Texas Hold’em Poker is a popular and widely played variation of poker that is commonly found in casinos and online platforms. It is a community card game where players aim to make the best possible five-card hand using a combination of their own private cards and the shared community cards on the table.
Objective: The main objective of Texas Hold’em is to win the pot, which is the total amount of chips or money wagered by the players. To win, you either need to have the best hand at the showdown or make all other players fold their hands.
Number of Players: Texas Hold’em can be played with 2 to 10 players at a single table, although it is typically played with 6 to 9 players.
Game Setup: Each player is initially dealt two private cards face down, which are known as hole cards. These cards belong exclusively to the player and are not visible to others. Additionally, five community cards are placed face up on the table in the center.
Betting Rounds: Texas Hold’em consists of several betting rounds, where players have the opportunity to bet, call, raise, or fold their hands. The betting rounds are as follows: a. Pre-Flop: Before any community cards are revealed, players in the small blind and big blind positions place mandatory bets known as blinds. Then, starting from the player to the left of the big blind, each player can choose to fold, call (match the big blind), or raise the bet. b. Flop: After the pre-flop betting round, the dealer reveals the first three community cards on the table. These are known as the flop. Another round of betting takes place, starting with the player to the left of the dealer. c. Turn: Once the flop betting is complete, the dealer reveals the fourth community card, known as the turn or fourth street. Another round of betting follows. d. River: After the turn betting, the dealer reveals the fifth and final community card, known as the river or fifth street. The final round of betting occurs.
Showdown: If there are two or more players remaining after the final betting round, a showdown occurs. Players reveal their hole cards, and the best five-card hand wins the pot. Players can use any combination of their hole cards and the community cards to make their best hand.
Hand Rankings: The hand rankings in Texas Hold’em follow the standard poker hierarchy. The highest-ranking hand is the royal flush (10, J, Q, K, A of the same suit), followed by a straight flush, four of a kind, full house, flush, straight, three of a kind, two pairs, one pair, and high card.
Dealer Button: The dealer button indicates the current dealer position and moves clockwise after each hand. It determines the order of betting and ensures fairness in distributing the blinds.
HOW TO PLAY TEXAS HOLD’EM POKER?
Understand the Basics: Texas Hold’em is a community card game where players aim to make the best five-card hand. Each player is dealt two private cards (hole cards), and five community cards are placed on the table.
Know the Hand Rankings: Familiarize yourself with the hand rankings to understand which combinations are strong. The highest-ranking hand is the royal flush, followed by straight flush, four of a kind, full house, flush, straight, three of a kind, two pairs, one pair, and high card.
Learn the Positions: Texas Hold’em has different positions, and understanding them is crucial. The two players to the left of the dealer are the small blind and big blind. The dealer position rotates clockwise after each hand.
Place Blinds: Before each hand, the players in the small blind and big blind positions must place mandatory bets called blinds. The big blind is typically double the small blind.
Receive Hole Cards: After the blinds are placed, each player is dealt two private cards face down. These are your hole cards, and only you can see them.
Pre-Flop Betting: Starting with the player to the left of the big blind, each player has the option to fold (discard their cards), call (match the big blind), or raise (increase the bet). This round of betting ends when all players have either folded or called the highest bet.
The Flop: Once the pre-flop betting is complete, the dealer places three community cards face up on the table. This is called the flop.
Post-Flop Betting: A new round of betting begins, starting with the player to the left of the dealer. Players can now choose to check (pass without betting), bet (place a wager), call (match the bet), raise (increase the bet), or fold. This betting round ends when all players have either folded or called the highest bet.
The Turn: After the post-flop betting, the dealer places a fourth community card face up on the table. This is called the turn or fourth street.
Post-Turn Betting: Another round of betting commences, following the same rules as the post-flop betting round.
The River: The dealer adds a fifth and final community card face up on the table. This is called the river or fifth street.
Post-River Betting: The final round of betting takes place, following the same rules as the previous betting rounds.
