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The basic principle behind
Texas Holdem Poker is that each player gets only two
cards (which only he can see). The winner is the one
of the remaining players at the end who can put
together the best five-card poker hand as a
combination of his two cards and five open cards
(so-called "community cards") on the table.
In this example, Player
A has a straight with his Jack and the 8, 9, 10 and
Queen from the community cards. This beats the two
pairs which Player B can form with his 3 and 9
together with the 3, 9 and one more community card.
But it is a long way to
the end, with several opportunities to bet money or
drop out of the game.
BETTING ROUNDS
Not all cards are dealt
at once. First each player just gets his own two
cards, and everybody has a chance to bet money
according to what they expect they will be able to
form with the cards later. The procedure is known as
a round of betting. Afterwards, the first three
community cards are dealt.
The players now know a
little more about how useful their cards might be
and they get another betting chance. After this
round, the fourth community card is dealt, followed
by another round of betting, then the fifth
community card -- and finally the last betting
round. When this is over, the players may reveal
their cards and the winner is determined as
explained above.
Betting is always done
in clockwise order. The first person to act is the
one sitting on the left-hand side of the player who
deals the cards. Consequently, the dealer will be
the one who gets to wait the longest before acting.
Having seen what all the
other players did, the dealer has access to more
information and is in a better position than the
others. To make things fair, the players take turns
to deal the cards. After each finished hand, the
dealer position is moved one seat clockwise.
The first person to act
has three choices: he can bet ,fold (i.e. give up)
or check , which is the same as doing nothing and
just passing the opportunity to the next player.
After the initial bet,
if there is one, the rest of the players in turn
have the corresponding three choices to raise the
bet, fold or call , which means matching the bet of
the previous players.
A round of betting is
finished when all the remaining players have acted
at least once and contributed the same amount to the
pot. (To keep rounds from going on indefinitely,
there can be at most three raises per round.)
AMOUNTS TO BET
The size of bets or
raises is determined by the rules of the game rather
than by the individual players. During the first two
rounds, all bets and raises are equal to a number
called the minimum bet, and during the last two,
bets and raises equal the maximum bet. Typically,
the maximum figure is twice the minimum and a Holdem
Poker table where, for example, the minimum is $3
and the maximum $6 is referred to as a $3-6 table.
A special case is when a
game, or hand , starts. The two nearest players on
the dealer's left-hand side have to place mandatory
bets equal to half the minimum bet and the whole
minimum bet respectively. Those bets are known as
blinds due to the fact that the players have not yet
seen their cards. This is to ensure that there is
always something in the pot. Afterwards, the
players' individual cards are dealt and the the
first betting round picks up from that point.
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