How to Play Texas Hold’em Poker: Ultimate Texas Hold’em Tutorial

Texas Holdem is a crowd favorite among the five variants of five-card poker, both online and in live casinos. With the right strategy, this game offers one of the lowest house edges in the casinos, making it attractive to skilled players. So throughout this article, we are going to tell you how to play Texas Hold’em poker. 

Basics of Texas Hold’em Poker

To become proficient in Texas Hold’em, it is essential to understand the game’s core elements. These elements will help you play confidently.

1. Texas Hold’em is a community card game, played online or live.
2. Each player receives two private cards, known as the hole card.
3. Five community cards are dealt with in three stages.

• flop(three cards) 
• Turn (one card)
• River (one card)

5. The player can use any combination of their hole cards and community cards to create their best five-card hand. 
6. The number of players is up to six, and a dealer (the house) in a casino setting
7. Heads-up games are common online, where you play one against the house. 

Community cards of Texas Hold’em

Texas Hold’em stands out in a wide range of poker cards as a community card game, where the players share a common set of cards to create their best hands. How the community card works is that community cards are dealt face-up in the middle of the table. All players at the table can use these cards in combination with their hole cards. The shared nature of these cards is why they are called the community cards. Players use any combination of their two-hole cards and the community cards to form their best five-card poker hand. 

While Texas Hold’em is a community card game, there are two other popular poker variants found: draw poker and stud poker.

Draw poker

• Players receive a private set of cards, invisible to others.
• After assessing their cards, players can exchange the number of cards for new ones.
• No community cards are involved.

Stud poker

• Cards are dealt in a series of betting rounds.
• Initial cards are face-down (private), while subsequent cards are dealt face-up (public).
• The final card is dealt face-down (private).
• Players make decisions based on their private cards and public cards, which are visible to all. 

Hand rankings in Texas hold’em

In Texas hold em, ranking plays an important role in determining the winner. To form a hand, you can combine your two private cards with the community cards in three ways:

1. Combine both private cards with three community cards.
2. Combine one private card with the four community cards.
3. Use all five community cards, which is also known as playing the board.

Showdowns are only sometimes required, as bluffing can lead to opponents folding before the end. 

Here is a rundown of the hand rankings from the highest to the lowest:

1. Royal flush
2. Straight flush
3. Four of a kind
4. Full House
5. Flush
6. Straight
7. Set (or Three of a Kind)
8. Two Pair
9. Pair (or Two of a Kind)
10. High Card

Betting structure of Hold’em Texas

Now that you are familiar with Texas Hold’em as a community card game and how players create ranked hands using their hole cards and community cards, It’s time to understand the betting structure of the hold ’em in Texas. There are three primary betting structures in Texas hold’em.

1. Limit Hold’em: in this structure, the betting is limited to a specific amount, and players can only bet or raise by that amount. It is limited to the size of the big blind. For example, with blinds of $5 (small) and $10 (big), player 1 starts by betting $10. Player 2 raises by another $10, making their total commitment to $30. Finally, player 4 raises by $10, making their total commitment to $40. At this point, the betting is capped, and no further raises are allowed in that round. 
2. No limit holdem: in this structure, players can bet any amount of chips they have at any time, making it the most popular variant.
3. Pot limit holdem: in this structure, players can bet any amount up to the size of the pot, offering a balance between the limit holdem and no limit hold’em. For example, if the pot is $50 and no one else has a bet, the maximum bet is $50. If the pot is $50 and someone bets $10, the maximum raise is calculated as follows:

• Pot: $50
• bet:$10
• call:$10
• Totals:$70
• Additional raise: $10 (since you are raising, not just calling).

The total raise is $80.

Conclusion

Now that you know what Texas hold’em poker is and its fundamentals on how to play them, including hand rankings, which are consistent across most poker variants. Keeping this article in mind will help you in easy gameplay in the Texas hold’em poker.

Read More: Are Blackjack Odds Better With More Players?