Texas Holdem

By far the most popular poker variant, both online and offline, Texas Holdem is the flagship of every online poker room. You will always find Texas Holdem action, no matter how poor a traffic a site gets.

Part of the community card branch of poker, Texas Holdem features 5 board-cards that each of the players can see and use to complete his hand as he wishes (use 3 cards from the board, or use 4)

The game is played with blinds, (BB and SB) with the SB on the immediate left of the dealer, and the BB on the immediate left of the SB. Each hand, the dealer button moves one position in a clock-wise direction, so everyone gets their turn being the dealer, the BB and the SB.

As the blinds are posted, two hole cards are dealt to each player. (hole cards are invisible for the opposition). Preflop betting then commences, starting with the player on the left of the BB, and going round in a clock-wise direction. Players can choose to call the BB, to fold or to raise it.

Everyone still in the game after preflop betting, gets to see the flop. The flop is made up of three community cards, and in theory, it will count 70% towards the outcome of a hand.

It too, is followed by betting, and then another community card, called the “turn”. The turn is followed by yet another betting round, and then the last community card called the “river” or 5^th street. The final betting round is followed by showdown which decides the winner of the hand and the pot.