Texas Hold'em

Learning poker, especially how the game of Texas Hold’em is play, is not really complicated. The game is played with a normal 52 card deck (no joker) and can be played with as little as 2 people (referred to as heads-up) or as many as 10. The most common table set ups you will see online are 6 player, 9 player, and 10 player. Learning poker, in our example, we will use a typical $1 – 2 Texas Hold'em Limit game on most sites.

The game begins with the player to the immediate left of the dealer button posting the "small blind" (which in our example would be $.50) and the player to his left posting the "big blind" (in this example $1.00). Two cards are dealt face down to all the players at the table (referred to as "hole cards").

The "pre flop" action begins with the person to the immediate left of the "big blind". This player, if he chooses to play the hand, must either put an amount equal to the "big blind" in the pot ($1.00 call) or amount of twice the "big blind" ($2.00 raise).

This same action takes place with every player at the table. They must choose to call, raise, or "fold" their cards to the dealer. During this "pre flop" action the raises are limited to 4 times the original "big blind". So you could have a call $1.00, a raise to $2.00, and re raise to $3.00, and another re raise to $4.00.

Those players that have already called or raised before the re raises have the option of calling the re raises or folding their hands while leaving any money they have already put in, in the pot. If there had been no raise and the "small blind" wanted to call it would only cost him and additional $.50 as he had already put $.50 in to begin the game. The "pre flop" action ends with the "big blind" either "checking" if there have been no raises, raising or re raising depending on the players action before him, or calling the raise made by a previous player.

Once all the player have made their decision the dealer buries a card, and then places the next three cards face up in the middle of the table. These are called "community cards" and can be used by all the players. This is referred to as "the flop".

The action this time begins with the player closest to the immediate left of the dealer button that is still in the hand. Again they have the option to bet $1.00, raise to $2.00, re raise to $3.00, or re raise again to $4.00.

Again the dealer buries a card and flips one card face up with the original three in the middle of the table. This is referred to as "the turn".

The action again starts with the players closest to the immediate left of the dealer button that is still in the hand. The difference here is, to bet, the player must put in $2.00. So if you wanted to raise after a player put in $2.00, it would cost you $4.00, a re raise would cost you $6.00, and to raise a re raise would cost you $8.00.

After the last player has acted the dealer buries another card and turns a fifth card face up in the middle. This is referred to as "the river". Another round of betting takes place at the $2.00 level. When all betting is finished the players turn their hole cards face up.

The player with the best 5 cards, using a combination of his hole cards and community cards wins the pot. Note that the players can split the pot, if the have the same hand, or are using just the community 5 cards to make their hand. You don’t necessarily have to use your hole cards to have the best 5 cards. That's all there is to learning poker, that is the way the game is played.

The difference in No Limit Texas Hold'em is that other then the small and big blinds, there is no restriction on what you can bet, other than you must have the amount in front of you in chips.

Take a look at our "Poker Articles" section for more on learning poker and strategies in the game of Texas Hold'em.