This is an introduction to the basics of No-limit Texas Holdem.
Texas Holdem can be learned in a few minutes and you can be playing ok with just a few hours of practice.
But as the saying goes, a a minute to learn, a lifetime to master. Which is part of the fascination so many people around the world share for this beautiful game.
This is the structure for Texas Holdem poker:
- Depending on the limit and betting structure, players will place something called blinds. These bets are mandatory and are mad so there is an initial amount to get things started. There is a small blind and a big blind. The big blind is twice as big as the small blind.
- The deck is a standard 52 cards deck.
- Each player is dealt two private cards face down. These are called your hole cards or pocket cards.
- There is a round of betting starting with the player to the left of the blinds. This is the preflop betting round. 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 then deals the next three cards face up on the table. This is called the flop. These are communal cards that anyone can use in combination with their two pocket cards to form a poker hand.
- The player to the left of the dealer starts another betting round.
- After the betting concludes, the dealer burns again then flips another communal card onto the table. This is called the turn.
- The player to the left of the dealer begins another round of betting. In many types of games (but not in No-limit games) the bet size doubles here.
- Again, the dealer burns a card and places a final card face up on the table. This is called the river. Players can now use any of the five cards on the table in any combination with the two cards in their pocket to form a five card poker hand.
- There is one final round of betting starting with the player to the left of the dealer.
- After that, there is a showdown. All of the players who haven’t folded show their hands. This begins with the player to the left of the last player to call.
- The player who shows the best hand wins. Sometimes players with the same hand split the pot.
All Online poker rooms offer the possibility to play for play money so you may practice for free until you are ready to move up to the fun at real money tables.
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