Texas Hold’em is the most popular variant of poker played on 홀덤 and perhaps the most exciting to play. In this article, we will briefly touch upon how the game is played. If you are new to Hold’em, you might find this useful. Continue reading below to find out the game method in simple terms so you know where to start.
The preliminaries
Typically a poker hand consists of five cards. Seven cards are usually dealt with during the course of the game. Firstly two cards are dealt by the dealer. These are called hole cards and are handed face down. Next, the dealer deals out five cards in multiple rounds. These cards are laid out face up in a series of three turns. The first three community cards are dealt the flop, followed by an additional card, referred to as the turn and another card, termed the river.
Players can choose to bet, fold, check or raise after each deal. It implies that they can bet before the flop, after the flop, on the turn and then the river.
The game format
Before we delve into how the game is played, let’s understand a few terminologies.
- Blinds are forced bets placed by the two players from the dealer’s left on the table.
- The dealer button represents the player who is in the position of the dealer. After each hand, the button rotates clockwise, and the position of the dealer and the blinds changes.
- Antes like blinds are forced equal contributions by players to the pot in the form of money or chips.
The bets
The small blind is placed by the player on the dealer’s left side. Then the player on the left of the small blind places the big blind. A small blind is half of the amount of the big blind, while the big blind is equivalent to the minimum bet. If you are playing in a tournament, the blind or ante will increase gradually as the tournament progresses.
Once the first betting round is over, the person next to the blinds places the bet. When the cards are being dealt, the person in the small blind is dealt first, and the person in the dealer button is dealt last.
The betting rounds
The hand begins with pre-flop betting. If the blind is used, then the betting begins with the person on the big blind’s left. In case the blind is not used, then the player next to the dealer on left side begins. The process continues in clockwise order around the table, and it carries on until every player has participated by folding, going all-in or matching the amount contributed by the active players.
After pre-flop, the dealer hands out three cards in the flop and then one card each in turn and river, with rounds of betting in between. The fourth round is followed by a showdown if required. If all players fold and one player remains and places the bet, he wins the pot and doesn’t have to show his hole cards. However, if two or more players remain after the fourth betting round, this leads to a showdown.
The showdown
The players have to show the best hand they can make from the two hole cards and five community cards when it’s a showdown. They can use both of the hole cards, one or neither of the hole cards, to make their five-card best possible hand. The player with the better hand wins.
However, if the player uses all community cards to form a hand, the winnings are split. Similarly, if more than one player has the best hand, the winnings are shared equally, and the remaining chips go to the player in the first position on the button in clockwise order.
