how to play Texas Hold'em

poker variants

Limit Texas Hold'em
Limit Texas Holdem Poker is played according to the usual ...
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5 Card Draw
5 Card Draw is a popular variation of poker steeped in history, the ga ...
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5 Card Draw 7-A
A-7 Five Card Draw is a game player with 2 to 5 players, removed from ...
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5 Card Stud
A very traditional game of poker known throughout the World is 5 Card ...
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5 Card Stud Hi / Lo
As with standard 5 card stud play begins with all players being dealt ...
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7 Card Stud
7 Card Stud is a game made up of streets, after the initial deal which ...
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7 Card Stud Hi / Lo
At the beginning of the game, all players put in to the pot a nominal ...
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Ace to 5 Lowball
Ace to Five Low Ball is a variation of 5 card draw with the objective ...
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Americana
Americana is a variation of poker that is played with just 32 cards in ...
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Badugi
Badugi is a form of draw poker with its roots in Korea, becoming ever ...
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Deuce to 7 Lowball
One of the most exciting and becoming ever more popular is Deuce to Se ...
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Draw Poker
How to play draw poker is easy to learn and takes a life time to maste ...
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HORSE
H.O.R.S.E is a form of poker which combines five different variation o ...
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HOSE
H.O.S.E Poker is 4 poker variations played at one table in a rotation ...
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No Limit Texas Hold'em
No Limit Texas Hold’em is played according to the usual rules of ...
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Omaha Hi
Omaha is a poker game played with blinds to force the action and is ve ...
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Omaha Hi / Lo
Omaha Hi Lo is a game which is now very popular both live and online. ...
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Omaha Poker
There are two versions of Omaha poker. One is high only and the other ...
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Pot Limit Omaha Hi
Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Lo (short for high & low) is a very fast paced ...
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Pot Limit Texas Hold'em
Pot Limit Texas Holdem Poker is played according to the usual rules of ...
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RAZZ
Razz Poker now a mainstream game is an excellent choice for plenty of ...
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Stud Poker
Stud poker was the game of choice in poker until the Civil War and the ...
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TEXAS HOLD'EM

Nowaday Texas Hold'em is undisputedly the number one of all poker games. That is probably due to the fact that it is easier to understand and to play then other poker variants, such as Omaha poker, stud poker and draw poker. Compared to draw poker the influence of luck has been quite reduced, but this does not mean that luck doesn't play a role any longer. With the community cards, which are visible for everyone, a player can much better estimate his chances of winning. This is exactly the reason why poker television shows have become so popular. Not only because the concealed cards of individual players have become visible to the viewers, but especially the fact that the open community cards and the actions of counter players enable each player to speculate about the generic strength of the hands, make it exiting for the viewers and caused the television boom.

Even though it is very easy to learn the rules, one still needs some practice, discipline, talent and also some luck to play successfully Texas Hold'em poker.

Short description:

With this variant of Texas Hold'em poker each player receives two concealed cards, that can only be looked at in this game. As the games progresses, five community cards are revealed, that each player can use in order to build the best possible hand. One time three cards and two times one card are revealed. So each player has the possibility to build from seven cards a poker hand of five cards. It is not important which cards are used for this. The revealing of the community cards is here always interrupted by singular bettings.

Order of events:

To force the players to make bets, the two players on the left side of the dealer must bet, even though they haven't seen any of their cards. The player next to the dealer has to bet the amount of a Small Blind and the other player the amount of a Big Blind. How high these bets should be can be seen in the stake specifications. With cash games (games where one plays for cash money) this stake is unchangeable at one and the same table. At tournament poker, however the stake gets increased at fixed time intervals.

Only after that are the cards dealt. The dealer button moves at each hand that is dealt to the next player on the left, so that it is not all the time with the same player. At professional events and with online poker there is a house dealer, who is the one who deals. The dealer button moves from player to player and designates which player should bring in the blinds, with which player the dealer starts dealing and last but not least which player should start to bring an action in the game. Once the blinds are brought in, the players receive two cards that are dealt concealed and only visible to the player who has to play with them. The game starts with the player who brought in the Small Blind. The cards are always dealt in clockwise direction. When all players have received their two concealed cards, the first betting begins.

Here the players bet in the order of their seating. The bets should at least be equal to the highest bet so far that were brought in by players before. As an alternative, a player can step out of this round (fold), which means the player no longer takes part in this hand and gives up any chance of winning. Chips that already have been brought in stay in the pot and are lost. Later on in the game, the winner of this hand will receive them. The betting round is continued just until all players who still want to play have brought in the same amount. It can easily happen that a player is forced more than once in one betting round to take action.

Example: player 1 checks, player 2 bets 200 and player 3 bets 400 chips. If player 4 also wants to play in this hand, he or she should bet at least 400. When all players have had their turns, it is player 1's turn again, because he or she has not betted yet. Also player 2 has to bet if he or she wants to play in this round. If he decides that he doesn't want that, then the chips already brought in stay in the pot. This means he has lost them. You may have noticed that this is not an example of a first betting round, because the Bigblind has already been brought in and so player 1 had to bet already.

An exception is the All-in situation. If a player does not have enough chips left to go with the bettings, he must go All-in, which means he has to bring in all his chips. But in that case he can only win the amount that corresponds to his bet. All amounts above that go to a sidepot, which is a second prize pot for which only those players play who have enough chips left over. So it is not possible to outboot another player only because he has less chips and can't keep up with the rest. Also you can't win anything for which you haven't done something (Sidepot).

If after this first betting rounds there are at least two players in the hand, then the first three community cards (Flop) are revealed, which enables the players to build a complete hand and make a better estimation of the strength of their hand. Then there is another betting round, that is basically the same as the first round. The first player whose turn it is, is the player that had to bring in the Small Blind. In this round however, no player is obliged to bring in a bet. So it is possible and happens sometimes that no player wants to bet on his hand. This happens especially if the Flop did not make the hands of individual players stronger or made them too strong.

After this second betting round, if still more than one player is playing, the next community card is revealed. This card is called a Turn. Then another betting round follows, which starts again with the player who had to bring in the Small Blind.

This is repeated with the closing River card and the then following last betting round. Once this betting round is finished, the remaining cards will be revealed in the order of the players. Again, this starts with the player who had to bring in the Small Blind. If already a hand with a higher value was revealed, then it is up to a player to reveal his cards or not. In any case, he is no longer obliged to do so.

In this short introduction to the rules Texas Hold'em poker we use chips. These rules also apply to the game for cash money called Cash game. There are different variants of Texas Hold’em: No Limit Texas Hold'em, Pot Limit Texas Hold'em and Limit Texas Hold'em. The difference is in the betting structure of the betting rounds, which you can read more about in the individual subsections.