The short list
- Act in turn. Wait for the player before you. Acting early gives information away and can be unfair to others.
- Verbal declarations are binding. If you say "call" or "raise to 100", that is your action.
- No string bets. Say "raise" first, or put the whole amount in at once. Adding chips in several trips after seeing reactions is not allowed.
- One-chip rule. A single oversized chip without saying "raise" is a call. (With phone chips, the amount you tap is the amount you bet.)
- Minimum raise. A raise must be at least the size of the previous bet or raise.
- Cards speak. At showdown the hand is what the cards show, whatever the player calls it.
- Show one, show all. If you show your cards to one player, everyone at the table may see them.
- Protect your hand. Keep a chip or your hand on your cards. If they get mucked by accident, they are dead.
- Misdeals. If the first or second card dealt is exposed, or a player gets the wrong number of cards, reshuffle and redeal.
- Exposed card later in the deal. It is replaced after the deal and used as the burn card.
- Re-buys: say when they are allowed, for how much, and until when.
- Leaving early in a cash game: you cash out your stack. In a tournament, your blinds keep being posted until you are out, or you forfeit.
- Settle up before anyone leaves. Write down final stacks.
Why these rules matter
String bets and the one-chip rule
Both stop a player from fishing for a reaction before deciding how much to bet. They also make the bet amount clear to everyone. When bets are made by tapping an exact number on a phone, as with EasyPoker, the amount is never ambiguous, which removes the most common home-game dispute.
Cards speak
New players misread hands. "Cards speak" means nobody loses a pot because they did not notice their own flush, and nobody wins one by calling a hand they do not have.
Misdeals
Agreeing in advance what counts as a misdeal turns an argument into a reshuffle. Keep it simple: if in doubt, redeal.
House rules for the chips themselves
- Chips stay on the table (or in the app) during a cash game: no pocketing chips mid-game.
- Agree a fixer. With EasyPoker the host can correct any stack or the pot, and restore the table to any earlier moment, so mistakes are fixed rather than argued about.
- Pot splits. On a tie, split the pot evenly; an odd chip goes to the first winner left of the button.
- Side pots. Work them out before showing down. See how side pots work.
Optional rules some groups add
- Straddle: the player left of the big blind may put in a voluntary double big blind before cards are dealt.
- Run it twice: when players are all-in, deal the remaining board twice and split the pot by each result.
- Seven-deuce bonus: winning a pot with 7-2 earns a small bonus from every player.
- Dealer's choice: the dealer picks the variant (Hold'em, Omaha, etc.) for each orbit.