If you want to learn how to play the Texas Hold’em game, you need to start with the basic rules and hands. That’s what you’ll find in this beginner’s guide to the game.
Texas Hold’em is a simple poker game, but it can be hard to understand.
But don’t let it deter you. When you come along with this beginner guide to Texas Hold’em poker you will know the:
What Is Texas Hold’em Poker?
Texas Hold’em is one of the most popular of all poker types. Omaha Poker is second popular type of poker game.
All major tournaments around the world (including tournaments played on the World Series of Poker, World Poker Tour, and European Poker Tour) have unlimited variations of the game.
Texas Hold’em is so popular that it is the only poker game that many players will learn.
Figuring out how to play Texas Hold’em poker is not difficult, and the simplicity of its rules, gameplay, and hand sorting contribute to the game’s popularity.
However, don’t let the game’s simplicity fool you.
The number of possible positions and combinations is so large that when you play at a high level, Texas Hold’em can be a very complicated game.
If you are participating in a game of Texas Hold’em for the first time, it is important to start with the basic rules of the game. It is not only the easiest to learn, but also essential to understanding the gameplay and then the basic strategy of the game.
Texas Hold’em Poker Rules
So how do you play Texas Hold’em?
The objective of the Texas Hold’em game is to make the best five-card poker hand by using your hole cards in combination with the community cards.
Hold’em is not like other poker games like five-card draw.
However, the way players build their hands in Texas Hold’em is slightly different from draw poker.
In a game of Texas Hold’em, each player is dealt two cards face up (‘hole cards’).
Over several rounds of betting, five more cards are (eventually) face up in the center of the table.
These face-up cards are called ‘community cards’. Each player is free to use the community cards along with their hole cards to form a five-card poker hand.
While we will look at each betting round and the different stages that make up a complete hand of the Texas Hold’em game, you should know that the five community cards are dealt out into three stages:
Flop: First three community cards.
Turn: Fourth community card.
River: The fifth and final community card.
Your goal is to create five-card poker hands using the best five cards available out of a total of seven cards (two hole cards and five community cards).
You can play both of your hole cards with a combination of three community cards, one hole card with four community cards, or no hole cards.
If the cards on the table lead to good combinations, you can also play all five community cards and forget about your cards.
You can do just about anything to make the best five-card hand in a game of Texas Hold’em.
If betting results in all players except one folding, the only player remaining wins the pot without showing any cards.
For this reason, players do not always need to hold the best hand to win the pot. It is always possible that a player may ‘cheat’ and give others better help.
If two or more players reach a showdown after the final community cards have been dealt and all betting has been completed, the only way to win the pot is to have the highest-ranking five-card poker hand.
Now that you know the basics of Texas Hold’em and have begun to understand how the game works, it’s time to get into some details.
It covers how to play Texas Hold’em and how betting works.
How to Play Texas Holdem Poker
Let’s take a look at all the different key aspects of the Texas Hold’em game, including the different table positions and the betting rounds featured in the game.
Button
The dealer moves clockwise around the play table, starting from the action to the left of the button.
The ‘button’ is a round disc that sits in front of the player and rotates on the seat to the left of each hand.
When playing in casinos and poker rooms, the player with the dealer button does not deal with the cards (the poker room hires someone to do this).
When you play a poker home game with friends, the player on the button usually deals the hand.
The first two players sitting immediately to the left of the button must post a ‘small blind’ and a ‘big blind’ to start betting.
From there, the action takes place on several roads:
Preflop
flop
twist
the river
Each of these moments (or ‘roads’ in game parlance) is explained below.
The button determines which player on the table is the acting dealer.
In Texas Hold’em, the player on the button, or the last active player closest to the button, receives the last action on all post-flop streets of play.
While the dealer button determines which players post the small and big blinds, it also determines where the deal in poker of cards begins.
In the small blind, the player to the left of the dealer button immediately receives the first card, and then the dealer deals cards from player to player clockwise around the table until everyone has received two starting cards.
The Blinds
Before starting each new hand, the two players sitting at the table are obliged to post the small and large blinds.
The blinds are the forced bets that initiate betting.
Without these blinds, the game would be very boring. Because no one has to put any money in the pot and players can wait until they get pocket aces (AA) and then play.
The straps ensure that each arm has some level of ‘action’.
In competitions, screens are erected at regular intervals.
As the number of players decreases and the stack of remaining players becomes larger, the blinds must continue to grow during the tournament.
In cash games, the screen is always the same.
The player directly to the left of the button posts the small blind and the player to his left posts the big blind.
The small blind is usually half the big blind, although this bet varies from room to room and may also depend on the game being played.
In a “$1/$2” Texas Hold’em game, the $1 is a small blind and the $2 is a big blind.
First Betting Round: Preflop
The first round of betting occurs immediately after each player is dealt two hole cards.
The first player to act is the player to the left of the big blind.
This position is called ‘under the gun’ because the player has to act first. The first player has three options:
Call: Match the amount of the big blind
Increase: Increase the bet within a certain range of the game
Pat: throw hands away
If a player chooses to fold, he is out of the game and is no longer eligible to win the current hand.
The amount of money a player can raise depends on the game being played.
In a game of No-Limit Texas Hold’em, the minimum opening raise must be at least twice the big blind, and the maximum raise can be all of the chips in the player’s stack (an “all-in” bet).
There are other forms of betting in Hold’em poker.
In fixed-limit hold’em (or simply “limit hold’em), the raise is always double the big blind.
In pot-limit hold’em (played much less frequently than other variations), players can bet anywhere from the big blind amount (the minimum bet allowed) to the total amount of the current pot.
After the first player (‘under the gun’) acts, the play progresses in a clockwise direction around the table and each player has the same three options – calling, raising, or folding.
Once the last bet is placed and the action ‘stops’, the preflop round ends, and play moves to the ‘flop’.
Second Betting Round: Flop
After the first preflop betting round is completed, the first three community cards are dealt and the second betting round involves only those players who have not already folded.
In this betting round (and subsequent rounds), the action begins with the first active player to the left of the button.
Along with the options to bet, call, fold, or raise, the player now also has the option to ‘check’ if no betting action has taken place.
Check means passing the action to the next player.
Again betting continues until the last bet or raise is called (which stops the action).
It may also happen that every player chooses not to go and checks around the table, thus ending the betting round as well.
Third Betting Round: Turn
The fourth community card called the turn, is dealt face-up after all betting action has taken place on the flop.
Once this is done, the second round of betting is the same as the previous street of the game.
Again each player has the option to check, bet, call, fold, or raise.
Final Betting Round: The River
The fifth community card called the river, is dealt face-up after all betting action on the turn.
Once this is done, the second round of betting begins, repeating what happened on the previous street of the game.
Once again the remaining players will have options to check, bet, call, fold, or raise.
After all the betting action is completed, the remaining players with hole cards now reveal their stakes to determine the winner. This is called a showdown.
Showdown
The rest of the players show their hole cards and the winning hand is determined with the help of the dealer.
The player with the best combination of five cards according to the official poker hand ranking wins the pot.
Conclusion
Now that you know how Texas Hold’em works, it’s time to put the theory into practice and play your first game.
The best way to start playing Texas Hold’em is to start with a free online poker game and then move on to real money action only when you feel comfortable doing so.