A Guide to Texas Holdem Poker

It will be challenging to find any poker player who has not heard or played Texas Hold’em Poker. It is easily one of the most popular poker game variants in the world. And it is also relatively easy to learn this game. You need to know the poker hand rankings and how to bet in the various rounds involved while aiming to form the best possible five-card hand combination possible from the two hole cards (face down) and five community cards (face up) dealt with.

How to Play Texas Hold’em Poker Online?

• The dealer deals two-hole cards to every player, starting with the one sitting immediately next to them on the left. This player becomes the small blind, followed by the big blind for the player sitting immediately left to the small blind. The small and big blind are compulsory bets to be made at the start of the betting round so that there is enough money created in the pot. The play then continues in clockwise direction post the big blind with every player having to take some action – call, raise, or fold. Once every player takes action at this pre-flop phase ending with the big blind, the next phase begins – which is the flop stage.
• At the flop stage, the dealer deals three community cards to every player in the clockwise direction. These cards are placed in the middle of the table and seen by all players. The betting process continues as earlier.
• The same process repeats for the turning stage and the river stage – the only difference being the dealer shall deal only one community card at each of these stages.
• You would observe that many players fold up till the end of the river stage, especially those who realise their chances of winning the pot have diminished because of not having a strong poker hand combination. If there are more players at the table after the river stage, they move to the showdown.
• During the showdown, the players show their best possible hand combination (built from the two-hole cards and the five community cards) to the remaining active players. This hand combination in Texas Hold’em Poker can be built using a minimum of three community cards (when you will have to use both hole cards) and a maximum of five community cards (when you will use no hole cards). In case of a tie, the pot amount gets split between the tied players.

If you are a beginner to Poker or want to fine-tune your poker skills, you need to download poker game platforms like Spartan Poker and play Texas Hold’em as one of your first poker game variants. The reason is once you get familiar with this version, you can quickly adapt your poker game skills to several other poker variants.

Also, most of the big poker tournaments have Texas Hold’em format at the forefront, thereby giving you more opportunities to make money if you develop sound skills for this game. You can start with Hold’em through certain free poker games download options available online.