Texas Holdem Poker

The History of Texas Holdem Poker

Texas holdem poker is the most popular poker game played in online poker rooms and in casinos all over the world especially in the USA, Canada and Europe.
The World Poker Tour and many other tournaments all over the world use Texas holdem poker in order to decide the winner and ultimate poker champion.
There isn’t enough exact information on how and where Texas holdem poker game got originated. The legend about the game says that the first location the game was ever played at was Robstown Texas in 1900.

Texas holdem poker was driven from the original classic poker game, 7 card stud and still a poker player (also in online poker rooms) have to make a 5 cards hand out of 7 cards. If you choose to play Texas holdem poker in an online poker room remember what is commonly said about it, it takes two minutes to learn the game, but a life time to master it.

The World Series of Poker Tournament (W.S.O.P.) has been organized since 1970 at the Horseshoe in Las Vegas and since then the game which is played in that tournament, has become the most famous poker game and has been played by poker players all over the world. The game began to take a front seat to other poker games such as: 7-stud poker, Omaha poker and 5-crad drew.

There are several factors which cause this world wide growth of Texas holdem poker. One reason is the invention of online poker, another reason is poker game's appearance in films and on television (the 1998 film, Rounders), television commercials advertising in online poker rooms have influenced the growth of Texas holdem poker, as well as the WSOP championship victory by online qualifier.
Texas holdem poker entered the internet around the same time as the start of the success of online casinos, during the 90's of the 20th century, that’s why it’s not quite clear what was the first free online poker website that started featuring online poker games Texas holdem poker style.

The ability to play poker cheaply and anonymously online has been the reason for the increase growth and popularity of Texas holdem poker. Online poker sites allow people both for professional and amateur poker players alike to try out and experience in a much shorter period of time different ranks and types of poker games. At the same time it also gives people world wide the ability to play in large online poker tournaments.

Texas holdem poker rules and strategy

Texas holdem poker has very simple rules, which make it easy for beginners to learn and immediately go to an online poker room and play. Nevertheless it is at the same time fast and complex. In Texas holdem poker, whether played at online poker rooms or motor and brick poker room, each player gets two pocket hole cards, while five community cards are being dealt faced up on the poker table and form the online poker room's board. The basic rule of Texas holdem poker is that a player needs to make the best ranking hand from any five cards out of the seven possible cards, that means zero to two hole cards plus three to five board cards that sums to total five cards.

In online poker rooms where playing Texas holdem poker, like all variants of poker, the players compete/bet for an amount of money contributed by the poker players themselves. This amount of money called in online poker game a “pot”. In online poker games the cards are dealt randomly and that is for the fact that each poker player attempts to control the amount of money in the pot based on the hand the he holds. In online poker room, there are 4 dealing steps:

First step- Blinds and Hole cards

Before receiving any cards, online poker rooms just like real ones will charge the blinds from two poker players. A small blind is being paid by the poker player sitting to the left of the dealer button and a big blind is paid by the poker player to the left of the small blind. Blinds uses as a "tax" for playing at online poker room and real poker rooms, they also stimulate the pot. Almost all Texas holdem poker rooms are not charging antes, unless in late stages in poker tournaments. Blinds got their name because they are being paid before seeing the cards. As the button shifts clock wise after each hand, the blinds position is circulating with it.

Than each poker player in the online poker room is dealt couple private cards which he usually won't show to anybody, those cards are usually referred as hole cards or pocket cards. Different poker rooms have different rules regarding showing your hole card to the opponent players in the poker room. Now the bettings in the online poker room begins.

The first player in the online poker room to bet is the poker player sitting to the left of the big blind. He must than at list call the big blind if not to raise, or he has to fold. In this stage, players can not check, as the blinds are an active bet.

Second step- The flop

In the second step three community poker cards are dealt facing up on the table at the poker room. Those cards are called in online poker “the flop". They are part of the 5 community cards that are dealt in total in the game and are referred as the Board, from which poker player have to choose between three to five cards to complete their poker hand. After the flop is out on the table at the online poker room a second round of betting takes place. As before, the first poker player to bet is the one sitting to the very left of the dealer, referred as the small blind or firs position and again the betting round keeps going clock wise.
When playing Texas holdem at online poker room you will see the dealer moving 1 place clock wise with each round, that way the poker player on his left will start the betting.

Third step- The Turn

In that third step, a fourth of total five board community cards are being dealt on the table, facing up, this one is called The Turn. Than a third round of bettings begins. Starting with the small blind and going clockwise.

Forth step- The River

On the fourth step, a fifth and last poker card is dealt on the poker table. The fifth step called in online poker game “the river”. Now the board is complete, there are no more cards that might influence the game and the last betting round takes place in the same matter. If a player makes a bet or raise and the other opponent poker player fold, he wins the online poker game and gets to pool the pot after giving a rake to the online poker room. He does not have to show his cards unless he wants to. If there are more than one player still active in the online poker room, they all take the next stage – the showdown.

Texas Holdem Poker:Final step- Showdown

The showdown happens if there is two or more poker players left active after the final betting round. All active players must show their hands and the best hand by the hand ranking order wins the pot. In case of tie(very rare), the players will split the pot. Than the dealer button shifts to the left  and the next Texas holdem poker round will start.

Texas Holdem Poker: Dealer's position

The first player to enter an online poker room gets the dealer wanted position. In Texas holdem poker the player in the dealer position is the last person to act. That gives him an information advantage, as the other entire poker opponent players have acted before he has to act.