Beginners Guide to Texas Hold'em Poker

So you’re new to Texas Hold'em poker? No problem. You can learn Hold’em in a few minutes and you can be playing fairly well with a few hours practice. In order to become good, you must play and you must play fairly often.

It is played with a standard 52 pack card deck and can be played with as little as two players (going "heads up"), up to a max of eleven players.

Starting with the dealer button, each person is dealt two cards (pocket/hole cards). Both cards are face down. The two players to the left of the dealer place a prearranged amount of money (Ante or Blind) so there is an initial amount to get things started. This is called posting the blinds.

Then there is a round of betting starting with the guy to the left of the two who posted the blinds where they can pass on the blind, call the blind or call and raise the blind. This round is usually referred to by the term pre-flop and like most games of poker, players can call, raise, or fold.

After the betting round ends, the dealer discards the top card of the deck. This is called a burn card. This is done to prevent cheating.

The dealer turns over three cards in the middle of the table (called "the flop"). These are communal (shared) cards that anyone can use in combination with their two pocket cards to form a poker hand. By using your pocket/hole cards together with the flop, you create the best possible hand (five cards) out of them. Once again betting occurs starting with the player to the left of the dealer.

After the betting ends, the dealer burns another card and flips one more onto the table. This is called the turn card.

The dealer turns over another card making four shared (flop) cards in the middle. This fourth card is called "the turn" or sometimes "fourth street". Once again by using your pocket/hole cards together with the flop, you create the best five card hand possible out of them. Once again the player to the left of the dealer starts the betting. This round is where the bet size normally doubles.

Finally, the dealer burns a card and places a final card face up on the table. This is called the river.

Finally, the dealer turns over the fifth and last shared (flop) card. This is called "the river" or "fifth street". Players can now use any of the five cards on the table (flop) in combination with their two cards in their pocket to form a five card poker hand. Once again betting occurs.

There is one final round of betting starting with the player to the left of the dealer.

After that, all of the players remaining in the game begin to reveal their hands. This begins with the player to the left of the last player to call. It's called the showdown. Each player uses his two cards, and the five shared cards to create the best hand (5 cards total). A player can use any combination so even if one card from his pocket cards and four of the community cards creates the best hand, it is fine. If all five of the cards in the "shared" flop make the best hand then everyone splits the pot. This is called "the board plays". Also note that in any time during the game a player can fold and get out of the hand. All bets will be lost at that point.

The player who shows the best hand wins! There are cases where players with equal hands share the winning.

Once you understand this basic structure of the game, you can play holdem. Holdem is an easy game to learn, just difficult to master. The "mastering" part is the costly part.

The only way to learn the game is to play.