When people are talking about poker, they are likely to keep in mind Texas Holdem, which is the most popular game version. Among the dozens of card games that combine hidden and face-up cards, Texas Holdem has received the broadest popularity and is now played in international tournaments with millions of dollars prizes. Login Casino always follows the latest poker news and now reviews this game to highlight the pitfalls and useful tips of playing Texas Holdem.
Rules of Texas Holdem: How to play traditional poker
The essence of Texas Holdem poker
Texas Holdem relates to community card poker. It means that the player combines his hidden two cards with five face-up (community) ones and forms the best combination of five cards out of seven available. The individual’s two cards almost always define the best combination and the winner of the hand. Also, it brings the needed variety of possible 5-cards combinations and the ability to bluff and juggle with bets.
What is the sequence of this poker game?
This poker game variation can be played between at least two and maximum nine players, using a traditional 52-cards’ deck. They should be sitting in an identical order until the end of the game. The next obligatory element is defining the dealer button owner – this coin is the starting point of each round, and changes the owner clockwise every following hand.
Another cornerstone aspect is understanding of the small & big blinds of the game. That is actually the minimum amount of money, which is forming the minimal stack of every round. The first player after the dealer sets a small blind, while the second player has to bet a big blind. This procedure has to be made before the first cards land on the table and make up a guaranteed winning prize pool of the hand. In the official competitions, both small and big blinds are determined by the organizers. If playing poker with friends, you have to set those amounts as you want. Traditionally, the big blind correlates with the further minimum bet option, while the small blind is half of the big blind.
After the dealer button and both blinds are on the table, the dealer begins to hand out cards, starting with the first clockwise player after the dealer button, who has bet a small blind. When all the players receive their two mandatory cards, the betting options are finally open, and the real Texas Holdem begins.
Even though poker has millions of followers globally, newcomers can regard Texas Holdem hard to play. However, the online platforms like Redstar Poker present an attractive interface and simple guides; therefore, everybody can start playing free Texas Holdem poker, or even try to beat opponents and win real money.
What is the betting order in Texas Holdem?
The variety of player choices in Texas Holdem is small and easy to remember:
- Bet (a player may bet any volume of money, equal or higher than the big blind, up to all his/her chips);
- Call (a player matches the biggest bet on the table to continue the round);
- Raise (a player can make a higher bet than the previous players has done, to increase the overall stack of the hand);
- Check (if the previous players haven’t betted or raised, one can check the further decisions of other players without spending money);
- Fold (if not believing in the successful outcome of the hand, a player can muck his cards to the dealer. It can be made any time during the game).
Texas Holdem poker version has four betting rounds:
- Preflop. When the players receive two cards each, they can fold, call (match the big blind), or raise if they believe that those cards would bring success. The first decision at the preflop round is made by the person who is clockwise situated after the big blind (it is important to remember).
- Flop. After the preflop bets are matched, the dealer brings three cards on the table, and players can make the first assumptions towards their combinations. In this and following betting rounds, the first decision is made by the person sitting clockwise next after the dealer button, and all variety of choices are available to this individual. If an individual raises, the next player has to call, raise, or fold.
- Turn. That is the third possibility for players to influence a hand stack after the dealer lands the fourth card on the table. The sequence of actions is similar to the previous round; the only change is the combinations’ changed disposition.
- River. When the final fifth card is faced-up to the players, they can finally combine their own cards with those on the table and decide how strong their hand is. Participants also have the last chance to influence the overall playing stack and make bets similar to the two previous betting rounds.
When all the bets are matched, the player with the best cards’ succession takes all the playing stack. Then, a dealer button is moved one person clockwise, and the whole sequence repeats.
Hands in Texas Holdem: who is the winner?
If someone has never played poker before, he or she can find this element the hardest to remember. Indeed, ten general combinations should be remembered in a distinct order, but players sometimes print them as cheat sheets to clearly evaluate their winning chances. A reminder for newcomers: one has to make the best possible hand, combining 5 desk cards and 2 own ones.
