You’re seated at the table waiting for play to start. Before the (professional) dealer begins to deal the cards, he/she places a plastic token in front of the first player seated on his/her left. The token is a plastic piece referred to as “The  Button”.

When play first begins at a table, and, the table is full, the player sitting on the dealer’s left in seat 1 gets The Button for the first hand.

If the table is not full, say there is no player in seat 1, then seat 2 gets The Button. If there is no player in seat 2 either, The Button goes to the player in seat 3, and so on until it is in front of a player.

At the start of each hand, The Button is moved in front of the player sitting to the left of the last player who had The Button. If there is no player in a seat, The Button moves to the left again and is placed in front of the first seat occupied by a player. (There are circumstances when The Button is placed in front of an empty seat. Let’s focus on the basics, and let the dealer worry about that right now.)

As play continues, The Button keeps moving clockwise around the table. It never breaks its clockwise flow to “reset” to seat 1. It will end up in front of seat 1 again – but – as part of the natural flow of the game.

Why is the placement of The Button so important?
In No Limit Hold’em:

• Who gets to play first,
• Who gets to play last, and
• Who has to put in the forced bets (called “blinds” and explained in the next chapter)

are determined by the location of The Button. The Button moves from seat to seat in order to ensure that each player has equal opportunity to go first, to go last, to skip the forced bets, and to be obliged to put up the forced bets. And…In a home game and some relaxed forms of tournaments, the player with The Button deals the hand.

Review

• When play begins at a table, The Button is placed in front of the first player on the dealer’s left.
• The Button moves in front of a new player at the start of each hand.
• If there is no player sitting in a seat, The Button moves to the next seat where there is a player.
• The Button moves clockwise around the table.
• The Button never resets. It continues a natural clockwise flow.
• When there is no professional dealer, the player with The Button deals the hand.
• All action (cards being dealt, betting, folding, etc.) occurs in a clockwise fashion.

No Limit Texas Hold’em Basics – The Blinds–>