Texas Holdem 101

Hold’em is a version of poker that is the combination of two down cards for each player with 5 community cards.  Each person is dealt two down cards.  A round of betting takes place after everyone has two cards.  The flop occurs next, which is the first three community cards.  Another round of betting takes place after that, then the fourth community card is flipped over followed by betting, followed by the last community card known as the river.  Finally the last betting round is done.  A total of four betting rounds occur if at least two people stay in the hand until the end.  This is known as a showdown.

At first everyone is dealt two cards down that no one sees except the player.  At this point two bets are all ready in the pot to force action.  The small and big blind are posted before the two cards are dealt to everyone.  The size of the big blind depends on the limits of the game you are playing.  In a low limit game the big blind may be $1.  The small blind is 1/2 of the big blind.  These bets are posted to induce action on every hand.  The small blind is the person immediately to the left of the dealer, and the big blind is to the immediate left of the small blind.  The person to act first in the betting round is called Under The Gun (UTG) because he/she has to act first in this betting round.  The UTG position is to the immediate left of the big blind, or three positions to the left of the dealer.  The minimum bet someone may post is the size of the big blind.  If a person would like to raise, the amount has to be at least twice that of the big blind.  The betting order moves around in a clock-wise position, and everyone must either match the current bet/raise amount, post at least the big blind amount if no one has bet yet, or fold.  The action moves around until the big blind, who is last to act in this betting round.

After the flop, the small blind is the first to act.  If the small blind has folded, whoever has not folded left of the small blind will be the first person to act.  This betting round players can check if no one has posted a bet this round, call the current bet, raise , or fold.  Again, everyone acts in a clock-wise manner until the dealer has acted.  The dealer is the last person to act in each betting round until the end of the hand from now on.  Once the dealer has acted, the fourth card is flipped over on the board (community cards) and another round of betting happens.  This card is known as the turn card or 4th street.  This round is the same as after the flop.  The last card is known as 5th street, or more commonly as the river.  Hopefully you will not drown to much on the river.