Texas Hold’em is one of the most popular poker version. It has been the most played poker game in almost all of the casinos world wide. This has been due to its simplicity. Holdem is a community poker which is played with the standard deck of 52 cards. The cards are dealt face up and all the players can see the community cards.

Players then use their own cards with the community cards to form the best hand. There are many variations of Holdem and these are defined by their betting limits.

The basic play of Holdem comprises of the following:

Blind Bets
Deal
Betting Round One
The Flop
Betting Round Two
The Turn
Betting Round Three
The River
Final betting round
Showdown

Blind Bets – Blind bets are of two types. One the small bet and the other the big blind bet. The player to the left of the dealer posts the small blind and the next player posts the big blind. Since its unfair for the same player to post the blinds, the dealer is determined by the dealer button which moves clockwise to the next player.

The Dealer Button

After a hand is completed, the dealer changes and this is done with the help of a small disc called the dealer button. It moves to the next player clockwise from the previous dealer. This ensures that each player gets to deal the cards and also makes sure that the same players are not posting the blind bets.

Deal

This is where two cards are dealt to every player. The cards are dealt face down and starts from the player immediately next to the player who posted the big blind.

Betting round one

The first round betting starts with the player from the left of the player who posted the big blind. Player has to option to bet, raise or fold. Soon the following players will have their call. If the first player folds then the next player will have the option to bet and the rest of them can call.


Flop

Once the first round of betting is completed, three cards are dealt face up. This is called the Flop.

Betting round two

After the three cards are dealt, the second round of betting takes place. In this round players have the option to check (refrain from betting if no bet has been made in the first round of betting).

Turn

After the second betting round is done, the dealer deals the fourth community card face up. This is call the turn.

Betting round three

The third betting round follows soon after the Turn is completed.

River

The final community card is dealt face up and this is called the river.

The Final Betting Round

Once the final community card is dealt, the final round of betting takes place.

Showdown

Showdown is where the remaining players show their hands and the player with the highest hand wins.

This is how the basic game of Holdem runs and there might be slight changes in some of the variations, however, if you understand the basic concept, it would be easy for you to learn each of the versions within no time.