Texas Hold'em Tips & Strategy
Poker is a great game, it's easy to play online with the chance to win big money if you learn the right skills.
Getting Started
Poker is played with a standard deck of 52 cards. Games involve rounds of betting into a common "pot" with rounds of replacing or receiving cards. The number of betting rounds and card draws depends on the particular variation poker you are playing.
Betting begins with players making an "Ante" or a "Blind Bet" (called so because the players bet without having seen their cards).
Once everyone in the poker game has placed his or her ante, the dealer deals the cards face down around the table, starting at the player to his left and continuing clockwise. The dealer (if he's playing) always deals to himself last. The dealer deals everyone their first card, then goes back around the circle to deal the second, and so on. As soon as all poker players have their cards, the remainder of the deck is placed in the middle of the poker table, and play begins.
Each poker player looks at his or her cards, and then the first player places a bet. While there are several ways of deciding who bets first, poker novices are best off letting the poker player directly to the left of the dealer make the first bet. Then on the next hand, the person to his left will bet first, and so on around the table for each new hand.
Players have several options as far as the first round of betting goes. If no one has made a bet yet, you have two choices:
Open: If no betting has begun when your turn comes, you may "open" the pot.
Check: If there is not bet already on the poker table, the player may in essence bet 0, and pass the action on to the next poker player.
During the remaining betting rounds, players will take one of the following actions:
Call - if there is a bet on the table, the next player may choose to match the bet.
Bet or Raise - if there were no bets on the table, the player places one by betting. If there was a bet on the table, the poker player may increase the bet by raising.
Fold - the player does not choose to match the bet on the table, and they forfeit any chance at winning the pot. They also surrender their cards.
After the bets have been placed everyone turns their cards over and the poker player with the highest hand wins the pot.
Texas Hold'em Tips:
- Although the Texas Hold'em rules are easily learned and deceptively simple, it is still a game that requires a certain amount of skill.
- Five of the seven total cards can be seen after the flop. At this point, you will have a good indication of how strong your hand will be in the final round. Consider your cards, and bet carefully. Staying for the Turn and the River demands that you either have a strong hand, a draw to a potentially winning hand, or good reason to believe that betting aggressively in a future round may cause your opponents to fold.
- As a general rule, don't continue beyond the flop without diverse possibilities - a strong pair with a decent side-card, strong overcards, or a straight or flush draw. If you flop a draw, stick with it as long as the pot promises a greater payoff than the odds against making your hand.
- Although Ace-King is a terrific starting combination, it generally needs to catch a flop with either an Ace or King in it to play aggressively.
- When you must act before most of your opponents, play few hands. Acting last in Hold'em is like batting last in baseball. It's a big advantage. In fact, hands that you'd routinely fold from early position might be raising hands if you are last to act.
- Carefully consider how the communal cards can combine with your two hidden pocket cards to create a winning hand. By the same token, consider what possible hands your opponents could be holding.
- Call it quits when necessary. You haven't lost much if you have a worthless hand and fold early in the game. It's good practice to err on the side of caution; it costs less.
- Success at Texas Hold'em demands that you be patient, pay close attention to position, and take comfort in the knowledge that good hands are run down less often than the best seven-card stud hands.
- Texas Hold'em requires patience & discipline. Be selective on what hands you play, and when you do decide to play ahand, be as aggressive as you can.
