Texas Hold'em poker manual

For how AudioGameAccess works in general, open the general manual with F1 from the main menu. To go back to the game, close this tab, or switch to the AudioGameAccess window with Alt+Tab.

The poker table

A Texas Hold'em tournament, at a table of ten seats. Frankie, the dealer, calls the game and comments on it. He speaks French when the game is in French, and English otherwise.

Poker is in Offline games, Create a table, Casino games, then Poker Texas Hold'em. It is played offline, against bots, or with others at the casino, in Online games. It is the same game either way.

The goal and the rules

• Everyone starts with the same number of chips. The last player with chips left wins the tournament. You are out when you have none left: the game then ends for you, and it tells you your place.
• Each player gets two cards that only they see. Then five shared cards come out on the table: three at once, the flop, then one, the turn, then a last one, the river. There is a betting round before the flop, then after each of these.
• At the showdown, each player makes their best five-card hand from their two cards and the five on the table. The best hand wins the pot. On a tie, the pot is split.
• The last player to bet or raise shows their cards first, then the others in table order. A hand that can no longer win anything is thrown away unseen.
• The hands, from the strongest to the weakest: royal flush, straight flush, four of a kind, full house, flush, straight, three of a kind, two pair, one pair, then high card. Between equal hands, the highest other card decides, called the kicker.
• The button moves one seat each hand. The two players on its left post the small blind and the big blind, twice as much. Before the flop, the first to act is the player after the big blind, and the big blind acts last. After the flop, the first player on the button's left starts.
• With two players, the button posts the small blind and acts first before the flop, then last after it. Going down from three players to two, nobody posts the big blind twice in a row.
• The blinds double regularly, at the pace chosen in the options.
• On your turn, you may check (pass without betting) when there is nothing to pay, call the highest bet, bet or raise, go all-in (bet all your chips), or fold (give up the hand).
• A raise is at least as big as the raise before it, and at least one big blind.
• A player without enough to call may go all-in with what they have. Side pots are then made: each player can only win what they could cover.
• An all-in too small to be a real raise does not reopen the raising: a player who has already acted may only call or fold. This is the casinos' rule.
• When only one player, or none, can still bet, because the others are all-in, the cards of the players still in are turned over, and the rest of the table's cards come out at once.

The game options

In your table's menu, the second line is Game options. Each line gives an option and its value:

• Starting stack: each player's chips at the start, from 1 to 10,000,000. 5000 by default.
• Starting blind: the first small blind, from 1 to 1,000,000. The big blind is twice as much. 25 by default.
• Blinds go up: they double every 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 10, 12, 15, 20 or 30 minutes of play. 10 minutes by default.
• Betting limit:
  • no limit, by default: you may bet all your chips;
  • fixed limit: each bet and each raise is one big blind before the flop and on the flop, two on the turn and the river;
  • pot limit, or half-pot limit: the biggest bet possible is the pot, or half of it;
  • limited to 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, 5 or 10 big blinds: each bet or raise is capped at that amount.
• Maximum raises: per betting round, from 1 to 5, or no limit, by default.
• Time to act: 5, 7, 10, 15, 20, 30, 45 or 60 seconds to play on your turn, or no limit, by default.

On the stack and the blind, Enter opens a field where you type the number. On the other lines, Enter opens the list of choices, the current one under the cursor; Shift+Up Arrow and Shift+Down Arrow also go from one choice to the next, and you only hear the new value.

Confirm keeps your options for your next tables. If the big blind is more than the stack, the game tells you and does not confirm. Restore the default options puts back all the starting values. Escape leaves without changing anything. A saved table keeps its options: the line is not there when you resume it.

On your turn

When it is your turn, the game says "It's your turn", with what calling costs, or "You may check".

• C: check, or call.
• R: bet or raise. A field opens: type the total of your bet for this round, for example "raise to 400". Its title gives the minimum and the maximum. An amount below the minimum, above the maximum, or not a number opens the field again, the reason at the start of its title. The maximum is all your chips, or less with a betting limit. If you type exactly all your chips, the all-in question is asked. With fixed limit, there is only one amount: R bets or raises at once, without a field. Escape closes the field, and it is still your turn.
• F: fold, after a Yes or No question. If you could check for free, the question reminds you.
• A: go all-in, after a Yes or No question. With a betting limit, it is betting the maximum allowed.
• If a short all-in keeps you from raising, or the round has reached the maximum raises, R and A tell you: you may only call or fold.
• With a time to act, the game warns you before the end, as in every game: 10 seconds before, it says the time left, then it counts the last 5 seconds with beeps. When the time is up, it checks for you if it can, otherwise it folds. The pause stops the time.

