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Learn to Play Texas Holdem

Wednesday, March 9th, 2011 by Phil

Learn to Play Texas Holdem

Texas holdem is one of the most popular card games around. Since 2003, Texas holdem has experienced tremendous growth. What was once a game mainly restricted to home games and casinos is now played everyday on the internet. Millions of people around the world can be found battling it out at the tables at any given hour.

As Texas holdem’s popularity has increased, so has the number of people who want to learn how to play Texas holdem. A rule book could give some exact rules, but it wouldn’t exactly teach you how to be good at Texas holdem. In fact, there really isn’t any book that can magically turn someone into a solid player.

The first step in learning to play Texas holdem is understanding the rules. After you know how the game works, you can then work to improve your skill set. Don’t even bother trying to compete for money or build strategies if you don’t know every rule of the game.

From the outset, Texas holdem looks like a complicated game. Once you get a few sessions completer, however, everything should come naturally.

It wouldn’t be fair to say that Texas holdem is a simple game. Most players require a combination of reading and playing in order to fully understand how the game works.

The First Stages

The first stages of Texas holdem are the most critical. Once you understand how the framework of the game is laid out, it is going to be that much easier to understand the rest.

The tools required for Texas holdem are nothing more than a standard deck of cards and some chips. Chips can be real money, chips used to represent real money, or whatever else you can come up with. Once you have these two items ready to go, you can then start to set up the structure of the game.

Players should be seated in an oval or a circle. Each player is going to act immediately after the player to their right. Determine how many people are playing, and what the order is. After this is set up, you can then get to the finer details of Texas holdem.

The Blinds

The blinds need to be determined before any hand is dealt. Blinds are forced bets implemented to ensure that players can’t sit around and only play their very best hands. If you play passively, the other players can go after your blinds.

Two players in any game are going to be the blinds. One player is the small blind, the other player is the big blind. The small blind sits to the right of the big blind. The small blind is typically one half of the size of the big blind, though it can be any amount that you want.

Dealing

The dealer is the player who deals two cards to each player in the game. The dealer position is always immediately to the right of the small blind. The cards are dealt, starting to the left of the dealer. Each player should be dealt two cards, both face down. After everyone has two cards, the first round of betting can then begin.

Pre Flop Action

Pre flop action starts as soon as everyone in the game is dealt two cards. The first player to act is the player to the left of the big blind. This first position is commonly referred to as “under the gun.”

When it is your turn to act, there are multiple options. You can either discard your hand (fold), make a bet equivalent to the size of the big blind (call), or make a bet at least two times larger than the size of the big blind (raise). After the first player acts, each player then acts in turn.

No player should ever act until the player before them has completed their action.

If a player wants to participate in the hand, a call must be made equivalent to the size of the largest current bet. For example, if the under the gun player raises to 3x the big blind, the next player must then either call the raise, re raise, or fold. Every player has to follow these same guidelines.

The last player to act is the big blind, but if someone makes a raise the last player to act is whoever remains in the pot. After the pre flop action is completed, players then head to the flop.

Flop

The flop is where the majority of the hand is played out. Using your two starting cards, players aim to make the best five card hand possible. In order to make the best hand, players can use any combination of the community cards and their starting cards.

The three cards on the flop are part of the community cards. There are two other cards that are also added to the community cards, but they do not come until later in the hand.

During the flop, the dealer should place one card face down on the side of the deck. This card is known as the burn card. After the burn card, the next three cards should be placed on the board face up. Once three cards are dealt, another round of betting takes place.

Betting on the flop is similar to betting pre flop. The only difference is that the first player to act is the small blind, not the player to the left of the big blind. After this player acts, every other player then acts in turn, just as they did pre flop.

If only one player remains in the hand at the end of betting on the flop, that player wins the pot. If multiple players are still in the hand after betting is completed, the hand then goes to the turn.

Turn

The turn is almost the same as the flop, with the only difference being that only one community card is dealt as opposed to three. Betting occurs in the same style as it did on the flop, with the small blind (or player closest to the left of the small blind) acting first. If one player is left standing after betting on the turn, that player wins the pot. If there is more than one player still in the hand, the river card is now dealt.

River

The river is the last stage of a Texas holdem hand. On the river, one card is dealt, just like it was on the turn. Betting follows on the river in the same way that it did on the flop and turn. Once everyone completes their betting on the river, either one player remains and takes down the pot, or it is time for showdown.

Showdown

Showdown is when betting is completed after the river (or when multiple players are all in prior to the river). At showdown, players flip their cards over for all to see. The dealer then determines who has the best hand, and the pot is then sent to the player with the best five card hand. This is the completion of a Texas holdem hand.

Texas Holdem Strategy

The strategy involved in learning Texas holdem can be complex. The best way to learn how to be a better Texas holdem player is to play as much as possible. While books and other instructional tools can certainly help, experience is always the best teacher.

There are so many dynamics in poker that it is impossible to ever master the game. From sizing your bets to knowing when to make a good fold, Texas holdem always leaves players with room for improvement. Even the best players in the world admit that they do not have the game “solved”.

The basics of Texas holdem poker are simple. It’s the intricacies that define the winners and the losers. In smaller stakes games, players who adhere to even the most basic strategy can walk away winners. As you move up in limits, however, the games become tougher.

This is when you need to start learning how to beat the games step by step. Texas holdem is a game that takes a lot of practice. One day is not going to instantly turn a losing player into a millionaire.

This isn’t a game for anyone who isn’t willing to work on their skills. Luckily for hard working players, some people think that Texas holdem is easy. Sure, the rules and basics of the game are pretty easy to understand, but what if a player can’t accurately determine how much any given hand is worth?

Getting a feel for the dynamics of poker is something that only experience can teach. You can’t take a crash course lesson in poker 101 and expect to be crushing the tables. This doesn’t mean that some players aren’t going to have a natural edge over other players.

There are many unforeseen variables that can help to form a great poker player. For example, a natural ability to remain calm under pressure can be an invaluable asset when playing poker. Most poker players don’t even consider these tools to be valuable weapons, but they can definitely make a world of difference.

There isn’t a poker school, per se, that can give players manual instructions on how to win at Texas holdem. Instructional advice isn’t easy to come by in the world of poker. You can always get some tips from fellow poker players, but how can you be sure that they know what they are talking about?

There is no shortage of poker manuals out there. It’s your job to discern the junk from the gold. Reading articles about poker is a great way to really learn Texas holdem. Each poker player has a style that is slightly different from the next, so advice from different angles is always helpful.