Across the United States, Texas Hold’em poker is the most popular poker game being played either online or in land-based casinos. This action-packed game is made famous by a lot of live poker tournaments here and abroad. Want to learn this exciting game? Here are the basic rules of the Texas Hold’em.

Ten players are usually involved in the game. One player is arbitrarily labeled the “dealer” (or “button”). A standard deck of 52 playing cards is shuffled by the dealer. Play starts to the left of the “dealer”, and continues in a clockwise order. Each player is served two cards face down. These are designated as hole or pocket cards. These are the player’s private cards and should not be shown to anyone else.

Each player gleans at their cards and betting starts. As always, play starts to the left of the dealer and each player can either “bet”, “raise”, or “fold” depending on how strong they feel their cards are. A starting bet is initiated by the two players to the left of the dealer. This is termed as posting the blinds. The action will rotate from small blind to big blind if there are only 2 players in the game. These two players must put money in the pot before they see their first two cards (hence the name “blind”). This is to make sure there is always someone who has contributed in the pot so that there is always a person playing in each hand.

There a various levels of betting and these are determined before you enter the play. You may choose to play “no limit” which means any size bet is allowed or you may choose to begin with the more conservative limit games. For instance, you may enter a $1/$2 Texas Hold’em limit game. Next, the dealer flips the ensuing three cards face up on the gaming table. These cards are designated to be the flop. These are used in combination with other two pocket cards to create a poker hand. Players at the left of the button are always first to act. Players can also check around if they feel so since there will be no more forced bets.

After betting is completed, the button or dealer flips another card and this is called the turn card. To create a five-card poker hand, players can now use this sixth card . At this point, betting goes to the a higher value level. After betting, a final community card is dealt, known as “the River”. That is the time they can now use any of the five cards or the two cards in their pocket to create a five-card poker hand. The final betting round takes place. The winner becomes the player with the best possible handout of the set of cards. On the other hand, a person wins the pot by default when he is the only one left betting while the others have remained folded.