Playin Texas-Holdem by the Beach

Played a game of poker with the YHA guys last nite after taking the day off doing some internet and cooking, eating, watching the 80's classic Ghostbusters with the other restful souls of the backpacker hang-out in Stradbroke Isle.

I've played a few times and I wanted to write down the rules so I dont' forget again so I pencilled them this morning on my notebook and I'm passing them to the diary today (BTW: right now I'm in the spunky Tinbilly hostal in Brissie, leaving early morning to go to Byron).

Anyway, here goes:

The game is one of the many variants of poker. Basically every player uses the highest combination of any cards in their hand or facing up up the table and the score as follows (from lowest to highest cards). 1) Pairs, 2) Two Pairs, 3) Threes, 4) Straight, 5) Flush, 6) Full House, 7) Poker, 8) Royal Flush.. If two people have the same high-scoring set then you look at the non-scoring cards to see who has highest (ie if the winners have both a pair of Queens - one queen in the hand and another on the table, the one that has an Ace left in the hand together with a queen wins the round).

The pot on this game was 5 dollars a person, to be split by the winners after 3 hours. There were 6 guys on the table. Next me to was Ross: a scary tatooed dude, then Jamesy: the manager of the diving centre, Ralphie: the manager of the YHA, Robbo: a local electrician, Pierce: a scottish backpacker and me (a crazy spaniard). Chips were handed out to each player, the winnings (a grand total of 30 bucks) going to those with some left at the end.

The game rotates anti-clockwise with a different 'hand' every time (player who shuffles and deals the cards) and a typical round goes as follows:

1) Hand deal 2 cards per player
2) Next player after the Hand puts 1 chip down (called 'small blind') the next person puts 2 chips down (called 'big blind').
3) After looking at the cards the next player after the 'big blind' will either 'see' (meet the highest bet - 2 chips to match the big blind at this stage), 'raise' (put more chips down), or 'fold' (quit the game) and then same with the next one until everyone has had a chance at this with the 'small blind' going last.
4) Hand throws out 1 card, and deals 3 up (for everyone to see).
5) Players either see, raise, or fold going one by one around the table.
6) Hand throws 1 card, and puts 1 card up on the table.
7) Players see/raise/fold (when someone folds they have to leave their bet in the pot).
8) Hand throws out 1 card and deals 1 up making a total of 5 cards on the table.
9) Players see/raise/fold.
10) When everyone has had a turn and only the highest stakes are left the players show their cards
11) Highest cards takes the pot.

Notes: Only a max of 3 raises are allowed per round. Bluffing, heckling, peer pressure, and drinking are all part of the game.