Betfred Poker Awesome Sign up Bonus Offers
Powered by MaxBlogPress 

Browse > Home / Poker Basics / How to Play Texas Holdem Poker

How to Play Texas Holdem Poker


Aim of Texas Hold Em

The aim of Texas Hold Em is to make the best five card hand you can from the five community cards - that everyone round the table can use, and the two cards you have been dealt (called the pocket or hole cards).

Dealer Button and Blinds

During each hand one player acts as the dealer - this continues around the table at the end of each hand so everyone has the chance to be the dealer - the dealer is marked by the dealer button and this moves to the left each time or clockwise round the table.

The position of the dealer is important as the two immediate players to the left of them post the blinds - these are the compulsary bets put in before the deal to ensure there is some money in the pot and something to play for!

The player who sits immediately to the left of the dealer posts the small blind with the person to their left posting the big blind (twice the amount of the small blind). Why are they called blinds? - well you can check out our poker dictionary for more information - but the simple explanation is you make a bet ‘blind’ without first seeing your cards.

One of the great things about playing online is that you can in most cases get the poker software to auto post blinds for you so you don’t hold up game play.

The Opening Deal

Once the blinds have been posted it is time for the cards to be dealt, moving clockwise around the table from the dealer, each player receives two cards face down which only they (you!) can see. As mentioned earlier these are known as the pocket or ‘hole’ cards.

First Round of Betting

At this point the blinds have been posted and are in play, so the betting starts with the player to the left of them on the first round (third player from the dealer). At this point you are betting on what you feel your pocket or hole cards could potentially lead to.

During this first round of betting, you have three choices:

- To fold - i.e. throw away your hole cards
- Call the last biggest bet - i.e. match it
- Raise the last bet - i.e. double the last biggest bet

The players who posted the blinds have in effect opened the betting, so the other players in the game have to at least call the bet to at least stay in this hand on this round. Checking is not an option at this stage.

Betting will move around the table until each player has either called, folded or raised. If no one has rasied by the time betting returns to the player who posted the big blind then they may at this stage check their own blind, fold or raise.

If there has been a raise then the betting is reopened and will continue until everyone has folded, put equal amounts in to call or gone ‘all in’ by betting all the chips they have on the table (check our poker dictionary for further information).

We could be here all day at this rate!!! - so in many games there is a limit to the number of raises that can be carried out.

The Flop

Now things start to get interesting!!! The flop is where a set of three cards are dealt into the centre of the table all at once, each player still in the round can use these community cards to build their hand - at this stage everyone can make a five-card hand.

We now have another round of betting - but things are a little different, because some players will have folded, and there are no blinds to be played after the first round. Betting therefore starts with the player immediately to the left of the dealer who is still in the hand (regardless of whether the dealer is still active in the hand or not).

As there are no blinds for the players to match then the first player is free to check (does not cost a penny!), as is everyone else unless someone bets - at this point betting becomes very similar to that before the flop and all players still in the hand takes part. If everyone checks or equal amounts have been placed then it it time to move on.

The Turn

Now its time for the turn card or fourth street - again this is a community card and is dealt face up in the middle of the table. Again all players can use this card to form their five-card hand. We have a further round of betting at this stage following the same pattern as for the flop above.

The River

This is the fifth and final community card and is known as the river. Now that all of the community cards have been dealt, each player can decide what their best five-card hand will be. Please note however that if the connunity cards (the board) display a royal flush, then no one can use their hole cards and everyone plays the board and splits the pot.

Again there is a final round of betting at this stage. If at this point there is more than one player still in the hand then we move onto the showdown.

The Showdown

Once the final round of betting is over it is time to see who takes the pot. Each player who is still in declares their hand, starting with the last person to bet, and so on, unless they choose to ‘muck them’ which is the same as folding at this stage. This is very useful if for example your bluff on the river got called. Again useful feature of online sites is that you can select ‘auto muck losing hands’ - however we will cover off in the strategy section of this site when it is useful not to use auto muck.

The winner of the game is decided using the universal poker hand ranking system.

However if you win the pot by forcing everyone else to fold on the river through your betting strategy then there is no showdown and the winner can choose whether to show their cards or not - some do some don’t - sometimes can be nice to show your cards when you have pulled off a massive bluff and won the hand!

    Comments

    Got something to say?

    You must be logged in to post a comment.