As poker continues to become more and more international, there has been an interest in standardizing the rules of play around the world. To this end the Professional Tournament Directors Association (also known as the Poker TDA) has been established to manage and develop a set of official poker tournament rules that are accepted in all major tournaments worldwide.
The basic rules of poker are that players must ante something before they are dealt cards, then make bets in turn in order to raise the amount of money in the pot. Once betting is complete the player with the highest hand wins the pot. Some games like stud poker and Omaha hold’em have a different mode of play but the same basic rules apply.
In addition, players must understand the ranking of suits in a poker hand, as this is used to break ties for winning pots. The suit order is spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs.
Another important part of poker rules is that players must show their hands at the end of a showdown. This helps avoid misunderstandings and makes the hand easier to identify. Players who fail to show their hands are mucked by the dealer.
All players must use poker chips to create consistency in their game, and different colors are used to represent the various values of chip denominations. Most establishments will have a minimum denomination of $1, while tournaments will have higher denomination chips for the higher stakes.