Texas Holdem Poker

Texas Hold'em Poker, according to legend, was first played in Robstown – Texas. Today, it is without doubt the most popular Poker game anywhere in the world. The popularity the game enjoys is probably down to the World Series of Poker Tournament (starting 1970 at the Horseshoe in Downtown Las Vegas). Since then, Texas Hold'em Poker Tournaments have developed on a global scale!

New to Texas Holdem poker? Texas Holdem poker is probably the best game for beginners to learn, the basics of Holdem can be learned in just a few minutes and most will be playing fairly confidently with just a few hours of practice. Online poker rooms are great places to learn the strategy of Texas Holdem as the majority offer a variety of tables where beginners may practice for free until they are ready for real money tables.

Texas Hold'em poker is played as follows:

1. Players will place out blinds and ante’s, (blinds are Short for "blind bets," these are the bets made before the cards are even dealt. In Hold'em, blinds take the place of the normal "ante") so there is an initial "pot" to get things started.
2. A standard deck of 52 playing cards is shuffled ready to deal.
3. Each player is dealt two cards face down (called "hole cards" or "pocket cards").
4. There is a round of betting (preflop betting round) where players can call, raise, or fold.
5. After the preflop betting, the dealer discards the top card of the deck (top card is dealt face down before any community card is dealt, known as "Burn Card").
6. The next three cards are dealt face up on the table (" the flop"). These are community cards that can be used by any player in combination with their two pocket cards to form a 5 card poker hand.
7.  Another betting round then takes place.
8.  Dealer burns again then deals another communal card face up onto the table ("the turn").
9.  Another round of betting.
10.  Dealer burns another card and places a final card face up on the table ("the river").
11.  One final round of betting.
12.  The "showdown". All of the players (if not already folded) reveal their hands. The players use a combination of their hole cards and the community cards to form the best five card poker hand possible.
13. The player with the best hand wins!

Like many poker games, Texas Holdem is an easy game to learn, but difficult to master! Apart from the "community card" aspect, Texas Holdem is similar to other poker games with the same winning hands Royal Flush, 4 of a kind etc. Interestingly, the worst beginning hand you can have in Texas Holdem is the 2-7 ("the hammer"). A "2" and a "7" off suit are the lowest two cards you can have that cannot make a straight (there's a total 4 cards between 2 and 7 with only 3 cards remaining).

Hands in the order of raking from best to worst hand are as follows:

1 – The best hand is the "Royal Flush" this is 10, J, Q, K, A all of the same suite
2 – Straight Flush – This is 5 running cards of the same suite e.g. 3,4,5,6,7 of Diamonds
3 – Four of a kind – any four cards that are the same e.g. A, A, A, A
4 – Full house – Three of a kind and a pair e.g. J,J,K,K,K
5 – Flush – Any mix of cards that are all the same suite
6 – Straight or Run – 3,4,5,6,7 of any mix of suites
7 – Three of a kind – any 3 cards of the same value e.g. 2,2,2
8 – Two Pair – e.g. 4,4 and 5,5
9 – One pair – e.g. 9,9
10 – High card – If there are none of the above hands at show down then the player with the highest card will win the pot

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