Betsson Poker School
Rules for Texas Hold´em
Up to ten players can play at one table. Every player is dealt
two cards, called hole cards or "pocket cards", that are not
visible to the other players. Five cards will be placed face-up
on the board. They are called "community cards" and everybody
can use them.
Combining hole cards with community cards
The players combine their hole cards with the cards on the board
to create a hand consisting of five cards. The player with the
best hand wins the pot.
Dealer
One player is the dealer, symbolised by a button with the letter
"D" in front of the player. The dealer button rotates clockwise
around the table. The dealer acts last in all rounds of betting
after the flop.
Blinds
Before every hand, the two players to the left of the dealer
post a compulsory bet each, the small blind and the large blind.
The size of the big blind depends on the table’s limit. The
small blind is half of the big blind.
Four betting rounds
Every hand consists of four betting rounds. The number of raises
per betting round is limited to three if you play limit poker.
The number of raises in Pot Limit and No Limit are unlimited. In
every betting round you choose between betting, checking,
calling, raising or folding.
Your options in a betting round:
Bet – nobody has bet and you want to do it.
Check – Nobody has bet and you do not want to either. Call –
somebody has bet, and you want to play, but not raise.
Raise – Somebody has bet and you want to raise. Fold – Somebody
has bet and you want to get out of the hand.
One or more players win the pot
After four betting rounds a winner is determined. A pot may be
split between several players, if they have the exact same hand. |
Most poker players are either uninterested in winning money when
they play, or else they do not know how small a role luck plays
in the game, and how important is skill and knowledge of the
game.
Most players are content with winning the occasional pot or
game, and are less interested in how they do in the long term.
For the serious poker player, on the other hand, the individual
hand or game is not important. The results over an extended
period of time are far more interesting.
In this section of the poker school, you will learn more advance
strategies. In order to benefit from this knowledge, you should
have played a fair bit of poker already, and be familiar with
the rules.
The main focus is on Internet poker, but most of the concepts
apply equally to both live and Internet poker, as well as to
both No Limit (NL) and Limit. In the instance of an example
applying only, or mainly, to a certain type of Hold’em, this
will be stated in the text.
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You make a difference
The difference between poker and, say, roulette, is that your
decisions in poker will make a difference to the game itself. In
roulette, it makes no difference if you choose to bet on red or
black, as you do not have any possibility of knowing in advance
where the ball ends up. In poker, on the other hand, the
decisions you make will make a huge difference to whether you
will be successful or not, and you can make well-founded
decisions in poker.
Using good information
There are vast amounts of information that the skilled poker
player can make use of to maximise his/her profit. If you are
the type of poker player who believe you have a lucky hand, for
example J9, get rid of it. Instead, use good information.
Information that many poker players already have produced for
you, and for which there are solid statistical bases.
Information based on logical reasoning, rather than
superstition.
Poker theory is fairly easy to learn and you do not need to
study as hard to become a good poker player, as you would in
order to win money on horses or the football pools. |