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Texas Hold’em


Introduction

New to Texas Hold’em? No problem. We give you the most comprehensive review of the entire Texas Hold’em game including the different dimensions. Texas Hold’em poker is reckoned to be by far the most popular online poker game today. It’s the ideal and advisable game to start with for the newbies, who have just stepped up on the poker world. This is because Hold’em is a game, which can be learnt within no time by anyone, and moreover, you can even start playing relatively well with some decent practice hours behind. Other games like Omaha High or 7-Card Stud entail several possibilities for determining the odds or trying to count the cards, which makes the process intricate and confusing for the beginners. Having said that, in order to learn the game, you need to play regularly. There are several poker rooms offering wide range of play money tables for the novice players to enhance their skills before they go up with real money.

Objective

Like most poker variants, the prime rationale of Texas Hold’em is to win pots. A pot refers to a sum of money bet by oneself and other players in a hand. A pot can be won either by forming the best 5 card poker hand out of the seven cards available or by betting to cause other players to fold and abandon their claim to the pot.

However, the objective of the players would not be winning individual pots, but rather making technically and mathematically accurate decisions. As a result of such decisions, players enable themselves with a chance to maximize their expected utility and win more money than they lose in the long run.

Betting Rounds

  1. In Texas Hold’em game, there would be one player who would be acting as a dealer. This place is known as the button and it keeps rotating in the clockwise direction after every hand.
  2. The 2 players who are sitting to the left of the dealer are known as the small blind and the big blind, respectively. They are the only players who have money in the pot before the cards are dealt.
  3. Each and every poker player would receive 2 cards face down, known as hole cards.
  4. The first round of betting in Texas Hold’em would always commence with the player, sitting to the immediate of the big blind and, like discussed earlier, it would continue in the clockwise direction.
  5. After the first round of betting is completed, 3 community cards are flipped face up on the table, and it is called ‘the flop.’
  6. Soon, Texas Holdem’s second of betting starts with the first remaining player, who is seated to the immediate left of the button, with the betting resuming in clockwise direction.
  7. After second round of betting is over, a 4th community card is flipped face up on the table, called ‘the turn.’
  8. Later, the third round of betting starts with the first remaining player, who is sitting to the immediate left of the button. The betting continues in the clockwise direction, with the bets doubling on the turn.
  9. When the third round of betting is over, a fifth community card is flipped face up on the table. This is called the river.
  10. The fourth round of betting starts with the first remaining player seated to the left of the button. The betting continues to move clockwise.

Introduction to Texas Hold'em Poker Rules