Showdown: If more than one player remains after the final round of betting, a showdown occurs. Players reveal their hole cards, and the best five-card hand wins the pot. If two or more players have the same hand, the pot is split.
Dealer Button Moves: After the showdown, the dealer button moves to the next player in a clockwise direction, and a new hand begins.
RULES TO KNOW
In Texas Hold Em Poker begins with two compulsory bets from the Small Blind first followed by the Big Blind. These roles change every round with a new player assuming the role of Small Blind and Big Blind. The others commence the game for free.
There are four betting rounds in a standard game of Texas Hold Em Poker. These include Preflop, Flop, Turn, and the River rounds.
In the Preflop round, the player sitting next to the Big Blind starts the betting. All the other non-blind players in this case have three betting options which include Call, Raise and Fold.
Call is matching the bet amount of the big blind.
Raise is putting in more money via chips on the table than the big blind.
Fold is when you check your hands and don’t want to continue that game. In essence, you quit that round of poker.
After all, players have made their bets, the second round called the Flopround begins. In this Flop round, three community cards common to every player on the table are dealt face up.
The Flop round begins with the bet from the small blind player. There are three betting options that the player can choose from including check, bet and fold.
Check is when you don’t want to add any more bet money and yet want to continue to play the round.
Bet is when you add some betting amount to the table. This bet amount has to be matched by all other players on the table.
In this round, all players also have the option to raise the initial bet made by the small blind. Upon doing so, all other players on the table must match this bet amount before the round can begin.
The next round is known as the Turn round. It begins when the dealer deals one more community card face-up for the table. The rules in this round are the same as the rules of the Flop round with each player having the option to check, bet, raise or fold. This round also lasts as long as all players have placed matching bet amounts on the table.
The next round is the last round of betting and is known as the River round. It begins when the dealer deals one more community card face-up for the table. So, now there are seven cards dealt in total.
You can use any of the five community cards on the table and the two cards individually dealt to the player to form the highest ranking poker combination to win.
The rules in this round are the same as the rules of the Flop round with each player having the option to check, bet, raise or fold. This round also lasts as long as all players have placed matching bet amounts on the table.
After this comes what in poker terms is called a Showdown. This is when all the remaining players on the table reveal their hands for the table to see, in an attempt to win with the highest ranking poker combination.
Texas Hold Em Poker is a winner takes all game. This means that there is only one winning hand every round while all the other players on the table lose.
The descending order in which the poker card combinations are ranked is Royale Flush, Straight Flush, Four of a Kind, Full House, Flush, Straight, Three of a Kind, Two Pairs, One Pair, and High Card.
▷ Royale Flush is when the player has the five cards Ace, King, Queen, Jack, and 10 in the same suit. This is the highest-ranked five-card combination in a game of Texas Hold Em Poker.
▷ Straight Flush is when the player has five cards of the same suit in a sequence. For instance, if the player has five Hearts in the sequence 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 or if a player has King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, all in Diamonds, and so on.
▷ Four of a Kind is when the player has four cards of the same value or rank and one other card.
▷ Full House is when the player has three of a kind with a pair among the seven cards dealt.
▷ Flush is when the player has five cards of the same suit but not in any given sequence.
▷ Straight is when the player has five cards in a sequence but they are not of the same suit.
▷ Three of Kind is when the player has three cards of the same rank with two cards different.
▷ Two Pairs are when the player has two pairs of cards in the same rank, and one card different.
▷ One Pair is when the player has two cards of the same rank or value and the other three cards are in no given sequence.
▷ High Card is when the player has no cards in sequence and the cards are not forming any combination with the same suit. This is when the highest ranking individual card is taken into consideration. This is the weakest hand in a game of Texas Hold Em poker.
If two players have the same ranking five-card combination, the player with the higher value High Card, wins the round.
The ranking of individual cards in a game of Texas Hold Em Poker in descending order is Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, and 2.
The payout in poker depends on the sum total of all the bets made by all the players at a table.
