Poker

Version 1.0.0 · The Arcade · Catalogue 39

Two cards in your hand. Five on the table. Find your best five at a quiet heads-up practice table.

Your objective

You play Texas Hold’em against Mira, a basic computer opponent. Win the current pot by making the better five-card hand at showdown or by getting the other player to fold. Each deal uses a fresh 52-card pack and resets both players to 500 free practice chips.

These chips have no monetary value and cannot be bought or redeemed. There is no account, persistent balance or tournament. The game is one complete practice deal at a time.

Your cards and the board

Each player gets two private hole cards. Your cards are face up; Mira’s stay face down until a showdown. The shared board develops in three stages: three cards on the flop, one on the turn, then one on the river. The engine burns one card before each board stage.

At showdown, make the best five-card hand from your two hole cards and the five shared cards. You may use both, one or neither of your own cards. Playing all five board cards is valid. You do not select a combination manually; the game evaluates the available combinations and displays the best five.

Hand rankings, strongest first

• Straight flush: five consecutive ranks in one suit. An ace-high straight flush is the highest possible hand and is labelled Straight flush here.
• Four of a kind: four cards of one rank, plus a fifth card.
• Full house: three cards of one rank and a pair of another.
• Flush: five cards in one suit, without a straight.
• Straight: five consecutive ranks, regardless of suit.
• Three of a kind: three of one rank with two other cards.
• Two pair: two cards of one rank, two of another and a fifth card.
• One pair: two of one rank and three other cards.
• High card: none of the combinations above; compare the highest cards.

Within a category, the relevant ranks decide the winner. For one pair, compare the pair first, then the remaining cards from high to low. Those extra cards are called kickers. For two pair, compare the higher pair, then the lower pair, then the kicker. A full house compares its three-card rank before its pair.

An ace may be high in 10–J–Q–K–A or low in A–2–3–4–5, called a wheel. A wheel is only five-high and loses to a six-high straight. Straights cannot wrap, so Q–K–A–2–3 is not a straight. Suits never break a tie. If both best five have the same rank value, the pot is split exactly.

Blinds, button and turn order

The button identifies the dealer position. In this two-player game, the button posts the small blind of 5 and the other player posts the big blind of 10. The pot starts at 15. On the opening deal, you are the button, so your stack reads 495 and Mira’s reads 490 after the blinds.

Before the flop, the button acts first. If you only call the missing 5, the big blind still gets a turn to check or raise. Matching the blind does not skip that option.

On the flop, turn and river, the big blind acts first and the button acts last. The position labels beside the chip stacks identify both seats. New deal and Deal again alternate the button.

The four betting rounds

There is a betting round preflop, on the flop, on the turn and on the river. The active street is marked beneath the board.

• Check: pass the action without adding chips when nothing is owed.
• Call: add the amount needed to match the current bet. The button shows the exact amount to pay now.
• Bet: open a postflop round when nobody has bet yet.
• Raise: increase the current bet by this street’s fixed increment. Raise to shows your total contribution for that street after the action, not just the chips added now.
• Fold: concede the pot immediately. You cannot undo a fold.

Once both players have acted and their contributions are equal, the next street is dealt. Two checks close a postflop round; a single check does not. A fold ends the hand without dealing the remaining board cards.

Fixed limits and the house cap

Bets and raises increase the total by 10 on the preflop and flop rounds, then 20 on the turn and river. You cannot type a custom bet size.

The house rule is a bet and three raises per round. The preflop big blind counts as that round’s initial bet. When three raises have occurred, Raise is disabled and the strip says RAISE CAP REACHED. You can still call or fold if chips are owed, or check when nothing is owed.

This cap limits each player to 40 preflop, 40 on the flop, 80 on the turn and 80 on the river: 240 chips in the entire hand. Starting stacks are 500, so a player can never be forced all-in. There are no all-ins or side pots in this profile. The cap is a declared house rule; it does not claim to describe every heads-up poker table.

Controls and reading the table

Tap or click Fold, Call/Check or Raise/Bet when it is your turn. The amount and action labels update automatically. While Mira is considering her hand, action buttons are disabled and the status names her turn.

• C: check or call, as the current situation allows.
• R: bet or raise, unless the cap has been reached.
• F: fold.
• Tab, Space and Enter: focus and activate ordinary buttons, including New deal and Table rules.

On touch devices, the action row is below your cards. Scroll to see the result, rules or full guide. In an embedded frame, click or tap inside the game before using keyboard shortcuts. Cards are display items, so tapping a card does not change your chosen five.

