History of Texas Holdem Poker
Texas holdem poker is the most famous poker game played in almost all online poker rooms and in land based casinos all over the globe specifically in the USA, Canada and Europe.
Big money tourneys like “The World Poker Tour” and many other tourneys all over the globe organize a Texas holdem poker game in the final tables in order to choose the eventual poker champion, the winner of the game.
There is not a lot of documentation about where Texas holdem poker took its origin and about where it was actually played for the first time.
Legendry statements regard the first Texas holdem poker to have been played at Robstown Texas in 1900, therefore the term “Texas” Holdem Poker.
Texas holdem poker is said to be evolved from the original standard poker game, 7 card stud poker and though the method of card dealing varies for Texas holdem, the final winner is the one who makes the best 5 card hand out of 7 cards they get dealt with through each round.
“Texas holdem poker is not very difficult to learn; however, if you must master the game, a life time might not be sufficient.”
The more skilled you get to be in this game, you will at a later stage realize that there are still approaches and methods that you must learn again, which you are not aware of.
The more you play, the more you realize there are things yet to be mastered.
It never ends.
The World Series of Poker Tournament has been going on since 1970 in Las Vegas, and since then Texas Holdem Poker has been one of the important games organized in this series.
In fact, the WSOP is one of the reasons for the Texas game to have boomed to the extent to which it is being played these days.
Today Texas Holdem Poker is the most famous poker game which is being played by poker players from all over the globe.
The fame of Texas Holdem Poker put the other famous poker games like seven card stud, Omaha poker and 5 card draw behind in the race of “the most played poker games”
There are many factors which contributed to the world wide growth of Texas holdem poker.
One big reason is the internet and the global player traffic, another major reason is the appearance of these games in movies and also in some of the televised final tourneys featured around Texas Poker.
Televised commercials advertising online poker rooms also contributed to the growth of Texas holdem poker.
The online qualifiers and satellites leading to entry in to WSOP to eventually play for the WSOP championship also contributed to the big growth of this game.
Texas holdem poker ventured in to the internet around time when online casinos were a big success, which was in the 1990’s of the 20th century.
The information about the first online poker site to have featured Texas holdem poker is still not clearly evident.
Also, the possibility of being able to play poker cheaply and anonymously in the online sites is yet another reason for the rapidity in the growth and fame of Texas holdem poker.
Online poker sites provide with a lot of benefits.
Any player regardless of being professional, novice or intermediate in skill level can play in any of the online poker rooms. As long as they are skilled, they can participate and play in the games.
Also you have the advantage of being able to play in poker freerolls for free, then you can graduate to low limit games, then you can play in high limit games as you improve on your skill level.
Even if you are a zero in Texas Holdem Poker you can start from the tutorial section of the site and get to play.
Texas holdem poker rules and strategy
The rules for Texas holdem poker are pretty uncomplicated and are easy to follow.
This is one reason that even beginners tend to learn it pretty quickly and get to start playing in an online poker room pretty quickly.
However, it is not too easy either.
You tend to understand the rules of the game, logics, and requisites to winning, but when it comes to application in the real time poker table, you tend to realize experience really matters in this game.
This game requires that you to be experienced, focused, and unpredictable if you should make it to the top.
• Texas holdem poker is a community card game.
• Each player is dealt with two facedown cards, known as the hole cards or the pocket cards.
• The community cards are the cards, which are dealt in the center of the table and every player in the table can use the community cards in combination with his 2 pocket cards to make a hand.
• The community cards are dealt in 3 separate rounds of flop, turn and river.
• In the flop, 3 cards are dealt in the center of the table followed by a betting round.
• In the turn, 1 card is dealt in the center of the table followed by a betting round.
• In the river, 1 card is dealt in the center of the table followed by a betting round.
• The 3 flop cards (plus) 1 turn card (plus) 1 river card are used by all players to make the hand.
• The pocket card varies for each player.
• By combining the pocket and board cards, each player will have to make a 5 card hand to eventually win the pot.
“Make the best hand from any five cards out of the seven cards available for play”
In online poker rooms while playing Texas holdem poker, similar to all poker variants, the player’s battle with each other by betting on the kind of hand they hold based on the possibility of each player being able to make a hand with the available combination of cards in the table.
The money to be won is denoted as the”pot”.
In online poker rooms, a random number generator creates the numbers for the pockets and the board.
The players restrict their betting based on the strength of their hands.
Some fold and forfeit their share on the pot if they feel they are going to loose.
1. Placing the Blinds!
Prior to getting any cards, in online poker rooms just like in land based casinos each player is supposed to place forced bets. If there were no forced bets, the game will not catch up with action.
• Forced bets are a combination of two bets, which are the small blind and the big blind respectively.
• The small blind is the player sitting immediate left to the dealer button.
