The Rules
The rules are simple and the best way to learn is to sit down and grab a hand!! Hold 'em is normally played using small and big blind bets – forced bets by two players. Antes (forced contributions by all players) may be used in addition to blinds, particularly in later stages of tournament play. A dealer button is used to represent the player in the dealer position; the dealer button rotates clockwise after each hand, changing the position of the dealer and blinds. The small blind is posted by the player to the left of the dealer and is usually equal to half of the big blind. The big blind, posted by the player to the left of the small blind, is equal to the minimum bet. In tournament poker, the blind/ante structure
periodically increases as the tournament progresses. (In some cases, the small blind is some other fraction of a small bet; e.g., $10 is a common small blind when the big blind is $15, and still other tables may use two equal blinds. The double-blind structure described above is a commonly used and more recent adoption.)
