7 Stud is however still very popular, and it is actually one of our favorite games here at card kings. You will find a whole number of 7 card stud game varieties online. The Poker Room and Caribbean Sun have a large amount of 7 card stud players. The Absolute Poker online poker room has active 7 Card Stud games that range from micro limits to five or ten dollar games. Lastly, for the high roller players out there, you can play with $100 chips per pot at the Party Poker’s high limit 7 Card Stud tables.

The Ante, Deal, and Bring In
Most of the 7 card stud poker tables need an ante from all players before the cards are dealt. After the ante is done, every player gets three cards, of which two are face down and one is face up. The player with the lowest door card posts the bring in. Players to the left of the bring in then choose whether they want to fold, call or raise.

Forth to Sixth Street
In every round, each poker player gets a card face up. Here, the high hand is the one that starts the betting. Because of this the order of action can alternate every round. Another difference in play is that the betting limits go up on fifth street. If you play at a five or ten dollar table, third and forth street’s maximum raise is five dollars a bet. On fifth, sixth and seventh street, the limit will be ten dollars a bet.

Seventh Street
Everyone gets a seventh face down card. As with previous streets, there is another betting round, beginning with the person with the highest face up cards.

The Showdown
A showdown occurs if there are more than one person left after seventh street. The person who can form the highest five card hand will win. The standard best five card hand rules apply here.

Your mom was right when she taught you that patience is a virtue, as this skill will help you come far as a poker player.  Here are a few tips as to how to develop patience as a virtue when playing poker:

Patient poker players do not ever chase cards.  Yes, they will make you believe they are chasing cards, but this is actually all for show, to ensure the pot gets a lot fatter before they can claim their victory.  It is in inconvenient truth that poker players who are always chasing cards, are usually those who end up going home broke.

Patient poker players know when to raise the stakes.  These players are always aware of the right time to make their move, as they are always on top of the general feeling and ‘vibe’ of the table.

Patient poker players make very few mistakes.  When all is said in done, it’s usually the poker players who make the least mistakes that walk away victorious.  And as with all areas of life – patience leads to fewer mistakes in poker games.

Patient poker players know not to take the games personally.  You get a lot of poker players who focus on revenge and “getting back at” the guy who won the pot in the previous round. Many stupid mistakes are made because players get their ego and pride get in the way.  Really good and patient poker players know that this is pointless and they do not allow themselves to get involved in this.

Patient poker players do not allow themselves to react emotionally.  They know that everyone gets a couple of bad beats every now and then. Good players are always patient and don’t allow their emotions to get in the way of their best game

Be sure to also check out our other poker strategy articles here.

Random Rules

We have already explained how you can play the game of Texas Hold’ em poker and will now look at some random rules that you will encounter during the game.  Take note of these rules as they form part of the rules of the game.

Raising

When you have three or more players, it is possible to only have 1 bet and 3 raises during the entire betting round. This means that when the 3^rd raise has been made the betting is so called ‘capped’.  When the betting process has been capped, players may only choose between calling and folding.

There is something known as a string bet.  It is when a player tries to place their chips, go back to their stack, and then place more chips.  This is not allowed.  A poker player must say verbally that they intent to raise before they go over to action.  They can also choose to bet double the amount of the raise.

Buying Chips

When playing Texas Hold’em Poker, there is no maximum amount of chips that you can buy at any time but there is a minimum amount of chips. The house rules of the game will tell you how many chips you are allowed to buy before you start playing your first round.  This minimum amount of chips is usually around fifty or hundred times the amount of the big blind.

A poker players is allowed to add more chips to their poker stack aka reload, in between hands.  But once they have started playing a hand, they may not add any more chips.  Any extra chips will not be used in this game until the next hand is dealt.

We have now come to the end of our Learning How to Play Texas Hold’ em Poker series.  We hope that you have enjoyed reading this series and that you are on your way to becoming a good Texas Hold’ em Poker player.  Once you know the basics you still have to make sure to practice, practice, practice if you want to be able to compete against the big boys.  Luckily Texas Hold’ em is such a fun game that it won’t even seem like work.  Good luck at the tables!

How to evaluate your hands

The aim of Texas Hold’em Poker is to form the best possible hand by using any combo of your 2 cards & the 5 community cards that you will find on the table.

