If you have watched Hold'em on television and never quite followed it, here is the plain-English version, taken from the poker guide we have long shared in our own community.
The deal and the blinds
The dealer shuffles a standard 52-card deck.
Before any cards come out, two players put chips into the pot so there is something to play for on every hand. This is called posting the blinds, and it falls on the two players to the left of the dealer position, which is known as the button.
The first blind, the player immediately left of the button, puts up half the minimum bet. The second blind puts up the full minimum bet.
Then each player is dealt two cards, face down. These are your hole cards, and only you can see them.
How a hand plays out
1. A round of betting begins with the player to the left of the two who posted the blinds. You can call, which means matching the current bet, raise, which means increasing it, or fold, which means giving up the hand.
2. The dealer burns the top card of the deck, meaning it is discarded face down so nobody can have seen it, and then turns three cards face up on the table. Those three are the flop.
3. Another round of betting follows, starting with the player left of the button. From here on you can also check, which means staying in the hand without betting when nobody has bet ahead of you.
4. The dealer burns another card and turns up a fourth community card. That one is the turn, also called Fourth Street. Another round of betting follows.
5. The dealer burns one more card and turns up the fifth and final community card. That is the river, or Fifth Street.
6. The last round of betting happens, and anyone still in the hand shows their cards.
Making a hand
Five community cards end up face up on the table, and you hold two cards nobody else can see.
You build the best possible five-card poker hand out of any combination of those seven cards. You can use both of your hole cards, one of them, or neither, whichever makes the strongest five.
That is why the flop, the turn and the river are so tense. Every card that lands changes what everyone at the table might be holding, including you.
Playing it on DoubleDown
The chips are the same play money used everywhere else in the game. They never convert to cash, prizes or goods, and they cannot be transferred or sold, so poker here is a card game with a scoreboard and nothing else riding on it.
That makes it a rather good place to learn. You can fold bad hands all night, watch how the betting rounds flow, and lose nothing but a few thousand chips you were given for free.
Take it slowly at first. Fold more often than you think you should while you are learning, and pay attention to what the community cards might be giving other players, not only what they give you.
If you would like to talk hands with people who have been at this table for years, our forum is the place: https://www.ddpcshares.com/forum/. Chips to sit down with are free every day at https://www.ddpcshares.com/double_down_c ... tion_codes.