Hold'Em rules

For several years, Texas hold’em has been the most popular and the most commonly played version of poker. Many professional players consider it the Cadillac of poker, which is to say the most difficult and most interesting variety. It is also the type of poker played to determine the champion of the World Series of Poker each year.

In hold’em, each player is dealt two cards face down, and then five cards places in the middle of the table will be the table’s community cards. The goal of each game is to make the best hand with a combination of five of the seven available cards. You can use zero, one or two cards from your hand along with five, four or three cards from the board.

In hold’em there are four rounds of betting. Each one could end the game. It’s important to distinguish between no limit hold’em, where the bets are open and limit hold’em where they are strictly regulated.

The defining trait of No Limit is the ability to raise to any some within the limits of ones stack. This is what makes this version so popular and so widely televised.



Cards dealt on a 1$/2$ table :









Dealing : PREFLOP



Let the betting begin !
In hold’em NL, the minimum bet will correspond with the big blind. In our example, it will therefore be $2. The action during this round will begin with the player to the left of the big blind. We call this player Under the Gun, or UTG.
Each player must then see the bet, raise it freely or fold. The round ends when all the players have bet the same amount.



THE FLOP



The first card of the deck is burned (put aside) and the following three are dealt face up. These three cards constitute the flop, and each player who wishes to stay in the game will use these cards to form the best possible hand.



The first player to bet is the one seated to the left of the dealer. He can fold, bet or check, but does so after observing the moves of his fellow players. If all of the players pass, the next round begins.

As before, all the remaining players are free to see the bets, to raise or to fold. When all the players have placed equal bets, the round is over.

THE TURN



A card is burned, and another card is revealed. Then follows another round of betting identical to the previous: the action begins with the player to the left of the dealer.



THE RIVER



Once more, the a card is discarded and the next and final card is revealed. This is the fourth and final round of betting. Next we move on to the…

SHOWDOWN

Next, the players reveal their cards. The last player to have raised or bet must show his cards first. Le winner is the person who has the strongest combination of five cards among the 7 available cards. In the event of a tie, the pot is shared between the players.