The game played in today’s poker television shows, and also the game played in World Poker Tour and in the main event of the World Series of Poker, Texas Hold’em poker is a fun and easy to learn poker game that is extremely addictive. Watch out if you start playing because it might just get you. It's a fun, I mean really, really fun.



Texas poker even has different versions, as there are ‘no limit’, ‘pot limit’, and ‘fixed limit’ variations. These all referred to various wagering limits during the course of a given hand, the basic rules of the games themselves remained unchanged. The no limit version is the kind played on television. It is probably the most exciting and that is why it gets so much airtime. In no limit poker, a player can make the famous ‘all-in’ bet at during any round of betting. In pot limit poker, players are limited in their wagering to the size of the pool, or ‘pot’, while betting. Fixed limit poker has hard and fast rules about how much you can bet, or a multiple of the ante, as the betting limit.









Often, unlike the more familiar ante found in traditional poker games, Texas poker uses what are called ‘blinds’ for the ante. Blinds are forced bets that are almost always more than the ante, they are limited to two players for any given hand. The player to the right of the dealer must ante the ‘big blind’, and the player to their right must make the ‘small blind’ which is half the amount of the first blind.



Each player is dealt two cards dealt face down. These cards are known as the players ‘pocket’ cards, and they are for that player's eyes only. The first round of betting begins with the dealer, and ends with the player that made the big blind. The player can either call the bet made by the big blind, raise it to any amount allowed by the betting restrictions, or fold.



When the betting is done, three cards are dealt face up into the center of the table. These cards all called ‘the flop’ and are ‘community cards’, and they are in use by all the players in an attempt to make the best poker hand possible combined with their pocket cards. More betting takes place, this time with the player to the left of the dealer, and ending with the dealer.



Let all of those pets are in, a fourth community card is dealt, called ‘the turn’. Bedding at once again takes place for this round beginning with the player to the left of the dealer, and ending with that dealers that. A final community card called ‘the river’ is then dealt in the same fashion, which is followed by yet another and this time the final round of betting following the same order. The players then use all seven cars to construct the best five card hand that they can come up with to decide who the winner is.



Texas poker is clearly very position dependent. The dealer has a decided advantage because they get to see the other players bets before deciding how they want to play the hand. The dealer position shifts to the left with each hand to balance this. Since the game is often played using a professional dealer, a disc called 'the button’ is used to signify the dealer position and it is this button that circles around the table instead. If you haven't already, give Texas poker a shot. I bet you'll love it.

By: Marc Guidry

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Marc is a professional online poker player produces a poker column. For tons of poker strategy articles from Marc check out his website and find some great deals for online poker rooms like Bodogpoker and a Partypoker Bonus Code as well as many other online poker bonuses.

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