Texas Holdem Tournament.Com

How the Game of Texas Holdem is Played

Texas Holdem is a very popular poker game that is easy to pick up and easy to play in online texas holdem sites. Whether you are new to playing texas holdem or a seasoned online texas holdem player you can find tens of thousands of online texas holdem players at any given time of the day or night.

As a matter of fact there are over 60,000 online texas holdem ring games and countless Online Poker Tournaments going on virtually 24 hours a day. Some of the other poker games like Omaha High-Low or 7 card stud require a greater skill set to calculating odds and are therefore harder to play. Texas Holdem can be understood in a few minutes, and you can be playing at a reasonable level of skill within a few hours (with some practice).

If you need to practice for free there are free Texas Holdem Tournaments going on at most if not all online texas holdem sites. In order to feel as though you have mastered the game you must play texas holdem as often as possible. Some professional online texas holdem players will admit that to master this game you must be a master of human observation and they will even tell you that there is no luck to the game of Texas Holdem at all. Luckily for you there are not too many professional poker players playing in online texas holdem sites (for free) so you can practice against regular folks to start off with.

Most of the professional poker players prefer Seven Card Stud to Texas Holdem as the skill set required to play Seven Card Stud gives a pro quite an advantage over the average player.

1. The betting structure can vary, but all Texas Holdem games start with two players placing out a predetermined amount of money to play for. This is called posting the blinds. These players are the two to the left of the dealer.

2. The dealer shuffles up a complete deck of 52 regular playing cards.

3. Each poker player is dealt two cards face down. These are called your hole or pocket cards.

4. Then there is a round of betting starting with the poker player positioned to the left of the two who posted the blinds. This round of play in Texas Hold’em is commonly referred to as the pre-flop betting round.

5. The amount bet depends on what kind of game it is but providing there is a limit on the bets you will see a check (pass with an option to play later) or an amount $X bet and the betting will go around the table clockwise until all the players have had the option to check, bet, call, raise, re-raise, or fold (depending on what has happened before them).

6. At the end of the betting round the dealer will announce to all the remaining players how many people remain active in the hand and then discards (or burns) the top card of the deck. This card is referred to as the burn card in all Texas Holdem poker games (both online and offline).

7. The dealer then turns the next three cards face up on the table. These cards are referred to as the flop and are communal cards that anyone still playing the game (not folded) can use with their two hole cards to form their best possible five card Texas Holdem poker hand. In Texas Holdem the rank of hands is the same as in draw poker or seven card stud poker or five card stud poker.

8. Another round of betting follows the flop with the player to the left of the dealer required to start the betting. At this point in the game the players left in the hand have the option to check, bet, call, raise, or re-raise (depending on what has happened before them).

9. Once the betting is finished the dealer burns the next card and turns the subsequent card onto the table. This card is commonly referred to as the "turn" card or "4th street". The remaining players can use this card and any combination of the 4 cards on the table with the two cards in their hand to make the best poker hand. In Texas Holdem it is always important to know whether or not you have the best possible poker hand represented by the cards showing and you should know what cards if any will likely beat your best possible poker hand.

10. The player to the left of the dealer initiates another round of betting. In the event that there is a limit on the maximum bet then in this round (and in the last betting round) the maximum allowable bet size would double. In other words in Limit Texas Holdem poker games the betting would have gone from $5 maximum to $10 maximum if the game was a $5 / $10 Texas Holdem game.

11. Again after the betting is over the dealer burns the next card and places the final card face up on the table. This card is referred to as the river card in Texas Holdem and is the final card the players left in the game will see. Players can now use any of the five cards on the poker table or any combination of either none or one or two of their hole cards with the remaining cards on the poker table to form their best five card poker hand.

It is at this point that each player left in the game will know whether or not they have the best possible poker hand given the five cards on the poker table and the two cards in their hand. Any player still in the game holding the best possible card or cards that make up the best possible poker hand is said to be holding the “nut hand” or “nuts”. The poker player(s) holding the nuts is the only player(s) at the table who cannot lose the hand. To be holding the nuts in Texas Holdem is the best position to be in when all the cards are on the table.

12. A final round of betting takes place (again starting with the player to the left of the dealer).

13. Once the betting is finished all of the players remaining in the game reveal their hands. Traditionally the player to the left of the last player to call shows his cards first and then the players show their cards in a clockwise rotation. This part of the game is referred to as the showdown in Texas Holdem.

14. The best hand wins (unless there is a tie). The cards speak for themselves so the player does not have to indicate which five cards make up his or her best five card poker hand. In the Online Texas Holdem world the software will automatically tell you who won and what their winning hand was and how much they collected. The funds are automatically put into your online account (play or real).