Texas Hold’em

Texas Hold’em betting rounds

Texas Hold’em starts with the two players placed on the left of the dealer. Players put money in a special place in the middle of the table called “the pot”. There are four betting rounds in the Texas Hold’em: Hole cards, the Flop, the Turn or the “Fourth street” and the River or the “Fifth street”. In the “Hole Cards” betting round each player receives two face down cards. These cards are called hole or pocket cards. In the next betting round called “The Flop” on the table are dealt three face up cards. After the first betting round the dealer throws-out (burns) the top card from the deck. After that the dealer opens the next three cards and puts them in the middle of the table. These three cards are called “the Flop”. The players can combine them with their pocket cards and create a winning hand. The next betting round is “The Turn” or the “Fourth street”. The dealer again burns a card from the deck and after that puts one more face up card next to the Flop. The “Fourth Street” or “The Turn” is the next (fourth) community card. The third round of betting is started by the player sitting on the left side of the dealer. In the last betting round, the dealer again burns the top card from the deck and puts the last and fifth face up card on the table next to the Turn. This last card is called “The River” or the “Fifth Street”. Then the players bet for the last time. These five cards dealt are called community cards, shared cards, window cards or board cards. The purpose of the game is to make the best possible combination with the hole cards and the board cards. After the last round the players who are still playing have to reveal their cards. The player who raised last or the player who made the first bet must show their cards first. In order to make the best combinations players are allowed to use the community cards as well. This combination can include your two cards and three of the five cards on the table, one of your cards and four of the five cards on the table and sometimes even all the cards on the table. The player with the best combination wins. In case some players have the same combination, they split the pot.

Playing the game

In Texas hold’em poker the number of players can be from two to ten. Like in most poker games there are 52 cards involved. In front of one of the players is placed a dealer’s button which makes that player a dealer. The button is also called “the Buck”. The name comes from the  expression “The buck stops here” and from the name of a hunting knife’s haft made of antler called “buck knife”. In casinos and poker rooms there is no dealer. Each round the dealer’s button is moved clockwise to the next player. This way everyone at the table in some time becomes a dealer. Dealer’s button shows that the player left to the dealer is going to play first. Before cards are dealt the two players left to the dealer are to bet. Blind bets guarantee that the player with best combination of cards will get some money in case all of the players fold. The player first to the left of the dealer has to post the Small Blind (SB) which should be half of the minimum opening bet. The player second to the left of the dealer (sitting next to the small blinder) has to post the Big Blind (BB) which should be equal to the minimum opening bet. In some games the player sitting to the left of the big blinder can post a big blind (BB). It is called straddle. This player has the advantage to post his bet last. The player to the left of the big blinder or the straddler should call (post a bet equal to the big blind or to the straddle), raise (post a bigger bet than the previous one) or fold (the player leaves the cards face down in the middle of the table and does not play till the end of the hand). The next players can also call, raise and fold but they can also re-raise. When players raise in the limit hold’em the amount is fixed; in pot limit hold’em it cannot exceed the one on the pot; in no-limit hold’em the amount can be any amount up to all the chips that player has at the table which is called all-in bet. The play begins when to each of the players are dealt two cards face down. These cards are called hole or pocket cards. They stay on the table all the time and the players have the right to look at them whenever they want.

Texas Hold’em table positions

In this game the position is extremely important. If before joining the game you have the opportunity to watch your opponents, study them very carefully. The information players can get about their opponents style of playing will allow them to adjust their play. At the Texas Hold’Em table your position is determined by the position of the player with the dealer’s button. It is considered that the worst position has the player who has to act first. This position is also called “under the gun” position. We should never forget that in this hand we are in bad position. The late position, especially the dealer has the opportunity to study the behaviour of the opponents in earlier positions and see what bets are made. The closest player to the dealer gets more info about the opponents as well. The players left to the dealer have to act first after the flop which weakens their positions later in the game. The rotation of the dealer’s button is clockwise therefore you need more the players on your left than the players on your right. Some studies claim that the player in late position wins more often than a player out-of-position. The positions are the following: Small Blind (SB) is the player next to last in the pre-flop game. All the next betting rounds the player goes first; Big Blind (BB) – In the pre-flop game this player goes last. All the next betting rounds he is second; Early positions have the three players left to the Big Blind. They open the betting in the pre-flop game. The player left to the Big Blind has “under the gun” position; Middle positions have the two players with positions 6 and 7 if we assume that position one is the Small Blind; Late Positions have the players with positions 8, 9 and 10. Position 9 is also called cutoff. Position 10 is called Dealer. This is the most advantageous position.

