School of poker

Hold'em - A quick look

The Texas Hold'em is the most popular version of the game of poker played around the world. If you're just starting out, Hold'em is the game to learn.
Playing Texas Hold'em goes through four sequential rounds of betting: pre-flop, on the flop, the turn and the river. Each of these rounds is described below in a separate section.
To start the hand, the deck is shuffled, the blinds are posted and each player is dealt two cards face down, his hole cards. There is a round of betting that is limited to one bet and three raises (in limit games).
When this first round of betting action is complete the dealer will place three cards face up on the table. These three cards are called the flop. All cards dealt face-up on the table are community cards. That means that they 'belong' to all players and may be used by any player in any combination with his hole cards to make his best possible poker hand.
The flop is followed by another round of betting. In limit games this second round of betting is the last round at the lower limit. After this round all bets and raises will be at the higher limit.
After this on the flop action is complete the dealer will place a fourth card, face-up, on the table. This is the turn card and is another community card that any player may combine in any way. After the turn card is dealt there is a third round of betting. This third round of betting is at the higher limit in limit games. When the action on the turn is complete the last card, the river card, is dealt face-up on the board.
After the deal of the river card, the fourth and last round of betting begins. As with the other round this round is limited to one bet and three raises. When the action is complete, the pot is awarded to the best hand.
Once the pot has been awarded, the dealer button is moved one position in a clockwise direction, the blinds are posted and another hand begins.

Action

The betting. When it is said that the action is to a certain player it means it is his turn to act. He may bet, check, raise or fold.

Action Pointer

A ray of light that points to the player who is next to act.

Bet, Check, Raise, Fold

As the action for a particular round begins, each player in turn has the option to fold, which is to throw his hand away and sit out the current hand, check, that means pass the action without putting money in the pot, or to bet. The first person to put money in the pot on any given round of betting is the bettor. After this first bet is made, subsequent players have three choices; call (put an amount that matches the bet into the pot), raise (put an amount that is equal to twice the bet into the pot) or fold (when a player folds he surrenders his cards and removes himself from contention for the pot). After a raise has been made, subsequent players also have three choices; call the raise, re-raise or fold.

Blinds

These are forced bets that begin the action. In Hold'em there are two blinds. The Small Blind is placed by the player to the left of the dealer button and is half the amount of the Big Blind.

Flop

After the first round of betting the dealer places three cards on the board face-up. These three cards are community cards and are called the flop.

Community Cards

These are the cards that are dealt face-up on the board. They may be used in any amount in any player's hand to make his best poker hand. Click here to see a complete list and ranking of all recognized Hold'em poker hands.

Dealer Button

In Hold'em there is a button that rotates around the table in a clockwise direction. Cards are dealt in a clockwise direction starting with the player to the immediate left of the dealer button. After the hand is completed and the pot awarded, the dealer moves the Dealer Button to the player to the immediate left of the player who just had it. This is done, because there is an advantage to having to act last and so each player gets his fair share of early, late and middle positions.

Pots

Where all the bets and raises are collected. This is the pile of chips in the center of the table. Players are in the game to win the pot.

Turn

The turn card is the 4th community card and is placed on the table after the betting on the flop is complete. The betting on the turn is the third round of betting and at twice the stakes of the first two rounds.

River

The last round of betting and the last, 5th, community card. When the river card is placed on the board, the dealing is done. When the betting on the river is complete, the hand is over and the pot is awarded.
In the text and graphics below you will see a clear demonstration of the look of the table and the conduct of play for each of the four rounds of betting in a typical limit Hold'em game.

Hold'em - A quick demonstration

In Texas Hold'em there is an advantage in having a late position at the table. The advantage is that players in a late position get to act after players in earlier positions and thus have information about the other players' intentions. Because of this advantage the cards are dealt and action begins from a dealer button that rotates around the table in a clockwise direction. This rotation takes the blinds, early, middle and late position to all players equally.
For each hand of Texas Hold'em; the cards are shuffled, the dealer button is placed, the blinds are posted and two cards are dealt face down to every active player at the table beginning with the first player in a clockwise (to the left) direction from the dealer button. These two cards are each player's hole or private cards.
After the cards are dealt, the pre-flop betting action begins. On this round and this round only, the betting begins with the first player to the left (clockwise) from the big blind. On all subsequent round the action begins with the first player to the left of the dealer button.
In limit Hold'em the big blind is equal to a small bet. The small blind is half of the big blind. In the game pictured above the stakes are 0.02EUR/0.04EUR. The big blind is 0.04EUR, which is equal to a small bet and the small blind is 0.02EUR, which is equal to half of the big blind.

In the pre-flop graphic above DP_jnxh holds the dealer button. The player DP_cfdc posted the little blind and DP_ciravolo posted the big blind.
From our pre-flop graphic you can see that the player DP_stadiobarone has call the Big Blind the following players must also call the Big Blind if they want to continue this hand (if none of them raise or fold ).
When this round of betting is complete the dealer will place the three cards that are the flop, face-up, on the board and the action on the flop will begin.

In Texas Hold'em, five community cards are placed on the board face-up. The first three of those cards are called the flop and are placed on the board as soon as the pre-flop betting is complete. Community cards are cards that each and every player at the table may combine with his hole cards to make his best possible 5-card poker hand.

Turn

River

The last card, the river card, the king of spades has been dealt and the last round of betting is about to begin.
There are four players left in the game shown above.

With very big pots on the river, players often have the pot odds that can justify a value bet or call or even a pure bluff.
Be very selective in the hands you play.
Learn to estimate and use pot-odds, implied-odds and overlays.

Top poker pros agree that good poker manners make good poker sense, make the game more enjoyable and can add to your poker bottom line. Professional players know that angering or offending other players can sometimes cause an otherwise very loose player to play more conservatively, a bad player to play better and when the game flow is adversely affected he sees fewer hands/opportunities per hour.