Poker: The Basics

Texas Hold'em Poker.

This is the most popular of all poker variations.

Starting Off:

The basic goal of the game is to make the best possible hand using your two hole cards (these are the two cards you are dealt) and the five community cards that will be dealt on the board.

Each player will be dealt two cards face down, through some rounds of betting, eventually, 5 cards will be dealt face-up on the table. The first three are known as the flop, then turn and finally the river.

These are the community cards and must be used in combination with your hole cards to make the best hand possible and win the chips in the middle.

Playing:

Before any community cards are shown on the board, players must decide on whether they want to 'raise', 'call' or 'fold'.

The dealer or button gives out the cards, one by one to each player beginning with whoever is on his left, the position to the left of the Button is the Small Blind.

The Small Blind has to pay some money before even seeing any cards.

Let's say the blinds are 50/100. In this case, the player to the left of the Dealer has to pay 50, and the Big Blind has to play 100. Once the hand comes to an end, the player who was previously the SB will then be the dealer.

The players have 4 options:

·Call - This means you match the highest bet. So if someone raises to 400, you put in 400 to call.

·Fold - You through your cards into the middle and you're not allowed to use them for the rest of the hand.

·Raise - You put in more chips than the biggest bet. So, for example, if someone has made it 400, you can put in 950 as a raise.

·Check - If no one has put in any bets, you have the option to check and see a free card. For example, if the flop comes 589 and there are the BB, UTG+2 and BTN are involved in a hand, let's imagine the first two check, the BTN now had the option to check and see a free turn or bet and force the others to pay to see the turn or to fold.

Once all the cards are dealt, one by one, each player on the table will have to decide what they want to do with their hand. The play moves clockwise and it begins with the player to the left of the BB, otherwise known as Under The Gun.

Then goes Under The Gun + 1 (UTG+1), Under The Gun + 2 (UTG + 2), Middle Position (MP), LoJack (LJ), HiJack (HJ), Cutoff (CO), Button (BTN), Small Blind (SB), Big Blind (BB).

This round of action is known as pre-flop.

The idea here is to fold all your bad hands, like 72 (this is the worst starting hand in poker) or 69 or K4 or Q5 and to raise all your good hands like AA or AK or T9 or QJ.

A raise is any bet larger than the Big Blind. So in this game, the minimum raise would be 200. Another option is to just call the BB, but players tend to just call when their hand isn't very strong so you might get taken advantage of if another player decides to raise you.

Once every player has put in the required amount of money, we go to the flop.

The dealer burns a card (this means they place the top card of the deck face down) and then deals the next 3 cards face up.

Here, another round of betting ensues. This time the first player to act is the SB, followed by the BB, then UTG, and so on, the last player to act is the Button (this is the strongest position in poker as you get to see what everyone else does before it's your turn to bet, call, raise, fold or check).

Next, once the flop has been played, the dealer burns and deals one card, this is the turn.

Another round of betting, checking, raising or folding ensues and then we move to the river.

Again, the dealer burns one card and turns another over and now this is the final round of betting. If players call each other, they have to turn their cards over and whoever has the best hand wins.

It's important to point out that at any point, be it preflop all the way to the river, if all but one player fold then the one who hasn't folded is awarded the chips in the middle of the table immediately and you then proceed to play the next hand.

Some other things to keep in mind is that players can go all-in, this means wagering all of your chips and if they get called all-in, cards must be flipped over straight away and then the flop, turn and river are to be dealt. In this case, the cards are shown immediately because there can be no more betting.

For example, let's imagine Player 1 has 650 chips and Player 2 has 900 chips. If player one goes all-in, everyone folds but then Player 2 calls in the BB, there can be no more bets because Player 1 has already wagered his chips and therefore, all the cards should be dealt immediately, but don't forget to burn a card before each street of action.

However, in the case that Player one goes all-in with 650 chips, Player 2 (with 900 chips in total) calls and then Player 5 (with 1,350 chips in total) calls, no one should flip their cards over because Players 2 & 5 still have chips left to play with.

The hands you can make in Texas Hold'em from best to worst:7

1.-Straight Flush. Five hands in a sequence of the same suit. The strongest straight flush possible is Ten to Ace of the same suit and this is called a Royal Flush.

2.-Four Of A Kind or Quads. Having four of the came card.

3.-Full House. Three of a kind with a pair.

4.-Flush. Five cards of the same suit.

5.-Straight. Five cards in a sequence. Ten to Ace is known as Broadway, and an Ace can also be used to make a lower straight from A to 5, like in the example below.

6.-Three Of A Kind or Trips. Three of the same cards.

7.-Two Pair. Two of the same ranking cards.

8.-Pair. Two of the same card.

9.-High Card. When you haven't made any of the hands mentioned above, the highest card is the best. The King is the high card in the example below.