NYC Poker Dealer

Types Of Games

There are two main types of poker games: Cash game and tournament.

In a tournament, a number of players all agree to put in the same buy-in at the same time for a certain number of chips, and play begins for all players simultaneously. Over time, the blinds (the minimum bet) raises at intervals. And play continues until one player has all the chips. These sometimes also allow for rebuys (if you lose all your chips you can buy another entry into the tournament) and/or add-ons (at a set time after the tournament begins, anybody remaining can purchase more chips for their stack at a pre-set price.)

In a cash game, players may all start playing at the same time, but they may come and go as allowed by house rules. The minimum bets always stay the same. Players may add to their stacks at any time (not during a hand they are playing, of course) and may (if they desire) buy back in if they lose all their chips. Players may not take chips out of their stack. These games are played "table stakes." If Player A bets 100 and Player B only has 40 left in front of them, Player B may "call" for 40, and only 40 from each player goes into the pot. When you see in movies and TV somebody takes off their watch and puts it into the pot, or somebody makes a bet so big that the other player can only continue if they put up the deed to their car: That's all Hollywood bullshit. That doesn't happen.

To be honest, you'd be best off forgetting anything you ever think you learned about poker from a TV show or movie: in almost every case it's not only wrong, it's actually against the rules. Everything from M*A*S*H to Rounders to Casino Royale... it's all wrong. We'll help you unlearn those things.

As for poker variants, there are more than we could even list here. 99% of poker players want to learn the game called Texas Hold 'Em. That's basically where we start, but we'll go through a bit of the basics of "older" versions like 5-Card Stud, 7-Card Stud, and 5-Card Draw, and sometimes touch on some other variants like Omaha, Omaha Hi/Lo, and 2-7 Triple Draw. Not necessarily because you will want to play those games (although you likely will!), but there are lessons to be learned from those games which can then be applied to Hold 'Em.

Texas Hold 'Em is a game in which every player gets two "hole cards" that are theirs and theirs alone (and should not be shown or shared with anybody) and eventually there are five "community cards" dealt face up on the table. Then every player left at "showdown" can make their own best hand out of any five of the seven cards they see (their two hole cards plus the five community cards... they may use two of their own plus three from the board, one of their own plus four of the board, or none of their own and all five of the community cards.) Then, the winner is determined by who has the best hand based on the standard rank of all poker hands.

Poker Rules and lingo? We won't lie... it's a LOT. But we won't necessarily cover it here/now (but we will in person!) There are entire books dedicated to proper rules and etiquette at poker tables (for the players, the dealers, and the floor managers.) This website is a good resource for "the rules" and Section 5 specifically details Hold 'Em: Robert's Rules of Poker.

But... we have to say: anybody who could actually figure out how to play poker from reading that document is a true savant. This is why you need us.

We told ourselves we were going to keep this section simple, and here's where we are. Suffice it to say that we can set up and deal any game you would like to learn and/or play.