Texas Hold’em has a special place among all variations of poker. It has innumerable game situations and can acquire a complex form as it progresses. Understanding the basics of Texas Hold’em is important to emerge winner at the end.
To begin, each player is dealt two hole cards with the objective of making the best five-card hand. The game moves clockwise and starts with action to the left of the dealer button. Betting is initiated as the first two players to the button’s immediate left post a small and large blind. Then on, action takes place on multiple streets – preflop, flop, the turn and the river.
Button
The acting dealer at the table is determined by the button. The player on the button or the last active player closest to the button receives last action on all post-flop streets of play. If you are playing in online casino, there is no need to worry about the dealer. Everybody can take turn at dealing the cards. As each hand completes, the button shifts one position to the left. The process of dealing out the cards is done by staff dealers in physical casinos, while in the online version, the process is automated. It is the dealer who determines the first players with the small blind and the big blind and determines where the dealing of the cards begins. In small blind, the player to the left of the dealer button receives the first card and the dealer pitches cards around the table clockwise. This continues till each player receives two starting cards.
The Blinds
Before the beginning of a new round, two players post blinds or forced bets keep things rolling. This makes the game interesting as they require money to be put in the pot.With the number of players decreasing and the stacks of remaining players getting bigger, the blinds keep increasing. In case of cash games, the blinds remain the same for the duration during which the game is played. The player directly to the button’s left posts the small blind and the one to the player’s direct left posts the big blind. Usually, the small bet is half of the big blind, but it depends on the room and the game which is being played.
The objective
To win the game, you need to have the best combination of cards. In Texas hold’em, each player receives two cards called hole cards. These cards are concealed till the betting round ends, referred to as showdown. In this game of community cards, five cards are displayed in the middle of the table and used together with a player’s two hole cards for the best five-card holding.When all these five cards are down, players make the best five-card combination from the seven cards. It can be done using both the hole cards together with the three community cards, one hole card and four community cards or playing all the five community cards. The player with the best combination of cards is the winner which includes all the bets placed during the hand.