The blinds are there to start the pot. The big blind is the last to act. Any players that want to stay in the hand pre-flop has to call, add chips equal to the big blind, or raise, add chips in excess of the big blind. The small blind is the second to last player to act, they must call the current bet or raise to stay in the hand. The big blind is the last to act, either calling any raises, folding, raising or checking. If there were no raises the big blind should never fold the hand before the flop since they’ve already paid to see it. The blinds are put up every hand before the cards are even dealt and they rotate around the table.

Players will put chips on their cards to protect them so the dealer doesn’t accidentally muck them or so another player can’t mess up your hand by mucking their cards into another players hand and to protect them from accidental exposure. It also shows that you’re still in the hand.

The small and big blind are posted before the cards are even dealt. There is no choice in the matter, the blinds always have to bet. Everyone in the game has a turn at being in the blind at some point, so it is ‘fair’ in that respect.

If everyone including the small blind folds, the big blind will win the small blind. This is called getting a walk.

To participate in a hand each player must equal the previous bet. So the guy to the left of the big blind must bet at least the big blind just to stay in the hand. If no one has raised by the time the betting gets back to the small blind, they must increase their bet to equal the big blind also.

As for sticking chips on hole cards. There is no significance as far as how many chips or denomination. The purpose is simply to indicate to the dealer that you are intending to play your cards. The concern is that in a fast moving game if your cards are not close to you a dealer may think that you intended to fold. Before you have time to act the dealer scoops up your cards and mucks them. Under most poker rules once the cards touch the other mucked cards your hand is dead. You can’t just ask for them back. If you are holding a great hand this is understandably annoying.

So good players either hold the cards, or place an object on top of the cards to show the dealer that the hand is not to be folded. Some players take an object known as a card protector and place that on top of their cards. Other players simply take some of their chips and place them on top of their cards.

The blinds are just forced bets that help to push the action, without blinds you would have everyone waiting all day for aces. For example lets say the blinds are 25-50, this means that the player who is to the left of the button has to put out 25 and the player to the left of the small blind has to put out 50 chips. The minimum bet a player can make is 50 chips, they can bet more of course, but the smallest bet they can make is 50 chips. Now lets say everyone just call the 50 chips, the small blind can either call 25 more chips or he can fold, he also can make a raise as well. In the big blind if the action was just called all the way around he can just check his option because he already has his 50 chips in the big blind. Now lets say a player makes a raise to 200 chips, the player in the small blind can either call 175 more chips or he can fold his hand and the 25 chips go into the pot as dead money, the big blind can either call 150 more chips or he can fold or make a re-raise. And as for people putting chips on there cards it means nothing, they are just protecting there hands.