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Texas Holdem
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Texas Hold'em is the most favorite variant of poker in the world. It is a community card game, with straight rules, where each player is dealt two hole cards which can be used in connection with the five board cards on the table to make the best possible 5 card poker combination. The following tutorial describes the general Texas Holdem Poker rules.
Similarly to offline Holdem games, in online poker the table can have up to 10 players. One of them will hold a button marked "D" in front of their place, also known as the dealer button. This button indicates that the two players sitting to the immediate left must post “blinds".
Although the button stems from the tradition in land-based game, but in online poker game the Dealer’s duty is carried out by a virtual dealer whose sole function at the table is to deal cards.
Blinds. Most hands of poker begin by some form of obligatory bets. This is to ensure that there is activity with every betting round. Holdem is played with two blind bets (before the hole cards are received).
The first two players to the Button’s left side begin with placing blind bets. The SB is paid by the first player and the BB by the second. The value of the blinds bets is determined by the size of the game. The BB is usually the full amount of the minimal bet at the poker table and the small blind is equivalent to half of the BB.
Antes. An ante is another binding bet that all players must put in before the cards are dealt. It is usually approximately ten percent of the small bet.
1-st Round. Pre Flop. Once the blinds are placed, the dealer gives out 2 hidden cards, referred to as hole cards, to each person in a clockwise order.
Thereafter the players decide if they would like to bet. The person after BB begins. In the first series of betting the players has not right of checking, but they can do any of the following alternatives: Raise, Call, Bet or Fold. All players have to put the same amount in the middle of the table in order to continue. So if one opponent raises, the other players must either call or reraise, or fold their hands.
The 1st betting round ends when all persons have either folded or called the last raise.
The Flop. When all pre-flop betting concludes, it's time to move on to the next phase of the game - the Flop. Three of the five board cards are dealt exposed in the middle of the playing area. These are community cards available for use by anyone as part of the strongest five card poker combination. Now, the action in the second round of betting begins with the first remaining player left of the button, who has the choice to check or bet.
Bets at this phase are of the lower betting level, which is the same as the BB (so $10 in the $10/$20 limits).
A check is simply declining the possibility to bet, and can be done if there have been no bets so far.
Play proceeds in a clockwise manner until all participants have posted the current bet or folded, and thereafter we move to the Turn.
3rd Round. The Turn. Once betting action is over for the previous round the Button flips up the 4th communal card on the poker table, so all persons have 6 cards to act with. A third series of betting occurs again and the bets are now doubled.
Fourth Round - The River.
Once turn round of betting is over, the closing board card, called the river, is placed face-up into the middle of the playing area and the final series of betting begins with the active person closest to the dealer's left.
This person can bet, check, raise or fold within the bounds of the limits and table stakes.
Remaining players can then check, call, fold or raise (a opponent can only check if no bet has been posted).
The Showdown.
After the final round of betting is completed, persons still left in the hand at this stage open their pocket cards and the player with highest card combination wins the pot.
If you don't want to show your cards you can opt to muck at this phase, which simply means throwing them away without showing.
In order to win the game you must hold the best five-card hand, which can be made up of your pocket cards and/or any of the communal cards. You don't even have to use any of pocket cards if you don't want to. This also happens if two or more opponents hold equal strength of the hands, the money is equally divided among them.