| Texas Hold'em Rules A Texas Hold'em game starts with a round disc -- commonly known as a "dealer button" -- rotating in a clockwise direction by one seat. The button marks which player is the dealer. The dealer always has a positional advantage of being the last person to act in turn therfore rotating the button is necessary for fair play. The game proceeds with the two players to the left of the dealer putting a predetermined amount of money into the pot before any cards are dealt, ensuring that there's something to play for on every hand. This is called "posting the blinds." Most often, the "first blind" -- the player to the left of the dealer -- puts up half the minimum bet, and the "second blind" puts up the full minimum bet. Each player is dealt two cards, face down. A round of betting begins with the player to the left of the two who posted the blinds. Players can call, raise, or fold when it's their turn to act. After the first betting round, three cards are dealt face up in the center of the table These cards are called the "flop." After the flop, another round of betting takes place, beginning with the player to the left of the dealer (the button). During this and all future rounds of betting, players can check, call, raise, or fold when it's their turn. A fourth card is dealt to the center of the table, this is called the Turn or sometimes called Fourth Street Another round of betting commences with the minimum bet now increased to the higher limit The fifth and final community card is dealt to the boad.. known as the River or Fifth Street There is a final round of betting and a showdown with whoever is left and has not folded The betting structure in a limit game is limited to 4 bets/round. Let us use for an example a 50c/$1 game Preflop and at the flop, the bets and raises are limited to the 50c level. At this level, there can be a bet 50-> raise1-> reraise1.50 ->reraise 2 -> call If the betting is capped, each player who did not fold has contributed $2 to the pot. At the turn and river, the bets are doubled to the higher limit ($1) At this level, there can be a bet 1-> raise2-> reraise3 ->reraise 4 -> call If the betting is capped, each player who did not fold has contributed $4 to the pot. If the betting was capped at each round, each player who stayed in would have contributed a total of $12 If the hand does not reach a showdow (someone bet and everyone else folds) the pot is awarded to the person who bet without any obligated to show their cards. They could have been bluffing and stole the pot or they could have had a good hand Nobody knows. This is what makes poker a fascinating game. Ofcourse, for all this to be meaningful the game must be played for real money otherwise everybody just calls all the way to the river with impunity . |
