How to Play

 How to play Pondo's Bounceback Hold'em Tourney and "Protect your Princess"

Ok, before we start to dive into the alterations of the bounceback tourney and the addition of Princess Protection, lets get the understanding of how the play works on a normal round of Texas Hold 'em 

The "Dealer Button" is allocated to a player on the table. The player to the left of the dealer is given the "Small Blind" token and the next player given the "Big Blind" token.

Before cards are dealt, the players with the Small Blind and Big Blind place their ante bets. The Small and Big blind will increase at stages throughout the evening.

All players at the table are dealt two cards face down by the player who holds the "Dealer" button, these are known as hole cards and will be the start of building your five card poker hand.  Players then view their cards and play begins.

The player next to the Big Blind (clockwise) has three options:

1) Fold - decide that the cards are not winners and ditch them (face down) into the middle of the table

2) Bet - match the bet of the Big Blind to continue play

3) Raise - Raise the big blind (minimum of double the amount) 

Once the player has made their move, the next player clockwise has the same three options. If a player decides to raise the previous raise, it must be a minimum of double.

Once the first round of betting reaches the Big Blind player there are a final three options for this player

1) Fold - decide that the cards are not winners or the bet is too high and discard the cards (face down)

2) Raise - Start a new round of betting by raising the highest bet on the table, and make no new friends!

3) Check - If the maximum bet on the table matches that of the Big Blind and there is no need to raise.

Once this stage is reached, the first card on the top of the pile of deal cards is discarded and the following three cards are dealt into the middle of the table.  This is known as the Flop.  These cards are community cards and now form the five card poker hand with the two hole cards.

Betting then starts with the Small Blind player.

1) Check - not ready to put any money in, play passes to the next player

2) Bet - Put money in to start betting - minimum bet must be minimum of the big blind

Players then act in a clockwise manner using the Fold, Raise, Check options above until all remaining bets on the table match.

Once this stage is reached, the bets are collected and placed into the centre of the table, this is known as the "Pot".  The card on the top of the deal pile is discarded and the next card dealt into the community cards in the centre of the table.  This is known as the "Turn" or "Fourth Street".  Players now seek the best 5 card poker hand using the 6 available.  This could include 1 or 2 of the hole cards.

A new round of betting continues from the player with the Small blind until all bets match from remaining players on the table.

Finally, the top card on the deal pile is discarded and the next community card is placed into the centre of the table.  This card is known as the "River" or "Fifth Street".  Players can now use all the 7 cards available to make the best 5 card poker hand.  1, 2 or none of the hole cards may be used to make the best 5 card hand.  The best hand could be the five community cards.

A final round of betting until players remain.

Remaining players then show their hand and the highest poker hand wins the pot. 

If only one player remains at the end of the betting round, they can decide to show their "winning" hand or not disclose their cards as they were not "Called".

The dealer button then passes to the next player clockwise and play restarts.

Final push of chips, this is known as "All In". This is the highest bet available for each player and involves putting all their chips down as a bet.  If the player loses the all in bet and the player has no chips remaining, this is the end of their night of poker.

Pondo's Bounce Back

All players receive a Bounce Back token with their initial chip stack.  This token is worth 5,000 and cannot be used as a bet.  If a player loses all their chips then the bounce back token is cashed in restarting the players chip stack.  Once an agreed blind level is reached all remaining bounce back tokens are cashed in.  It is similar to a re-buy without having to pass over extra cash.

Protect your Princess

Each player will receive a Princess with their initial chip stack, this is their pride and joy and must be looked after.  Once the Bounce Back Token has been cashed in, and the player goes "All In" the Princess is placed with the bet.  This token is worth a defined monetary value and if claimed by victory cannot be lost.  Princesses are cashed in at the end of the tourney.