Knowing When to Bet. The ranking of Poker hands is based on mathematics. The less likely a player is to get a certain hand, the higher it ranks and the more likely it is to win the pot. For example, a player should not expect to be dealt a straight flush more than once in 65,000 hands, but he can expect to be dealt two pair about once in every 21 hands.

Unless a player is planning to bluff, he should not make a bet without holding a hand that he thinks may be the best. No Poker player can bet intelligently unless he knows what constitutes a good hand, a fair hand, and a bad hand. A table of the various Poker hands and the number of combinations of each in a pack of cards is provided. (See chart next page).

The Kitty. By unanimous or majority agreement, the players may establish a special fund called a "kitty." Usually the kitty is built up by "cutting" (taking) one low-denomination chip from each pot in which there is more than one raise. The kitty belongs to all the players equally, and it is used to pay for new decks of cards or for food and drinks. Any chips left in the kitty when the game ends are divided equally among the players who are still in the game. Unlike the rule in some other games, such as Pinochle, when a player leaves a Poker game before it ends, he is not entitled to take his share of chips that comprised part of the kitty.

Chips. Poker is almost always played with poker chips. For a game with seven or more players, there should be a supply of at least 200 chips. Usually, the white chip (or the lightest-colored chip) is the unit, or lowest-valued chip, worth whatever the minimum ante or bet is; a red chip (or some other colored chip) is worth five whites, and a blue chip (or some other dark-colored chip) is worth 10 or 20 or 25 whites or two, four or five reds. At the start of the game, each player "buys in" by purchasing a certain number of chips. All of the players usually buy in for the same amount.

Banker. One player should be designated as the banker, who keeps the stock of chips and records how many have been issued to each player or how much cash the player has paid for his chips. Players should make no private transactions or exchanges among themselves; a player with surplus chips may return them to the banker and receive credit or cash for them, while a player who wants more chips should obtain them only from the banker,

Betting Limits. There are different ways of fixing a betting limit. Some limit is necessary; otherwise a player with a lot more money would have, or would be perceived to have, an unfair advantage. Once fixed, the limit should be unalterable throughout the game unless the players unanimously agree to change the stakes. Some popular limit systems follow:

Fixed limit. No one may bet or raise by more than a stipulated number of chips, for example, two, or five, or 10. Usually this limit varies with the stage of the game: In Draw Poker, if the limit is five before the draw, it might be ten after the draw. In Stud Poker, if the limit is five in the first four betting intervals, it is ten in the final betting interval (and often ten whenever a player has a pair or better showing).

Pot limit. Any bet or raise is limited to the number of chips in the pot at that time. This means that a player who raises may count as part of the pot the number of chips required for him to call. If there are six chips in the pot, and a bet of four is made, the total is 10 chips; it requires four chips for the next player to call, making 14; and the player may then raise by 14 chips. But even when the pot limit is played, there should be some maximum limit, such as 50 chips.

Table stakes. The limit for each player is the number of chips the player has in front of him. If the player has only 10 chips, he may bet no more than 10 and he may call any other player's bet to that extent. In table stakes, no player may withdraw chips from the table, or return chips to the banker, until he leaves the game. A player may add to his stack, but only between the deal just completed and the beginning of the next deal.

Whangdoodles, or Roodles. In a fixed-limit game, it is often agreed that following any very good hand - a full house or better, for example - there will be one deal by each player of Jackpots, in which everyone antes double, and the betting limit is doubled for these deals as well.

Poverty Poker. A maximum limit is put on the number of chips any player may lose. Each takes out one stack at the start; if he loses that stack, the banker issues the player another, without charging for it, and in many cases, the player can get still a third stack free before dropping out of the game. (Some limit should be placed on the number of free stacks so that a player will have the incentive to play carefully.)

No limit. In these sessions, the "sky's the limit," but such games are rarely played today.

Limits on Raises. In almost all games played today, there is a limit on the number of raises at each betting interval, and this limit is invariably three raises.