• The big blind is the player sitting immediate left to the small blind.
• The player in the small blind places a bet which is half the big blind bet.
• The big blind places the money which is two times the small blind bet.
• If the small blind places $5 in forced bet, the big blind should put $10.
All the players following the big blind should bet in increments of $10, which is the money put in to bet by the big blind.
The forced bets are the common method to stimulate action in the poker table.
If there were no forced bets, players will continue to fold their pockets without investing any money for play until they get real good pockets.
Forced bets are known as “blinds” because these bets are placed before seeing the value of the pockets which would be dealt.
The dealer is denoted by a dealer button.
The dealer position rotates clockwise in the subsequent tables that follow so each player has the option of being the dealer.
And as the dealer button rotates, the small and big blind positions also rotate in the table.
2. Receiving Pocket Cards!
After the completion of the placement of forced bets, each player in the table is dealt with two face down cards also known as “hole cards” or “pocket cards”, commonly referred to as pockets.
The hole cards are private cards for each player and the value in this card is applicable to the individual player who has been dealt with it. No other player in the table will be able to see these cards or know the value of it.
Similarly, you will also not be able to know the value of the pockets in other player’s hands.
3. Pre-Flop Betting
After looking in to the value of the pocket cards, the poker players start making their betting based on the strength of their pocket cards.
• If the pockets are of real bad value, the player can fold the hand.
• If the pockets are of playable quality, players bet in the pre-flop waiting to see if their hand will improve in the flop.
The first player to make the pre-flop betting in the online poker room is the poker player sitting immediate left to the big blind.
The player has the following options:
• Call the value of bet placed by the big blind. Example: If the big blind has placed $10 in betting, bet in $10.
(or)
• Raise if the big blind has placed $10, raise the value of the betting by placing a $20 bet.
(or)
• Fold without placing any bets.
No checking! In the first betting of pre-flop betting the players are not permitted to check since the blinds are in active betting.
The betting round continues in the clockwise direction and each player decides to call, raise or fold.
Sometimes, there will be a player who has raised the bet and there will be another player who has an even better hand, in this case, the player with the better hand might choose to re-raise.
• Re-raise! Is where if the big blind has placed a $10 bet and another player has raised the bet to $20 the third player will re-raise the bet to $30.
In any betting round only three sub-betting rounds is permitted.
• The first is the call.
• The next is the raise.
• The third is the re-raise.
After the re-raise, after every player has made their call, raise or fold decision, the game proceeds to the flop.
If such a restriction was not there in poker, players will re-raise and re-raise and re-raise and the game will never seem to stop.
4. The Flop!
In the flop round, 3 cards are dealt face up.
The value of these cards will be visible to all players and each of the players in the table will combine their pockets with the 3 flop cards and see how better are their options to make the best five card poker hand.
5. Post Flop betting!
Based on the new strength of their pockets when combined with the flop cards (3 flop + 2 pockets) players bet, call, raise, re-raise or fold…
6. The Turn!
In the turn round, 1 card is dealt face up, which is the fourth community card.
The value of these cards will be visible to all players and each of the players in the table will combine their pockets with the 3 flop cards plus 1 turn card and see how better are their options to make the best five card poker hand.
7. Post Turn betting!
Based on the new strength of their pockets when combined with the flop cards and turn card plus pockets (3 flop + 2 pockets + 1 Turn card) players bet, call, raise, re-raise or fold…
8. The River!
In the river round, the last 1 card is dealt face up, this is the sixth of the community cards.
The value of this card will be visible to all players and each of the players in the table will combine their pockets with the 3 flop cards plus the new 2 turn cards plus 1 river card and see how better are their options to make the best five card poker hand.
9. Post River Betting!
Based on the new strength of their pockets when combined with the flop cards, turn cards and river card (3 flop + 2 pockets + 1 Turn card + 1 river) players bet, call, raise, re-raise or fold…
There is no dealing of cards after the river.
10. Show Down!
All players remaining in the game without folding are supposed to show their hands.
This is known as the show down.
The hands are compared and the best high hand wins the pot. In cases of high-low games the pot is split.
In cases where there is only one player and there are no body heads up the sole player who is heads up takes the pot regardless of the ranking of his hands.
………Game Over! This concludes one table of Texas holdem Poker!
Dealer button shifts!
Then, the dealer button shifts to the left and the next Texas holdem poker game, all fresh game, will begin.
This is a new poker table and the players in the previous table can either continue to play in the table or leave the table per their wish.
Also, new players can join the table based on the availability of the seat.
Who Gets The Dealer’s Position!
The first player who purchases the stakes to enter in the online poker room will receive the dealer position.
The dealer position is the most wanted position, because the dealer is the last person to act, because of which the dealer will be able to act with lot of information about the kind of hand other players might probably hold based on the kind of betting they make in the table.