Texas Hold'em: the basics

Texas Hold'em is undoubtedly the most popular version of poker currently being played today. With thousands of games running on the likes of PKR poker, Texas Hold'em is the best game for those hungry for action.

But before jumping straight in, it's important that you understand the basic poker rules: hand ranking, how cards are dealt and the basic betting structure.

Hand rankings

A full poker hand is comprised of 5 cards, and is the best 5-card combination of the 5 cards on the board and the 2 cards in your hand. The best possible hands are ranked on how likely they are to occur. Find the basic hand rankings below:

Royal flush	AKQJT (10) (all of the same suit)
Straight flush	87654 (all of the same suit)
Four of a kind	7777 5
Full house	333 KK
Flush	J9542 (all of the same suit)
Straight	JT987
Three of a kind	888 A K
Two pair	77 66 Q
One pair	JJ A 9 3
No pair	K T 9 8 7

 

In cases where players have the same type of hand

Straights and flushes: the player with the highest straight or flush wins.

Full house: the player with the highest three of a kind wins.

pokeratitsbest.com No Pair: the player with the highest 5 card combination wins. If both players only use cards on the board, the pot is split between them.

Dealing:

All players are dealt 2 cards each, starting from the person in the small blind (the first person to the left of the dealer). Before any cards are dealt on the table, there is a round of betting.

One card is then discarded from the top of the deck and then 3 cards are dealt (flop), a round of betting then follows.  The fourth card (the turn) is then put down and is followed by another round of betting. If players still remain, the firth card (the river) is dealt. This is the final round of betting and if both players stay in – both players show their hands to see who has the best 5 card combination.

Betting Structures

The basic structure above is how all Hold'em games are played. The next thing to learn is the different betting games you can play.

No Limit: No Limit (NL) poker is the most common form of poker and as the name suggests, there is no limit to how much money you can bet at any one time. You could therefore put in all your chips before the first three cards have been dealt.

Pot Limit: Pot Limit is a sub category of limit poker. The maximum you can bet is the value of the pot (the money put into the middle). This means that all in situations are very rare unless you are short stacked.

Spread Limit: Spread Limit is a game where players can only bet within a specified range. In a $1-$5 Spread Limit game, you would only be able to bet between $1 and $5 on any street. Re-raises have to be double the initial raise.

Structured limit: Structured Limit works on a structured betting amount. The specified bet amount stays the same for pre-flop and flop bets. The turn and river bets then become double that specified amount.