Texas Hold’em, six-max.

The table

Up to six players share a table. Two seats post the small and big blind automatically each hand, and the blinds rotate one seat clockwise as each hand ends — there’s never an ante on top of them, at any stakes. Every player buys in with Gold and plays the stack in front of them — there’s no reaching into your balance mid-hand.

How a hand plays out

1. Preflop — everyone gets two private hole cards; betting starts left of the big blind.
2. Flop — three shared community cards are dealt face up, then another round of betting.
3. Turn — a fourth community card, then betting.
4. River — the fifth and final community card, then a last round of betting.
5. Showdown — anyone still in makes their best five-card hand from their two hole cards and the five on the board; the best hand takes the pot.

A hand can also end early — everyone but one player folds, and the pot goes to whoever’s left without a showdown.

Betting on each street

On your turn you’ll always see only the actions that are actually legal to make:

• Check — pass the action along without betting. Only available when nobody’s bet yet this street.
• Call — match the current bet to stay in.
• Raise — increase the bet. A raise has to be at least as large as the last bet or raise on that street (the big blind, the first time a street sees one), so a raise can’t be so small it’s barely worth reacting to.
• Fold — give up the hand and whatever you’ve already put in the pot.
• All-in — bet your entire remaining stack. If that’s less than a full raise, it still gets you to showdown, but it doesn’t reopen betting for anyone who’s already acted this street — they can call it, but they can’t raise again unless someone else makes a full-size raise first.

All-in and side pots

Going all-in for less than the current bet doesn’t end the hand for everyone else — it caps what you can win. Anyone who keeps betting past your stack is playing for a separate side pot you have no claim on; you can only win the portion of the pot that you and the players you’re contesting it with both covered. With several players all-in for different amounts, the table can split into multiple pots this way, each awarded on its own — it’s possible to lose the side pot and still win the main one, or the other way around.

Blinds by stakes

Buy-in and blinds are fixed per table — pick a stakes level, and that’s what you’re playing.

• 1,000 Gold buy-in — 5 / 10 blinds
• 5,000 Gold buy-in — 25 / 50 blinds
• 10,000 Gold buy-in — 50 / 100 blinds
• 25,000 Gold buy-in — 125 / 250 blinds
• 50,000 Gold buy-in — 250 / 500 blinds
• 100,000 Gold buy-in — 500 / 1,000 blinds
• 250,000 Gold buy-in — 1,250 / 2,500 blinds
• 500,000 Gold buy-in — 2,500 / 5,000 blinds

Busting and rebuying

Run your stack to zero and your seat sits out until you rebuy — the table keeps playing without you, so there’s no rush. You can rebuy the moment the hand that busted you is actually decided (not mid-hand), and always for the same fixed buy-in the table started at. There’s no way to buy Gold from the table itself; if you’re short, the busted screen offers a one-time top-up when you’re eligible for one, and every other way to earn Gold is one tap back to the lobby.

Other ways to play

• Heads-Up — you against one opponent, hand after hand, for a fixed buy-in with no rebuys and no bots. Blinds open at 100 big blinds deep and step up every 15 minutes to force a decision inside the hour. Bust and the match is over immediately; your opponent takes both stacks.
• Sit & Go — a 6-max tournament for real registrants only. Entry fee doubles as your starting stack, blinds escalate on a fast turbo schedule to force a winner in roughly 30-50 hands, there are no rebuys, and it’s winner-take-all across every seat’s entry fee.

Hand rankings, best to worst

The examples below show the pattern to look for. Suits never break a tie in Hold’em.

1. A♠K♠Q♠J♠10♠
   Royal flushA, K, Q, J, 10 — all in the same suit.
2. 9♥8♥7♥6♥5♥
   Straight flushFive cards in sequence, all in the same suit.
3. 7♠7♥7♦7♣K♠
   Four of a kindFour cards of the same rank.
4. Q♠Q♥Q♦4♣4♠
   Full houseThree of a kind plus a pair.
5. A♥9♥7♥4♥2♥
   FlushFive cards of the same suit, not in sequence.
6. 9♠8♥7♦6♣5♠
   StraightFive cards in sequence, with any mix of suits.
7. J♠J♦J♣8♥3♠
   Three of a kindThree cards of the same rank.
8. A♠A♥9♦9♣4♠
   Two pairTwo different pairs.
9. K♠K♥8♦5♣2♠
   One pairTwo cards of the same rank.
10. A♠Q♥9♦7♣4♠
    High cardNo combination — the highest card plays.

Duels

Outside the table, head-to-head duels pit two players directly against each other: Chess, Checkers, Trivia Showdown, and Word Race. Both players stake Gold up front, and whoever wins takes the whole pot — the house never takes a cut.

Cribbage runs alongside them on the same no-house-cut terms, but it’s a 3-4 player free-for-all rather than a 1v1 challenge — everyone seated antes in, and whoever wins the race to 121 takes the whole table’s pot.