Robert's Rules of Poker

The Standard for Home Games

These rules represent the standard for home poker games, adapted from Robert Ciaffone's widely used rule set. They cover the most common situations you will encounter running a cash game or tournament at home.

Conduct and Etiquette

Players should be courteous to other players and the dealer at all times.
Avoid slow play and unnecessary delays. Act in turn and be prepared to act when it is your turn.
Keep your cards on the table and visible at all times. Protect your hand with a chip or card protector.
Do not discuss your hand or another player's hand while a hand is in progress.
Do not reveal cards you have folded, or the contents of your hand during play.
Electronic devices should not be used at the table in a manner that slows the game.
Angle shooting — attempting to gain an unfair advantage through deceptive or unethical actions — is not acceptable.
Splashing the pot (throwing chips in an uncontrolled manner) is not allowed.
String bets — announcing a call and then adding a raise, or making a bet in multiple motions without first announcing a raise — are not permitted.

Procedures

Making Decisions

Act in turn. Acting out of turn is penalized in a casino; in a home game, it is strongly discouraged.
A verbal declaration (call, raise, fold) is binding when it is your turn to act.
An action or verbal declaration out of turn is binding unless the action changes before it is genuinely that player's turn — a bet or raise ahead of them releases the out-of-turn action, and they may reconsider. A player who checked out of turn may not bet or raise when their turn arrives.
Players have the right to know the amount of a bet before acting.
You may ask to see the remaining players' chip counts before acting.

Playing Procedures

Cards speak: the best hand wins the pot even if a player miscalls their hand.
Players are responsible for protecting their own hand. A hand that is mucked or otherwise unreadable cannot win.
A player must show all cards at showdown to be eligible to win. A player may not show only part of their hand.
The winning player must show all cards to claim the pot. A losing player is not required to show.
In tournament play, all hands are turned face-up whenever a player is all-in and betting action is complete. Most home cash games follow the same practice.

Poker Rules

Buy-In

The minimum buy-in is typically 20 times the big blind; the maximum is set by house rules.
Players may not take chips off the table during play (going "south" is not permitted).
Rebuys are permitted between hands. A player who has gone all-in may rebuy for the next hand.

Shuffle and Cut

Robert's Rules assumes a professional house dealer, so self-dealt home games add these standard conventions:

The deck must be shuffled before each hand. A riffle shuffle (at least twice) followed by a cut is standard.
Any player may request a reshuffle before the cut.
The player to the dealer's right cuts the cards. The cut must result in at least five cards in each portion.
If the cut is performed incorrectly, the deck must be reshuffled and recut.

Misdeals

A misdeal occurs when a dealing error makes the hand unplayable as dealt, and must be called promptly: once two players have acted on their hands, a misdeal can no longer be called — the deal is played out. Misdeals include:

The dealer exposes the first or second card dealt, or exposes two or more cards during the deal.
Cards dealt out of the proper sequence, the first card dealt to the wrong seat, or the button out of position.
An incorrect number of cards dealt to any player (in Hold'em, one extra card dealt to the first player is simply returned to the deck and used as the burn card).
Cards dealt to an empty seat or to a player not entitled to a hand, or a player entitled to a hand dealt out.

Dead Hands

A hand may be declared dead if:

A player folds, or throws their hand away in a forward motion causing another player to act behind them.
A player's cards intermingle with the muck pile — though a clearly identifiable hand may be retrieved and ruled live at the table's discretion, especially if it was folded because of incorrect information.
The hand is not protected and is picked up by the dealer.
The hand contains the wrong number of cards for the game.

Irregularities

If the dealer exposes a card, the player never has the option to take or reject it — each game specifies the remedy. In Hold'em, an exposed hole card (other than the first or second card dealt, which is a misdeal) stays in play until the deal completes, then is replaced and becomes the burn card. A card flashed by a player plays.
A joker found in a game that does not use one is treated as a meaningless scrap of paper and replaced — it does not cause a misdeal. But a player who acts on a hand containing the joker without calling attention to it has a dead hand.
A card found face-up in the deck (a boxed card) is likewise treated as a scrap of paper and replaced. A card with a different colored back, or a duplicate card, voids all action: the chips in the pot are returned to the players who bet them.
One or more cards missing from the deck does not invalidate the results of a hand. In Stud, if the deck runs short, the burn cards are reshuffled back in (never the discards); if there still are not enough, a single common card is turned face-up and plays in everyone's hand.

