Texas Holdem Poker

Texas Holdem is the most popular poker game to play online. There are the limit and no-limit variety.

In Texas Holdem there are anything from 2 to normally 8 players. This is a community card poker game where each player has to private cards and can thne use up to 5 face up community cards to make the best 5 card poker hand.

The Ante and Blinds - To encourage game play there is an ante and blinds which are compulsory bets. To play in the game you must pay an ante for each hand that is dealt. All players have therefore payed something into the pot. After this the cards are dealt. Two cards are given face down to each player. The two players immediately after the dealer are required to bet money into the pot irrespective of what cards they are dealt. This is known as the small blind (half the minimum stake) and the big blind (the minimum stake). This is done to ensure that there is always money in the pot and encourage people to bet.

When everyone has bean dealt two cards and the blind bets have been placed by players 1 and 2, player 3 then has the option to place a bet based on his/her 2 cards. The options are to Fold, Call or Raise. To stay in the game player 3 must either call, which is to match the previous players bet, or raise, which is to raise the bet. Once player three has made his choice and bet or folded play move on to player 4 who has to make the same decision, and so on all the way round the table.

Before the game can move forward everyone in the hand must either fold or bet. Before more cards are dealt and the next round of betting commences the amount that has been bet by each person that hasn´t folded must be the same for example, if someone raises the bet, all player who bet before the raise have the opportunity to add more money or fold their hand.

When the remaining players all have equal bets on the table the first of the community cards are dealt. The dealer will "burn" the top card of the deck and then deal three cards face up in the middle of the table, this is known as "the flop". The second round of betting then commences. Here player 1 (the first player after the dealer) has the choice to check, bet or fold. To check is to stay in the game but not make a bet. Player 2 then gets to choose the same however he/she must do a minimum of what player 1 did to stay in the game. Play moves round until all players have had their chance to bet or fold.

When the remaining players all have equal bets on the table the fourth community card is dealt. Again the dealer "burns" the top card and put one card face up alongside the other community cards. This is known as "the turn", and then the thrid round of betting commences in much the same way as the second round.

When the remaining players all have equal bets on the table the fifth and final community card is dealt. This is known as "the river". Remaining players will bet on their best 5 card poker hand made from the 7 cards (2 private cards and 5 community cards) available. The standard heirarchy of poker hands is followed (shown below). All players remaining bet and try to outbet the other players to win the hand. or if player(s) cannot be outbet and the remaining players have all deposited (bet) the same amount into "the pot" the cards are turned over and the person with the highest hand wins all the money (the pot).