Texas Hold’em poker

Texas Hold’em (or simply, “Hold’em”) is the best known and most popular poker game in the casinos and card rooms in the world. Texas Hold’em is the game played at the World Series of Poker main event in Las Vegas.

Each active player is dealt two face-down cards (“hole cards”) which belong only to that player. Five community cards are dealt face-up on the table. Players can use all five community cards in combination with their own to cards to make the best five-card poker hand.

Hold’em Poker uses what is called a dealer-button to indicate the “dealer” of each hand. The player who holds the button is considered as the “dealer” for this particular hand. Which means that the first player to his left will post the “small blind”, typically equal to half the lower stake. The next player will post the “big blind”, equal to the lower stake limit. Betting action proceeds clockwise. If the new player arrives at the table at which the game is already going on, he or she will get an option of posting the big blind and joining the game immediately or waiting for their turn to post big blind. When the blinds are posted, each player receives two hole cards and the betting round begins. First player to act is the player to the left of the one who placed the big blind.

After the first betting round, three face-up cards are dealt on the table (the “flop”). The flop cards are common to all players participating in the hand. Second betting round starts with the active player left to the button. First and second betting round is set at the lower limit of the stakes structure. For example, if the limit is $10-$20 the value of each bet is $10.

After the betting action is complete, the fourth community card is dealt out - this is known as the Turn.

Betting begins with the active player immediately clockwise to the button. On this round, betting doubles from the small bet to the big bet. In $10-$20 games, betting on the turn is done in $20 increments.

When the betting action is complete, the fifth community card is dealt out - this is known as the River.

The River is the final community card in Hold’em games. The fourth betting round starts again with the player left to the button and bets are limited to the upper limit of the stake structure.

When the final betting round is complete and there is more than one player remaining, the player who bet or raised last, shows his or her cards. If there was no betting action in the final round, the player left to the button shows the cards first. The player who shows the best five-card hand wins the pot. If two or more players hold identical hands, the pot will be equally divided between them.

After the cards are shown and the pot is awarded, the button moves clockwise to the next player and a new game begins.

For each betting round, a maximum of four bets including one bet and three raises is allowed. The final (third) raise is called the “Cap”. After the betting is capped, no one can make another raise, the player’s choice is only to call or to fold.

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