Texas holdem

The Texas Hold'em Poker Card game

The history of Texas hold’em

The most popular form of poker played in the world today. Many believe that this game was developed to introduce the poker game to new players.

The origin is unknown, but the 7-card Stud derivate game is said to be originated in Texas, Robstown, in the early 1900’s. It was first played in the Golden Nugget casino, Las Vegas, late 1960s. Due to the easy learn-line (in comparison with other forms of poker) and dynamism, it was easy to link Texas hold’em and tournaments. In 1971 Texas hold’em no-limit (no-limit idea from Tom Thackrey, a journalist) was the form of poker chosen to decide the Champion of the World Series of Poker (former Annual Gambling Fraternity Convention) in the Benny Binion's Horseshoe Hotel and Casino, when it began to gain popularity (1972 had 8 entrants, in 1982, more than 100 entrants and in 1991 there were over 200 entrants).

For that reason, Doyle “Texas Dolly” Brunson (he, Amarillo Slim and Crandell Addington introduced hold 'em to Las Vegas in 1967) called it The Cadillac of Poker.

The first literature about Hold’em was published in 1978, Super/System (by Doyle Brunson), a complete strategy guide for poker in general, the book that transformed the way poker was played, and considered one of the most important books for the game. A book covering the World Series of Poker and the player’s world was published by Al Alvarez years later.

Although the growing interest in Texas hold’em out of Nevada in early 80s, California banned Hold’em under a statute that considered “stud-horse” illegal. In 1988, it was declared that Hold’em and “stud-horse” were different, and card rooms across the state could offer Hold’em.

However, the game wasn’t well known worldwide until a regular player wins his seat ($10.000 buy-in) at the Main event of The World Series of Poker through an online satellite tournament. In that year, 2003 (with 839 entrants), this regular player Christopher Bryan, The Chris “Moneymaker” won the Championship title, $2.5 million and putted the Cadillac in the front seat of Poker Card games in casinos all over the world, attracting millions of players (pros, semi-pros, gamblers, celebrities, etc…) to play for a lot of money (The World Series of Poker, in 2008 will pay $9.1 million to the first place, in a tournament that had 6844 entrants).

Texas Hold’em Poker Online

After the “Moneymaker” explosion, boosted by the World Poker Tour debut (2003), and the Hollywood Rounder’s (1998, with Matt Damon) film, it was inevitable that the growing internet community would be out of Poker’s tentacles. The “poker boom” created a great amount of Poker Room sites that increased the number of players (amateur and professional) incredibly. In 2006, almost 9000 players competed for the $10.000 buy-in No-Limit Texas Hold’em World Championship.

Rules/How to play

Poker Rank Cards

The player that holds the highest ranking card wins the Pot. See the card Rank, from the higher to the lower:

1 – Straight Flush (Called ROYAL Flush(higher than the Straight Flush), when the sequence is 10 to Ace).

All the cards are suited and in sequence.

2 – Four of a kind.

3 – Full House.

Three of a kind + a pair.

4 – Flush

All the cards are suited.

5 – Straight.

All the cards are in sequence.

6 – Three of a kind.

7 – Two pairs.

8 – One pair.

9 – High card.

If no one have the hands above, wins the hand with the higher card.

The Blinds

Before the distribution of the cards, a disc called “the button” is positioned in front of a player that will be called dealer of the turn. In clockwise, the next player puts half of the minimum bet – he is called the Small Blind-, and the player next to him puts the minimum bet – called the Big Blind. They are called blinds; because they have the obligation to put the bet without know which cards they will have. After that, the cards are distributed (the two Hole cards).

The pre-flop

After seeing the cards,the next player from the Big Blind (clockwise) can Call (pay the bet = big blind), Raise the bet or just Fold and wait for the next turn. The next player clockwise do the same choices and the next players go on , ALLWAYS CLOCKWISE. The small blind can put the other half part of the bet, raise or fold, and the big blind can Check (he already putted the bet), raise or fold.