The centre shows the pot; the seat labels show stacks and recent actions. Your current hand category appears once at least three board cards are available. That label describes your available cards, not a guarantee that you are ahead. The recent-action strip shows only the latest actions.

Worked betting example

You begin on the button with the small blind of 5 already posted. Mira has posted 10. Call 5 puts another 5 into the pot and brings your preflop contribution to 10. The pot becomes 20; Mira still has her big-blind option.

If Mira raises to 20, she adds 10 and the pot becomes 30. Calling the extra 10 makes the pot 40 and completes preflop betting. The flop is dealt and Mira acts first. If both players check, no chips are added and the turn is dealt.

On a later 20-chip round, if you have contributed 0 and face a bet of 20, Raise to 40 pays 40 now: 20 to match and 20 to raise. The displayed raise target is the new round total.

Worked hand examples

You hold A♠ K♦ and the board is A♥ 7♣ 7♦ 2♠ 3♣. Your best five are A♠, A♥, 7♣, 7♦ and K♦: two pair, aces and sevens, with a king kicker. If Mira holds A♦ Q♣, she has the same two pairs but only a queen kicker, so your king wins.

If the board itself is 10♠ J♠ Q♠ K♠ A♠, neither player can improve on it. Both play the same ace-high straight flush, and the pot splits. Your private cards do not have to appear in your best five.

If a showdown compares A–2–3–4–5 against 2–3–4–5–6, the six-high straight wins. The ace in the wheel is low.

A little strategy

Pay attention to position. The button acts first before the flop but gets to see Mira’s action first on later streets. Check the board for possible straights, flushes and higher pairs before committing another fixed bet.

Compare the call amount with the pot and the hand you can realistically make. A current pair may be strong on one board and vulnerable on another. Read the winning-five display after showdown to understand which cards actually mattered; using two hole cards is never compulsory.

Mira uses a modest hand-strength heuristic with seeded choices. She sees only her own cards and the public board/actions, not your hole cards or future board cards. This is a basic practice opponent, with no difficulty selector or tournament-strength claim.

Results, folds and replay

At showdown, Mira’s cards turn face up. The result names the winner and hand category, shows the pot award, and presents the winning five with gold rings. On a split, it shows both players’ best five and the exact half-pot each receives. The on-table pot label changes to POT AWARDED or POT SPLIT.

If a player folds, the other player receives the current pot immediately. The result states who folded; Mira’s hole cards remain hidden. A fold result does not reveal a winning five.

Deal again or New deal starts a fresh shuffled pack, alternates the button and resets each player to 500 before posting blinds. Starting during a hand abandons it. There is no undo, cumulative balance or win history.

Session-only progress

The open page holds the current hand. Reloading, closing and reopening, or reconnecting an embedded game starts the opening deal again with you on the button. No hole cards, stack balance or partial board is saved. Keep the game tab open while this guide opens separately.

Install and play offline

Open the standalone game online over HTTPS, or localhost during local use. Choose Install game when your browser offers it; otherwise use the displayed browser-menu instructions for installing or adding it to the home screen. Browser support and wording vary.

After that online visit caches the local files, the standalone game and full guide can reopen offline. Each device/browser needs its own first visit. Clearing browser storage removes that cache. Offline support stores application files, not the current deal, and an installed copy uses the same rules and fresh-session behaviour.

When the game sits inside another page, it does not register its own offline worker. The host may handle an Install request; otherwise the game explains how to open the standalone page. Separate embedded instances play independently.

If something seems stuck

• Buttons are disabled: wait for Mira. After a result, start another deal.
• Raise is disabled but Call works: the street has reached its three-raise cap.
• I called but the flop did not appear immediately: the big blind may still have its preflop option, or the opponent still needs to act.
• Raise to costs more than one increment: it includes any amount you owe plus the fixed raise.
• My hole cards are not ringed: the winning five may use only one or none of them. The board is shared by both players.
• My ace-low straight lost: a wheel is five-high; a six-high straight beats it.
• Mira’s cards stayed hidden: the hand ended by a fold, not a showdown.
• Offline or Install is unavailable: first open the standalone game online over HTTPS or localhost; browser support and storage/private-browsing settings may affect those features.
• The previous chip balance disappeared: every new deal deliberately resets to 500 per player.

About this edition

This is local, heads-up, fixed-limit Hold’em with one basic bot. It has no network play, accounts, purchases, tournaments, all-ins or side pots. The accepted design checked Bicycle’s Hold’em rules and Robert’s Rules of Poker, and labels the three-raise cap as this table’s house rule. Code, guide text, SVG card faces and backs, and copper-chip artwork are original. Runtime files are local and use system fonts.