Texas Holdem Poker
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Texas Holdem is the most favorite form of poker in the world. It’s a community cardboard game, with straight rules, where each participant is dealt two pocket cards which can be used in conjunction with the five face-up cards on the table to make the strongest possible 5 card combination. This tutorial describes the basic Hold’em Poker rules.
Similarly to land-based Holdem games, in online Holdem the table can have up to ten players. One of them will have a button in front of their position, also known as the dealer button. It indicates that the two players sitting to the immediate left must make their blind bets.
Although the button stems from the custom in land-based game, but in online poker the Dealer’s task is carried out by a virtual dealer whose function in the game is to deal cards.
Blinds. Most hands of poker begin by some form of mandatory betting. This is to insure that there is action with every betting round. Hold'em is played with 2 blinds (before the pocket cards are dealt).
The two players closest to the Button’s left side start with placing "blinds". The SB is made by the first and the BB by the second. The value of the SB & BB is determined by the size of the game. The BB is always full lowest stake at the table and the small blind is equal to half of the Big blind.
Ante. An ante is a compulsory bet that all players have to put in before the cards are dealt. It is typically approximately 10% of the small bet.
1-st Round. Pre-Flop. Once the blinds are posted, the dealer flips two dark cards, called hole cards, to each player in a clockwise direction.
After this the players choose if they would like to bet. The person after BB starts. In the 1-st series of betting the bettors hasn’t right of checking, but they can do any of the following options: Raise, Call, Bet or Fold. All persons shall put the equal amount in the pot in order to keep playing. So if one player raises, the opponents must either call or reraise, or fold their hands.
The 1st betting stops when all players have either folded or called the current raise.
Flop. Once first betting round concludes, it's time to move on to the next stage of the game - the Flop. Three of the five community cards are dealt open in the middle of the table. These are common cards which everyone can use as part of the highest five card poker hand. Now, the action in the 2nd round of betting starts with the first remaining player to the dealer's left, who has the option to bet or check.
All Bets at this stage are of the lower betting level, which is equal to the BB (so $15 in the $15/$30 limits).
A check is simply declining the possibility to bet, and can only be done if there have been no bets so far.
Play continues to the left around the table until all participants have made the current bet or folded, and then we continue to the Turn.
Third Round. The Turn. When betting action is finished for the flop round the dealer flips up the fourth common card on the table, so all active players have 6 cards to act with. A third series of betting occurs again.
4th Round - The River. When turn round of betting concludes, the last community card, called the river, is placed face-up into the center of the playing area and the last round of betting begins with the active player left of the dealer.
This person can bet, check, raise or fold within the bounds of the limits and stakes structure. Remaining opponents can then check, call, fold or raise (a player has the right of checking in the instance that no bet has been made).
The Showdown. After the last round of betting is closed, remaining persons still left in the game at this phase show their hole cards in a "showdown" and the person with better card combination wins the money.
In the instance that you prefer not to open your cards you can choose to muck at this level, which just means to fold the cards.
In order to win the pot you must make the strongest five-card hand, which can be made up of your hole cards and/or any of the community cards. You don't even have to use any of pocket cards if you don't want to. If 2 or more opponents have the same denomination combinations, the pot will be split among them.
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