The Best Texas Hold Em Experience

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History

It’s believed that the game was invented in Robstown, Texas around the early 1900s. Texas Hold Em was first introduced to Las Vegas in 1963 and it soon became popular in the area.

The most famous and prestigious live poker event known as The World Series of Poker dates back from 1970. The first event featured only 7 players.

The game became extremely popular in the 2000s thanks to exposure on TV, the Internet and popular press.

For its quick exposure, a huge role played an anonymous accountant at the time, Chris Moneymaker. He turned a $40 tournament investment into a massive prize of $2,500,000 and took the world of poker by storm!

In 2019, 8569 players from 87 different countries took part in the WSOP Main Event to compete for the first-place prize of $10,000,000. The overall prize pool reached the impressive $80,548,600.

Rules of Poker

Poker rules are relatively easy to learn, but the game is not easy to master by any means. Still, one of the main reasons for its popularity over the globe is precisely the simple rules.

Texas Hold Em Poker is played with a standard 52 card deck.

The number of players on the table may vary between two and ten. However, large tournaments can have fields of hundreds and thousands of players with enormous 5-figure prize pools.

No matter how big the tournament field is, at each point each player competes only against the other players on the table (maximum 10).

In poker unlike other card games (like belot), there is no ranking between the suits. For instance, the Ace of diamonds and the Ace of spades are equal.

Before the actual dealing, one player is chosen to be the dealer (the dealer button goes in front of him). In online games this is done automatically by the software.

Blinds

The position of the button is crucial as it determines which two players need to post the mandatory bets – small and big blinds. Also, the button decides who has to act first during the poker hand.

The player who sits left to the dealer is the small blind. Next to him (clockwise) is the big blind.

So, for example, in a standard $1-$2 game of poker, the small blind is obliged to give $1 and the big blind $2.

In Texas Hold’Em (along with other poker games like Omaha) the player after the big blind always goes first to act. This is the so-called Under-the-Gun position or UTG. It’s considered the worst position as you have to play first without any information from the other players.

At the beginning of each hand, all players are dealt two cards face down (first – one, then another one). They are known as the hole cards.

Betting options

When all players on the table have the two cards dealt, the game is ready to begin. The person sitting after the big blind goes first (under the gun position).

Postflop Rounds

Once all players called, raised or folded it’s time to proceed to the next stage of the game when 3 cards are dealt face up and this represents the FLOP:

They are shared by all people at the table. The poker players should do their bets starting from the player who was the small blind preflop (before the 3 cards came on the table).

Here the main options are:

• Check, when the person doesn’t want to put money in the pot.
• Raise, when the player wants to bet.

Once all bets are finished, the 4th card is dealt – The TURN:

Again it’s time for bets starting from the player on the small blind or the closest next to him (in case the small blind is not in the hand at this point).

Finally, we have the 5th and last community card coming on the table – The RIVER:

Now the players do their bets again and once this is over it’s time for the SHOWDOWN– when they have to reveal their holdings.

Players make their hands by combining the hole cards with the cards in the middle (also known as the board). Everyone is aiming to make the best 5 card hand to beat their opponents. The player with the best hand wins the round.

The card rankings from low to high is as follows: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J (Jack), Q (Queen), K (King), A (Ace).

As you can see they are similar to other popular card games.

And now let’s look at another important aspect of the game

Poker Hand Rankings:

Now when you are familiar with the hands hierarchy and aware of the poker rules, you can start practicing and crush the opponents! Good luck!