Texas Hold’em – Best Online Poker Sites To Play at Texas Hold’Em

Texas Hold’em continues to explode in popularity around the world. Card rooms in every country and city, as well as online poker rooms, are crowded with players trying their best to become the next big winner.

Texas Hold’em is not only challenging, lucrative, and fun, but also presents the opportunity for an average Joe to ascent through the ranks and compete against the best in the world.

There are two main reasons for the incredible boost in popularity over the past two decades, and we’ll explain both in detail.

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Why is Texas Hold’em so popular?

The first noteworthy change over the past two decades was the introduction of the internet and the rise of online poker. New players can now practice and study the game, as well as their skills, without having to leave the comfort of their own homes. The rise of online poker also allowed players to enjoy multiple poker games at once where they could gain experience and far more practice in much shorter periods of time.

A typical land-based poker game will play an average of 20 hands every hour, whereas online poker tables can sometimes reach 100 hands every hour. If you multiply this by using several poker tables at once, you can understand how much quicker you can gain experience. This ultimately leads to more players testing their luck and land-based players getting more involved with the game.

The second noteworthy change over the past two decades is the rise in advertising of poker by media outlets and television. Poker professionals are now considered high rollers and celebrities, leading to loads of people wanting to try their luck and climb the ranks themselves to become one of the big guns. Media and television have also proved how much money can be made by simply playing poker, and therefore it’s easy to understand why viewers find it so appealing. Poker has always had minimal barriers of entry, even at the highest level.

If you’re an American football fan, the highest level in American football is the Super Bowl. Can you play in the Super Bowl? No. In poker, the highest level is the World Series. Can you play in the World Series of Poker? Yes. Anyone with enough cash can enter the main event. That means anyone will stand a chance to go against the best in the world, and if they win, they will be crowned a champion.

How to Play Texas Hold’em

Learning the game of Texas Hold’em looks more difficult than it actually is. The game itself is extremely simple and logical and only takes a few minutes to learn. Mastering the game, however, takes much longer. Texas Hold’em is primarily a community card poker game, with the focus on both the betting and the cards being dealt. The Texas Hold’em structure can be divided into three main categories, including Setup, Betting Rounds, and Showdown

Howcast

Setup

Texas Hold’em is played with 2 to 10 players, and each of them will get a stack of chips that will represent different values. Once the chips have been distributed, each player will get one card to determine who will start with the dealer button. The player with the highest card value will be considered the dealer. Texas Hold’em is played with a rotating dealer, which means each player will act as the dealer for only one hand. Once the hand is completed, the dealer button will move to the next player on the left.

Once the dealer has been determined, you can put out the blinds. In Texas Hold’em there are two blinds, a small blind and a big blind. The player situated to the left of the dealer button will be small blind, and the player to the left of the small blind will be big blind. The blinds will indicate the size of the stakes during gameplay and are usually 100 times the size of the big blind. If players want to buy-in for $20, the blinds should be $0.10/$0.25.

Betting Rounds

The player dealing the cards will deal to the left of the dealer button first and rotate around the table, giving each player one card every time until every player has two cards. The two cards are known as hole cards.

The Preflop

Once all the players received their two cards, you will be in the preflop betting round. The preflop betting round will start with the player situated on the left of the big blind. The player will have three options:

• Fold – A player will contribute nothing to the pot and will also throw away their hand. Once a player folds, he is out of the hand and will wait for the next game to be dealt.
• Call – A player will match the big blind amount to stay in the game.
• Raise – A player will raise the bet by doubling the big blind amount. They can also raise more depending on the betting styled being used.

A betting round will end once two conditions have been met: Every player has made their decisions to either fold, call, or raise, and all players who haven’t decided to fold have bet the same amount.

The Flop

After the preflop betting round, the flop is dealt. The top card of the deck is dealt face down on the table, known as the burn card, followed by three cards being dealt face-up on the table. Once the flop is dealt, the initial post-flop betting round will start. The post-flop rules are the same as the preflop with two exceptions: The player on the left of the dealer will act first, and the first player can either check or bet, as no bets have been made, and therefore calling is free. Betting on the flop is the big blind amount.

The Turn

Once the flop betting round is completed, the dealer will deal one more card facedown and another single card face-up, known as ‘burn and turn’. The third betting round will start after the turn has been dealt. This betting round will be the same as the flop betting round but with one small exception: The bet size for this round, and the final round will be doubled.

The River

If there is still more than one player left on the table, the river will be dealt. The river is dealt in the same way as the turn is dealt, with one card facedown and another single card face-up. No additional cards will be dealt in the final street, and the betting round is the same as that of the turn.

Showdown

After the river betting round is completed, the remaining players will enter a showdown. Essentially, the hands will be evaluated, and the best hand will take the pot. The rules for a Texas Hold’em showdown include:

• The player who made a bet on the river is by default the player who needs to reveal his hand first.
• If no additional bets were made on the river, as everyone checked, the player closest to the left of the dealer button will reveal their hand first.
• Should a player hold a losing hand, they can decide if they want to show their cards or muck.

Texas Hold’em Frequently Asked Questions