Texas
Hold'em - How To Play
Texas Hold’em has become
one of the most popular poker games around in the past
few years. Everyone’s playing it! And if they aren’t
playing poker, they’re watching it on television
on the World Series of Poker and the World Poker Tour.
So don’t you think it’s time you learned to
play so you can get in on the fun? Hold’em
is actually pretty simple once you get right down to
it; all the rules are the same, and despite the fact
you’ll have 7 cards to contend with you still
only need to make your best five-card poker hand. To
start, all the players (from 2 to 11) are dealt two
“pocket” cards that are for their eyes only.
After this, the person to the left of the dealer --
who is designated by the Button, a disk that sits in
front of the dealer – posts what’s called
the Small Blind, a forced bet that’s usually equal
to half of the minimum bet; and the player to the left
of the Small Blind posts the Big Blind, which is equal
to the full minimum bet. After the Blinds are posted
you can look at your cards, and the first round of betting
starts with the person to the left of the Big Blind.
This is called the Pre-Flop, and players have the option
of checking, calling, raising or folding.
Once the betting has been completed,
the Dealer “burns” a card (meaning they
set one aside, face down and not to be seen) and deals
out three more cards into the middle of the table, called
the Flop. These are community cards that can be used
by any player in the game to create, in combination
with one or both of their pocket cards, their poker
hand. After this comes another round of betting, starting
with the player to the left of the dealer this time
and for the rest of the hand.
The dealer burns and then deals
another card. This is known as the Turn card, or Fourth
Street. At this point the minimum bet doubles, which
is why most games are labeled $10-$20 or $50-$100, for
example: the first number is the minimum bet on the
pre-flop and flop; the second number is the minimum
bet on the final two rounds. There is another round
of betting.
One last card is burned and the
dealer deals the final card, called the River, or Fifth
Street. There is one more round of betting, and then
the Showdown where the remaining players turn over their
cards and show them to the rest of the table.
And that’s it! That’s
not so hard, is it?
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