A game of official poker is played with a standard deck of 52 cards. Each player is dealt two cards, called their hole cards, and the five community cards are dealt in three stages: a series of two cards (“the flop”), an additional card (called “the turn”) and finally another single card (“the river”). Players seek to make the best five-card poker hand from these seven cards. A hand is ranked according to its category, and any higher-ranked hand beats a lower-ranked one. Suits are not considered when determining a hand’s rank.

The first rule of playing poker is to protect the interests and privacy of other participants in a tournament. This includes protecting other players’ winnings, avoiding discussion of cards discarded or hand possibilities, and limiting side betting. Violators may be verbally warned or removed from the tournament.

WFP reserves the right to remove a player from play at any time for major infractions such as:

In addition, the rules of poker require that a player only wager with money they can afford to lose. It is recommended that new players start by gambling with an amount they feel comfortable losing, and that they track their wins and losses. A good way to keep track of your money is to use a poker notebook. The most popular form of poker is Texas hold’em, which is a card game in which each player has two private cards and five community cards that are dealt in stages: a pair of cards (“the flop”), then an additional single card (“the turn”) and finally a final single card (“the river”). Players have betting options to check, call, raise, or fold.