You can choose whether you want to use none, one, or both of your own Texas Hold’em cards to form your best hand. Let’s look at some rules that can help you learn how to evaluate the best possible poker hand:
• There is a specific poker hand ranking order. This order is always the same and there are no exceptions. For example, 3 of a kind always beats two of a pair and a flush will always beat a straight.
• Poker hands must consist of exactly 5 cards, and those five cards only.
• When 2 players have the same hand, it means that the pot will be split between them. The rest of the cards and what the other players have (which is not such great hands) means nothing. Only the best 5-card hand will be taken into consideration.

• If the rest of the players have nothing to contend these hands the winning hand is the one with the single card of the highest-value:
o A of clubs, 3 of hearts, 4 of diamonds, 6 of spades & 7 of spades trumps K of spades, Q of spades, J of clubs, 9 of clubs & 8 of diamonds
o A of clubs, J of hearts, 9 of spades, 8 of diamonds & 6 of hearts trumps A of hearts, J of clubs, 9 of diamonds, 8 of clubs & 2 of spades
• Suits do not determine the strength of a poker hand.

Once the winning hand is determined, that player wins the pot. The person to the left of the dealer now gets the dealer button and the 2 players who is now to the left of the dealer button will have to put out their big & small blinds.

To be continued in Learning How to play Texas Hold’em Poker Part 10, which will be published on this site next week.

In this eights part of our Learning how to play Texas Hold’em poker series, we will take a look at two of the most important parts of the Texas Hold’em game: the river and the showdown.  This is the part of the game which will really make or break your game.  Please pay special attention when reading this part and make sure you are fully alert when taking part in the River and Showdown part of your Texas Hold’em game.

The Texas Hold’em Poker River

When the Texas Hold’em game comes to the river part, there has to be more than one player left at this stage.  If there are more than one left who hasn’t given up and decided to fold on the previous streets stages, the fiver cards are now dealt.  The dealer deals the river cards just like he did the turn cards, with one face down card, and another single cards being dealt faceup.

The river is the final street of the Texas Hold’em game, and there will be no more cards dealt after this. This betting round is the same as the turn betting round.

The Texas Hold’em Poker Showdown

Once the river phase has completed, the players enter into the Texas Hold’em showdown. At this stage, having the best hand will win you the pot.

Here are the rules about the Hold’em showdown:

• The player who wagered at the river stage is the first player that must reveal their hand. If another player prefers to go first, this is allowed.
• If no one bet at the river stage, the player on the left of the poker dealer must reveal their hand first, and this continues in a clockwise fashion.
• If a player has a losing hand, they can now decide to simply fold or to reveal their hand to the other players.

To be continued in Learning How to play Texas Hold’em Poker Part 9, which will be published on this site next week.

The Flop

After the poker game’s pre-flop wagering round comes to an end, the flop is dealt.  The top card in the deck of cards are placed on the table’s surface, and acts as the burn card.  After that 3 cards are placed face up.

Once each player has his four cards, the 1^st post-flop round of betting begins.

The post-flop round of betting is very similar to the pre-flop betting round but there are 2 exceptions here.  The player who makes the first move is the next player, and this player can bet or check, as no bets have yet been made, and calling is therefore free.

If you want to place a bet on the flop, it will be the same amount as the big blind amount.  In our example game, you would therefore have to bet a quarter in order to place a bet.

The Turn

At the end of the betting round on the flop, the dealer wil then deal one face down card and one face up card to each player, also called the burn and turn cards.  After the burn and turn cards have been dealt, it signals the start of the third betting round.

This 3^rd round of betting is exactly the same as the flop betting round, except that there is one single exception: more money is at stake.  The size of this betting round and the last betting round, is doubled.  If players in our example game want to stay in the game, they will have to bet 50¢ per round.

Don’t miss our next article in this series, where the example game gets really serious and interesting.

To be continued in Learning How to play Texas Hold’em Poker Part 8, which will be published on this site next week.

Although it’s relatively simple to learn Texas Hold’em, it can take months or years to truly feel that you have become a good player.  One of the most important aspects of Texas Hold’em poker is the various betting rounds, which is what we will be discussing in this blog.

When the second player calls the big blind, all of the poker players will now have the same sum of cash in front of them.  At this time the third player (the big blind) hasn’t yet had a chance to make a move, which means that the betting round is not over.  Player three has to make a move or check, which signals the end of the betting round.

