There is a lot of skill involved in poker when it comes to betting, and a lot of psychology too. But it is important to keep a clear understanding of the official rules so that you don’t break them accidentally and get yourself into trouble.

The 81 official poker rules that are downloadable from the FIDPA website are intended to avoid the large number of disputes that often occur in live and online poker tournaments. These rules are designed to ensure that players can play a consistent game across all the major cardrooms worldwide.

These poker rules are compiled by David Ciaffone who has done extensive work on poker rules at various cardrooms in the past. He is a regular columnist for Card Player magazine and can be reached through that publication.

All players must be able to see their own cards clearly, and higher denomination chips should be easily visible. Failure to do so may result in your chips being surrendered to the floor person, or you could even be disqualified from the game.

Players must always act in their turn, and can only fold, call (match the amount of the highest bet before them), or raise if no one before them has raised. Raising more than once in the same action is known as a string bet, and it is against poker rules. Similarly, it is against poker rules to peek at another player’s cards while they look at their own.