Knowing the game

• D: your two cards, in one phrase. "In your hand, you have 10 of spades and 5 of spades."
• E: the cards on the table, in one phrase.
• 1 and 2: your first and second card. 3 to 7: the table's cards, one at a time.
• G: your best hand, for example "Pair of kings".
• P: what the pot holds.
• V: what you must pay to call.
• I: what you have put in this hand.
• S: your chips.
• Shift+S: the list of everyone's chips, the richest first, then the players who are out and their place. Escape closes it.
• Shift+T: the whole table: the shared cards, the pot, then each player with their chips, the button, who folded, who is all-in, what each has bet in this round.
• T: whose turn it is.
• R, when it is not your turn: the hand number, the blinds, and in how many minutes they double.
• Shift+R: the betting limit, the blinds and how often they go up, and if set, the maximum raises and the time to act.
• L: the time before the blinds next go up, in minutes and seconds.
• Shift+W: who sits at the table.
• W: the table's administrator. Offline, it is you.

The other keys

• Control+S: save the table and go back to its menu, at any time, even in the middle of a hand.
• X: stop the game in progress, after a confirmation. Its save is deleted, and you go back to the table's menu, ready for a new game: handy, for example, when a friend arrives just after the start.
• Q: leave the table, after a confirmation. The game stays in your saved tables.
• Escape: the pause. Offline, everything stops: the bots, the blinds' clock and your time to act.
• Shift+F1: the instructions, spoken. F1: this manual.

Offline, with bots

In Offline games, choose Create a table, Casino games, then Poker Texas Hold'em. You arrive at your table, presented as at the casino: "Table created by You, Poker Texas Hold'em. 1 of 10 players." If you are logged in to the casino, it is your name instead of "You".

• Start the game. At least one bot must sit at the table.
• Game options, described above.
• Players at the table: Enter gives the list. B seats a bot and Shift+B sends one away, up to nine. A tournament keeps its players: they are chosen before the game starts.
• Leave the table, or Escape.

Each bot has its own character, drawn at random: more or less careful, aggressive or bluffing. Before the flop, it judges its two cards; after, it works out its chances against the price to pay. The game announces each bot's turn, "Bot 2's turn", then what it does, and waits for the announcements to end before going on to the next.

The table saves itself between hands: if you close AudioGameAccess in the middle of a tournament, you find it in the saved tables. Control+S and Q save it too, where it is. Your table then becomes that saved table: it is updated, never copied. Your tables are in Offline games, Saved tables, Casino games, Poker Texas Hold'em. Enter seats you at the table again, then Resume the game takes the tournament up where it was, the hand in progress included; Delete deletes it, after a confirmation. When the tournament ends, its save goes.

With others, online

At the casino, choose Create a table, Casino games, then Poker Texas Hold'em. The table has ten seats; at least two players are needed to start, bots included. The table's administrator adds bots with B, chooses the Game options in the table's menu, then starts the game.

• The server shuffles, deals and referees: nobody sees your cards, and nobody can cheat. Everyone starts with the stack chosen in the options; your blackjack chips are not at stake.
• Your keys are the same as offline. Before each move of another player, the game says whose turn it is, then what they do.
• With a time to act, the server keeps the time: when yours is up, it checks for you if it can, otherwise it folds, and the whole table hears it.
• Escape opens a menu: Resume, Leave the table, and for the administrator, Pause the table, or start it again. The pause stops everything for the whole table: the turns, the time to act and the blinds' clock. Your own Escape stops nothing but your screen: the game goes on.
• If your connection drops, you have a minute to come back, and you take your seat again where the game stands. After that, or if you leave the table, your turns play by themselves: a check if possible, otherwise a fold, and your blinds are paid. The administrator can remove a player from the list of players at the table.
• Anyone arriving during a game watches it as a spectator, and plays in the next one.
• Control+S, for the administrator: the game goes into their saved tables, and goes on. It can be resumed later from the casino's Saved tables, with the same players. X, for the administrator: the game stops for the whole table, and its save is deleted.

The sounds

• Each player is heard from their seat, in 3D, from your left to your right.
• Chips are heard by the size of the bet: one chip for a small bet, a few, many, then a big pile for an all-in. A check is two soft knocks on the table; a fold, cards thrown away.
• The cards are shuffled before each hand, and your two cards are dealt to you. At each new card on the table, the round's bets are gathered into the pot, then the card is turned over. The winner rakes in the pot.
• A bot thinking sometimes plays with its chips.
• The ambience is a casino room, one of three at random.

Frankie, the dealer

• He calls the game before each piece of information: the blinds, each action, the flop, the turn, the river, the showdown, the name of each hand shown, the pots. The exact information, your cards, the amounts and the names, always goes through your screen reader and braille, right after him.
• He has a personality: he greets you according to the time of day, notices a nice hand or a bad beat, salutes your streaks, and says goodbye when you leave.
• His voice has its own volume, Dealers volume, in the Settings and with F5.
• Everything announced in text is kept in the History, with Control+5, one hand per heading.