Friday, October 2, 2009

Texas holdem poker rules

Texas Holdem poker is the most popular form of poker played for real money. You can find texas holdem from the internet, from the casinos and from home around the world. It is so universal game that its almost mandatory to know the rules of texas holdem poker

Rules you need to know to get started in texas holdem

Two first players left to the dealer put out an ante or in other words a blind bet, the smaller blind is half of the bigger blind, with the big blind posted by the player who is last to act preflop.

After the blinds have been put out every player in the game is deal two cards these cards are called either pocket cards or hole cards. After the cards have been dealt the player who is next to dealer on dealers right side is first to act and after that the game proceed in clock-wise order. This phase of the game is called “preflop” and everyone makes a decision on their turn if they want to call, fold or raise. These are the rules of texas holdem poker you need to know to get a game going.

Flop, Turn and River texas holdem poker rules

After preflop action has been completed dealer deals 3 cards in the middle, these cards are also known as community cards and everyone in the table can use them to make the best possible poker hand. The first 3 cards are called the “flop” and first player to act on flop is small-blind and after small-blind everyone acts on their turn in clock-wise order. If the game is Texas Hold’em no limit you can bet any amount at any point of the hand (when its your turn) that is between or equal to the big blind and your whole chip stack. IF the game is limit texas hold’em the rules say that preflop and flop you can bet at max the amount of small blind and total of 4 of those bets can go in. The bets have to go in so that 1 player bets at max 1 bet mro then the previous, for an example player 1 bets one SB, player 2 raises to two small blinds. In turn and river betting rounds the maximum bet in limit holdem is equal to the big blind and also then maximum of 4 bets can go in.
After the flop action has been completed 4th community card is dealt, this card is also known as the turn and again small-blind(or if he is no-longer in the hand the player who is still in the hand and was closest to small-blind in clock-wise order) is the first to act.
After the turn action has been completed final community card is dealt, this card is also known as the “River” and again the action goes in same order, if there is still two or more players left in the pot after the final round has been completed the holder of the best 5 card poker hand wins. Pot can be also won if on anyone of the rounds there is only one player ready to put in the moneys. E.g if 3 players saw a flop and small blind bets out 100 chips on flop but no-one wants to call the pot small-blind player wins the pot. These are in a nutshell the texas holdem poker rules you need to know to get a game going.

Hand rankings:

There are the rankings of poker hands in texas holdem poker from best to worst:

1) Straight flush. 5 cards of same suit in a row, example of this is A,K,Q,J,T all hearts

2) 4 of a kind. 4 same number cards, like A,A,A,A

3) Full house 3 and 2 of same number, like A,A,A,K,K

4) 5 cards of the same suit, for example K,T,9,7,4 all hearts.

5) Straight 5 cards in a row like A,K,Q,J,T

6) Three of a kind, for an example 9,9,9

7) Two pairs, for example 99,88

8) One pair, like A,A

9) High card, nothing

Remember that you can use total of 5 cards from the community cards and the ones you hold in hand, if two players have same category hand the one with higher biggest card wins. For example 99,88 two pair beats 66,33 two pairs and 99,66 beats 99,55. If two or more players have exactly the same hand they split the pot. With these rules you should be able to enjoy and learn texas holdem even if you have never played it previously.

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