How to play

Hold'em, the club's way

The rules of No-Limit Hold'em in a minute, the hand rankings, and the Canadian pieces of the club that make it play differently.

The basics

Hold'em in a minute

Two cards each

Every player is dealt two cards face down: the hole cards. Peel yours up from the corner.

Five on the board

Three shared cards come on the flop, one on the turn and one on the river.

Four rounds of betting

Before the flop, then after each new card: fold, check, call, bet or raise.

Best five wins

At showdown each hand plays its best five from its two cards and the board.

Hand rankings

From the best hand down

1. Royal flush
Ace, king, queen, jack and ten, all of one suit.

AKQJ10
2. Straight flush
Five in a row, all of one suit.

98765
3. Four of a kind
Four cards of one rank.

QQQQ4
4. Full house
Three of one rank and two of another.

JJJ88
5. Flush
Five of one suit, in any order.

AJ862
6. Straight
Five in a row, of mixed suits.

109876
7. Three of a kind
Three cards of one rank.

777K2
8. Two pair
Two pairs of different ranks.

KK559
9. One pair
Two cards of one rank.

AA1063
10. High card
None of the above: the highest card plays.

AJ852

Betting

The curling lane

Your bet control is a curling sheet. Slide the stone, or tap the Skip's broom and it slides there for you. One push across the line is the bet.

Hog line	The minimum raise
The rings	A third, a half or two thirds of the pot
Tee line	The pot
Back line	All in

The curling lane under the member’s cards, the stone at the hog line

The club's own words

Curling, hockey and the voyageurs

The button and the hammer

Curling's button is the centre of the house; a Last Stone Draw decides who takes the dealer's button. The hammer is the last stone of the end: at the table, acting last after the flop.

Run, Décharge or Portage

All in with cards to come, the table votes like voyageurs at a rapid: run the board once, unload it twice, or carry it three times. The fewest boards anyone asks for is dealt.

Chirps and tilt

Once an orbit, chirp a regular. Steam rises off a rival who has had enough, and a rival on tilt plays looser.

Reads

Call a rival's hand a monster, value, a draw or a bluff. If the showdown proves you right, you earn Read Points, and the night's best read earns a star.

Dealer's choice