Texas Holdem has been the most popular poker variant online and offline for a good few years now.

Texas Holdem rules

Texas Holdem has been the most popular poker variant online and offline for a good few years now (want to know more - then have a look at this page on the reasons of Texas Hold'Em's growth in popularity). One of the reasons for its popularity is the simplicity of its rules. It usually takes about 15 minutes to half an hour for a beginner to learn the rules, however that doesn’t mean this beginner becomes a reasonable player right away, or that he will ever grow to be one.

As they say, it takes but a few minutes to learn the game, but it takes a lifetime to master it. Anyway, here are the rules, read them, learn them and make sure you know the hand rankings used in poker otherwise the rules themselves may not make much sense. Holdem is a community card game. This means people will use certain cards in their hands which are available for all the other players around the table as well. Players will be required to make their hands using the two pocket cards they’re dealt (and which no one else can see) and the community cards dealt onto the table.

The game begins with the posting of the blinds. The BB is on the immediate left of the SB (BB = Big Blind, SB = Small Blind) and it is twice as big as the SB. The blinds are compulsory bets: players need to make these bets before the cards are dealt. Once the BB and the SB are posted, the dealer hands each player two hole-cards, handing the cards out in a clock-wise direction. Every action at the Holdem table goes around in a clock-wise direction btw.

After the players get their hole cards, the first betting round commences. The player on the immediate left of the BB (under the gun) is the one who begins the betting round. The player who is sitting in the button (on the immediate right of the SB) is the last to act. Because of the nature of the game, those who act late (the button and the cut-off) enjoy a pretty significant advantage over players who act early in the hand.

During the first betting round, players can choose to call the BB, to fold or to raise the BB. Though Holdem is fundamentally a post-flop betting game, preflop actions will radically influence the way one plays on the flop.

After the first betting round wraps up, the dealer burns a card and deals three community cards to the table. This is called the flop. Players will now be able to make 5-card poker hands using their 2 pocket cards and the 3 community cards. Another round of betting commences, which is then followed by the 4th community card, the turn. The turn is followed by betting yet again, and the last community card, the river hits the table. Players will now know their exact showdown hand. 5–card hands can be made using both hole cards and three cards off the table, or one hole card and 4 cards off the table.

If the hand goes to a showdown (that is at least two players remain in contention after the post-river betting round) the player with the better 5-card poker hand wins the pot.