The Aussie Poker Guide
The Formal Rules of Poker
Poker is a simple game. But even at a friendly gathering, situations arise in which the general consensus on how to resolve a disagreement may not be adequate. In order to save time and avoid any unnecessary friction during these contingencies, you should have written rules in force for your games.
What Rules Should Play By? Incredible as it sounds, there is no universally accepted rulebook for live poker, even among casinos. The rules of the game are defined by custom as much as by code. The essential core of the game doesn't change, and there is a standard way to play poker in a casino or card room. But when non-standard situations arise, divergences in state laws, local norms, house rules, and jurisprudences of different card room managers can bring about results at one table that are completely different than they would be at another table.
There are whole columns in Card Player dedicated to these kinds of issues, and that's just for casinos, where the variances are relatively narrow. On the other hand, the rules of home games can vary so widely, not only among themselves, but from typical casino rules, that no prudent card player could sit down with real money at an unfamiliar home game before deposing the host for at least fifteen minutes to pin down the house notions of rules as basic as "cards speak" and the ranks of low hands.
It doesn't have to be this way. As a home game host, there is no reason for you not to play poker the same way it is played by serious players in casinos and card rooms. You have nothing to lose and much to gain by trying to recreate casino standards as closely as is practical. If you are new to poker, adopting these rules will allow you and your players to use your home games to prepare for serious casino play if you ever decide to try it. And if you are already an experienced player, honoring casino rules at your home game will prevent you from developing various bad habits that come from playing informally. Some of these habits can cost you real money in serious games where rules are strictly enforced.
But an even bigger advantage of playing standard poker games by the standard rules is that it opens the door to a library of poker books made available for your benefit by the literati of professional poker. Books can explain the basics of competent poker play, but you must build on that foundation and seek out the wisdom of the experts, in addition to building up experience by playing, of course, if you want to become a serious competitive player at your home game or anywhere else. If you play Roll Your Own, the books written are basically inapplicable, but if you play standard poker games by the formal rules, books are indispensable.
While adherence to casino rules should be the main inspiration for your home game, there is still room to tailor those rules to work optimally around your kitchen table. This leeway exists mostly outside of the actual play of hands. Deviating a bit from casino rules in these areas won't have a detrimental effect because they are more like procedures than statutes, and they are almost always implemented by floor men, not players. Home game rules must adjust to the fact that you are the floor man and has the capacity to decide which rule is applicable for the game you're playing.