Texas Holdem Poker Basics

Cards: Texas Hold’em poker uses a standard 52-card deck.

Dealer: A disk (usually white) moves around the table during the game. This is known as the “dealer button” and represents which player is the notional dealer for the game. The “dealer button” is important because it dictates your “position” in the game which is a vital part of the decisions you make. The betting starts from just to the left of the dealer and moves clockwise around the table.

Betting Structure: Texas Hold’em poker games are generally structured in 3 ways:

• A “limit” game structure where there are limits on the size of bets that can be made in each round and therefore for the whole game

• A “pot limit” game structure where the maximum bet that can be made is equal to the amount of money that has already been bet at that point in the game (referred to as “the pot”)

• A “no limit” game structure where there are no limits on the size of bets that can be made at each round in the game.

When describing a game the terminology is usually along the lines of 1/2, 2/4, 3/6 etc. – 3/6 means is that the betting is done in multiples of 3 and 6 depending on the round of betting and the minimum bet is 3. In this case the “Big Bet” refers to a bet of 6 i.e. the amount of each raise in the last 2 rounds of betting in a “limit” game.

Betting Terms: In Texas Hold’em poker there is 1 way in which you can decline to bet and 4 ways in which you can bet. These are:

• Fold – you are not betting at all or not matching any bets that have been made and throwing your cards away.

• Check – you are not making any bet but are staying in the game and not making any bet at this time. You can only check if no-one else before you has bet and your check is outplayed if someone ahead of you bets.

• Call – you are matching any bet that has been made before you.

• Raise – you are betting more than all players before you. You generally must raise in multiples of the betting size for the round being played and there is generally a limit on the number of raises that can happen per round of betting.

• Re-Raise- you are betting more than all players before you, including one or more who had previously raised the betting level. If your re-raise is the final raise that reaches the maximum number of bets for the round then you have “capped the betting” for that round.

Blinds: The player immediately to the left of the dealer posts the “small blind” which is usually 1/2 (sometimes 2/3) of the minimum bet. The player to the left of the small blind is the big blind and must post an amount equal to the minimum bet. Without blinds, players could simply wait for AA and not play every other hand since they would be losing nothing for their patience. Therefore, the blinds force play to take place.