Tournament Strategies
After receiving pocket cards, you are immediately faced with a choice: play your cards and either raise or call the blinds, or fold.
Practice Matters
Protecting a Hole Card
Protecting a Hole Card A player must protect his hole card at all times. Protecting a hole card is to permit no other player to know its identity, regardless of whether the player is active or dead. A player is not permitted at any time to turn up his hole card and call for his next card face down. A player, when folding up, is not permitted to expose his hole card to any of the players or to mention its identity.
Checking on the Last Round
Checking on the Last Round If a player checks on the last round, all other players, in order to check too, must be able to beat the checking player's four open cards. Otherwise a check is not permitted. Example: A player who has checked has a pair of open aces. The next and following players cannot check unless they can beat the open pair, although they may bet if the situation permits. This rule is incorporated to protect a player's hand against another player who calls an impossible hand, although there is no penalty that could be imposed on a player for failure to comply.