♠️ Poker

🎯 The idea

Make the best five-card hand — or make everybody else give up before you have to show it. Those are two different ways to win the same pot, and the second one is why poker is not a card game with betting bolted on.

🏆 Which hand beats which

🃏 The two games

Five-card draw: five cards each, swap the ones you do not want, best hand wins. Everything is in your own hand, which makes it the one to learn on.
Texas hold'em: two cards of your own and five in the middle that everybody shares. You make your best five out of all seven — and so does everyone else, from the same middle five.

💰 Betting

Check costs nothing and passes. Call matches what is owed. Raise puts in more and everybody else has to match it or fold. Fold gives up the hand and everything you have already put in.
The blinds are two forced bets that start every pot, so there is always something worth playing for. The D button marks the dealer and moves round every hand — acting last is an advantage, so it has to be shared.

👂 The part that is actually the game

Everything anybody bets is public, and it is the only real information you get. A player who raises has said something. A player who checks twice and then bets big has said something else. A player who draws three cards has told you they had almost nothing.
That is what the levels here change: how much your opponents read — never what they can see. They only ever see their own cards.

🙂 Levels

🌱 Sprout: five-card draw, two players, no betting at all. Swap what you like and see who wins. This level is about learning which hand beats which.
🧭 Scout: three-handed hold'em with fixed bet sizes, so the decision is whether to bet — not how much.
🏆 Ace: four-handed no-limit against players who read the betting, price their calls, and bluff.

📜 The rules

🖨️ A card for the table

Print the rules on one sheet, fold it into a card and keep it in the deck box. One side, no scissors. Open the printable rules card

🔎 What everything means