Example Betting Round 2

There are 5 players sitting at this poker table:

• First Player – Button
• Second Player – Small blind (bets 10 cents)
• Third Player – Big blind (bets 25 cents)

Betting round starts

1. Forth Player – Calls the big blind (bets a quarter)
2. Fifth Player – Raises (bets 50 cents)
3. First Player – Decides to fold
4. Second Player – Decides to fold
5. Third Player – Decides to re-raise (already have a quarter in as the big blind. Complete the bet of 50 cents, and add 1 extra bet = 75 cents)
6. Forth Player – Decides to fold ( previous call of a quarter is now in the pot)
7. Fifth Player – Decides to calls (matches the bet of the third player for a total of 75 cents)

Betting round ends

In this example, everyone had made move when Player 3 made a re-raise. It could not end there, though, as all players didn’t yet have the same amount of cash bet.

To be continued in Learning How to play Texas Hold’em Poker Part 7, which will be published on this site next week.

Although it’s relatively simple to learn Texas Hold’em, it can take months or years to truly feel that you have become a good player.  One of the most important aspects of Texas Hold’em poker is moves to make during the preflop stage, which is what we will be discussing in this blog.

During the preflop stage, once you have made your move, the player to the left of you gets a turn.  Every player gets the same options when its their turn, they can either fold, call the bet of the player on their right, or raise.

When you decide to raise, it will be the cost of the previous bet plus the amount of one bet.  I.e. if the big blind amount is a quarter, and you decide to raise, you will have to bet an extra quarter which brings your betting amount up to 50¢.

The betting round comes to an end when all the poker players have had a turn, and all the players who are still in the game has bet the same amount of money for this round.

An example of a betting round

Let’s say there are 5 players at the table:

Player 1 is the Button position
Player 2 is the Small blind (and bets 10¢)
Player 3 – is the Big blind (and bets 25¢)

The betting round starts

Player 4 – decides to call the big blind (bets 25¢)
Player 5 – decides to fold

Player 1 – decides to call the big blind (bets 25¢)
Player 2 – decides to call the big blind (they have already bet 10¢, and add another 15¢ = 25¢

Player 3 – decide to checks (they have already matched the bet and do not need to bet extra money)

Once the blinds are out, the game will then move on to the dealing of the first hand, which we will discuss in the next section.

To be continued in Learning How to play Texas Hold’em Poker Part 6, which will be published on this site next week.

Once the blinds are out, the game will then move on to the dealing of the first hand.  The person who deals the cards has to first deal to the person sitting to the left of the dealer button.  They then deal the cards in a clockwise manner – each player gets one card per deal until everyone has two cards.  These cards are called the hole cards.

Texas Hold’em poker has between one and four betting rounds, depending on what was decided beforehand.  A Texas Hold’em poker hand comes to an end when everyone but one has folded, or at the end of the fourth betting round.  If there are more than one player left on the final betting round, it is time for the showdown, which will be explained in a later part of this series of articles.

When all players have received their hole cards, you are now in the preflop betting round.  Players must look at their hole cards and decide whether they want to fold, call or raise.

Starting with the player sitting to the left side of the big blind position each player must either:

• Fold: throw away their hand and pay nothing to the pot;
• Call: match the big blind sum; or
• Raise: doubling the amount of the big blind.

To be continued in Learning How to play Texas Hold’em Poker Part 5, which will be published on this site next week.



Although it’s relatively simple to learn Texas Hold’em, it can take months or years to truly feel that you have become a good player. One of the most important aspects of Texas Hold’em poker is learning how to put out the blinds and handle the chips, which is what we will be discussing in this blog.

Putting Out the Blinds

After everyone has sat down and you have decided on a dealer, you need to put out the blinds. The game of Texas Hold’em has two blinds – a small blind and a big one. The player who sits on the left hand side of the dealer has to put out the small blind.

The big blind is around double the amount of the small blind, and must be put out with the player who is sitting on the left hand side of the person who put out the small blind. In other words, you get the dealer, and to the left of him you get the small blind, and to the left of him you get the big blind.

The size of the blind will depend on how much you will bet during the game. If you want to buy in for around twenty dollars, you should play with blinds of 10¢ and quarters.

Now you have to focus on chips. With the above example, you will need plenty of 10¢ and quarters to ensure that the game can continue smoothly without someone running out of quarters.

Usually players only need a couple of the smaller chips as these will mostly be used only to put out the small blinds. Most players will focus on the larger chips.

Once the blinds are out, the game will then move on to the dealing of the first hand. To be continued in Learning How to play Texas Hold’em Poker Part 4, which will be published on this site next week.