Texas Hold’em usually starts with two players and may end up in ten or more. First, the players place initial bets, or post the blinds. This is a standard poker game and so there are 52 cards shuffled in the deck. The dealer begins shuffling and doles out two cards per player with the faces down. These are the pocket cards or hole.
Since the round goes counterclockwise the “pre-flop” begins from the player on the left of the dealer to the right. There are several options that a player can bet depending on the “game limit”. He can choose the fixed limit, the pot limit, the spread limit and the no limit. The spread limit is a bet system wherein the player is given an option on a certain range of money (between $1 to $5 for instance) and the pot limit is a system wherein the player can choose a certain amount between the blind and the pot size.
After betting, players will choose whether they will fold, check or raise their bets. The dealer makes sure that the cards are secure from cheating by taking away the burn card (the top card on his deck). Then the “flop” begins.
The flop will determine whether a player will end up with a winning poker hand. The dealer gets three cards from the deck and lays them on the table with their faces up. The players will then pick up any card to match their hole that will be used to round up the poker hand.
Then the “turn” follows. After the players have chosen from the flop the next betting round will begin. The dealer will burn another top card and the players will choose their cards to round up the five-card hand poker.
Players will make another set of bets starting clockwise, sometimes double the amount. For the third time, the dealer will burn and flip a card. It is known as the “river” or the “fifth street”. When the players have picked their cards to complete the five cards of a poker hand, they will make bets for the last time.
Then clockwise again from the dealer, each player will reveal their cards in what is called the “showdown”. Eventually the player who revealed the best cards wins.
How to tell who beats whom? The ranking of winning poker hands go as follows: Royal Flush, Straight Flush, Four-of-a-Kind, Full House, Flush, Straight, Three-of-a-Kind, Two Pair, One Pair and a High Card. Usually when the players have a tie they can split the pots.
A Royal Flush beats all the other hands because it is a straight Ace of one suit (diamonds, hearts, spades, and clubs). It is followed by Straight Flush which is a straight of an entire suit; Four of a Kind or Quads is four cards with similar ranks (e.g. four Kings); Full House is three cards of the same rank and one pair; Flush is an entire poker hand of similar suit (but not necessarily in order); Straight or Run are cards following a sequence of ranks (but not necessarily of the same suit); Three of a Kind or Set is just three cards having the same rank; Two Pair is a two sets of cards with similar ranks; One Pair is one set of card with similar ranks and when you have none of the hands mentioned here your highest card will determine your poker hand. Usually for hands that have leftovers such as four-of-a-kind, three-of-a-kind, etc., the kickers determine who wins the game if they have similar poker hands.
In Texas Hold’em your win depends largely on your knowledge of your odds. The more you know about the probability factor the higher your chances of winning. Lots of players will tell you this card game is quite easy to play but it takes a long time and a great deal of mastery in the calculation of odds before you can rake in the wins.
It is important to strategize even from the beginning. At the pre-flop, consider the following: The more the players, the harder it will be to compete. You can take advantage of playing a tight game if you notice that some players are betting aggressively. If your bankroll is small, you’ll want to bet in games with big pots but you cannot play in tight games that give high-payouts. Your position in Texas Hold’em also influences your win – if you are the dealer you can manipulate the pot size and gain upper hand.
Perhaps one of the exciting aspects of poker is the bluffing since one player can fool the other players into believing he is on a good position when the opposite is true. This is where the term “poker face” originated. Generally it is difficult to bluff with veteran poker players so you should know your opponents, even if you think few people are easier to fool than a crowd.
Intuition plays a great role in poker. You cannot bluff when you know that there are tight players who would not fold even when the stakes are high. You can sense a lot of player information by the kind of bets he makes and whether he raises, checks or folds. Only the seasoned players know how to bluff and bet as they wish, even if they have poor poker hands.
The lure of online Texas Hold’em comes from the fact that it is difficult to hack since poker software have encryption systems. Because of this, Texas Hold’em Poker remains to be the most popular poker game today.