Texas
Hold'em
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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 Texas Hold’em games. Except for very high stakes
or a Tournament, you don’t have to ante in this game. Only
1 big blind and 1 small blind and you receive ONLY two cards face
down. No more, no less. Everyone can easily understand the mechanics
of this game and the hands go quick 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
casinos that 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 the name given to 3 cards the
dealer puts face up on the table after the 1st betting round. The
two cards in your hand are only for you but the 3 cards on the table
are shared for everyone. When the 2nd round of betting is over the
dealer puts a 4th community card face up called the “Turn
Card” and there is another round of betting. Finally a 5th
card known as the “River” is place face up and the forth
and final round of betting is over.
In
Texas Hold'em you can use both cards in your hand, one card, or
NEITHER by just playing the table face up cards themselves. For
example, if you have (6,7) and the table is (66699) you use just
the 6 and have a four of a kind, if it was (77799) you would use
the just the 7. But if it was (66723) you would use both the 6 and
the 7 since your hand would be (66677) for a full house, sixes full
of sevens. However, if the board was (AAAKQ) you would use NEITHER
card in your hand. Your best five out of seven cards would actually
be the whole face up board. This is very rare because in many cases
you would have folded your hand before this could occur. This is
termed "Playing the Board". Obviously you can't win when
you are playing the board but you could miraculously tie and split
the pot on extremely rare occasion. An example you be if you had
a pair of fives in your hand and so did the only other player in
the hand and the board came out Ace King Queen Jack Ten and neither
of you bet or folded. You would both have a Straight from Ace to
Ten, use neither card from your hand and split the pot evenly.
Click
here to run a DOS Texas Hold'em Simulator
Some
very common hands played in Hold'em are suited Aces and suited connected
cards.
Below are several example hands taken from actual live Texas Hold’em
games.
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 needed
a 9 to win but instead a King of hearts came. This card even though
wasn’t the 9 she was looking for gave her many more ways to
win on the last card or the River card. Now she had four hearts
or four to a flush, so any heart makes her win too. But also if
you notice she can also get a higher straight than the one she initially
needed to win. If a Queen comes she will have A K Q J 10, the highest
possible straight. So if the river was a 9, a queen, or any heart
she will beat her opponent who had a pair of Aces. As it turned
out and got the 2 hearts for and the flush won. Using the two in
her hand and the three on the board she made a (K J 10 8 2) heart
flush. Her opponent ended up using just the Ace from his hand for
a total best Five Card Hand of (A, A, 7, 8, K), and Pair of Aces
with a King loses to a flush by far. 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 since it’s the highest pair. So
obviously the best hand you can get before the flop is a pair of
aces in your. But don't get upset if you get "A-A" and
lose, it happens. You’re just a huge mathematical favorite
just as if you bought a million lottery tickets. It doesn’t
guarantee anything. If you notice in the hand above, the losing
player with the Ace-6 could have had A-A and the result would not
have changed. He would have just had 3 Aces instead and still lost
to a flush. The flush was a flush.
Since
this was a 4-8 Limit game, the player with the Ace-6 could only
bet 4 dollars on the Flop and 8 dollars on the Turn, therefore it
is possible that the outcome of this hand may have been different
if the betting structure and the game limits were different.
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