|
Playing Texas Holdem Texas Hold'em is with out a doubt the most popular poker game in the world right now. Thousands of people make a living playing Texas Hold'em poker online, and at real casinos.
The popularity of this great game can probably be attributed to a few factors:
- The internet
- The movie Rounders
- The annual World Series of Poker
- Heavy coverage of the game in recent years on TV
These factors combined have basically caused a poker revolution and the game is now amazingly popular. With good reason. It is fairly simple, and when you attach it to the idea of gambling and winning some money, it is very exciting. Here are the rules for playing Texas Hold'em like a pro.
Texas Hold'em is played with a standard 52 card deck. Texas Hold'em is commonly played with between 2 and 11 people. A heads up game has two people, a shorthanded game has five or six people, and a full table usually has 10 or eleven. You most likely will be playing in a regular full table of 10 people.
In Texas Hold'em there is a dealer button which indicates the position of the dealer. After each hand, the dealer button moves one position to the left, and that person becomes the dealer. The button rotates around the table, one hand at a time as long as the game goes on.
Immediately to the left of the dealer is the small blind. A blind is like an ante, but in Hold'em the bet is called a blind. To the left of the small blind is the large blind. So in total we have the two players to the left of the dealer placing blind bets before the cards are dealt. The large blind is always equal to the small sized bet of the game you are playing. For example, if you are playing $2/$4 hold'em, then the large blind is $2 dollars. The small blind is half the amount of the large blind, so in this case it would be $1 dollar. Don't worry, if you don't understand what "$2/$4" means yet, we will be covering that shortly. Here is a picture that should give you a good idea of the initial set up.
 Once the blinds are placed, the deal begins. The dealer will deal each player one card at a time until everyone has two face down cards. These are called your hole cards. Don't let anyone see them!
After everyone has received their cards, the first round of betting begins. The first person to act is the person to the left of the large blind. Now, this makes complete sense, since the small and large blinds have already placed their bets before the cards were dealt, it is only logical, following the left moving motion of the game, that the first person to the left of the large blind who hasn't acted yet, would have the first chance to!
The first person to act may either call, raise or fold. In order to call, the player will need to match the large blind. If the player does not wish to play, they then simply fold their cards. If the player feels they have a strong hand, they may raise. In order to raise, the player would need to match the large blind, and one more bet of the same size. So in our example game, a raiser would need to put out $4 dollars. In Hold'em you must bet in raise in accordance with the structure of the game. In our $2/$4 game, all bets and raises must be in either increments of $2 dollars or $4 dollars. You can't bet in between or other amounts.
Play continues around the table until each player has had a chance to call, raise or fold. Note that the small blind needs only $1 to call if no one has raised, and the large blind may simply check if they so choose. Check means that you pass on your chance to bet or raise, you simply are okay with things as they stand. Once every player has had a chance to act, the first round is completed and we move on to the flop. This is where Texas Hold'em gets very interesting. Once the first round of betting is complete, the dealer places three cards face up in the middle of the table. These are community cards that everyone gets to use along with their hole cards to make a hand. Here is how the game should look now, note the 7 of hearts, the King of Diamonds and the Ace of hearts make up the flop:
 Now there is another round of betting just like the first round. This time though, the small blind is first to act. Remember, on this round they don't have a blind bet already outstanding, so they are first to act, and will be for the rest of the hand. Play of course continues on to the left like usual once the small blind has made their decision. On this round, if no one has bet, players have the option of checking, which means simply to do nothing. You are passing your action on to the next player. Once all players have either called or folded, the round is complete and we move on to the turn. On the turn, the dealer places one more card face up in the middle. Play starts with the small blind and continues as normal until all players have had a chance to act. The turn however is a turning point in the hand. At this point, all bets are doubled. If you remember earlier I talked about "$2/$4" that is the betting limits of this particular hold'em game. Betting for the first two rounds is $2 dollars, and betting for the last two rounds is $4 dollars. The first two rounds are the deal and the flop, the last two rounds are the turn, and the river. Hold'em is played for as little as $.01/$.02 all the way up to $1000/$2000, or theoretically as high as anyone wants to play. This is the final round of the hand. The dealer places one last card face up in the middle of the table. Players bet and take action until either everyone has called or folded. Once that is complete, there is a showdown to determine the winning hand. Players now combine their two hole cards with the five cards on the board to make the best five card hand they can. You don't get to use all seven cards, you get to use five of the seven. You can learn more about the showdown in the strategy section. Whoever has the strongest hand is awarded the pot. The dealer button moves one to the left, the next two players place their blinds, the cards are dealt, and play continues! |