The pre-flop can gather a large amount of money if the players believe that their hands are really good and keep raising each other bets!

The betting structure varies with the type of Hold’em (limit, no-limit, and pot-limit).

The All-In

It’s just a raise that put ALL OF YOUR CHIPS in table. The player can go All-In any time after the beginning of the pre-flop. Of course it’s the craziest move if the player isn’t 100% sure that he will won the pot.

The flop

Three cards are placed in table, and they are called community cards, because all the players can use then to build their hands to win the pot (note that the player can win the pot without use any of his hole cards.).

The first player to bet is the first player clockwise after the Button. Again, he can call, raise, fold and go all-in depending on how good he feels his hand and the combination with the table is.

The Turn

Now, the fourth card is putted on the table (the turn is called 4^th-street too). One more round of bets, raises, folds or all-ins.

The River

The last card, the fifth card (also called 5^th-street) is putted in the table, and the players again go in a round of bets.

The showdown

If there is no more betting and there is more than one player left, the last bettor shows his or her cards (if there is no bet, the first player clockwise of the Button shows the hand).The player with the best five-card hand wins. If the hands are equal, the pot is divided equally.

A new round begins, with the button moving clockwise to the next player.

Want to see it working?  Check out this video.

The three major variations in Texas Hold’em:

Limit Texas Hold’em:

The number of bets is limited in 4 in any betting round. They are the bet, raise, re-raise and cap (final raise).

No limit Texas Hold’em:

Obviously there is no limit in the amount of the bet in the betting round, but there is a minimum bet that must be equal to the previous bet or raise in the same round.

Pot-limit Texas Hold’em:

 Here, the maximum bet in a round of bets is the amount of the current pot (the sum of the blinds, and the bets until the player’s turn.).

Tournament types:

Major Live Tournaments:

Usually occurs in Casinos, like the World Poker Tour and World Series of Poker. The entry fees are typically $2.000 to $10.000 ($25.000 in the final table at The Bellagio). The blinds increase every hour of hour and a half, and the players tend to be more conservative. In Major Tournaments there are fewer players involved in each hand, generally with 2 or 3 players in each round of bets.

Small Stakes Multi-table Online Tournaments:

Fast tournaments with entry fees range from $1 to $30 with the blinds increasing rapidly and lot of players tend to be more aggressive. This type of tournament involve more lucky than slower events (a large number of inexperienced players plus short round plus rapidly increase of blinds). Bluffs don’t work in these games.

High-Stakes Multi-table Online Tournaments:

Entry fees of $100 and up. Many of the Pros pass their time between live tournaments playing one of two of these events. These tournaments are similar to live multi-tables in some ways: the rounds are longer compared to other online events (15minutes or so) and fewer players in the round of bets are examples. Players in this type of tournaments tend to be more aggressive than Major events, but less aggressive than they are in Small Stakes events.

Single-Table Sit and Go Online Tournaments:

Entry fee range from $1 to $100. Blinds increase rapidly (about every ten hands) and tournament pays the last three players. It’s another popular form of tournament in Online sites.

Live Single-Table Satellites:

Occur in conjunction with most major tournaments. A casino running a $10.000 buy-in major event might hold satellites with $1.000 entry fees, with the winner getting a seat to the main event. There will also be satellites for satellites ($100 to try to win your seat at $1.000 satellite, and so on.). These tournaments are very similar to Single-table online tournaments discussed above, and the strategy (more about strategy below) to Single-table online tournaments  apply here as well.

Ca$h Game:

No tournament here man. You can seat, play a round of bets, and leave. Or you can seat, play 1000 rounds of bets and stay sit. Just like that. You only leave without want if you lose all of your bankroll. The strategy and style of play are completely different from tournaments, but it’s a very fun (and profitable) type of playing poker. Online or not. 

