Texas hold’em is one of the most popular poker forms today and the World Championship in poker is played upon this variant.
Shuffle and deal
The rules of Texas Hold’em are not hard to learn. The dealer shuffles a standard card deck including all 52 cards and when dealing two cards, the hole cards, to each player beginning with the player on the left. The amount of players at one table shifts normally between 2-10.
The player that deal should have a “dealer button” in front of him. The dealer button will later move clockwise around the table as a new hand begins.
Blinds
The next player after the dealer button should place the small blind at the table and the player next to small blind should place the big blind at the table. The size of the blinds are optional, but the big blind should be twice as big as the small blind.
In tournament play the blinds usually increase in time intervals that are decided before the game starts.
1st betting round (pre flop)
After the cards have been dealt and the blinds been placed it’s time to bet. In the first betting round the player after the big blind begins. He has three options: 1) fold, throwing away the cards and not showing them for the other players; 2) call, betting the size of the big blind; 3) raise, betting at least double as the big blind.
Above this there are some more options. The player with the big blind has already paid enough which give him the option to check and that means he’s satisfied and don’t wants to bet. Notice that folding is a very bad option when you have the right to check.
The second extra possibility is the re-raise. As the word imply this can only be done if another player already have made a raise. A re-raise must then be at least the size of the previous bet.
2nd betting round (the flop)
When all players have finished the 1st betting round the dealer discards the top card from the deck and places the three next cards faced up on the table.
After this the 2nd betting round begins, but this time the order is changed. Now it is the player with the small blind that starts acting and then the rest of the players follow clockwise. This order is then used in the rest of the betting rounds. And the players have now the same options again: fold, check/call, raise/re-raise.
3rd and 4th betting rounds (the turn and the river)
In the next two rounds the dealer again discards the top card and now places one card faced up on the table. And the following betting round will proceed in the same way as the second.
Showdown
After all five cards laying on the table and the bets are made the players that are still in the hand reveal their cards. Now each player’s hole cards are combined with any three of the table cards and the player that makes the best poker hand with five cards wins the pot.
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