Introduction to Texas Hold’em Poker

Texas Hold'em is the most popular US online poker game in the world. The name “Texas Hold'em” came about because it was first played in Robstown, Texas in the early 1900’s. It began the rapid spread of Texas Hold’em among fans of this great card game, then it conquered America.

How to Play Texas Hold’em

Regardless of whether you’re playing Texas Hold’em online or at the casino, the format of the game remains the same. Depending on the type of limits there are several variants of Hold'em: Fixed Limit Hold'em, where each betting round has a specific betting limit. No Limit Hold'em, where a player can bet all the chips at any point in the game, and Pot Limit Hold'em, where the player can bet any amount of chips but the bet and raise amount cannot exceed the current size of the pot.

At the beginning of the game, two players make the mandatory blind bets. These bets are called the small blind and big blind. The big blind is always twice the small blind or rounded to the nearest increment for convenience. Such forced bets are made by the two players sitting to the left of the dealer. In each round of the game, the dealer button (the button) moves clockwise, moving to the next player. Then all of the players get dealt two hole cards, called pocket cards.

There are four groups of positions at a full ring table: There is two positions in the blinds, as discussed above. Early position, which are the three players who are the first to act during the post flop betting rounds. Middle position, which there are next three players. And then late position, which there are two players, the dealer and the player to his right in the cutoff position.

The goal in Texas Hold’em is for players to use their two pocket cards and the community cards on the table to make the strongest possible five card poker hand as per traditional poker hand rankings (there is more information regarding this below.)

After the pocket cards are dealt, the first betting round begins. When each player makes his chosen action, the dealer deals a “flop”, whereby three community cards are dealt on the table. A second betting round takes place, followed by a “turn” card and another betting round, and finally the final “river” card, so five community cards are dealt face up for every player to use.

At the showdown players who still remain in the hand reveal their cards and determine whose hand was the strongest. This player gets the whole pot unless two or more players have the same winning hand, in which case the pot is split equally between them.

Texas Hold’em betting options:

Fold

If a player has weak hole cards and he does not want to continue playing, he can muck and wait to play the next hand.

Bet

When a player puts a certain amount of chips into the pot. However, the bet amount must not be less than the big blind amount. Other players who want to stay in the game can either match this bet, raise, or fold.

Raise

A player can raise his opponent and make other players pay more to see the next card.

Check

If there still has not been a bet the player who is next to act can check without investing additional chips into the pot as not bet has been made. By checking, you pass the turn to the next player.