Daniel Cox
Editor, Poker Insider Magazine
April 1^st, 2009

Excerpt from “Winning Blue-Collar Hold’em” by Daniel L. Cox Available at Amazon.com.

Texas Hold’em Basics

The popularity of different games of poker is continually changing. Five-card Draw, the game most people grew up on watching TV Westerns and playing penny-ante home games, is virtually non-existent today. The WSOP no longer even has a World Championship Event in Five-card Draw. At one time, Texas Hold’em was the venue solely of the World Series and high-stakes underground games. With the popularity of Hold’em, both limit and no-limit today, it is difficult to find a game of Seven-card Stud in most card rooms and casinos around the world.

How Times Have Changed

Mark Twain once said, “There are few things that are so unpardonably neglected in our country as poker. The upper class knows very little about it. Now and then, you find ambassadors who have sort of a general knowledge of the game, but the ignorance of the people is fearful. Why, I have known clergymen, good men, kind-hearted, liberal, sincere, and all that, who did not know the meaning of a "flush". It is enough to make one ashamed of the species."

The advent of the poker cam to view hole cards and Chris Moneymaker’s surprise victory in the 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event greatly contributed to the popularity of poker today.

How to Play

Before you rush into playing Texas Hold‘em, even at low levels, it is important to understand the basics. The name for the game of Texas Hold‘em comes from a game originally known as “Hold Me, Darling,” which morphed into “Hold ‘em Darling” and later the “Hold‘em or Fold‘em,” popularized by Kenny Rogers’ song The Gambler. Though Dag Martin Mikkelsen was talking about a single hand, it is true the game of Texas Hold’em, in theory, is easy. As with any true poker game, the best five card hand wins, but unlike most games, players share five community cards. As is said about so many games, it takes just a few minutes to learn, but a lifetime to master.

The Button was originally called "the Buck," from a buck knife used for the purpose. Poker is thus the origin of Harry Truman’s (an avid poker player) famous phrase "the buck stops here.”

Play begins with selection of the “Dealer.” The deal rotates clockwise, from player to player, after each hand. If a designated dealer is present, he or she is called the “house.” The house places a white disk or button in front of a player to designate where the dealer position would be if the players were dealing themselves. In tournaments, either the table position or dealing of the high card usually determines the initial position of the dealer.

The person directly to the left of the dealer is required to bet the small blind, the first of two forced bets to insure action. The next person to the left is the big blind, the second of two forced bets. The amount of the blinds is determined at the start of all games. When you see a $2/$4 game, it means the minimum bet on the first two rounds of betting is $2 and the minimum bet on the final two rounds is $4. The big blind is equal to the smallest minimum bet and the small blind is normally half the big blind. Therefore, in a $4/$8 game, the big blind is $4 and the small blind is $2. In a ring (cash) game, the blinds remain constant. In tournament play, the blinds rise at preset intervals and amounts

Texas Hold‘em uses a standard 52-card deck, where two cards, known as hole cards, are dealt face down to each player and five cards, called the community cards or the board are dealt face up on the center of the table in three increments, 3-1-1. Since so few cards are dealt, more players can play at each table. Unlike 7-card stud with a maximum of seven players, the standard number of players in Hold‘em is nine or ten, though as many as eleven players can play.

After looking at their hole cards, the players start a round of betting. The first person to bet, seated to the left of the big blind, is commonly termed “Under the Gun.” This player has the option of folding, calling the big blind amount or raising the bet. The betting continues around the table until it reaches the big blind. The big blind has the option of checking (passing on making a bet) if no one made a raise, matching the raises if there were any, raising the bet, or folding. The betting then continues around the table until all players who have not folded (or mucked) their hand have had a chance to call the latest raise.

The dealer discards the top card in the deck face down, known as a burn card.¹ The flop follows with three cards turned up in the middle of the table². This follows with the second round of betting, beginning with the first player still in the hand to the left of the dealer button. This time the players have the option of a check or raise. If the first player bets, the other players have the option of calling the bet, raising or folding.

After discarding another burn card, the dealer shows the next card face up. This is known as the turn, or fourth street. Again, the first player still in the hand to the left of the button leads the players in a round of betting.

Finally, after a final burn card, the dealer turns the “river” card face up on the table. A final round of betting ensues. If at any time a player with fewer chips remaining than the current bet places all his chips in the pot (in other words, goes All-in), the pot equal to the All-in player’s bet, becomes the main pot. The remaining players can continue to bet, forming a separate (or side) pot. Several side pots are possible as each player makes an All-in decision.

Concept of the All-in

It is the concept of the All-in in No Limit that allowsplayers of differing chip stacks to compete at the same table. Before adoption of the All-in, if you could not call the most recent bet, you had to fold, allowing a player with deep pockets to control the game and take many hands uncontested. Everyone remembers the old westerns where the player would put up a favorite gold watch or the deed to the ranch to meet the bet of the card shark. The All-in, allowing the game to continue even when a player has no chips left to bet, levels the green felt and provides fairer betting.

 Once the final round of betting ends, the remaining players turn up their hole cards and the best five-card hand is the winner and takes the chips. If the All-in player wins the hand, they only receive the amount of chips from the main pot, with the next best hand receiving the side pot. If more than one player has the best hand, the dealer divides the pot between them. Figure 1-2 – Hand Rankings – shows the different possible hands and order they fall.

After each hand, the dealer button moves to the next player in a clockwise manner, the small blind and big blind post their bets, while the dealer shuffles the deck and the process begins again.