Texas Holdem Poker Rules

Master the Texas Holdem Rules

Do you think the prospect of mastering the rules of Texas holdem is something that lies beyond your grasp? If so, you may want to consider the fact that for the past three years running, amateurs have won the World Series of Pokers Main Event. These guys, Chris Moneymaker, Greg Fossilman Raymer and Joe Hachem, did not spend all of their formative years working the rounder circuit with poker giants such as Doyle Brunson and Thomas Amarillo Slim Preston. They were just ordinary citizens like you and me who used to the Internet to educate themselves about the strategic intricacies of online Texas hold�em, and by virtue of winning an online Texas Holdem satellite tournament found themselves seated at the WSOP. If they can do it, surely you can as well. Lets look at some of the most fundamental rules you will need to bear in mind on your own personal journey towards poker mastery.

Basics First

Starting with the basics, it is helpful to know that Texas holdem is known as a �community card poker variation. This means they you will ultimately use some cards that are available to the rest of the players in order to assemble your final hand. At the start up a typical Texas holdem round, one player is and designated as the dealer by having a button placed before him or her on the green felt. This symbolic button rotates with each successive hand, so that the position of the dealer changes accordingly. If youre playing online, the look of the button might differ depending on what poker software the site is using, but the rules are always the same.

Dont Be Blinded

Why is that so important? It�s important because of the blinds. These can be defined as mandatory bets that kick off the action at the beginning of each new deal. To the immediate left of the dealer button is the small blind. The, to the immediate left of that position is the big blind. The big blind is almost always twice the value of this small blind. By having these �forced� bets placed at the very start of the hand, it ensures that there will be some action no matter what the cards may yield.

Deal Em

You will be dealt two facedown cards that no one other than yourself should see. Then the dealer will lay three cards on the board, known as the flop.Following the flop is a fourth community card, known as the turn, and then a final community card known as the �river. Following the revelation of each of these community cards, there is a betting round.

At any point during the hand, you have the option of folding. In fact, this is one of the designations of a sharp Texas holdem player. No less an authority then Phil Hellmuth Jr. says that the first thing he looks for in a weak player is playing far too many hands. The seasoned Texas holdem master will be very selective about which starting hands are worth pursuing.

The topic of starting hands in Texas holdem is enough to fill an entire book (and, in fact, some fine volumes have been written on this very subject). Suffice to say that two of the very strongest hands you can be dealt at the beginning of a Texas holdem hand are A A (also known as American Airlines) and A K (also known as big slick). It should be noted, however, that Hellmuths personal favorite starting hand is Q Q, which he claims is unbeatable when in his possession. When you've learned about the starting hand you can move on to poker odds and other more advanced concepts, but that�s another story.