How to play texas hold em

Texas Hold'Em has become in just a few years probably the most popular poker game in the world. Thanks for that go's mainly to the World Series Of Poker Tv-show and the players.

The secret behind the success of the game is SKILL, just as in other poker games. There have however been some talk about it not being an actual skill game, but you and me both know that it is. IT does require skill to read emotions, it does require skill to calculate the odds and you definetly need skills to BLUFF yourself through the river with the worst pair of cards you've ever had.

Ok, I will admit that you also need a small bit of luck too, but as we all know, luck wont get you very far in a poker game.
If you're reading this I will assume that Texas Hold'Em is not so familiar to you, so lets go through the basic flow of the game, and then check out the example game.

First few important notes:
Player can 'muck' his hand, in other words fold their hand WITHOUT showing the cards to other players, any time he feels like it. Mucking hands is a very good way to conceal your game style.

The game starts with the placing of the 'blinds', the little (small) blind and the big blind, the little is half the size of the big. Little (small) blind is payed by the player sitting on the left of the dealer and the big blind is payed buy the player sitting left of the small blind.

Start

After the blinds have been set the dealer deals two cards for each player (usually clockwise), these cards are called 'hole cards' and are not shown to the other players (you must be surprised by now). After the cards have been delt to the players every player needs to decide wether he/she will: call (matching the bet of the big blind), fold (returning the cards without betting) or raise. This is done by every player 'sitting left' of the big blind.
If the bet is raised all other palyers now must match the new bet if they dicede to 'call'. If no-one have raised and the big blind is still the largest bet on the table the person who placed the big blind can now simply check. After every player have made the choise, the betting round ends.

Flop

The Flop round starts by dealer burning off one card and then dealing three cards with their face down on the table, when the cards are dealt the dealer turns the cards face up simultaniously. The three cards on the table plus the two in your hand are what you can use to form a hand at this time. The hands in hold'em are identical to those used in basic poker, royal flash being the best of course. All the palyers must now decide their action, they can, just like before , call (matching the biggest bet), fold (throwing cards away) or raise. The first action is made by the player left of the dealer, this seat is callet UTG (Under the Gun, wonder how'd they came up with that one...). The basic rule of thumb in hold'em is NOT to continue beyond this round if your hand is not imroved at this time as you now know five cards out of seven possible, however if you think your kungfu is stronger than your opponents, you can always go for a Bluff.

Turn

After the betting of the flop-round is done the dealer once again burns the top card and places the fourth card on the table. Just like before players call, fold or raise, all this starting by the UTG position (small blind).

River

Again, dealer burns the top most card and places the final, fifth card on the table. Just like in previous rounds bets are made and hands are fold.

Showdown

showdown is the final stage in hold'em, it occurs only if more than one player is still in the game after the 'River'. Showdown may be with only two players or even if the table is full and every player is still 'in the game'.  In showdown all involved players show their hand and the best five-card-hand takes the pot.

Ok, now we've got through the basic 'run-through' of texas hold'em poker, don't be mistaken though as we are not finished yet. There are few points that are very important to know and understand to play efficient texas hold em. You can check out our example play to give a bit better picture on the flow of the game.

Position

Position in hold'em plays a major role in HOW you should/can play. The strongest position of all, on virtually every given round is dealer (in online games usually representet bu a "dealer button", if you just play with your friends this could simply be the player who deals the cards ). The reason for that is very simple, the dealer acts last on every round, meaning that he has the most information. The weakest position is considered to be the first ones or 'earliest'. All other positions are more-or-less weak depending how close to the dealer they are (still going clockwise throu the players). The position that is right of the dealer (the very previous player) is called 'cutoff'. By betting the right way the "cutoff" may kick the player in dealer position of his game thus becoming the last player and obtaining the strongest position.
 

How to win

Basically there is only 2 ways of winning; either every one except you fold their hand or the showdown. It is however, betting and your actions all the way from the time you get those two 'hole cards' right down to showdown that get you to that point. Bluffing in hold'em is just as usual as in normal poker games and is used quite commonly, though online this is much harder as you can only react with the amount you bet and of course chat, which is probably ignored by most of the players.

Hold'em variations

Hold'em poker has only few direct variations and all the variations are related to betting.
Limit hold'em has a limit when placing the bet, typically this limit is few times bigger than the big blind, when the limit is reached other players can't raise over that and can only call.
Pot limit is a little more dramatic variation, in pot limit hold'em the maximum raise is equal to the current amount in the pot (if the pot is 10+20 (small and big blinds) and you want to raise, you first pay the big blind and then can raise the same amount that is in the pot AFTER you pay the big blind (10+20+20=50), after this the pot has a total of 100, the next player pays 70 to call and can bet the amount in the pot AFTER he has called your bet (100+70=170) the maximum amount of pot after this is 100+170=270. Pot Limit hold'em can very quickly go from small amounts in the pot to huge!
The last and probably the most popular and 'liked' variation is No Limit Hold'Em in which any player can at any given moment go All In.