How to Deal Poker: Cards, Burns, Pots and Chips

At a home game everyone deals in turn, so everyone needs to know how. Good dealing keeps the game quick and fair, and stops arguments before they start.

Before the deal: chips

At the start of the night, deal the chips: count each player's starting stack into neat piles of the same colour, ideally before anyone arrives. Stacks of 20 are easy to count by eye. Chip values by colour.

Shuffle and cut

1. Wash a new deck — spread it face down and mix it around the table.
2. Riffle shuffle three or four times. How to shuffle cards.
3. Offer the cut to the player on your right, or cut it yourself onto the felt.
4. Keep the bottom card hidden throughout.

Dealing hole cards in Texas hold'em

1. Check the dealer button is in front of the right player and the blinds are posted.
2. Deal one card at a time, face down, starting with the player to the left of the button and going clockwise, ending with the button.
3. Go round again so everyone has two cards.

Pitch, don't throw. Hold the deck in your left hand, push the top card off with your thumb, take it with your right hand and slide it low across the felt to the player. Keep cards low so nobody sees them.

If a card is exposed by accident during the deal, the usual home rule is that it is replaced with the next card and put face up as the burn card.

The board

Before each round of shared cards, the dealer burns — takes the top card off face down — then deals:

1. Burn, then the flop: three cards face up in the middle.
2. Burn, then the turn: one card.
3. Burn, then the river: one card.

Burning protects against anyone glimpsing the top card or marking it. Keep burn cards in a separate pile under a chip.

Managing the pot

• Bets stay in front of each player until the betting round ends. Then sweep them into the middle. This makes it easy to see who has called what.
• No splashing. Players should place chips in front of them, not toss them into the pot.
• Announce the action if the table is new: "Raise to 400, back to you."

Side pots

When a player goes all in for less than others are betting, they can only win what they put in, from each player.

1. Put the all-in player's amount, matched by each caller, in the main pot.
2. Any further bets from the other players go into a side pot, which the all-in player cannot win.
3. At the showdown, settle the side pot first, then the main pot.

An "all in" button in front of the player makes the situation clear at a glance.

After the hand

Push the pot to the winner, collect the cards, move the button one seat left, and the next player deals. Count the deck occasionally — a missing card is easier to find after one hand than after ten.