Basic Rules Of Texas Holdem Poker

Texas Hold'Em is the most popular Poker game. The rules are relatively simple and today more and more players join poker rooms and start playing Holdem. Holdem is an aggressive, fast and sometimes unpredictable game that gets the dollars changing hands like no other Poker game. Texas Hold'em is the game that players at the World Series of Poker (WSOP) play to determine who takes home several million dollars and 14-karat gold bracelet. The estimated prize pool for No Limit Holdem WSOP 2005 is about $54,000,000.

The goal of Hold'Em is forming a five card hand from a total of seven available cards. Only two cards are actually held by a player as pocket cards. The other 5 cards are open, dealt to the middle of the table and shared by all players. In general nine or even more players seat at the Holdem poker table.

Players' Seats
The dealer is marked by a disk called the button. The button rotates to the left for each hand played. Players are identified by their seat position. The dealer is seat number one, the player to the dealer's left is seat #2 and so on to the player on the dealer's right (clockwise).

Real casino Holdem has a fixed dealer and the button rotates around the table clockwise simply to mark the rotation of theoretical dealer. The button's position is not simply symbolic because seat position significantly affects a player's opportunity in the game.

Holdem games for Beginners typically starts with $1-$2 to $4-$8, but the highest ones can be as much as $500-$1000 or even more. Hold'em uses two forced bets, the blinds, to get Bets on the table right from the beginning of the game. Note that there is no ante in Hold'em.

The Open
The first player to the dealer's left (seat #2) is called the small blind and must kick in half the lower limit, or $10 in a $20-$40 game. Seat #3 is the big blind and must kick in the full value of the lower limit or $20 in our $20-$40 example game. The deal rotates clockwise around the table beginning with the player to the big blind's left till each player receives two cards.

Since the blinds opened with their forced bets, seat #4, the player to the big blind's right, bets first. He/she Call by matching the big blind's bet (the lower limit or $20 in our example) and may also Raise by kicking in the big limit ($40 in our $20-$40 game). Checking is not permitted during this round. The blinds in Texas Holdem poker can CallRaise or Fold.

The Flop
Once the first betting round has completed, the dealer lays out the first three community cards in the center of the table. This is called the flop. This betting round begins with the blinds, or the first remaining seat on the dealer's left if all of the blinds chosen to Fold. Bets are placed at the lower limit ($20). Checking is permitted in this round and for the rest of the hand.

The Fourth and Fifth Streets
A fourth community card it dealt onto the table. Betting round begins with the blinds. Now, and for the rest of this game, Bets and Raises are at the high limit ($40). The turn becomes the first expensive street.

The 5th and final community card is dealt (fifth street). This is also an expensive street because Bets and Raises are at the high limit ($40 in our example poker game).

The Showdown
The best five card hand wins the game. Players may form their final hands from any combination of the table cards and their own pocket cards, even ignoring some or all of their the pocket cards and using only the table (community) cards.

In Holdem poker any player has option to see another players' pocket cards once they've been mucked. If a player has Called or Raised during the last Betting round, he/she can ask the dealer and the mucked cards will be retrieved and shown.