Betting and Raising

Check, call, bet, raise, and fold are the available actions depending on the current betting state.
A bet or raise must be at least equal to the previous bet or raise in the same round.
In No-Limit: a raise must be at least as large as the previous raise. Minimum raise = size of previous raise.
In Limit: bets and raises are fixed at the specified increment.
In most home games, raises are capped at three or four raises per betting round (except heads-up play, which is uncapped).
Putting a single chip in the pot that is larger than the bet required is a call unless the player verbally announces a raise.
In no-limit, an all-in wager smaller than a full raise does not reopen the betting for a player who has already acted. In limit, an all-in of half a bet or more is treated as a full bet; less than half a bet does not reopen the betting.

Showdown

The last player to bet or raise must show first at showdown. If there was no bet on the final street, the player to the left of the dealer shows first (or the first active player to the dealer's left).
Cards speak: if a player shows a better hand than they announced, the hand counts.
Players may request to see any called hand (a hand that was called at showdown) even after the pot has been pushed.
Deliberately miscalling a hand to induce an opponent to muck is unethical and may result in a penalty.

Ties

When two hands are identical in rank, the pot is split equally.
Suits never break a tie for winning a pot. Suits are used only for procedural matters — the bring-in, drawing for the button, or awarding an odd chip in Stud (spades highest, then hearts, diamonds, clubs).
An odd chip goes to the first hand clockwise from the button. In Stud games it goes to the highest card by suit (lowest in low games); in high-low split games, the high hand gets it.

Button and Blinds

The button (dealer puck) designates the nominal dealer position, rotating clockwise after each hand.
The small blind is posted by the player immediately to the left of the button.
The big blind is posted by the player two seats to the left of the button (immediately left of the small blind).
If a player is away from the table when it is their turn to post a blind, they post upon return or sit out until the big blind reaches them.
In a new game or when a player is seated, the player must post a big blind equal to the current big blind, or wait for the big blind to reach them.
The big blind counts as a full bet; the big blind player has the option to raise even if there has been no raise before them.
In heads-up play, the small blind is on the button — the button acts first before the flop and last on every other street.

Specific Games and Variants

No-Limit

Any player may bet any amount up to all of their chips at any time.
A raise must be at least as large as the previous raise in that round. Minimum raise = the amount of the previous raise.
The minimum bet is the amount of the big blind. A player may go all-in for less; others may call the short amount, but a player who wants to raise must raise at least the minimum bet.

Texas Hold'em

Each player receives two hole cards. Five community cards are dealt in three stages: the Flop (3 cards), Turn (1 card), River (1 card).
Players make the best five-card hand using any combination of their two hole cards and the five community cards.
A player may play the board (use all five community cards as their hand), but must declare it before throwing their cards away — discarding without declaring relinquishes the pot. Safest is simply to table your cards.
See the full Texas Hold'em rules page for detailed play-through.

Omaha

Each player receives four hole cards. Five community cards are dealt as in Hold'em.
A player must use exactly two of their four hole cards and exactly three of the five community cards to make their hand. This rule is absolute.
See the full Omaha rules page for examples and play-through.

Omaha Hi-Lo (8-or-Better)

Played like Omaha, but the pot is split between the best high hand and the best qualifying low hand.
A qualifying low hand must have five unpaired cards, each 8 or lower (aces count as low; straights and flushes do not count against a low).
If no player qualifies for low, the best high hand wins the entire pot. Winning both halves — high and low — is called a "scoop."
A player may use different combinations of two hole cards for their high and low hands.
See the full Omaha Hi-Lo (8-or-Better) rules page for examples and play-through.

Seven-Card Stud

No community cards. Each player receives their own unique seven cards: two down, four up, one down.
Betting begins on Third Street with the player showing the lowest door card (who must "bring in").
From Fourth Street on, the player showing the highest visible hand acts first.
In fixed-limit, the small bet is used on Third and Fourth Street and the big bet from Fifth Street on — except that an open pair on Fourth Street gives any player the option of betting either amount.
See the full Seven-Card Stud rules page for street-by-street play.

Seven-Card Stud Hi-Lo / Razz

In Stud Hi-Lo, the pot is split between the best high hand and the best A-5 low hand (8-or-Better qualifier applies).
In Razz, the lowest A-5 hand wins the entire pot. Straights and flushes are ignored. The highest door card brings in on Third Street.
See the full Razz rules page for detailed low hand rankings and play-through.

Kill Pot

A kill pot rule can add excitement to fixed-limit games. See our Kill Pot rules page for the full rule set.

Glossary

Looking up a term? Every definition lives in the site-wide Poker Glossary — searchable, and covering far more than the rules above.