Texas Hold’Em

Blinds

When you play Texas Hold’em there is a button on the table called the ‘dealer button’ this button shows which player the dealer is for that round of poker. The player left from the button has to put a forced bet on the table called the ‘small blind’ the player left of the small blind has to put on a forced bet called the ‘big blind’ (the big blind is almost always twice as big as the small blind) these forced bets are set to ensure there will be action on the table. In later tournament levels, players are also asked for an ‘ante’ which is a small amount payed by every player at the table. After blinds and possible antes are payed, players get there cards.

Player Options

In Hold’em there are five available actions you can choose to perform: fold,check,bet,call and raise. It depens on what happens in the hand what actions you can choose. The fold option is always available and if you choose to do this, you will discard your cards and give up the pot. If there is no betting in front of the player, then the player may choose to check (no betting, but keep the cards) or bet. If a player makes a bet, the other players can choose to fold, call (matching the bet amount) or raise (match and increase the bet placed by the previous bettor).

Pre-Flop

The player looks at his or her hole cards and decides if he/she wants to play, if they want to play they call the big blind or raise the big blind (minimum raise of $2 when the blind is $1) otherwise the player folds. The player left of the big blind decides what to do first, in clockwise direction the rest of the players now decide what to do looking at what the players in front of them did before that. Betting continues until till all players have placed the same amount on the table or everybody except one player is folded.

The Flop

After the pre-flop action, three cards are dealt face up. We call this the ‘flop’. These cards are also called community cards which means they can be used by all the players in the hand. The player immediately left from the button which is active can decide first what to do. The actions players can take are similar to pre-flop only players can use check when there is no previous betting/raising action.

The Turn

When the flop round is over, the ‘turn’ will be dealt, this is the fourth communicty card. The same options are available on the turn as they where on the flop. The first active player left from the big blind is first to act.

The River

After the flop and turn, the river is dealt on the board. This is the fifth and last community card in one hand of Texas Hold’em. The same rules for flop and turn are applied here. Player left from the button acts first.

Showdown

If there is more then one player after the river, the player that raised for the last time has to show his/her cards first. If no player raised on the river, the player left of the button shows his cards first. The player with the best combination of five cards wins the pot. If players have the same best hand, the pot will be divided between them (also called split pot). After the hand is finished the button moves clockwise and blinds and possible antes are payed by the players.

Types of Texas Hold’em

There are several types of the game described above. The main difference is the times a player can bet in one round and the maximum bet he can place. Per type of game we will give an explanation on how it works, the following types are most common:

• No limit
• Limit
• Pot limit
• Mixed

No Limit

This is the most common form of Texas Hold’em, as the name suggests there is no limit to the amount of bets players can make every round and there is also no limit to the amount players can bet per bet/round.

Limit

Every round there is a amount set that players can bet at maximum. Pre-flop and on the flop this amount for bets and raises is the same amount as the big blind. On turn and river the amount that can be bet is double the big blind. Every player can place four bets per round (bet,raise,re-raise,final raise).

Pot Limit

Pot Limit has a minimum betsize that is equal to the big blind, players can bet the pot as a maximum each round (the pot plus all bets on the table and the amount the player must first all before he can raise). An example: If the pot is $400, and a player is the first to act then he can bet a maximum of $400, after him the player can choose to fold, call $400 or raise any amount between $400 and the maximum which in this case is $800. There is no cap on the numver of raises per betting round. The minimum raise is the same as in NL Hold’em which means if a player bets $10 your minimum raise is $20.

Mixed

This type of Hold’em switches between limit and no limit hold’em. The blinds are mainly increased when the game changes between no limit and limit. The rules are the same as described earlier.

Game types

There are several game types in which you can play poker: single or multi-table tournaments, cash games or sit and go’s. Everybody pays the same buy-in for a tournament, and so all the players start with the same chipcount. The buy-in is divided into one part for the poker room/pub/casino and the other part goes to the prize pool, with the prize pool part being much larger of course. A regular buy-in for a tournament or sit and go would be $10+$1 (with $1 being the part for the poker room/pub/casino). When the tournament progresses the blinds will go up, and there will be paid antes by all the players. The players then compete till there is only one player left. In a tournament with three tables the prize pool distribution would be something like this: 1st-40% 2nd-25% 3rd-18% 4th-12% 5th-5%. But in every tournament this is slightly different, it depends on the number of people that participate and the buy-in.

Cash games are tables with fixed blinds, these will be the same during the games played on the table. This game is good for players that do not want to play hours and hours in tournaments. Limits vary from $0.01/$0.02 up to $500/$1000 and even higher on some poker rooms. Players can take as much money to the table as they want, although mainly there is a table minimum with which you have to sit down to play on the specific table.

The third game type is sit and go. These tournaments have no set time but begin when all seats are filled with players. Ideal for players that dont want to play cashgames and think big tournaments take to long to finish. In these sit and go’s the blinds will go up just like in tournaments but they are played with far less players. Participants will play until one player is left.