In Hold'em games, how do the blinds move if the dealer is stationary (house)?

Question

What if the dealer is stationary, not changing its position at the end of a game?

In a normal game, as I know, the small blind is the first person from the left of the dealer and the big blind is the second person from the left of the dealer. Doing so with a fixed dealer, following the same rules would mean that the same two players to the left will be continuously small blind, and, respectively, big blind.

What if a dealer holds his/her position? How will the position of the blinds be changed if the dealer will not change at the end of every game? How will the 'cycle' work, if I want, progressively, every and each player to be small blind and big blind an equal amount of games?

Answer 1

Although physically the dealer is in place, the symbolic dealer is one of the players. They don't deal the cards but they have a "button" in front of them, indicating they are the dealer (and the blinds are the players to the button's left).

After each hand, the (actual) dealer has the responsibility of moving the button to the next player. Often the players will do this and announce "the button is right" to indicate it's been moved.

Answer 2

mah's answer gives you the correct picture about how this mechanism works.

I would like to add that the confusion stems from the fact that, in earlier days of poker (and still today in home-games), the guy on the button acts as dealer for that particular hand (deals the cards, counts the flop, makes sure the players are not acting out of turn etc.). This is why the button is called the "Dealer" button.

This naming convention is the reason why there's usually confusion about this.

To be clear about what you mean, I do the following (and I suggest to as many people as possible to do the same):

• when talking about the guy who deals the cards, refer to him as Dealer
• when you're talking about the player at the right of the small blind, refer to him as the player on the button

This button vs. dealer distinction will dissipate the confusion and make it very clear what you mean.