This
is by far the most popular and simplest form of poker. Make
sure you learn this game first. Casino card rooms are always
filled with tables of this game like it was a requirement. If
you drove to the casino nearest you right now and wanted to
learn how to play poker you could sit down and play Texas Hold'em.
There are no antes, no 'bring in's, no discarding,
and you ONLY receive two cards face down.....no more no less.
Everyone can easily understand this game, it's quick easy and
very fun which is why the tables are full of Hold'em players.
But
watch out, this is a very difficult game to master in the long
run and there are some players in the casino who are making
a living from playing this game.
You receive
two cards to start the hand and there is a bet session just
on those two alone, then there is a Flop, Turn, and River ,
each with a bet session. The Flop is 3 community cards face
up which can be used by either player along with their own 2
cards. The Turn is a 4th face up community cards and the River
is the 5th and last community card. So from before the flop
until after the River there wil be FOUR bet sessions in this
game total.
In Hold'em
you can use both cards, one card, or NEITHER by just playing
the table cards themselves. If you have (6,7) and the table
is (66699) you use just the 6, if it was (77799) you would use
the just the 7, but if it was (66623) you would use both the
6 and the 7 since your hand would be (66667) not (66662 or 3).
However if the board was (AAAKQ) you would use NEITHER card
in your hand. Normally though, if you can't even use either
card you would have folded before the River but on occasion
when no one bets you can just play the table. This is termed
as "Playing the Board". Obviously you can't win when you are
playing the board and niether can your opponents so the pot
will be split evenly per player in those cases.
Below are
several hand examples you will need to understand.
Some
very common hands played in Hold'em are suited Aces and suited
Jack-10's.
Many
players play a suited Jack Ten in Hold'em since you can make
a straight all the way from (6 7 8 9 10) to (10, J, Q, K, A)
and anywhere in between, plus you can make a flush. In the example
above this player had four to a straight on the flop (7 8 10
J). On the turn she had four to a flush, four to the previous
straight, and even four to a higher straight (A K J 10). So
if the river was a 9, a queen, or any heart she would make a
very good hand. In this case she lucked out and got a heart
for a flush. (K J 10 8 2) all hearts. So she ended up using
BOTH cards for a total hand of (J, 10, 8, K, 2) of hearts. Plus
she DID need to hit one of her possibilities since her opponent
had an in Ace in his hand and an Ace on the flop so he wasn't
going to fold. He only used ONE card for a total hand of (A,
A, 7, 8, K). Since you only receive two cards in this game,
the average hand is just one pair, so most people don't fold
a pair of Aces with anything else. So obviously the best hand
you can get before the flop is a pair of aces in your hand which
has the poker name of "POCKET ROCKETS" (A-A). But don't get
upset if you get "A-A" and lose, it happens. Your just a huge
mathematical favorite just as if you bought 10 million different
lottery tickets. I've won and lost EVERY hand to EVERY hand.
If you notice when I watched the hand above, the losing player
with the Ace-6 could have hadd A-A and the result would not
have changed. The flush was a flush. Remember the cards don't
know that you are a 5% favorite to win or a 95% and they don't
know what "JUSTICE" is. But
don't worry, once you learn how to play you will receive the
justice you deserve in the long run. You
should only worry if justice is NEVER served only when you play.
It took a while to find a real example of this,
but it does happen now and again.
Here both the players raised before the Flop and
after the Flop but on the Turn and the River they both stopped
betting since they each thought the other may have at least ONE
club and neither one tried to bluff. After neither player bet
the River and their hands were turned over they were both forced
to use NONE of their cards and "Play The Board". So they both
had the same club flush and the pot was split evenly between them.
Another more common way players with different
hands split the pot is below.
The player with the Ace-3 thought he had the win
for sure when he FLOPPED two pair right away. (A, A, 3, 3, 10).
On the Turn he still had two pair and the Ace-9 player still only
had A-A-9-10-K. But after the river when the kings paired BOTH
player's could use them so both players had a better hand than
Aces's and threes, now they had Aces and kings with the ten on
the table since the ten was higher than either player's second
cards or "Kicker" card. So again the pot was split evenly and
both player's hands were (A, A, K, K, 10).
The most common split pot in Hold'em is when there
are four cards to a straight on the table.
When four cards to a straight appear on the table,
the players who haven't folded usually have that fifth card. In
this example the Ace-Jack player already had the straight when
the King came on the Turn card and clearly should have won, but
when the Ace hit on the last card ANYONE with a Jack had an unbeatable
hand with that particular board which was and Ace through 10 straight.
(Ace, K ,Q, J, 10) The Queen-Jack player could ONLY have gotten
an Ace on the end to win half that pot, even a 3rd queen would
still have lost to his opponents already made straight. 
