Board & Card Games Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for people who like playing board games, designing board games or modifying the rules of existing board games. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
In a small-blind/big-blind poker game (I'm thinking of Texas Hold 'em, but I guess this question applies to any similarly structured poker game), how does the structure change when the games gets to the final two players?
So, for four+ players, it's:
[D] [SB] [BB] [UTG]* (pre-flop)
For three players, it's:
[D/UTG] [SB] [BB]
So, for two players, is it:
[D/BB] [SB/UTG]
*
[D] = Dealer
[SB]=Small Blind
[BB]=Big Blind
[UTG] = Under The Gun, i.e. first to act.
No. Under practically all rules, the dealer posts the small blind and is first to act preflop. After the flop, the other player acts first.
Other rules have occasionally been implemented -- I believe Party Poker used to have this backwards preflop -- but this is almost universal. It is generally thought to lead to a better game with more action, as the small blind has a higher incentive to complete or raise when he has the benefit of acting last postflop.
What your post describes, with the dealer posting the big blind, covers how I have always seen this scenario played, between various casinos in Biloxi, MS, USA and local games in Nashville TN and Atlanta GA.
