EXPLANATIONS
1. The only place in this set of rules that an alternative
is mentioned other than in this section is in the method of
button and blind placement. That rule (the first rule in “Section
4 – Button and Blind Use”) is repeated below for
convenience.
“Each round all participating players must get an opportunity
for the button, and meet the total amount of the blind obligations.
Either of the following methods of button and blind placement
may be designated to do this:
(a) Moving button – The button always moves forward
to the next player and the blinds adjust
accordingly. There may be more than
one big blind .
(b) Dead button – The big blind is posted by the player
due for it, and the small blind and button are
positioned accordingly, even if this
means the small blind or the button is placed in front of
an empty
seat, giving the same player the
privilege of last action on consecutive hands.”
Poker tradition has a lot to do with the fact that both of
these methods are in widespread use, but neither method is
superior in all situations. The moving button makes sure no
player gets the advantage of last action twice on a round
(a big advantage at no-limit or pot-limit play). On the other
hand, a player may get to post a blind when on the button,
which is more advantageous than posting in front of the button.
The moving button creates a situation where two big blind
s may be posted on a deal, which speeds up the action. At
tournament play this speed-up can be undesirable, as when
dealing is being done hand-for-hand to balance the pace of
play between two remaining tables. A cardroom may either decide
for the sake of simplicity to use only one method, or decide
to tailor the method to the game and situation.
2. The rules given for rectifying a hold’em situation
where the dealer has dealt the flop or another boardcard before
all the betting action on a round are inferior, because the
dealer is told to not burn a card on a redeal. Since the “no
burn” rule is so common, there was no choice but to
use it here. But at some point it would be good for poker
for some major cardrooms to get together and agree to use
the better rule, or a gaming commission to require the better
rule be used. Here is the rules in question (the third rule
and fourth rule in “Hold’em”).
“If the cards are prematurely flopped before the betting
is complete, or if the flop contains too many cards, the boardcards
are mixed with the remainder of the deck. The burncard remains
on the table. After shuffling, the dealer cuts the deck and
deals a new flop without burning a card.”
“If the dealer turns the fourth card on the board before
the betting round is complete, the card is taken out of play
for that round, even if subsequent players elect to fold .
The betting is then completed. The dealer burns and turns
what would have been the fifth card in the fourth card’s
place. After this round of betting, the dealer reshuffles
the deck, including the card that was taken out of play, but
not including the burncards or discards. The dealer then cuts
the deck and turns the final card without burning a card.
(If the fifth card is turned up prematurely, the deck is reshuffled
and dealt in the same manner.)”
The portion of this rule saying the dealer does not burn a
card on the redeal is misguided. It is much harder for the
dealer to control the card to be dealt if a burn is required.
The applicable sentence in the rule should read, “The
dealer then cuts the deck, burns a card, and turns the final
card.”
The present method for handling a premature dealing on the
turn is used to have what would have been the last board-card
used on the turn, and not reshuffling the deck until just
before the last card is dealt. This method has four-fifths
of the boardcards remaining the same, albeit in a different
order. It would be better to reshuffle before the turn, preserving
the chance of receiving the prematurely dealt card on either
of the last two cards, as opposed to cutting that chance in
half. The superiority of retaining mathematical integrity
by reshuffling right away is best illustrated if the prematurely
dealt card makes a gutshot straight-flush for a player who
has not yet acted, thus having the dealer error influencing
that player's betting strategy.
3. Rule seven in “Button
and Blind Use” says, “A new player cannot
be dealt in between the big blind and the button. Blinds may
not be made up between the big blind and the button. You must
wait until the button passes.” This rule is standard
practice, but allowing a new player or player making up blinds
to come in between the blinds is better (if dealers are trained
how to handle the resulting situations), because it gets players
eager to join or rejoin the game into action faster.
4. Most poker rule sets say you have a dead hand at the showdown
if you do not have the proper number of cards for that game.
At stud, this rule is too strict. An inexperienced player
sometimes does not pay sufficient attention to the final card
when holding a big hand like a flush or full house (where
improvement is neither likely to happen nor be needed), and
fails to protect that card. If the dealer erroneously puts
that final card into the muck after the player fails to take
it in, the rules should give the decision-maker an option
to rule such a hand live. Rule 18 in “Section 8 –
Seven-card Stud” reads as below:
“A hand with more than seven cards is dead. A hand with
less than seven cards at the showdown is dead, except any
player missing a seventh card may have the hand ruled live.”
5. This rulebook requires all cash to be changed into chips.
In some cardrooms this can be a bit impractical for various
reasons. If the cardroom chooses to allow cash, only $100
bills should be permitted.
6. Most poker rulebooks follow the usual California practice
in multihanded pots at limit poker of allowing a bet and six
raises for lowball and draw high. The number of allowable
raises for those games is given in this rulebook as a bet
and four raises because this cuts down on the effect of collusion
between players, and more raises than four are hardly ever
needed to define the strength of two hands when another player
is calling.
7. Lowball has historically had less stringent demands on
the order of cards or acceptability of exposed cards than
in most other poker forms. This rulebook follows the modern
trend at lowball regarding misdeals of requiring the cards
to be dealt facedown and in proper order.
8. At ace-to-five limit lowball, an exposed card rule used
less often, but probably a superior rule, is to not let a
player take an exposed six or seven (the rule for no-limit
ace-to-five lowball). If a player gets to keep only a card
that might make a perfect hand, having a card exposed is less
advantageous, and the opponent must reckon with the possibility
of a perfect hand.
9. At lowball and draw high, some rule sets allow a player
to draw five consecutive cards. The rule used here disallowing
this makes cheating more difficult. Our rule #10 in lowball
and rule #5 in draw high says, “A player may draw up
to four consecutive cards. If a player wishes to draw five
new cards, four are dealt right away, and the fifth card after
everyone else has drawn cards. If the last player wishes to
draw five new cards, four are dealt right away, and a card
is burned before the player receives a fifth card.”
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