Texas Hold'em Basics
Texas Hold'em is probably the best known and most popular form of poker today. It is the game that decides the World Series of Poker and virtually all televised poker competitions are Texas Hold’em.
In a nutshell Texas Hold’em is played with each player being dealt two cards face down and a total of five community cards dealt face up. The best five card hand wins using any combination of your hole cards and the community cards. Hold'em is usually played with 6 to 10 players at a table.
Online and in professional card rooms a dealer button is used to represent where the dealer would be and rotates clockwise around the table so that all players seated at the table will play from all positions. The first two players to the left of the dealer place forced bets called blinds before any cards are dealt. For example if the blinds are $1/$2 the first player to the left of the dealer button puts in $1 and the next player puts in $2. Other times you may be required to post a blind are when you first join a game in progress or you leave the table and miss having to post the blinds.
Once the blinds are posted play start with each player being dealt two hole cards face down. Then there is a round of betting each player acts in turn clockwise from the button During this first round of betting the person to the left of the big blind must act first because the blinds already have chips in play. This is known as being under the gun. In latter rounds of betting the player who hasn’t folded and the is closest to the immediate left of the dealer button is first to act. When it is your turn to act you may bet, raise, check or call as appropriate (definitions of these terms can be found in the Poker Glossary). Then three community cards are dealt face up, this is known as the “flop.” The fourth community cards known as “forth street” or “the turn” is dealt face up on the board. There is another round of betting then the final community card known as “the river” is dealt face up. There is a final round of betting. Once the final round of betting is complete the players who haven’t folded will show their cards. The best 5-card hand using any combination of the five community cards and the players two hole cards wins.
To learn what hands is the best check out my Hand Rankings page.
It should be noted that there are three basic betting structures in Texas Hold’em; limit, pot-limit and no-limit. In limit Hold’em you bet a fixed amount. For example in a $3/$6 limit game if you choose to bet or raise it would be $3 before and after the flop or $6 after the turn and the river. Raises and reraises are usually capped, meaning there is a limit to the number of raises allowed in each betting round. In pot-limit you are allowed to bet or raise any amount from the minimum bet up to the amount in the pot. So if there is a $100 in the pot you may bet up to $100. In no-limit poker you bet as much as wish up to your entire stack at any time. Although the basic rules remain the same limit vs. pot-limit or no-limit play very differently and require unique strategies to win consistently. New players should start with limit Texas Hold’em.
I am always happy to answer new players questions email me at mg@moderngrinder.com and I will write back as soon as I can. Good Luck.