Texas Hold’em Poker : A Simple Overview

Texas Hold’em: A Simple Overview

Before You Begin

Before you ever sit down at a poker table, you should have some basic idea of what the game is and how it is played. This means much more than merely knowing the rules of the card game, though of course knowing the rules is vital. Beyond the actual mechanics of the card game, anyone wanting to take up Texas Hold’em has to understand that it is a very social game and that the primary differentiating factor between good players and bad is their skill. Again, this skill is not confined to playing the actual cards, but to effectively reading and predicting the actions of other players while simultaneously sending the other players misleading information about your own style of play and intentions.

It is often advised that before you even start playing that you should sit out a few hands just to get a good dense of the other players at the table and their styles of play. If you have a good idea of how they play and what they are likely to do in any given situation it provides you with the information you need to trick them into betting their money in such a way that you can win it. As this reading and analysis of the other players is essential to being a good poker player, you also have to understand that the other players are watching and analyzing you and your performance as well. Therefore it is very important to constantly monitor you own performance and see what message you are sending the other players.

The Basic Game

Who deals, how the initial bet is made, and how much you are allowed to bet all vary depending on the game venue, so although you should certainly be aware of the terms of any table before you join, these factors should not overly influence your play. Once joining the table, each player will receive two hole cards, or personal cards that are dealt to you face down. After you receive your hole cards, the first round of betting begins and this is the point where many players decide whether or not to continue. In Texas Hold’em, weak hands can frequently be winners, so just because your hole cards are not ideal does not mean that you are done for. Only experience will teach you when you should fold in the pre-flop round.

After the first round of betting is concluded, the dealer lays out three cards face up on the table. This is the flop and these cards are community cards, so each player matches his hidden hole cards to the community cards to make the highest hand possible. Another round of betting happens after the flop. Then there two more community cards laid out, the turn card and the river card, and after each there is another round of betting. Texas Hold’em generally only has the four rounds of betting. Assuming more than one player is still in the game at this point, the showdown occurs when all the surviving players show their hands and the highest hand wins the pot. There are a series of these hands per game, though the exact length and duration varies by game.

By: Sam Fallon

The author has been playing poker since 2002, and she also plays online poker on several online poker rooms