Texas Holdem Poker – The Game
Texas Holdem Poker – Hole cards & Community cards
Each player receives two individual cards face down, hole cards. An additional five cards are dealt face up, for all players to see and make use of. These community cards essentially gives the player seven cards to choose from. The object of the game is to make the best possible five card hand with the seven cards available to you. Any player may use any of the hole or community cards.
Texas Holdem Poker – Bets and blinds
In order to begin a game the two players to the left of the dealer must place a blind, a mandatory entry fee commonly used in poker. The first player on the dealers left posts a Small blind and the second player to the left places a Big blind. The size of the blinds is pre-determined by the stakes of the game.
Texas Holdem Poker – The first round
Two cards are dealt face down to each player and the betting begins with the next player to the left of the Big blind. Because the blinds are not actually bets the ensuing players may not check, they can either call the same amount as the Big blind, raise or fold. All bets made will go into a pot.
Texas Holdem Poker – The flop
After the first round of betting is over, three community cards are dealt. These are dealt face up and the second round of betting begins.
Texas Holdem Poker – The second round
The betting begins with the first player to the left of the dealer, he may either check or bet. The minimum bet this player can make must be equal to the amount of the Big blind posted in the first round. The player may also increase the bet or fold. As the betting moves around the table the all players must match the highest bet on the table. If the player to open the betting round checked and all other players checked too the third betting round will follow.
Texas Holdem Poker – The third round
In the third betting round a fourth community card is dealt and another betting round begins. After all bets are made, a fourth and final betting round begins.
Texas Holdem Poker – Final round
In this round the fifth and last community card is dealt and the betting begins. After all bets are made, the hand with the highest ranking cards wins.
Variations of Texas Holdem Poker
The most commonly played Texas Holdem Poker variations are based on the betting structure of the game; how much you can bet and when.
No Limit Texas Holdem Poker
No Limit Texas Holdem is the most popular Texas Holdem Poker game, known for its large pots and startling bets. In No Limit Texas Holdem a player can choose to go “all-in” and bet all his/her available chips, at any betting round. The other players are then forced to either call all-in bet or fold. In the event that the player with less chips wins the pot he will only get what was in the pot BEFORE the all-in bet, and the equivalent of the amount of chips he went all-in with. It is also possible that the best five cards are the community cards. If this happens the pot is then split among the remaining players after the showdown.
Limit Texas Holdem Poker
This variation of Texas Holdem Poker works pretty much the same as No limit Texas Holdem. The difference lies in how much you can bet and when. There are four betting rounds in Limit Holdem. In the first betting round, after the Small and Big blinds have been placed the following players may either call the Big blind or raise it. The raising in Limit Holdem Poker is done in gradually and the amount is tied to the value of the Small and Big blinds. The bets are limited to one bet and three raises per betting round.
For example, if the Small blind is 5 USD, the player opening the betting in the first betting round may only bet 5, USD the second player after him may choose to raise by betting 10 USD (The Small blind and an increase of 5 USD). The following player may also raise by betting 15 USD (The Small blind, the matching 5 USD of the previous bet and an additional 5 USD). The betting may only go on until the Small blind has been raised up to the maximum amount, in this case 20, USD based on one bet and three raises. Once the betting is complete the following players may only call the bet, no more raises are allowed.
The second betting round works exactly the same as during the first round. In the third and fourth round, however, the opening bet must be equal to the big blind, but the betting rules are the same; one original bet matching the big blind, which may be followed by a maximum of three raises. In the example above the small blind was 5 USD which makes the Big blind 10 USD. Conversely the first bet is 10 USD and the second player may choose to raise by betting 20 USD, and so forth. In this case the maximum amount of the round is 40 USD. If a player doesn’t have enough chips to call a bet, he may go all-in. In this case the same rules apply as in No Limit Texas Holdem Poker.
Pot Limit Texas Holdem Poker
Pot Limit Texas Holdem Poker is even more similar to No Limit Texas Holdem Poker with it comes to the rules but also in the style of play. The main difference is the maximum amount you can raise. In Pot Limit, the minimum allowable raise is either the size of the previous bet or the size of the previous raise, this depends on which was called first. The maximum amount you can raise is the size of the pot.
Calculating the size of the raise can be a bit tricky at first because of the rule that allows a player first to call the previous bet and then to bet the size of the pot, including that call. So let’s break in down:
Imagine yourself sitting down at a where the small blind is 1 USD and the big blind 2 USD. You are next to act after the blinds have been paid, or posted to speak in jargon terms. So far the pot is 3 USD. If you bet 2 USD you are calling the Big blind, if you bet 4 USD you are doubling the Big blind, if you call the maximum allowed bet of 7 USD you are first calling your 2 USD equal to the Big blind effectively making the pot 5 USD. You are then allowed to bet the size of the pot, bringing your bet up to the maximum allowed, 7 USD.
Let’s play with the idea that you do indeed bet the maximum 7 USD. The pot now contains 12 USD. This means that the next player to act may fold, call the 7 USD bet, or raise by betting any amount in the range of 14 USD and 24 USD. But why this interval? The minimum raise is 7 USD (the size of the previous bet) and the maximum raise is 19 USD (calculated by calling the 7 USD bet and then raising the size of the now 19 USD pot).
The following rounds are played the same as in No Limit Texas Holdem games. If a player doesn’t have enough chips to call the bet, he/she can always go all-in, in which case the same rules apply as in No Limit Texas Holdem Poker.
