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Texas Holdem has quickly became the most played poker game across the world. Texas Holdem is a derivative of the classic community poker, featuring a certain number of cards dealt face up onto the table. These are community cards, which are visible to all players and each player can use them to form his hand (one of winning combinations of cards). That means that all players share community cards and use their own cards (pocket cards) trying to form a winning hand.

Texas Holdem is one of community poker games and many online poker rooms have up to three, or even more types of Texas Holdem Poker, usually defined by custom betting limits. These are:

No Limit Texas Holdem, where a player can bet any amount of chips at any time;

Pot Limit Texas Holdem, where a player can bet an amount of chips equal to the pot;

Limit Texas Holdem, where fixed betting limit is specified in each game and each betting round;

Rundown of the game

The following list represents a simple rundown of Texas Holdem Poker game.

1. Blind Posts
2. Deal – 2 cards are dealt to each player face-down
3. First betting round
4. The dealer deals first three community cards face-up (the flop)
5. Second betting round
6. The dealer deals one more community cards (the turn, or 4 th street)
7. Third betting round
8. The dealer deals the final community card (the river, or 5 th street)
9. Last betting round
10. Showdown (All players staying in the pot compare their hands to decide the winner)

The dealer’s button

In Texas Holdem, the dealer is indicated by a small disc, which is usually called “the dealer’s buuton”, or just “dealer button”. Once a previous hand is completed, the dealer’s button moves to the next player clockwise. This equals all players’ chances to play earlier or later and ensures that each player posts blinds.

In home games and some tournaments, the first person to get the dealer’s button is determined through many different methods, but usually it is decided by a high card draw.

The Blinds In Texas Holdem the two players sitting after the dealer are required to post the blinds. The first player to the left of the dealer’s button posts the small blind and the next one posts the big blind. Usually the big blind is equal to the lowest stake of the table and the small blind is half the big blind, but their values may vary in different poker rooms. Once these two players post the blinds, the pocket cards are dealt to all players and the next player sitting to the left of the big blind starts the first betting round.

The majority of poker rooms require a player joining an active table to post the equivalent of the big blind. The same action is required upon re-entry to the game in order to prevent blinds abuse. Besides of blinds abuse, this prevents players from switching seats to gain a better position at the table and possible attempts to miss the blinds post.

Detailed rundown of a Texas Holdem game

• First betting round

In Texas Holdem, the first betting round starts with a player sitting to the left of the big blind and goes clockwise. The first player can either bet, raise, or call. Other players can either call (bet the same amount of chips as the previous player), raise, or fold. In case if the first player folds, then the next player has the option to bet and so on.

The size of bets during the first betting round are equal to the lowest limit of the stakes structure, so in a $5/$10 Texas Holdem game, the size of a bet is $5 and the raise is $10, which includes the value of a call to the previous player and an additional bet.

• Second betting round

After the flop (the first three community cards) is dealt onto the table, the second betting round starts.

The second betting round begins with a player sitting to the left of the dealer’s button. This player can either check, raise, bet, or fold. The checking option allows a player to refrain from betting, but is only available in case if no bets were made in the current betting round. Once the first bet in the current betting round is made, the rest of players can only call, raise, or fold. The stakes structure of the second betting round also limits the size of bets and raises to the lower limit.

• Third betting round

The third betting round begins after the “Turn”, when the 4 th community card is dealt onto the table. In Texas Holdem, the third betting round is very same to the first and second betting round, but the bets and raises are now limited to the higher limit of the stakes structure. As well as in the previous betting round, all subsequent players can either check (if no bets were made in the current betting round), call, raise or fold.

• The last betting round

The last betting round begins after the River, when the final community card is dealt onto the table. The rundown of the game and the stakes limits are same as in the previous betting round.

• The showdown

At the showdown, all players still staying in the pot show their pocket cards and compare hands to determine the winner. The winner is determined according to Texas Holdem hand ranks. All players can use a combination of their two pocket cards and the community cards. Though a Texas Holdem hand is formed by five cards and in fact there are 7 cards (2 pocket cards + 5 community cards), a player can either use his two pocket cards plus any three community cards, or one of his pocket cards and four community cards, or just the community cards to form a winning hand. In case if two, or more players have the same winning hands, the pot is equally split among them.

Note that in Limit Texas Holdem and Pot Limit Texas Holdem the betting structure is slightly different.

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