In practice, Texas Holdem poker hands ranking is the following (odds against):
- Royal flush. The same suit 10, J, Q, K, and A (649 739 : 1).
- Straight flush. Five sequence cards of the single suit, while the best straight flush is Royal flush (72 192 : 1).
- Four of a kind. Four same rank cards (4165 : 1).
- Full house. Three of a kind with a pair (693 : 1).
- Flush. Any five cards of the same suit (508 : 1).
- Straight. Five sequence cards, all suits (254 : 1).
- Three of a kind. Three same rank cards (46 : 1).
- Two pair. Two diverse pairs of cards (20 : 1).
- Pair. Two cards of the same rank (1.4 : 1).
- High card. If no aforementioned combination appears, the owner of the highest card takes the playing stack (0.995 : 1).
As one can see, the High Card and Pair are the two dominant hands in poker that help to win millions of dollars at real tournaments. Even the Two Pair combination has less than 5% chances to appear on the table, nothing to say about the upper hands.
Texas Holdem cheat sheets – are they working in practice?
Almost all the professional players are human-like calculators who can control their emotions and be attentive to other players. Although the psychological poker tricks are based on the simple observations that can be wrong (due to opponents’ bluffing), the most reliable way to keep the highest possible winning streak in Texas Holdem is mathematics.
In this regard, Texas Holdem cheat sheets were invented. That is a rather specific table of possible combinations and their winning probabilities. Such a cheat sheet’s primary emphasis is to help the poker player make the right mathematical decision relying on the preflop hand. For instance, having the Pair combination in your hands is the must-play situation, while holding 3 and 8 forces to fold an experienced player.
Interestingly, professional Texas Holdem players have their favorite in-hand combinations, not usually based on the cheat sheets logic. Someone prefers a highly ranked A + K hand, while another believes in 10 + 6. If one also decided to try his or her hand at playing poker (with a cheating sheet or not), we could recommend visiting the Redstar Poker platform. This company has an internationally-authoritative Curacao gambling license, while the website has six different languages to choose from, which is facilitated by the appropriate variety of games. Texas Holdem is among the priorities of the RedStar Poker platform.
Can free games of Texas Holdem poker become a platform for business?
Texas Holdem’s status as the most widespread and world-known poker forces to review this game as the prospective business target. In practice, an entrepreneur can rely on several poker-related directions:
- online poker platform (played for free and money);
- offline poker rooms;
- video poker games.
The easiest way to start a business in the card games sector is to develop an online platform. There are plenty of casinos software providers that offer various slots, poker games (of course, including Texas Holdem), and even instant lotteries. All this gambling diversity now is often applied even on the bookmaking websites as punters prefer having all the entertainment in one place.
Another way of making business can be focusing on poker only. However, there are plenty of poker-focused websites globally, which have their audience, broad advertising campaigns, including self-named international poker tournaments with millions of dollars guaranteed prizes. It means that competing with suchlike digital enterprises is challenging, which entails a considerable amount of finances to invest in the beginning.
In this case, one has to pay attention to the fact that not all European countries have adopted online gambling rules. For instance, the Netherlands gambling sector is still waiting for the Remote Gambling Act adoption and opening a licensing procedure for online gaming. It means that at the early stage of the Dutch market opening, everyone will have equal chances though even an owner of a free to play poker website can try to receive appropriate permission and try conquering poker players in this Kingdom.
What relates to the offline sector, which is usually all about poker rooms and casinos that suggest card games, the primary focus should also be on a particular country. Thus, entering a new state with the idea to open a poker room should be based on the in-depth research of the country’s rules or the city’s demand for this kind of entertainment. The primary earning source, in this case, is the commission of the poker room that exchanges money and chips.
The best poker video games can be compared to free online platforms, but with better visualization and some storytelling implementations. That is not the most popular poker product to earn on, but the video game market does not have an unreachable leader now. It means that if someone will combine a smooth playing mechanics, ability to play on diverse platforms (including a mobile one) and suggest to be part of the engaging and interactive gaming process – everything is possible. There is always an option to add real money gameplay, which can switch players from the free version and increase the game developer’s monetization at the same time.
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