bets are:

• Ante - An ante requires every player to place a specified amount in the pot prior to the beginning of each hand. The ante does not count toward any future bets.
  
  
• Blinds - Games with blinds normally have two blinds - the big blind, and the small blind. These are often in replacement of ante, although sometimes accompany it. The small blind is equal to 1/2 of the low limit bet size, and the big blind is equal to the low limit bet size. Before the hand begins, the player to the immediate left of the dealer button is forced to post the small blind, and the player to the left of that person is forced to post the big blind. These bets count towards that player's first round bet, and are considered live, meaning the player may choose to raise even if nobody else has.

BETTING ROUNDS
The number of betting rounds differ depending on the game being played. The bet sizes whether they are fixed limit, spread limit or no limit also may differ. In almost all poker games, the betting proceeds in a clockwise motion, starting with the player on the dealer's left. In a single round every player must bet equal amount of money. To accomplish this he/she has up to five options:

• FOLD - When someone before you has BET or RAISE, you can always get out of the game. In other words you FOLD. The act of folding is to put your cards face down on the table and lose whatever you've bet so far. This option is used when you think your hand is too weak to compete.
  
  
• BET - If no betting has started when the turn comes, player may "open" the pot by placing the first bet (any amount up to the betting limit).
  
  
• CHECK - If nobody has BET or RAISE, player may choose to CHECK, which means to neither BET nor FOLD. It then becomes up to the next player to BET, CHECK, OR FOLD.
  
  
• CALL - When you CALL another player, it means that you match his bet. So if someone bets $1 and you want to stay in the game, you have to CALL his $1 by putting $1 of your own into the pot.
  
  
• RAISE - When you RAISE it requires you to first CALL the previous bet, and then increase the bet. For example, if the previous person bets $1 and you want to RAISE, you would say "I CALL your $1, and raise you (increase the bet) another $1".
  
  

BUY-IN
Buy-in is the initial stake you must bring to sit down at the table. The minimum buy-in for a game in limit betting is typically ten times the size of the lower bet limit, however, it may be more or less depending on the particular table.


ALL-IN
A player cannot bet more than he has on the table. However, a player cannot be forced out of a game when he runs out of money. If a player wants to call a raise that is greater than the amount of money the player has left on the table, he can do so by going all-in.

For example, suppose a player has $100 left on the table and a player before him has bet $200. If the player chooses to call, he will contribute his remaining $100 and be ALL-IN. By going ALL-IN, he has staked his entire remaining BUY-IN to remain in the game and earn the opportunity to participate in the pot if he has a winning hand.

A player who goes all-in can only win a maximum amount from each other player equivalent to the amount he has gone all-in for. The chips being contested by the all-in player will be gathered into a pot and any additional betting will be gathered into a side pot. As a result, when an all-in player has the best hand, the player with the second best hand will be awarded the remainder of the pot. Several players may be all-in, possibly at different points during a hand, in which case the pot will be awarded in different segments.


RAKE
All Cash poker tables are raked. Rake is a small percentage of the pot that is charged by the poker room as a fee. The size of the rake is displayed adjacent to the pot size on all poker tables.