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How To Play Texas Hold'Em Poker

So you're new to poker? Not a problem. Texas Hold'Em poker is by far the best game for a beginner to learn - it can be learned in a few minutes, and you can be playing fairly well with just a few hours practice.

And to get you started, the William Hill poker room offers a wide variety of play-for-fun tables on which to practice your skills until you're ready to play for real money.

What Is The Aim of The Game?

Texas Hold'Em hands are made up of your best 5 cards from seven; the seven cards are made up of 2 cards dealt to you, and any of the 5 community cards dealt face up in the middle of the table by the dealer.

Players bet on the strength of their hands, with all the bets known as the pot, and the objective of the game is to finish with the best 5-card poker hand and to win the pot.

How To Play Poker

• The Buy-In
• Blinds
• The Opening Deal
• Betting
• The Flop
• The Turn Card
• The River
• The Showdown
• Summary

The Buy-In

Exchanging your cash for poker chips is known as the buy-in. You must buy-in a minimum amount of chips when sitting down at your chosen table. The minimum limit is equal to ten times the lower bet limit of the game. For example on a £1/£2 table the minimum buy-in is £10, on a £10/£20 table the minimum buy-in is £100.

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The Blinds

Blinds are so-called because they are bets that are made before any cards have been seen.

Before every hand, one player will be given the dealer button (a small disk marked with a D). The position of the button is important, as the two players to the button's left post the blinds. The dealer button moves to the left after each hand, so everyone acts as the virtual dealer and everyone is required to post blinds.

The player to the immediate left of the dealer posts the small blind, and the player to their left posts the big blind. The blinds are placed in the pot to kick-start the betting and give players an incentive to enter the hand. They also mean that the winner of hand can never walk away completely empty-handed.

The stakes of the table that you're playing at dictates the size of the blinds. The small blind is typically half the minimum bet of the game, while the big blind is typically the same as the game's minimum bet. It's probably best illustrated by an example - if you're playing at a £1/£2 table, the small blind will be 50p and the big blind £1.

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The Opening Deal

Once the blinds have been posted, it's time for some cards. Moving clockwise round the table from the dealer, each player receives two cards dealt face down that only they get to see. These are called pocket cards or hole cards.

Betting

At this stage, each player is betting on what hand they feel their pocket cards could lead to. The betting starts with the player to the immediate left of the big blind.

For this round of betting, each player has three choices: to fold, raise, or call the big blind.

• Fold  -  to give up your hand and forfeit the pot to the remaining players
• Call  -  matching a bet amount
• Raise  -  to call and increase the previous bet

As the players who posted the blinds have effectively opened the betting, each subsequent player has to at least call this bet to stay in the hand, so checking (when no bets are pending, to pass your turn) isn't an option at this stage.

The betting goes round the table in a clockwise direction until each player has either called, folded or raised. If no one has raised by the time the betting returns to the person who posted the big blind, this player may check his own blind, fold or raise.

The first round of betting is at the lower level of table stakes, so in a £1/£2 game all raises are increments of £1.

One last note on betting before you move on. The betting can't go on forever, as we use the standard bet and three raises model. That is, for any round of betting there can be an opening bet and no more than three raises.

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The Flop

Now that the first round of betting is out of the way, it's time for the flop (things start to get really interesting now). The flop is the set of three cards that are dealt face up in the middle of the table, and each player can use these community cards to build their hand.

The flop above already has a pot of £2.50 from the first round of betting. At this point you can begin to assess the strength of your hand. For example, if you are holding an ace as either of your two hole cards, you already have a pair.

After the flop it's time for another round of betting, again at the lower levels of the table stakes. This time, the betting starts with the player to the immediate left of the dealer, regardless of whether the dealer is still active in the hand or not. Apart from that, the betting process is the same as pre-flop betting.

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The Turn Card

Once the post-flop betting has finished, it's time for another card to be dealt face up on the board. This fourth card is called the turn card, and again can be used by all players to construct their hand.

The betting after the turn is now at the higher level of the table stakes, so in a £1/£2 game all bets will now be increments of £2.

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The River

Four down, one to go. It's now time for the fifth and final community card to be dealt - the river. Now that all the cards have been dealt, each player remaining in the hand can now see what their best five-card hand is. It's now time for the final round of betting, again at the higher level of the table stakes.

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The Showdown

It's now time to see who takes the pot - the showdown. Each player who's remaining in the hand shows their cards, starting with the last person to bet and so on. The winner is decided using the universal hand rankings below.

If a player wins a pot by default, that is every other player has folded, there is no showdown and the winning player can decide whether to show their cards or not. Most people don't, it's always nice to keep people guessing.

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Summary

Here is the typical betting sequence for Texas Hold'em Poker  :

• Each player is dealt two cards face-down (pocket cards) - Cards 1 and 2
• First betting round (lower limit)
• Dealer turns over three community board cards (the flop) face-up - Cards 3, 4 and 5
• Second betting round (lower limit)
• Dealer turns over 1 more community board card (the turn) - Card 6
• Third betting round (higher limit)
• Dealer turns over 1 final community board card (the river) - Card 7
• Final betting round (higher limit)
• Showdown

At the showdown for Texas Hold' Em Poker, rules require that players may use either  :

• Both pocket cards and three board cards
• One pocket card and four board cards
• All five board cards (playing the board)

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A Final Note

If that all seems rather complicated and likely to last an eternity, don't worry. It really is quite simple, and despite a few stages in each hand it passes very quickly.

And if you're worried of getting stung while you're still learning how to play, make sure that you take full advantage of our play money tables. You can bet, call, raise and bluff to your heart's content, and it won't cost you a penny.

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