Understanding Texas Holdem Poker

Despite of all the interest that Texas hold-em poker creates on the table, it’s very easy to learn. And perhaps that’s the reason of its lofty popularity. The game starts with the dealer giving 2 faces down cards to each player on the table. After that, the community are cards are dealt faced up, which are 5 in number. The motive of the game is to make the best hand by using the 7 cards, 2 with the player and 5 on the table.

Rounds of betting come at all stages of the game, players can call or rise whenever they feel like it. Now let’s look at the stages of the game step by step. The first round starts with dealing of 2 faces down cards to the players. These are also called pocket cards. Then 3 community cards are dealt on the table. Using the five cards that the players have, they try to make their hands stronger. At this point, players can bet.

The next round comes with the dealing of the forth community card called the turn card. Betting can be made at this point too. The next round comes with the dealing of the 5th and final community card, popularly known as the river card. At this point, players can either bet, check, raise or fold.

Players are categorized according to their position in relation to the dealer. Players sitting immediately left of the dealer are called small blind and the players sitting at positions farthest from the dealer are called big blind. New players, looking to make an entry into the game, may call the big blind to stay in the game, other wise they have to fold.

The player who ends up making the best hand is the winner. The winner gets the prize which is which is a sum of the money bet on the table and is called the pot. The pot may also be split into two in case of a tie.

Texas hold-em poker is further categorised into variants according to the types of betting involved. The first variety is the limit hold em. In this, the amount that a player can bet or raise will be limited to a pre-decided amount. The bets are raised over the course of the game in specified increments, for instance 4 dollar increments. Betting is more expensive in the later parts, namely turn and river, of the game.

Next is the spread limit poker. In this variant the bets are limited, but the raising of bets can be increased within a certain range, which is referred to as the spread. Next and the most popular variant of poker is the pot limit hold-em. In this variant, the size of the bet that a player can make is limited by the size of the pot. Another form of the Texas hold em is the no limit. Here, there are no limits to the bets made and to also to the raise. As there are no limits, most players don’t feel comfortable with this version and so, it is not very popular.

Well, this is all about the basics of poker. There are numerous skills, strategies and practices to learn in this game but I think that this article may have given you an introduction for understanding Texas Hold-em poker.