Texas Holdem Rules
If you're new to Texas Holdem, you'll need to practise to master the poker rules. Your objective is to make the highest five-card hand possible in order to win the pot. Successful poker players need to know which cards make up the highest ranking hands, along with how the betting rounds are structured.
Firstly, let's look at some examples of winning poker hands. A Royal Flush is the strongest hand and is made up of the cards Ace, King, Queen, Jack, Ten, all of the same suit. A Straight Flush consists of five cards also of the same suit, for example, ten, nine, eight, seven, six of hearts. A Four of A Kind is four cards of the same value, while a Full House is two cards of one value and three cards of another. Any five cards of the same suit constitutes a Flush, while five cards in numerical order are known as a Straight. You can also make up Three of a Kind, a Two Pair and a Pair in Texas Holdem.
Now that you know how hands are structured, you need to familiarize yourself with the order of betting. You need to know the sequences of play beginning with the pre-flop, the flop and final showdown. The pre-flop is the action that takes place before the dealing of community cards. The fourth community card is known as the Turn and the fifth card is the River. These cards are used to make up a winning poker hand. Final showdown is when all players reveal their cards to determine who has the highest hand.
Play proceeds in a clockwise direction beginning with the player situated immediately to the dealer's left. A player can fold, check, call or raise on his turn. Folding is when he chooses to leave the game, while checking is only possible when no other player has made a bet during a round. If a player calls, he equals the previous bet. Raising the bet increases the amount.
The amount a bet can be raised depends on the Texas Holdem rules. In a standard limit game, the table limit will dictate how much a player can raise a bet by. For example, a player can bet or raise up to $10 in the first two rounds that has a 10-20 limit. This leaves two other rounds to bet $20 on.
Texas Holdem poker lends itself to several variations. While standard limited poker games are popular, more experienced players often prefer to play No Limit games. This is because the pot is usually higher. A player in a No Limit game can raise his bet at any stage providing he complies with the minimum bet rule. The maximum raise he can make is his total amount of chips.
The difference between No Limit and Pot Limit games is the size of the bet. A Pot Limit sets a maximum amount that a player can raise his bet to, providing that it is at least higher than the last bet. For example, if one player bets $10, the second player is obliged to bet a minimum of $10 also. The maximum raise is the size of the entire pot. The reason for this version's popularity is the pot size which grows rapidly if players make the maximum raise.
Some people also prefer to play a single blind version. A single blind, or one initial bet, was commonly used in Texas Holdem up until the 1980s, after which time the big and small blinds became a regular feature.