01/14/2006: "A guide to my jargon"

After my recent jaunt to the Bahamas for the World Poker Tour and what not I've had a lot of people not familiar with poker follow my progress and ask me what the f**@ I'm on about so heres a guide.

Firstly the game I play is a variant of Poker called Texas Holdem and I mainly playing the betting structure called no-limit. This basically means you can bet anything from a little to all of your chips at any one time.

The rules are simple you are dealt two down cards.. then a round of betting occurs.. then three cards are dealt face up in the middle of the table (known as the flop)... more betting then a 4th card 'The Turn' card is dealt alongside the flop again more betting between players who haven't folded. Finally the 5th card is dealt known as the river players again bet and then the best 5 card poker hand takes the pot.

A quick google search found this little gem which gives a brief beginners guide to holdem.

When giving hand examples i will shorten out the cards I have in my hand and saw on the board. Rather than write I held the Ace of Clubs and the King of diamonds i will say Ac Kd. The four suits in lower case h,d,s,c and obviously the cards in the deck 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,J,Q,K,A .

Another important aspect when giving a hand example is my position at the table.. this is a key factor into what hands i can play. The positions are in reference to the dealer button which you will have read about in the quick guide.

Assume 10 players at the table To the left of the dealer button sits the Small blind (SB) this player has to put in the first forced bet which is half of that of the Big Blind (BB) who sits left of the small blind. For example if the blinds were 15/30 the small blind has to bet 15 before he gets his cards likewise the Big Blind will bet 30.. this is to get the action started. After every round the dealer button moves one place and goes round in a circle.

The position or seat to the left of the Big blind is called Under the Gun(UTG). Basically the person first to act after the cards are dealt. The playerd to his left is referred to as follows (UTG+1), (UTG+2), Middle Position 1 (MP1), (MP2), (MP3), The cutoff (CO) is the last person to act before the button and then the Button the person who will act last and can play a much wider range of hands as he has seen the action before him.

I hope that helps a little bit.

*On a side note Im having to disable comments from my blog entries.. Im getting spammed alive.. Should you wish to contact me as always its Matthew *at* i-reraise.co.uk .