|
If you are completely clueless
then give the rules below a quick scan. Many of
the things described below are done
automatically for you when playing online making
it much much easier for beginners.
Hand Rankings
For starters, in Texas Holdem
you build five-card hands using any combination
of seven cards. These seven cards are made up of
five community cards on the table, and two hole
cards (also called pocket cards) in your hand.
The community cards are
eventually all dealt face-up on the table.
You're dealt two pocket cards, which are for
your eyes only.
As for rankings, you'll be
relieved to know Texas Holdem hand rankings are
the same as in many other poker games you may
have played. That is, a royal flush beats every
other hand, followed by a straight flush,
four-of-a-kind, and so on, down to simply a high
card.
But that's just the beginning.
Now you can get into the meat of this addicting
fun game, which requires strategy and skill.
Dealers and Buttons
To determine who gets to deal
first in a new game, each player is dealt one
card. The player who gets the high card wins the
deal.
A white plastic chip, called the
button, is placed at the dealer's position. You
might hear players refer to the dealer as being
on the button.
After each hand and before the
next deal, the button rotates to the next player
on the left. This way, each player has a chance
to be the dealer. It also means that each
player's position will shift. This makes it fair
in determining who posts the blinds (two forced
bets before receiving any cards).
Pre-Flop
The flop is the first three of
five community cards dealt face-up on the table.
But before any cards are dealt, the player to
the left of the dealer puts a pre-determined bet
into the pot. This bet is called the little
blind.
The next player to the left puts
the big blind into the pot. These bets,
sometimes called forced bets or blinds, are
agreed upon before the game begins, in a
tournament the blinds will increase as the
tournament progresses.
After the blinds have been
posted, each player is dealt two cards face
down. These are
When it's your turn to act, you
have three options. Players make their decision
only when it is their turn to act. Players turns
go round in a clockwise direction starting from
the player sitting to the left of the big blind. Regardless of what position
you're in at the table you can either match the
current bet, raise the current bet, or fold your
hand if you don't want to bet at all.
When you fold, you are no longer
a player in that hand, and you place your cards
face-down on the table. All you can do now is
sit back and watch the fun.
Any time you fold is a good time
to get a better look and feel for your
opponents. See who wears a poker face, who
bluffs, and who sweats when the going gets hot.
This will all come in handy for
the rest of the game.
But let's say you're in the
first betting position in the first round of
betting after the blinds are bet, and you decide
to raise the bet – which in this case is the
amount of the big blind. If you are going to
raise you must at least double the raise
beforehand. In this circumstance the minimum
raise is double the big blind.
The player to your left has to
call (match the new bet) or raise your bet to
continue in the hand. If he doesn't want to call
or raise, he has to fold his hand.
If no one raises the big blind,
the player in the big blind position can either
check – which means he doesn't want to put more
money in the pot – or he can raise, which
effectively increases the amount of the pot.
If any player raises, the
players to act after him will have to match how
ever many chips that player raised, re-raise by
at least double the amount the previous player
has raised or fold.
The round of betting is ended
once all players have put equal amounts of chips
into the pot or all but one have folded. In the
case where a player has raised and all other
players have folded, the player making the raise
will take the pot without having to reveal their
cards.
If all players have matched each
others bets (called) then we move onto the
flop.
Flop
After dealing the hole cards,
the dealer burns the top card – that is, he
places it to the side face-down. This is a poker
tradition.
Next the dealer deals three
community cards face-up on the table. These
first three cards are the called the flop.
After the flop is dealt, another
round of betting begins. The player in the first
seat to the left of the dealer begins the
betting.
The person in this position is
sometimes referred to as being under the gun.
That means they are first to act
on this and every subsequent round of betting in
this hand.
Players still in the hand have
the same betting options as in the pre-flop
stage, including the option to check.
A player checks when he does not
want to bet, but wants to remain in the hand. A
player can only do this if no other bet has been
made previously in the betting round.
This round of betting ends when,
and only when, all players have either called or
folded.
Turn and River
Now the excitement starts to
build. After bets are placed on the flop, the
dealer burns another card and deals another
card.
This fourth community card is
called the turn, and it starts another round of
betting.
After this round of betting the
dealer next deals a fifth community card, called
the river. The final round of betting begins.
Determining the Winner
When all betting is finished,
each player reveals their hands and the best 5
card poker hand takes down the pot.
In the event that players have
hands of the same strength the pot is
distributed equally between them.
Any left over chips are gifted
to the player(s) to the left of the dealer
button. |
