Texas holdem is a poker variation that uses blind betting. At the beginning each player is dealt two cards both of which are face down. There are then five community cards dealt in the middle. They consist of ‘the flop’ which is three cards, then another card known as ‘the turn’ and a final one known as ‘the river’. The players have the option to check, bet, or fold before each card is dealt.
The betting structure for hold em poker is most often with blinds. This is considered a forced bet of three players. The dealer and person to his left place small blinds and the third person to the left places the large blind, for example the dealer places ten dollars as does the person to his left, the next person the places fifteen dollars. After the blinds are set and the cards are dealt each player must match the largest blind, raise that blind or they must fold. The betting continues around the table till all the cards have been dealt. Whoever has the highest ranking hand at the end of the game is considered the winner and gets all the money in the pot. However there are times when the pot must be split, this occurs if there is a tie between two or more players.
The way the hand is played is that the first two cards dealt face down are considered the players hole or pocket cards. The hole cards are the only cards you get as individual cards. The betting is then started by the person to the left of the big blind, and continues around the table. This is considered the pre-flop bet. If there are more than two players remaining after the betting the dealer then lays the three flop cards and betting goes around again once the betting is over if there are players remaining, you then get a single card flipped over followed by yet another betting round. Assuming there are still players in the game a final card is then flipped over followed by a final betting round. If necessary they would then go into a showdown to determine the winner of the hand.
The main goal in the game is to place bets and hope that throughout enough people will fold out of the game forfeiting their chance at the pot allowing you easy advantage to take the pot. If at the end there are at least two remaining players a showdown takes place where you reveal you cards and the player with the highest ranking hand will win the entire pot. The way this works is that out of the seven cards you need to make the best hand possible, you can use one, two, or none of the cards in your hole. If you use none of the hole cards then the best you can hope for by using the community cards is to split the pot.
