The Cards, Blinds and Deals

A dealer shuffles a standard deck minus the joker.  A dealer button, a round plastic disc, is passed around clockwise from one player to another which indicates who will be the dealer.  In casinos, the dealer usually never plays.  The game begins when the two players at the left side of the dealer put a certain set amount of money to the pot.  This is also called posting blinds.  The first blind is given by the player on the left of the dealer.  He puts half the amount of the predetermined bet.  This is also called the small blind.  The second blind or the Big Blind is posted by the player on the left of the first blind.  This player puts up double the first blind’s bet or the minimum bet.  Each of the players is given two cards and five community cards are exposed at the table.

Getting That Pot Money

The game ends when all the players have folded or when there are no more players to call or raise the bet.  In this case, the last player standing gets the pot money and is declared the winner.  In case the last betting round is done and there are still two or three players left, a showdown is done.  In the showdown, the remaining players are required to show their pocket cards combined with the community cards.  Whoever has the best card combination wins.  If there are two players with equal value of cards, the pot money is split equally between them.

The Thinking Man’s Game

Many books advise that you play relatively few hands but bet and raise often.  Unlike in draw poker where you only get to bet twice, in Texas Hold’Em, you get to bet four times.  This means you can employ strategies throughout the play.  This is why Texas Hold’Em is called the thinking man’s game.  You do not necessarily need to purchase those hundred dollar books in order to know stuff about Texas Hold’Em.  Further readings and research can give you the basics and some tips.  Along the way, you develop certain strategies for effective for yourself.

The Dealer

To play a game of Texas Hold’em is simple.  All you need is a deck of cards, a set of chips and some friends to play with.  You can then immediately start playing as long as everyone’s comfortable.  The game starts off by deciding on who will be he first dealer.  This is determined by drawing cards.  The person who has drawn the highest card in terms of its value, two being the lowest and ace being the highest, is the first dealer.  The dealer has the advantage over all the other players as he acts the last during the rounds.  He then has time to interpret his opponents’ actions as he makes the last action himself.  The dealer is assigned a white button, which indicates that he is the dealer for the round, and after the round, the button is passed on to his left.  This gives everybody the privilege of becoming the dealer during certain rounds of the whole of the game.

The Blinds

Another thing to keep in mind is the forced bets.  There are two blinds in the game of Texas Hold’em – the small blind and the big blind.  They are both forced to bet during the start of the round.  The small blind is initially forced to bet one half of the limit bet.  The big blind, however, is initially forced to bet an amount equal to that of the limit bet.  This serves as the pot money for the single person who doesn’t fold if all of the players decide to fold.

Read Guides

One thing to make you a better player is to read books on Texas Hold’em and learn from the more experienced players.  There are a lot of books out there nowadays that offer the readers improvement in the game.  Books like those include strategies and tips that are needed for the improvement of the player.  If you don’t feel like learning from books, then you can try the World Wide Web for tips and strategies.  You can find almost anything over the internet, and strategy guides for Texas Hold’em are not an exemption.  You can also visit forums and learn from there.  People who are more experienced like to help out the newer ones to get things started.  You can also learn from other people personally.  If you have friends who are really good at the game, you can always go and ask them for some tips and tricks.

Play More, Learn More

You can learn from other people, and you can learn based on your experience.  Yes, experience still remains the best teacher.  There is not a thing that lets you learn head on as experience.  To get more experience, you can try out playing online poker.  You can play with those who are just as experienced as you are, or you can go ahead and play with the more experienced.  You can always invite friends over and play in your living room for some fun and excitement.  At the same time, you are learning from those games, and as time would pass by, you’ll be better at what you’re doing.  Also, try out playing with other people.  Try observing how they play.  Notice their gestures, their bets, their playing style.  You’ll even get to have new friends while playing with them because some people are also looking for opponents in Texas Hold’em..

The game should be played with the utmost confidence in order for the player to win.  There are some key points to be remembered that will help the player win games such as Texas Hold’em.

Be Observant

This is a very important attitude while playing the game.  Your opponents’ moods change whenever something comes up.  You need to be very observant to notice these changes.  The mood changes indicate whether your opponent just got a better card or not.  This will help you decide whether to raise, check or fold.  The key is to notice the change in their behaviors.

Know Your cards

You should be able to tell whether your starting hand is a good pair or not.  You should be always cautious when the game is on, and you should learn to justify your hands.  You should also learn how to predict what possible card combinations could still appear.  Betting on luck isn’t such a good strategy these days.  If your hand, however, isn’t a very good hand, then you should learn how to be patient.  Learn how to fold during times.

Moderate Aggression

Be aggressive.  Being a passive player will not win you anything in the world of poker.  You need to have the right amount of aggression in order to pull off decent wins in bets.

