This is by far the most popular and simplest form of poker. Make sure you learn this game first. Casino card rooms are always filled with tables of this game like it was a requirement. If you drove to the casino nearest you right now and wanted to learn how to play poker you could sit down and play Texas Hold'em. There are no antes, no 'bring in's, no discarding, and you ONLY receive two cards face down.....no more no less. Everyone can easily understand this game, it's quick easy and very fun which is why the tables are full of Hold'em players. But watch out, this is a very difficult game to master in the long run and there are some players in the casino who are making a living from playing this game.

You receive two cards to start the hand and there is a bet session just on those two alone, then there is a Flop, Turn, and River , each with a bet session. The Flop is 3 community cards face up which can be used by either player along with their own 2 cards. The Turn is a 4th face up community cards and the River is the 5th and last community card. So from before the flop until after the River there wil be FOUR bet sessions in this game total.

In Hold'em you can use both cards, one card, or NEITHER by just playing the table cards themselves. If you have (6,7) and the table is (66699) you use just the 6, if it was (77799) you would use the just the 7, but if it was (66623) you would use both the 6 and the 7 since your hand would be (66667) not (66662 or 3). However if the board was (AAAKQ) you would use NEITHER card in your hand. Normally though, if you can't even use either card you would have folded before the River but on occasion when no one bets you can just play the table. This is termed as "Playing the Board". Obviously you can't win when you are playing the board and niether can your opponents so the pot will be split evenly per player in those cases.

Below are several hand examples you will need to understand.

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Some very common hands played in Hold'em are suited Aces and suited Jack-10's.



Many players play a suited Jack Ten in Hold'em since you can make a straight all the way from (6 7 8 9 10) to (10, J, Q, K, A) and anywhere in between, plus you can make a flush. In the example above this player had four to a straight on the flop (7 8 10 J). On the turn she had four to a flush, four to the previous straight, and even four to a higher straight (A K J 10). So if the river was a 9, a queen, or any heart she would make a very good hand. In this case she lucked out and got a heart for a flush. (K J 10 8 2) all hearts. So she ended up using BOTH cards for a total hand of (J, 10, 8, K, 2) of hearts. Plus she DID need to hit one of her possibilities since her opponent had an in Ace in his hand and an Ace on the flop so he wasn't going to fold. He only used ONE card for a total hand of (A, A, 7, 8, K). Since you only receive two cards in this game, the average hand is just one pair, so most people don't fold a pair of Aces with anything else. So obviously the best hand you can get before the flop is a pair of aces in your hand which has the poker name of "POCKET ROCKETS" (A-A). But don't get upset if you get "A-A" and lose, it happens. Your just a huge mathematical favorite just as if you bought 10 million different lottery tickets. I've won and lost EVERY hand to EVERY hand. If you notice when I watched the hand above, the losing player with the Ace-6 could have hadd A-A and the result would not have changed. The flush was a flush. Remember the cards don't know that you are a 5% favorite to win or a 95% and they don't know what "JUSTICE" is. But don't worry, once you learn how to play you will receive the justice you deserve in the long run. You should only worry if justice is NEVER served only when you play.

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It took a while to find a real example of this, but it does happen now and again.

Here both the players raised before the Flop and after the Flop but on the Turn and the River they both stopped betting since they each thought the other may have at least ONE club and neither one tried to bluff. After neither player bet the River and their hands were turned over they were both forced to use NONE of their cards and "Play The Board". So they both had the same club flush and the pot was split evenly between them.

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Another more common way players with different hands split the pot is below.

The player with the Ace-3 thought he had the win for sure when he FLOPPED two pair right away. (A, A, 3, 3, 10). On the Turn he still had two pair and the Ace-9 player still only had A-A-9-10-K. But after the river when the kings paired BOTH player's could use them so both players had a better hand than Aces's and threes, now they had Aces and kings with the ten on the table since the ten was higher than either player's second cards or "Kicker" card. So again the pot was split evenly and both player's hands were (A, A, K, K, 10).

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The most common split pot in Hold'em is when there are four cards to a straight on the table.

When four cards to a straight appear on the table, the players who haven't folded usually have that fifth card. In this example the Ace-Jack player already had the straight when the King came on the Turn card and clearly should have won, but when the Ace hit on the last card ANYONE with a Jack had an unbeatable hand with that particular board which was and Ace through 10 straight. (Ace, K ,Q, J, 10) The Queen-Jack player could ONLY have gotten an Ace on the end to win half that pot, even a 3rd queen would still have lost to his opponents already made straight.