Laws Of Poker

“It is the law.”
Measure for Measure. Act II, Scene 2d.

DEALING

1.   One card is thrown face up to each player. The lowest card deals. The ace is the lowest. The king is the highest.
2.   Cards are shuffled in sight. Every player has a right to shuffle. The dealer shuffles last.
3.   The player to the right of the dealer cuts.
4.   One card at a time is given to each player, beginning at the left.
5.   The deal goes to the left.
6.   A pack with a faced card; when dealt, re­quires a new deal by the same dealer. Cards are re-shuffled and cut as before.
7.   When a card is faced in dealing, this turn­ing of the card being due to the dealer, or any other player, whether by accident or not, the player must receive the card.
8.   If two cards are exposed in the same way, as described in Rule 7, there must be a new deal.
9.   If a player raises his hand and discovers he has the wrong number of cards, it is not a mis­deal. He must discover it before raising the hand from the table or forfeit his hand.
10. No play can be made without the exact number of cards, which is five.

DISCARDING

11. After the first five cards are dealt, players who remain in may discard up to five cards, and ask for as many new cards as they require. The discard begins at the age - the player at the left of the dealer. Every player must discard in his regular turn. The exact number of cards asked for is given. Once cards are thrown away they cannot be handled until the next deal.
12. Players cannot ask others what is the dis­card as to numbers, either before or after the draw. (Formerly the rule read that before the draw the question could be asked, but not after it.), The dealer must announce his own discard.
13. When more cards are offered by the dealer than are asked for by the discard, the player, on announcing that too many or not enough cards are dealt him, can decline taking them, and the dealer may correct the error. If, however, the player accepts the cards from the dealer, and looks at them, whether they be more or less than the regular number he should have,’ which is five, the player is ruled out of the game.­
14. If, in asking for cards in the draw, one card is turned or shown, the latest-accepted rule is that this card cannot be taken. The dealer takes the exposed card, puts it at the bottom of the pack, proceeds to give the cards in order to the next players, and when through then gives a card to the player whose card has been turned. If more than one card be turned in the draw, the rule is the same. (This rule, though often disputed, should be accepted.)

THE ANTE

15. The player after the dealer must ante first, before the deal. He puts up any number of chips, not exceeding half the limit. To come in he has to double the ante, as the other players have to. The ante can never be more, when first put up, than half the limit. .
16. When the cards are dealt, players who come in must double the ante.
17. The age comes in last, and makes his ante good or not, at his option.

RAISES

18. After the age any player, in his turn, may raise. Any number of raises in turn are in order.
19. After the draw, any player who is in, commencing with the one to the left of the age, can raise.
20. The eldest hand, the age, comes in last. If the age declines making his blind good, notwithstanding this, the first player after him must bet first. The age never passes.
21. If a bet be raised by a player who is in his regular turn, the next player must see the bet or retire.

SHOWING HANDS

22. A show of hands, putting them on the table, face up, is a. rule never to be departed from when the call is made.

CALLING

23. When a player bets more than any one else, within the limit, and no one calls or sees him, he wins.

ONCE OUT

24. Once out of the game, a player can never enter again. (No foul hand can win under any circumstances, except in a successful bluff.)

THE BLIND AND STRADDLE

25. The age alone can make the blind. The next to the age can straddle. But the third player after the age cannot begin to straddle. The third player can straddle the straddler, always within the limit.
26. The straddle cannot make the straddle and raise at the same time. (There is no rule less ob­served than the one that the age never passes. This rule, No. 20, should, be faithfully observed.)

RULES FOR THE JACK-POT

27. Each player puts up as many chips as the one having the age.
28. The opening hand must have a pair of jacks or better.
29. If no player can come in, another chip is added by each player, and a second round begins.
30. After the opener, to the left of him all the players can come in, providing they see the amount he bets.
31. The opening bet must be put up before the draw.
32. The opener makes the first bet.
33. The last person to bet is the player, who is to the right of the opener.
34. All raises, as in poker, are in regular order.
35. For an error in opening a jack-pot, the person having made the mistake retires from the game. The penalty for the mistake is for him to put up a jack-pot equal in chips to the one he has entered into in error.
36. In the case of an error of this kind, any other player, to the left of the putative opener, having a pair of jacks or better can open.
37. If the error is found out after the cards have been drawn, and no hand has a pair of openers, that round of jack-pots is null and void.
38. A jack-pot cannot be opened by a player drawing for a straight or a flush. Any other player but the opener can draw for what he pleases. (See the explanations for this apparently arbitrary rule.)
(The laws governing the playing of the jack­pot require remodeling. This peculiar phase of poker is not old enough to have crystallized into its concrete form. As it is universally played, stringent rules should be adopted for it. Such rules as are presented are in accordance with those employed in New York City. The right to play the jack-pot at all is disputed by many players. The argument against it is that it is a diabolical invention of kitty. It is true that the more frequent are jack-pots, the larger the earnings of the kitty.)
All the rules of poker are made to prevent fraud. Every rule should be strictly adhered to.

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