Understanding the Game
Texas Hold' Em, known as Hold' Em for short, is played with a single, standard deck of playing cards. This deck of cards consists of 52 cards categorized in four different groups called "suits" which are Spades, Hearts, Diamonds and Clubs. In each suit, there are 13 cards which are, in order of rank from highest to lowest, Ace (A), King (K), Queen (Q), Jack (J), 10 (T), 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2. In Hold 'em there are no priorities given over each suit meaning one suit in particular does not rank any higher than any other. For example, a 2 of hearts is equal in rank to any other 2.
Each player is dealt 2 cards (your starting hand), these two cards are known as the hole cards or your pocket cards. Then there will be a total of 5 community cards dealt face up (near the middle of the table) during the course of a game, often referred to as a hand. These 5 cards are collectively called the board. Each player can use these community cards to make a "hand". The highest hand wins. A hand consists of a total of 5 cards out of the 7 (the 5 on the board and your 2 pocket cards), which makes up the strongest hand. Don't be confused with the two meanings of hand. One refers to a player's 5 strongest cards and the other refers to the actual individual game ) from the paying of the blinds to the showdown). We'll explain these terms later.
There is a marker to indicate the position of a player (remember 'positioning', as it is a big part of Hold 'Em strategy, as you'll see later). This marker is called the dealer button or button for short. The significance of the button is that it gives a reference point for a player's position. The button always moves in a clockwise direction. The two most important positions are the first two. The position to the immediate left of the button is called the small blind (or SB for short), to the immediate left of the small blind is the big blind (BB for short). The importance of the blinds is that the players sitting in these positions must pay the ante to start the pot. At this point those are the only 2 people who pay anything, everyone else gets to see their pocket cards for free. The amount of the blinds depends on what the limits of the table are and if you're playing in a tourney. In which case the blinds increase at set intervals. The big blind is always double the small blind. So if the table has 10 players then each player gets to play (see) a starting hand 8 times FOR FREE. This is important to remember, as it will affect your hand selection, which we will explained later.
Game Play
Now that the blinds are paid and the pocket cards are dealt, the first round of betting begins, starting with the player at the immediate left of the big blind position (because the sb and bb have bet already). This person has to react first and is said to be "under the gun". He/she must decide whether to fold, call or raise. After everyone is done, the first 3 community cards are dealt. These three cards are referred to as the flop. Once the flop is dealt, the small blind position is under the gun and begins another round of betting. Once betting is done, the fourth community card, called the turn card is dealt and the small blind begins the round of betting. Once betting is complete the 5th (last card) called, the river card is dealt and the small blind kicks off the last round of betting. Once betting is complete we enter the "showdown" where the hole cards are shown/checked to see who is the winner. You have the option of not showing your cards if your hand loses. At any point in the game you can fold (called muck) your hand. If you muck you will no longer be participating in that hand and will not need to make any betting decisions.
Betting
The betting decisions are muck, check, call or raise. Muck, of course, is to fold your hand. Check is passing the decision to the next player. You cannot check if there is an existing bet or bet made that's higher than yours. Call is betting the same amount as the highest existing bet. Raise is betting more than the highest existing bet. The amounts of the bets will depend on the table limit/game that you are playing.
The Players
You will eventually run into many types of players from professionals to 'fish'. Fishes are the players who have no understanding of the strategies of Hold 'em and thus play by gut feeling, by luck, by gambling. Players can also be classified as 'loose' or 'tight'. A loose player will play anything and chase (chasing is when a player keeps calling bets in hopes to catch the card they need to make a hand). A tight player is one who plays only strong starting hands and will fold to big bets instead of chasing. |
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