Texas Hold’em

Texas hold’em is the most popular poker game in casinos and in big poker tournaments these days . It is often just known as ‘Hold em’. It is theoretically possible to have between 2 and 23 players, but the normally number is eight to eleven.

The dealer deals 2 cards face down to each player, these are his ‘hole’ cards and are not shown until the showdown at the end of the game. The remainder of the pack is placed to one side until the first round of betting has taken place. When bets have been placed round once, the dealer turns up three cards into the centre of the table this is called the ‘flop’. The deal is then interrupted again for another round of betting. Next the dealer turns up a forth card, and another betting interval takes place. Now a fifth card is dealt into the flop and a final round of betting is made.

The ‘flop’ are the community cards which all players play from, they are shared open cards unlike in other poker variants like stud or draw where each player holds a separate and individual hand of open and hidden cards.

Each player then turns up his ‘hole’ cards, and the player who can construct the best five card poker hand using any combination of his own two hole cards and any three of the ‘flop’ cards wins the pot. The alternative to all players turning over their hands to see who has won the pot occurs when all players except one have folded thereby forfeiting their claim to the pot and leaving the remaining player to take the pot without the need to show his hand (although this rule of turning the cards or not can vary from casino to casino).

No ante is normally played in Texas Hold’em, but the player to the dealers left must make the first bet regardless of his cards – this is called the blind. By prior agreement there can be just one blind, or up to two more after this first one. In the first betting interval, the players after the blind must each in turn choosing to drop, call or raise the blind bet. In each of the three other betting intervals the player to the dealers left always acts first, but there are no forced bets other than in that first betting interval.

Betting rules within Hold’em are governed by the standard rules of poker.

Because Hold’em is played with each player only having two hidden cards and the remaining cards being community cards (i.e. shared), this is an excellent game for strategic analysis. Hold’em’s simplicity has made it very popular and many strategy books have been written which provide recommendations for a strategy which involves playing relatively few hands, but betting and raising frequently with the hands that are played.

The object of the game as with all poker variants is to win money. However, the object of most winning players isn’t to win every individual hand, but by making decisions based on the mathematics and strategy to decide correctly when to bet, raise, call or fold in order to maximize their overall winnings in a game.