lifeisabluff

Texas Holdem Poker is a form of poker with community cards. Every players gets two cards face down. These are hands that are distinct to their hand only. At the end of the hand, five cards will be shown face up on the table. Each player mentally takes his two cards and combine it with five cards on the board, and makes the best card poker hand he can make. They could use both cards from their hand and three from the board. Or they could use one card from their hand and four from the board. In extreme cases, they could use none from their hand and all five on the board. The purpose is to make the best poker hand from the combination of the starting hand and the board, without regard to how many cards are used from the starting hand.

The Cards
There are four rounds of card distribution and betting in Hold’em: the pre-Flop, the Flop, the Turn and the River. After the cards are dealt on each round, there is a round of betting.
Pre-Flop: Each player is dealt two cards face down. These cards pertain to only the hands of the individual. There is a round of betting after these two cards are dealt.

The Flop: Three cards are dealt face up in middle of the table, this is called the Flop. These cards are community cards that everyone uses in their hand and are collectively called the board. After the Flop, there is another round of betting. The term “the Flop” can refer to the three cards or the betting round.

The Turn: A fourth card is dealt face up in the middle of the table. This fourth card is called the Turn and is part of the board. After the Turn card is dealt, there is another round of betting. The term “the Turn” can refer to the card itself or the betting round.

The River: A fifth and final card is dealt face up in the middle of the table. This fifth card is called the River and is part of the board as well. After the River card is dealt, there is one final round of betting. The term “the River” can refer to the last card itself or the betting round.

The Showdown: After the betting round on the River, each player still in the hand at this point exposes their cards. Each player’s full poker hand consists of the best fiver card poker hand possible from the combination of his two cards and the five cards on the board. The highest five card poker hand wins the pot. If there is a tie, then the pot is split among the players that tied for the best hand.

The Betting
Before any cards are dealt, three things happen. One player will get the dealer button, called the Button, he is the de facto dealer in the hand. Casinos will provide an employee to deal the cards. In a home game, the dealer usually rotates from player to player, and an actual button would not be necessary.


The action always starts to the left of the Button and it goes around clockwise. The player to the immediate left of the Button is called the small blind. He is required to put up half of a small bet, and he is already partially in the hand. If the game is $10-$20 Hold’em, then the small blind puts
up $10. The player to the left of the small blind is called the big blind. The big blind must post the amount of a small bet. If the game is $10-$20, the big blind must put up $20.
The blinds are called such because they are in the hand blindly. The action is clockwise, and the dealer deals one card to each of the players starting with the small blind. He then deals another card to each of the players in the same fashion. After both cards are dealt, the pre-Flop stage starts.
Since the blinds are considered already active in the hand, the action starts with the player to the left of the big blind, called the under the gun player. He can choose to fold, call or raise. If he calls, he must put in the amount of the small bet, if he raises, he must put in no less than two small bets. Calling in the pre-Flop round is sometimes referred to as limping. After the under the gun player has acted, it is the player to the left of him who acts next. He has the same options except if the under the gun player has raised, then he can fold, call the raise or re-raise. The action proceeds as such until it gets back to the small blind. At this point, the small blind is already in for half of a small bet. He has the same options as the other players, except that he needs to put in less money to call or raise since he already has half of a small bet in the pot. After the small blind acts, the big blind acts. If no one has raised, the big blind has the option to raise or check and see the Flop. This is the only time that a player can be considered to raise himself. Once the action has gone around to the player to the right of the last player to raise (or if unraised, if the big blind checks), then the dealer can deal the Flop.
In the round of the Flop, the action starts with whoever is to the immediate left of the dealer. If the small blind stayed in the hand, then he is first to act. If the small blind had folded in the pre-Flop round and the big blind is still in, then he acts first on the Flop. The first player to act has the choice of betting one small bet or checking. In most casinos, players are allowed to check-raise, meaning they can check first, but if someone else bets, they still have the option of raising. In home games, sometimes the check-raise option is not allowed. If the first player bets, then the second player has the option to call, raise or fold. The action continues until the player to the right of the last player to bet or raise has acted. If everyone checks and no one bets, then the action proceeds to the next round.
The betting procedure on the Turn and River is the same as on the Flop. After the betting round on the River is over, the players expose their hands to see who has the best hand. Often the losing players will not even expose their hands. Once they see that their hand is beaten when they see the best player’s hand exposed, they will typically just muck their hands face down.

The Positions
The players on the table are identified by their position relative to the button. The small blind and big blind are to the immediate left of the button (and are labeled 1 and 2 in the table below). The
player to the left of the big blind is called the under the gun player. Normally there are 9 or 10 available seats at the Hold’em table. If the game is filled up, then the first three players to act are considered in early position, this includes the under the gun player as well. The next two players are considered in middle position and the last three players are considered in late position. The player to the immediate right of the small blind is in last position, but is also called the dealer or the button. The player to the immediate right of the button is called the cutoff, and he is in late position as well. These names are just a conventional way to identify the players. After the end of a hand, the button will rotate to the left. The player who was the small blind is the button in the next hand. In Hold’em, the player on the button gets to see the other players act before he has to act, so he has a positional advantage. The blinds are disadvantageous positions because they must put money into the pot without even seeing their cards. So the button rotates, changing the advantage and disadvantage of different positions from one player to another.

Hand Rankings

To reinforced the concepts of hole cards and community cards, the recognized five-card combinations are summarized in order of rank to occur. Learn to spot patterns in the formation of hands. The following are order of hand rankings:

Straight Flush
Five sequentially ordered highest cards of the same suit. The highest ranked possible is straight flush; - A, K, Q, J, 10 (all of the same suit).

Four of a Kind
Four cards of the same rank say four 8 or four Ks.

Full House
Also referred to as a boat, is a one three of kind and a pair. Example the board shows K K 8 3 5, having K and 8 as your hole cards made you a full house.

Flush
Five cards of the same suit. In Holdem atleast three suited cards must appear on the board for someone to have a flush.

Straight
Five cards of different suits in sequential order. Please bear that a straight from A-5 is ranked lower by any other form of straight say 2-6.

Three of a Kind
Three cards of the same rank, also referred to as set or trips.

Two Pair
Two cards of one rank in combination with two cards of different rank.

One Pair
Any card you hold that matches atleast one card on the board gives you one pair. Another is holding hole card with the same rank and nothing matches the board.

High Card
If none of the combinations described can be formed, the one with the highest cards wins the pot.

Split Pots
Suits are not ranked in poker. If two or more players have the same five card hand showdown, the money is split between them.