TEXAS HOLD'EM OVERVIEW

"Texas Hold'em poker takes a minute to learn, and a lifetime to master" goes the saying, and maybe this is the reason that Texas Hold'em is undoubtedly the most popular form of poker. It's so popular that just by saying "poker" these days normally refers to a game of Texas Hold'em. Unsurprisingly originating in Texas in the USA, it wasn't long before players saw the opportunities for the growth of this form of Poker and Texas Hold'em quickly moved to the casino's of Las Vegas and hasn't looked back since.

As stated above, Texas Hold'em is quite a simple game and easy to learn how to play, however to play Texas Hold'em Poker well takes a lot of practice, understanding, experience and wit. You aren't only able to gauge your own hands against others at the table, but the object of the game and indeed the key to winning the pot, lies in your ability to fold or win right hands, win the right pots, and all of this at the most mathematically advantageous time in the game. Texas Hold'em also involves a large dose of psychology to the game as you attempt to bluff hands yourself and then watch the other players and try to read their reactions and look for any little body movements that gives a clue to their assessment of their hand.

The element of skill also comes into play when you look at the placing of bets throughout the game. After the blinds or antes are placed, raising the bet and putting more money into the pot is at the discretion of each of the players at the table. The skill comes into play because you have to make bets according to the cards you have and the probability that you will either get the card you need or will have the skills to bluff your way to win the hand.

Texas Hold'em hands are made up of your best five cards, consisting of any combination of 2 cards dealt to you, known as Hole Cards, and any of the 5 Community Cards dealt face up in the middle of the table by the dealer. Texas Hold'em Poker has 4 rounds of betting with a maximum of 10 players able to take part in a hand. The objective of the game is simply to finish with the best Poker Hand and to win the Pot.

At the start of every Texas Hold'em poker hand the button is placed in front of a player, and signifies who is the dealer for that hand and the blinds are posted. The blinds are bets placed by the two players to the immediate left of the button before they have see any cards. The first player posts the small blind and the second player posts the big blind. The small blind is generally half the number of chips of the big blind. After each hand the button progresses one place to the left, and so do both the blinds.

Each player is dealt 2 cards. These 2 cards are known as Hole Cards and can only be seen by the recipients of these cards. Once the Hole Cards have been dealt the first round of betting takes place.

Once you have received your hole cards, you have your first decision: to play or not to play. You must decide if you are in or out of the hand, and you do this by either matching or raising the bet that stands when the action reaches you. You always have the option to fold any time it is your turn. Betting goes in sequence starting from the first player to the left of the dealer, and continue round the table sequentially in a clockwise fashion until all bets have been matched.

The possible actions available to you are to Fold, to Call or to Raise.

As the action moves around the table, if you wish to remain in the hand you will have to at least call the big blind bet, or if a previous player has raised the bet then that bet will have to be at least called to remain in the hand.

If there has been no raise when the betting round returns to the big blind player, that player will still have the option to raise if they want to. Any money put into the pot by a player before any cards are dealt counts as part of their overall bet. So for example, if the blinds are $2 (small blind) and $4 (big blind) and there is no raise before the action gets to the small blind, then they will only have to put an extra $2 into the pot to match the $4 as they already have $2 in the pot in the form of the small blind.

Once all bets are matched the flop is dealt.

After this first round of betting the dealer lays down the The Flop, which consists of 3 cards, all dealt face up in the middle of the table. These 3 cards are Community Cards and are shared by all players at the table.

Once the Flop has been dealt by the dealer, another round of betting takes place between all the players left in the game, starting from the player to the immediate left of the button and continuing clockwise around the table.

Once again you have the option to to Fold, to Check, to Call or to Raise.

To Check is a situation where there is currently no bet that stands which you would have to match, so you can decide to continue that by checking. Betting then continues in a similar method to the first round of betting until all bets are matched and all players have contributed equally to the Pot (or else there's a winner and the hand is finished).

Once this happens the Turn card is dealt. The Turn card is a fourth Community Card which is dealt face up. Another round of betting then happens in the same fashion as above and any players who are still in the hand after this round of betting will then see the final card.

The final Community Card is then revealed - The River - and placed alongside the other Community Cards, again face up. The River Card is sometimes known as the Money Card as it often makes the difference between winning (money) or losing (money)! After the river you now have all the cards that are available to you and you have to make the best five-card poker hand from the seven available (the two hole cards and the five community cards).

Once again betting resumes once the River is dealt and each player left in the hand attempts to win the Pot on the strength of their cards. Once all betting has been completed the players who remain show their cards.

If there was betting on the last round then the player who made the last positive action (last player to make a bet - not to call one) will show first, if the last round of betting involved all players 'checking' then it will be the player to the immediate left of the button who will show first then clockwise from there.

The player with the best five-card hand wins the pot. In the event of a number of poker hands being the same, the poker pot will be equally divided between the players.

The button moves to the next player and the fun starts again.

Want to learn more about Texas Hold'em Poker? Click here for Texas Hold'em Strategies and Texas Hold'em Tips.