Irish Hold’em Rules

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A Hold’em variant where players discard some of their pocket cards and then form their hand from their remaining pocket cards and the community cards in the board.

Betting Structure

Betting follows a two-tiered structure typical of hold’em games. The first two rounds of betting use the small bet size and the last two rounds use the large bet size. Small blind and big blind are used. The small blind is half a small bet (or sometimes rounded to a convenient amount) and the big blind is equal to a small bet.

The Deal Each player is dealt four pocket cards, face down. Players enter a round of betting, beginning with the player to the left of the player who posted the big bline. Players can choose to fold their hand and not play depending on the strength or potential of their hand, keeping in mind that more cards will be available after the first betting round.

The Flop Three cards are dealt face up in the center of the table. These cards are to be used in conjunction with your ‘pocket’ cards to form a hand. Since everyone can use these cards in their hand, they are known as ‘community cards’. Players must form the best possible five-card poker hand from the community cards and their pocket cards in any combination. Players now discard two of their four pocket cards, whichever are of least use to them in forming a strong poker hand. Now five cards are available to each player (their two pocket cards and the three from the flop). More cards will be added to the flop later, so the hand you have here is not necessarily your final hand. Those who still wish to stay in the game bet one standard betting round, raising, checking, calling or folding as they see fit depending on the hand they currently hold and also considering the potential for better hands for themselves and for the other players. If, for example, there are two aces in the flop and you do not have an ace, someone else might have an ace in their pocket cards, forming a 3 of a kind hand.

In this round and all subsequent rounds, the player to the immediate left of the dealer begins the betting.

The Turn A fourth card community card is added. Now players make their hand from their two remaining pocket cards and the 4 community cards. Another round of betting takes place.

The River A fifth community card is dealt. This card is called the ‘river’ by poker players. The final round of betting takes place. Now players know exactly what their final hand is, made up from the five community cards and their two pocket cards.

Note: Though it is possible to use neither of your pocket cards to form your hand, this is generally pointless as there is no way for you to have a better hand than anyone else. In some cases, the community cards do make a high hand that nobody can beat, and in this case the players who remain share the pot.

Showdown The players that remain after the final betting round show their pocket cards. The player whose cards form the best hand when combined with the community cards wins the pot. In case of identical hands, the pot is shared.