Control Your Behavior

You need to learn how to hide your behavior changes in order for your opponents to get a hard time reading your every move.  Just keep in mind that when playing a game of Texas Hold’em, you really shouldn’t be too obvious.  One’s behavior and reactions pose a window leading to your faced down hand.

Be a Good Sport

Last, but not the least, just have fun playing the game.  It’s what it’s meant for, for fun and making new friends.  Don’t be a sore loser when you lose.  You’ll only embarrass yourself doing so.  Also, you need to learn how to make the best out of things.  Learn from your games, and you’ll become one fine player one day.

Texas Hold’Em started in the US around 1969 when a group of Texan gamblers brought the game to Las Vegas.  Soon enough, it gained slow and steady popularity as it became a major event in the World Series of Poker.  More and more casinos also adopted the game as their major event.  It gained popularity on the connotation that it is a thinking man’s game.  The main difference of Texas hold‘em poker from draw poker is that you get to bet four times.  This is double the chance you get compared to playing draw poker.  This means you need to use more of your skill and strategy to be able to win that pot.

Texas Hold’Em Popularity Boom

Through twenty years, the popularity of Texas Hold’Em has been steadily rising.  But the most noticeable boom started around the start 21st century where media exposure about this game also increased significantly.  The movie, “Rounders”, starting Edward Norton and Matt Damon, gave its audience an interesting and romantic view of this game.  The popularized version is the no-limit variation.  Late night poker shows and poker sites advertisements also came about this time and further increased the curiosity of gamblers.  In 2003 World Series of Poker, the surprising victory of an amateur online poker player, Chris Moneymaker, increased the interest of people in online poker significantly.

Playing Texas Hold’Em Online

The success of Moneymaker gave the people an impression that anyone, even amateurs and novice, can win the World Championship, if you train online.  The following year, another internet player won the World Series of Poker Championships which got the world all the more excited about playing online.  The entrants in the following year, 2005, increased seven-fold!  Though this time, a semi-professional player won the $7,500 pot, the interest of the world in online poker never decreased since then.  Every year, more and more entrants join the World Series of Poker and up to now, it has been a very successful event annually.

Online Poker Today

There is an increasing question as to whether playing poker online is gaming or gambling.  Hit the search button of your Google and you see that poker URLs are classified as gambling URLs and as some sites prohibit gambling URLs, these ads in Google sometimes get very little revenue.  The issue also that every month a new poker site opens up and that many poker sites are unregulated by law may give us the impression that it really is gambling.  Well actually, it really depends on the player’s skill.  If the player is a professional, then it’s gaming similar to a billiards or chess player who needs to win by employing different strategies.  Some player though, even when using play money, has tons of fun just playing the game and socializing.  So, in the end, it all depends on the player’s intentions and level of skill, in the end, poker is just a fun and cool game!

Texas Hold’Em is one of the most popular variations of poker played in many Casinos.  Texas Hold’Em Poker like other types of poker does not really adhere to a strict fixed set of rules.  Nevertheless, there are basic set of rules applied for Texas Hold’Em Poker.  Here are some of those basic rules:

The Dealer, Betting Structure and Players

The dealer shuffles a standard deck of cards minus the joker.  Number of players can vary from two to twenty depending on the type of game.  Ideally, about four or five is okay.  Each player is given two cards face down.  These cards are called pocket cards and should not be exposed unless a showdown requires its exposure.  A round of betting begins when the player at the left of the dealer posts a small blind.  This is usually the half of the minimum bet.  Then the player on his right posts a big blind which is the full minimum amount of the predetermined bet.  There are basically two rounds of betting and these are called the pre-flop and the flop.

Call, Raise or Fold

Like other types of poker, a player can call, raise the bet or fold.  Calling means to match or increase the bet.  Folding means to give up the player’s claim to the pot.  Raising means to increase the amount of bet required to stay in the game.  After a betting round, the dealer burns a card or discards the card on the top of the deck to prevent cheating.  After every round of betting, the dealer burns a card.  The dealer then flips up three more community cards in addition to the two community cards.  Community cards are there for you to combine it with you pocket cards.  The pot increases in amount with every betting round until no one else can call the bet or all the players have folded.  In this case, the player left is the winner and takes home the pot money.

If There’s a Tie?

In case there are two players left, a showdown is done.  Remember when I said that the pocket cards should never be revealed?  Well, in case of a tie or when there are two players left, they are required to show their pocket cards and combine it with the community cards at the table.  Then whoever has the better set of cards win the pot.  In case that both their set of cards is of equal value, they split the pot money between them.  No sixth card can ever be used as a tie breaker.

Sounds easy huh?  Well this article only discusses the gist of the game.  Texas Hold’Em is a relatively complex game.  It also has a number of varieties, so it is best to do further readings and to practice on simple games for you to understand this game more and more.