Learning How to play Texas Hold'em Poker Part 4

This was published 31-05-2010

Welcome to Learning How to play Texas Hold’em Poker Part 4, the forth part of our series of blogs on how to learn Texas Hold’em.  To take full advantage of these articles, it’s recommended that you read them in sequence.
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 more about game play and the betting rounds, which is what we will be discussing in this blog.

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.



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