If two or more cards are dealt at a time, the dealer may take back the card or cards improperly dealt if he discovers the error before dealing to the next player; otherwise there must be a new deal.
A misdeal does not lose the deal. The misdealer must deal again.
Should a player take up his hand, or look at any card in it, he is not entitled to any remedy. If he has more or less than the proper number of cards, his hand is foul, and must be abandoned, the player forfeiting any interest he may have in that deal, and any stake he may have put up on that hand. In all gambling houses, the invariable rule is to call a short hand foul; although there should be no objection to playing against a man with only four cards, which cannot be increased to five, even by the draw.
STRADDLING. During the deal, or at any time before he looks at any card in his hand, the player to the left of the age may straddle the blind by putting up double the amount put up by the age. The only privilege this secures to the straddler is that of having the last say as to whether or nor he will make good his ante and draw cards. Should he refuse to straddle, no other player can do so; but if he straddles, the player on his left can straddle him again by doubling the amount he puts up, which will be four times the amount of the blind. This will open the privilege to the next player on the left again, and so on until the limit of straddling is reached; but if one player refuses to straddle, no other following him can do so. Good players seldom or never straddle, as the only effect of it is to increase the amount of the ante.
METHOD OF PLAYING. The cards dealt, the players take up and examine their hands. The careful poker player always “spreads” his cards before taking them up, to be sure that he has neither more nor less than five, and he lifts them in such a way that the palm and fingers of his right hand conceal the face of the first card, while the thumb of the left hand separates the others just sufficiently to allow him to read the index or “squeezer” marks on the edges.
Spreading. Squeezing.
The object of this examination is to ascertain the value of the hand dealt to him, and to see whether or not it is worth while trying to improve it by discarding certain cards and drawing others in their place. The player should not only be thoroughly familiar with the relative value of the various combinations which may be held at Poker, but should have some idea of the chances for and against better combinations being held by other players, and should also know the odds against improving any given combination by drawing to it.