Introduction to Poker Strategy:

I mean introduction because here you will not see some important concepts like Pot odds, implied odds, and most of the mathematic of poker. Here I will try to cover the basic and general concepts not only to Texas Hold’em, but in most of card games (like Omaha, and 7-card Stud).

You really should, after finishing this article, search for good Poker Books.

This part of the article also has my own experiences, and sometimes things I write won’t be a rule. In fact they’ll be more tips than anything. So, read good books and go for your own experiences.

1 – Be patience.

Be prepared to wait good hands to spend your chips. Patience in poker = money. It takes time, effort and a lot of work to win more than loses. Yes, some days you will lose. You can’t judge your poker ability based in some good results. Patience will provide you experience in organize your game with hands that you really trust, don’t spend a lot of chips in that hand that you knew was a mistake in the beginning and the most important: Patience decrease the chances of lose all your good results in a moment of TILT (see below). Your goal should be making the best possible play every time.

2 – Study the other players.

3 – Study yourself in good and bad runs.

4 – Know when to quit (avoid TILT).

Tilt is a term for when the poker player become emotionally unable to play a good game. Other player will know this weak moment, and will try to take advantage. And they will take advantage, but only if you let them. If you identify you are in verge of lose it, JUST STOP. The game will be there 10 minutes from now, and actually, it will be there tomorrow. If you are playing a tournament, try to take your time and wait for a VERY GOOD hand. When you have it, play aggressive, because the other players won’t believe in you, and most of them will pay your raise. This is the time to take most of your lost back.

Top hands:

Many professional poker players elected their top 10 starting hands. The selection I like the most is the Phil Helmuth’s list:

1. A-A

2. K-K

3. Q-Q

4. A-K suited

5. J-J

6. 10-10

7. 9-9

8. 8-8

9. A-Q suited

10. 7-7

These are very good starting hands, because there is a great possibility that the flop will make then even stronger than they are before it. Be aggressive playing this hands, keep in mind that less players playing the round of bets makes a really good hand almost invincible. But don’t raise your bet hell high too early, because everybody will read your hand and fold!

Playing styles:

All players have all types of playing styles. But from people to people there’s one that predominates. That’s your natural playing style. A good poker player try to hide his natural style mixing styles during the game, but in a long run (and if your name [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16]become famous) eventually other players will know your style and play based in it. No problem on that, if you know someone for some time, you can tell if he/her is patience, angry, psychotic, cool, careless… person. It happens in poker too. That’s why you have to master the mix style, because according to Dan Harrington there’s a poker paradox that says:

"You’ll make the easiest money when you’re playing a style opposite to your natural one."

And thinking about that, it’s not difficult to presume that it makes a lot of sense.

The conservative approach:

The emphasis is preserve your stack playing fewer, but high-quality card, in a way that makes your next decision easier, and avoiding all-in moves unless you have a monster hand.

Conservative players generally only play the top 10 hands when betting first, and some more when they are in the middle and the ending positions.

The aggressive approach:

The emphasis is to start a bet with all pairs, any two face cards, Ace-X, almost any suited connectors. The aggressive player isn’t terribly concerned with his position in table, and they have advantages compared to conservative players, like plays a lot of pots, steal a lot of pots, and he is much more harder to read than the conservative. But he face more difficult decisions after the flop, will more often run into monster hands and face much bigger swings in the stack size.

"To play aggressively requires much more skill."

The Super-Aggressive Style:

“Starting requirements and position in the table? We don’t need that!”

Yeah, this is a super-aggressive natural style, and he is capable to start his/her game with any card, in any position. Against this player, you could be facing a straight, pair or a set. It requires a lot of observation and creativity to play like this. A notorious name in this style is Gus Hansen.

But there’s one thing to say about this type of player. They don’t search for expensive confrontations; they just want to keep stealing blinds and pots. Of course once in a while they’ll have monster hands, and you’ll be in trouble, but if you want to win a super-aggressive player, you’ll have to use your arsenal too.

Welcome to this fabulous world of bluff, tactic and adrenaline. I hope you liked.