Round Table Poker

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Introduction

Bring a good wad of neopoints, practice your poker face and get ready for some high stakes poker! This is a game for all the gamblers out there who enjoy the thrill of taking risks.

Controls and Instructions

If you already know the rules, you may want to skip ahead to the Tips and Strategies section.

Round Table Poker is a six-round poker tournament. To enter each round, you must pay a certain amount of neopoints. Of course, if you win the round, you receive much more money than you paid to enter. When you start a round, each player has 1,000 NP. In order to win, you must have the most NP at the end of the round. Each round consists of a number of hands, during which you gain or lose money. The further you get into the tournament, the more hands you have to play in each round. The skill of your opponents also improves as you go along. Here are the neopoint wager, number of hands, and award for each round:

Playing a Hand of Poker

At the beginning of each hand, each player puts 10 NP into the pot as an ante. This is the opening bet that every player must make. Next, the first round of betting begins. You have three options:

1. Check - Pass your turn and do not make any additional bets
2. Bet - Add an additional 10 NP to the pot. If you chose to bet, the other players must match your bet or raise it if they want to continue playing in this hand.
3. Fold - give up on the current hand and lose the money you put into the pot.

If a player has made a bet before you, your options will be to call and match their bet, raise, making the bet 10 NP higher, or fold. If you have a bad hand and don't want to risk any money, then you may want to fold. You can only raise after another player has made a bet or raised before you, so the bet can only be raised by 10 NP at a time. There is also a 40 NP maximum bet in the first round of betting.

Once the first round of betting is finished, discarding begins. Each player gets the chance to discard up to four cards. Of course, you will want to discard what you don't need and hope for better cards. Once this is done, there is a final round of betting. Now each bet adds 20 NP to the pot instead of 10, and the maximum bet is 80 NP. Otherwise, the betting process is the same as before. Once betting is finished, everyone shows their hands and the player with the highest ranking hand wins the pot!

Hand Rankings

The rankings from best to worst are as follows:

1. Straight Flush - Five cards in sequence in the same suit.

2. Four of a Kind - Four cards of the same number.

3. Full House - Three of a kind and a pair.

4. Flush - All five cards are in the same suit.

5. Straight - All five cards are in sequence.

6. Three of a Kind - Three cards of the same number.

7. Two Pair - Two separate pairs.

8. One Pair - Two cards of the same number.

9. High Card - No combinations. The highest card in the hand.

If two players have the same type of hand, then the player with the higher card wins. For example, three 10's beats three 8's. If two players have a flush or straight, the one with the higher numbered card wins. In full houses, the numbers of the three cards count and the pair is ignored. If the first number is tied, in a flush for example, then the second highest cards are compared. If the numbers are identical, such as pair 7's against pair 7's, then the higher suit wins. Spades♠ is best, hearts♥ is second, clubs♣ is third, and diamonds♦ is last.

Tips and Strategies

Reading Your Opponent's Face

This is indeed a game of chance, but there are many ways to give yourself the advantage. If you know what to look for, you can have a very good idea of what kind of hands your opponents have. First of all, notice that all your opponents have three different expressions: Normal, Happy and Sad. The three expressions for Lady Vanella are shown below.

Normal	Happy	Sad

You only need to worry about whether players are Happy or Normal, and at only two points in the game. The first is right after you deal. Second, after the last player makes his discard, all players show whether they got what they wanted or not by being either Normal or Happy. Ignore the players' expressions at all other times. Keep in mind that a Happy player during either of these two times always has two pairs or better.

Also be sure to pay attention to the number of cards each player discards. You can tell what the players have by the amount of cards they discard. If a player who was Happy after dealing discards one card, it means he has two pairs. Discarding two cards means three of a kind and discarding none means four of a kind, flush, straight, or full house. Players who were Normal after dealing usually discard three cards, meaning they have a pair or worse. However, if they discard only one card it means they are going for a flush or straight.

As mentioned before, once the last player makes his discard, all players react to what they received when discarding. Now you can see whether or not your opponents got what they wanted. The players who were Normal after dealing are the ones to watch for. If they turn Happy and they discarded three cards, then they have a two of a kind or better. If one turns Happy after discarding one card, it means they got their flush or straight - probably time for you to fold. :P

Raise or Fold?

Now that you can figure out what you're up against, you can know when to bet and when to fold. If you have a good hand, make the bet as high as possible in the first round. Usually nobody folds in the first round of betting so if you can get into a betting war with a Happy player, you should be able to pull a good amount of money in from the Normal players as well. Be careful though. If your opponent keeps raising in either betting round then they probably have a very good hand.

In the second round, if you know your opponent has a good hand, such as three of a kind, and you have a better hand, you may want to let them make the first bet. Then you can raise and make the bet even higher. However, there is a chance that they will check, leaving the bet quite low. The risk is up to you.

Finally, don't forget that how much you win by does not matter unless you are trying to win a trophy. Because of this, no matter how good your hand is, if you are far in the lead with few hands remaining in the round, FOLD. Don't risk letting your opponents catch up and possibly beat you.

Trophies

The gold, silver, and bronze trophies are given out to players with the largest amount of money earned in the 6th round. Aside from the three normal game trophies, there is also a runner-up medal that you receive after winning the 5th round.

Conclusion

Round table poker is a great game for those of you who like a good risk. There's also a trophy and big neopoints to be won, so why not give it a try?