Texas Hold’em card combinations

In Texas Hold’em there are 10 possible card combinations which are as follows:

1.    No-pair – called also high-card or garbage is a hand which does not contain any of the configurations below.
2.    One pair - is a hand with two cards of the same rank and three other unmatched cards.
3.    Two pair – is a hand with two cards of the same rank, two cards of another rank and one unmatched card.
4.    Three of a kind – called also trips and set is a hand with three cards of the same rank plus two unmatched cards.
5.    Straight – is a hand with five cards in sequence in more than one suit. A hand with A, K, Q, J, 10 is an ace-high straight, known as well as Broadway.
6.    Flush  - a hand with five cards of the same suit not in rank sequence
7.    Full house –called also a full boat has three matching cards of one rank and two matching cards of another rank
8.    Four of a kind – also known as quads contains four cards of one rank plus one card of another rank
9.    Straight flush  contains five cards of the same suit in sequence.
10.    Royal flush is the highest poker hand. It is an ace-high straight flush.

Note: In Texas Hold’em suits have no value. The cards not taking part in determining the rank are called kickers and are also very important.

History of Texas Hold’em poker game

Texas Hold’em is one of the most popular casino poker games. It has a very interesting history. Actually, nobody knows where Texas Hold’em poker comes from and where  exactly the first game took place. According to the legend the first game was played in Robstown, Texas in the beginning of 20-th century. For the first time it was introduced to Dallas in 1925. In 1972 the World Series of Poker were attended by eight players. Thirty years later the players were a lot more. Texas Hold’em poker started developing on a global basis. Nowadays, during the World Poker Tour millions of people try to win.  The players from Texas Crandell Addington, Doyle Brunson and Amarillo Slim introduced the Texas Hold’em poker to Las Vegas in 1967. Since 1970 the World Series of Poker are held annually in Vegas. There are a lot of books introducing this type of poker and its rules. The most popular ones are written by Crandell Addington, David Sklansky, Al Alvarez, Doyle Brunson etc. Since the rules of Texas Hold’em have developed for years, they are not the rules they were before. People fond of this game can also find a lot of information relative to its rules and strategies online. There are also a lot of possibilities to download the game and enjoy playing.

What is not a gambling game

The mentioned below activities are not considered gambling:
1.    Emotional or physical risk where the risk cannot be measured with money or material valuables.
2.    Insurance contracts – since they prevent from losses and don’t cause them.
3.    Any type of investment including stocks, real estate etc. with positive expected average income regardless of the risk.
4.    Starting a new business with positive expected returns, most probably in the long term.
5.    Events when the possibility to gain money or material valuables  is secondary or unforeseen cause for gambling like buying a lottery ticket in order to support an action etc.
6.    Foreign currency exchange (FOREX)
7.    Different predictions and knowledge exchange where the results should be a development of the market mechanism, solving problems of science, technology, strategy, planning etc.

Types of gambling games

There are games that take place in the casinos and we call them casino games. For example, typical casino gambling games are all types of poker games such as 3-card poker, 4-card poker, Caribbean stud poker, Pyramid poker, Bonus poker, Texas hold’em poker, Omaha Hi, Omaha 8, Omaha Hi-Lo, Seven card stud, Five card draw, Pai Gow poker etc. There are also another games such as Baccarat, Blackjack, Casino war, Faro, Red dog, Roulette etc. Another type of gambling is the electronic gambling. There are also gambling games that take place outside the casinos such as Bingo, pull-tab games, lotteries,  different card games like Liar’s poker, Piquet, Lansquenet, Bridge, Basset; Carnival games – Hanky Pank, the Razzle; dice based games – Liar’s dice, Backgammon, Hazard, Mexico etc; coin-tossing games – Two–up, Head and tail etc.

The definition of gambling

Gambling is a game where winning entirely or to a considerable degree depend on chance and not on the skills of the players. Nowadays the most popular definition of gambling is as follows: Wagering money or material valuables on an event with an uncertain outcome with the sole purpose of receiving of profit or material valuables. Gambling games are games based on risk and on an agreement for winning between two or more physical or juridical persons following the rules of a gambling-house. The outcome depends on the circumstances on which each player may have an effect.