Texas Hold’em: A Beginner’s Guide

It’s not just a game, it’s an art. Texas Hold’em in the most popular form of poker in the United Kingdom – but don’t worry! This guide from us here at Casino77 should have everything you need to know for your next round at home or online.

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Texas Hold’em History

The game of poker has been around for centuries and is still popular to this day despite its humble beginnings in the small town Robstown, Texas. Poker enthusiasts were introduced to a new way of playing their favourite pastime when it was brought to Las Vegas by California Club member Hal Dowling.

When entering any casino now you are likely to be met with a number of poker tables and variations of the game being played but without doubt the Texas Hold’em variation is most popularly played online.

How To Play Texas Hold’em

Texas Hold’em is a game played between two and ten players with one dealer, which you will find in cash games or tournaments. However, if there isn’t enough dealers it can be a bit hectic to take turns dealing the cards-but of course that doesn’t come into effect when playing online.

Before cards are dealt the nominated players must put in their blinds, there is a big blind and a small blind and these rotate to the left of the dealer. The reason for doing this is to make sure there is a minimum pot for each round and to stop players from just sitting on their hands. As the game goes on the blinds will also increase to try and limit the game timewise.

Each payer gets dealt two cards and three cards get dealt into the middle, these are community cards and the first three are called ‘the flop’. Once the cards are dealt the opening round begins and starting from the player to the left of the big blind each player has the option to call the big blind (bet the same amount as the big blind), raise the big blind (bet more than the amount of the big blind) or fold their hand (no bet is placed and the player gives up their cards and sits out of this round).

Once the bets are in a card is burned by the dealer and then a fourth card is laid face up with the community cards, this is called ‘the turn’. Starting from the dealers left the players now have four options:

Check – advance through the round without betting as currently there is no bet to match.
Call – Match the highest bet.
Raise – Increase the highest bet.
Fold – Return your cards to the dealer and sit out of this round.

We now come to the final part of the game where the remaining players will be dealt a fifth community card, this is called ‘the river’. With all the cards now on the table the objective is to make the best five cards possible from the two in your hand and the five in the middle, again starting from the dealers left. This is the last opportunity for players to put their bets in, once all bets are in it is time to see who has the best hand and who will be taking home the chips.

Texas Hold’em Hands Ranking

Working down from the top you can see the best hands in Texas Hold’em.

Royal Flush – 10, Jack, Queen, King, Ace all in the same suit.
Straight Flush – Five cards all in a numeric row, all the same suit.
Four of a Kind – The same card in each of the four suits.
Full House – A pair plus three of kind.
Flush – Five cards all of the same suit but they do not need to be in numerical order.
Straight – Five cards in numerical order but they do not need to be the same suit.
Three Of A Kind – Three of one card + 2 non paired cards.
Two Pair – Two different pairs in one hand.
One Pair – One pairing of the same card.
High Card – No matching cards, Ace high.

We hope you have taken something from our guide and can stop the bluffing and start reeling the chips in, make sure to check out our promotions page for any exclusive bonuses and offers.

Remember to always gamble responsibly, for any further information on this topic visit our helpful pages.