Poker-Times.com brings it’s readers the best sites where you can play online texas hold em! The texas hold em sites that our poker industry insiders recommend are simply the best places to play a game of texas hold em on the web. All of the sites listed below offer both free hold em poker as well as no limit texas games for real money. Enjoy our explanation of the rules of texas hold em as well as our shortlist of recommended places to play!
Texas Holdem is the fastest growing card game in the world. It’s a very popular card game that is simple to learn and extremely exciting to play. Whether you’re new to texas hold em or a hold’em veteran, you can find a game online anytime, 24-7, 365 days a year at any one of many poker rooms. This includes both texas hold’em ring games and texas hold em tournaments as well as other poker games such as omaha, stud, and more.
Let’s move on to the meat and potatoes of the game!
Before the game starts, the dealer shuffles up a regular 52 card deck of playing cards. This deck includes 4 of every card starting with the low card 2 and the high card being ace.
The betting structure in texas hold em can vary. You will find games as low as .02 all the way up to $200/$400. The game starts with two players tossing in a predetermined amount of money to play for called “the blinds” or posting the blinds. The blinds are determined by position. The players tossing in the blinds are the two players to the left of the dealer. Next, every player at the table is dealt two cards face down. These are called your “hole” or “pocket cards.” Next, a round of betting starts with the player positioned to the left of the two who posted the blinds. This round of play in Texas Hold’em is called the pre-flop-betting-round. The bet amount depends on what kind of game is going on, providing there is a limit on the bets. You will see either a check (pass with an option to play later) or an amount bet and then the betting goes around the table clockwise until all the players have had the option to check, bet, call, raise, re-raise, or fold (depending on what the player did before them). At the end of the betting round the dealer will announce to all the remaining players how many players remain active in the hand and then discards the top card of the deck. This card is referred to as the burn card in all texas hold em games.
Next, the dealer turns the next three cards face up on the table. These cards are referred to as the flop and are communityl cards that all players still playing in the game can use with their two hole cards to form the best possible five card texas holdem hand. (See our poker hands page for order of rank.) Next, another round of betting follows the flop with the player to the left of the dealer required to start the betting. At this point in the game the players left in the hand have the option to check, bet, call, raise, or re-raise (depending on what the player before them did).
Once the round of betting is finished the dealer burns the next card and turns the subsequent card onto the table. This card is commonly referred to as the “turn” card or “fourth street”. The remaining players can use this card and any combination of the four cards on the table with the two cards in their hand to make the best poker hand. In texas hold em it’s always important to know whether or not you have the best possible poker hand represented by the cards showing and you should know what cards if any, will likely beat your best possible poker hand. Read more here: poker odds. The player to the left of the dealer initiates another round of betting. In the event that there’s a limit on the maximum bet, this round (and in the last betting round) the maximum allowable bet size would double. In other words in limit texas hold em games the betting would have gone from $10 maximum to $20 maximum if the game was a $10/$20 game.
Next and after the betting round has been completed, the poker dealer burns the next card and places the final card face up on the table. This card is referred to as the “river card” in texas hold’em and is the final card dealt by the dealer which leaves five community cards showing on the table. Players can now use ANY of the five cards on the poker table or any combination of either none or one or two of their hole cards with the remaining cards on the poker table to form their best five-card poker hand. It is at this point that each player left in the game will know whether or not they have the best possible poker hand given the five cards on the poker table and the two cards in their hand. Any player still in the game holding the best possible card or cards that make up the best possible poker hand is said to be holding the “nuts”. The poker player(s) holding the nuts is the only player(s) at the table who can’t lose the hand. Needless to say, the player holding the nuts in texas hold’em is the best position to be in when all the cards are on the table. Next, a final round of betting takes place. Once all betting is finished, the players remaining in the game showl their hands. Traditionally the player to the left of the last player to call shows his cards first and then the players show their cards in a clock-wise rotation. This part of the game is referred to as the showdown.
The best hand wins (unless there is a tie). The cards speak for themselves so the player doesn’t have to indicate which five cards make up his or her best five card poker hand. In online texas hold’em, the poker rooms software will automatically advise you of who won and what their winning hand was as well as how much the winning hand collected. Winning money is automatically added to your bankroll.
