The form of poker most commonly played today is no limit Texas Hold ‘Em. The game can be played with as many as twenty three or as few as two players. At the start of the game each player is dealt two cards face down. These are known as the players ‘hole cards’ and they should be kept hidden from the other players. This is followed by a round of betting, which will be described later in this article.



Following the first betting round the dealer places three cards, known as the flop, face up in the centre of the table. These are ‘community’ cards, which can be used by all of the players along with their ‘hole cards’ in order to make a poker hand.









This is followed by a second round of betting. The dealer then places a fourth community card, known as the turn or fourth street, face up in the centre of the table, after which there is a third round of betting.



If there are still players remaining in the hand, then the dealer places a fifth community card, known as the river or fifth street, face up in the centre of the table and the remaining players undertake a final round of betting. The players then turn their ‘hole cards’ face up and the player with the best five card poker hand wins the money.



How does betting work?



The blinds:



In order to get the action going, before receiving their hole cards, the two players directly to the left of the dealer must each put a small bet into the pot. These are known as ‘the blinds’ because the players have to bet blind before seeing their cards. The first players’ blind is known as the small blind and the bet posted by the second player is known as the big blind.



These bets are usually very small, the big blind often being 1% of the chips in front of each player at the beginning of the game, although this can be altered depending on how much time you want the game to last. The small blind is normally half the amount of the big blind.



The first betting round:



After the ‘hole cards’ have been dealt the betting action starts with the player sitting directly to the left of the ‘big blind’. This is because the players in the blind positions are deemed to have acted already. This player has three choices. He can fold, call or raise.



If he chooses to fold he places his cards face down in the centre of the table and will play no further part in the hand. He will not be able to win any of the money in the pot.



His second option is to call. To do this he must place exactly the same number of chips into the pot as the big blind. For example, if the blind is $1.00 then he must place $1.00 into the pot to call.



The third option available to the player is to raise. To do this he must first call the big blind and then place additional chips into the pot. The player could, for example, declare that he is going to raise the bet to $4.00. To do this he must first call the $1.00 big blind and then place three additional dollars into the pot. In ‘no limit Texas hold ‘Em’ the raise can be any amount as long as it’s at least the size of the big blind.



Once this player has acted the action then passes to the player on his left and so on until it gets round to the player in the small blind.



The small blind his only bet half the amount of the big blind, so his options are to fold, in which case he loses the money which he has put into the pot, call $0.50 to make up his bet to the amount of the big blind or raise.



Action then passes to the player in the big blind. If nobody has raised then he has the option to raise. If there has been one raise then his options are to fold, call or re-raise.



Normally one raise and one re-raise is allowed per betting round. For example, player three could raise the bet to $4.00 as described earlier and then player four could re-raise the bet to $10.00. The re-raise must be at least the size of the first raise; in this case $4.00. Once there has been a raise and a re-raise then no more raising is permitted in the betting round.



Once each player, with exception to those who have folded, has put an equal amount of money into the pot then the betting round is over and the flop is dealt.



Subsequent betting rounds:



The second, third and fourth betting rounds work in almost the same way as the first except for a couple of differences.



In these betting rounds action commences with the player directly to the left of the dealer (the player in the small blind position). No bet has yet been made in this round unlike the first round in which the blinds counted as bets, so the first player has two options available to him.



This time his first option is to ‘check’. He puts no money into the pot and passes the decision to the player on his left. His other option is to bet. He can bet any amount, but it must be at least the amount at which the big blind is set.



Action then passes to the player on his left. If player one has checked then player two also has the option to check. As soon as a bet has been made then checking is no longer permitted. Players must then either fold, call or raise.

By: Rob Jenkins

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Rob Jenkins runs the article directory, www.informationinvasion.com and the music retail company www.Kangoo.co.uk